Emmie's Kindergarten Field Trip

Emmie's class went to the zoo today. Clay, Scott and Annie were all able to go with her. The zoo is an animal sanctuary for injured and mistreated animals of all sorts. There are mountain lions, bobcats, tigers, bears, wolves, monkeys and a lot more. Emmie's favorite as well as the favorite of many of the other children was the feral cat enclosure. I couldn't believe Emmie wanted to go back and see the cats of all the animals that were there. I thought for sure when she said kitties she meant the mountain lions! The kids had fun at the park next door also. They were trying to get as dizzy as they could. Mrs. Nicholson won't be returning to the school next year so the kids made her a scrapbook and a quilt and presented it to her at the end of the day. She was so surprised. Somehow the kids, with a couple of parents helping, managed to do it without her knowing a thing even though she was there the whole time!What a great day (despite the looks on their faces)!

One Smart Hot Dog

How does a hot dog cool down? Oliver discovered the vents. It's the first time we've had to use the air conditioning since Ollie was born and we had to let him in since it was nearly 100 degrees outside. He started out letting his lips and ears flap in the cool air flow. Then he moved a little closer. Then a bit closer. And closer still. Finally he just plugged it up. Oh that must have felt good!

Oliver's Pool

Ollie gets so hot we needed to get him a pool to keep cool. The kids were more excited about it than Oliver. I told her no it was for the dog. I asked her if anyone ever bought them for their kids. She said it's usually for the dogs, geese, ducks and once for chicks.

We're Trying to Adopt

We have been feeling like we are missing one of our family members so we thought maybe we should adopt. I started a blog that's a lot more anonymous for perspective adoptive birth parents. We are going through LDS Family Services and they do provide a profile of our family for these birth parents but we thought we could add to it and do one better. I am going to focus on our adoption blog for awhile but not to let this one fall behind I will import the postings from that site to here. Cool! Who knew you could do that?! I will try to delete duplicate posts but I might miss some so they might end up here twice. Wish us luck!

www.achildtoadopt.blogspot.com

The Daddy Daughter Dance

Scott managed to get out of work an hour early to meet Emmie at her elementary school for the annual Daddy Daughter Dance. The school is great. They have annual events for moms and sons, dads and sons etc. Emmie chose her dress and shoes and was excited to go the dance with Scott as long as she wasn't going to have to dance up on stage. This was her first dance and she feared it would be more like a show she was going to put on for the dads.

Emmie even got to take a special picture with her dad and her best friend Chloe.The parking lot was not like it is in the daytime filled with minivans and SUVs. It was full of work trucks. I thought maybe the school was having some after hours construction work done but then I saw some dads pulling up in trucks with their lovely daughters in the passenger seats. I had to take a picture because it was just too darn cute to miss.

Clay's Preschool Field Trip

This is the great preschool we have at our elementary. Miss Tamara has worked so hard to make it a place where the kids always want to come but unfortunately, never want to leave.

The kids in the preschool were most excited about riding the bus.

There were 6 kids crammed into 2 seat on a giant school bus. They have so much fun together they didn't want to spread out. How exciting to go for a ride without seat belts!
They went to the local pizza place and learned how to make pizza. Then they did get to eat some.
Miss Tamara was so nice she even took them to the local park for a change of scenery. She brought the colorful parachute which turned out to be the most fun part of the day.

Clay in Karate Class

Clay has been wanting to take a karate class for a year now but has been too nervous to actually go on his own. He was invited to a birthday party to the Red Dragon Karate Gym and boy was he thrilled. He absolutely loved it.

Oliver's First Trip to the Lake

Everyone was excited to go to the lake today.

Oliver couldn't wait to get there. He wanted to look out front so he stood and steadied himself most of the way by laying his head on Scott's shoulder. It was pretty cute. It would have been better if his breath wasn't so bad.................... (The dog's not Scott's)

It was a beautiful warm day. There was actually still snow on the ground at the lake. Oliver found a patch of untouched snow, the very last for the year, and he went berserk. It's not so pretty now.

He had a lot of fun a the lake. He jumped right in. He almost took Scott in with him.

He found a stick and had to show us but he thought Emmie was trying to steal it instead of trying to throw it for him.

I don' think the kids have ever been around a wet dog before. They had no idea how they try to dry off. They screamed and ran but of course that just made Oliver, the sponge, chase them while he shook himself dry and not us which was okay.

It was a great day and here is one tired dog.

The Real Tooth Fairy

What do you do when your daughter has a loose tooth that's wiggly for months but won't come out? You wait until she falls asleep and then poke it with a pointy thing. It still didn't come out but maybe it's a little bit looser. Good thing she sleeps with her mouth open. Weird thing, she sleeps with her eyes open too!

A Super Blast from the Past

This was our prom picture the year after we met. We met on a blind date at the beginning of our Senior years of high school. We went to rival schools on the opposite sides of town. It was quite scandalous. This was about 20+ years ago.

Got to Love the 90s!

This was from our college years together at Long Beach State. Black was in (black and white print art, black clothes, black shoes) and so was big hair apparently!

Our Engagement

This is our engagement portrait from 11 years ago. Woah! That seems like it was a lifetime ago.

Our Wedding

Scott and Annie were married April 18, 1998. And they are living happily ever after.

The Maiden Voyage

Bon Voyage!

Grandpa finally got his retirement boat. He let us come along for the very first time it was ever in the water.
Here Grandpa is trying to figure out how to set the trim and he's taking it as fast as he can scaring Grandma. The kids were just loving it all.
Grandpa even let Scott have a try at the wheel.
The kids really wanted to go fishing. They couldn't understand why they couldn't just start casting out their lines. Maybe it's because we weren't wearing our protective helmets and goggles to protect us from wild flying fish hooks!