A very busy week full of great memories

Stef, my best friend of 12 years came to visit us. She was able to come up by herself without any kids so we thought what better time then to do a girls night out in San Fransico. After I picked her up from the airport we went to our hotel by Pier 39, otherwise known as Fisherman's Warf and starting having fun. We spent the entire day sightseeing and shopping and then at night Stef treated me to a very nice dinner at a little Italian resturant in Little Italy and then we checked out a couple bars. It was such a great trip...we always have the best time together whether it is sitting in bed talking or out on the town.

(Stef in the front of our house)(this is us trying to take a pic with the camera's timer)Well Stef was visiting we celebrated Emma and Kaitlyns b-day (they share a birth date).
We just had a small get together with the family. We cooked the usual, hamburgs and hotdogs and had some yummy icecream cake for dessert.
And the most exciting event this week was that our baby girl started kindergarten. I don't understand how she is already five, seriously where does time go? I was pretty emotional on the walk to school but Emma was very excited. She started school the day she turned five so we got to bring cupcakes for the whole class. I was thinking that may score her some brownie points with the other kids :)

The birthday girl

Saying goodbye to Mrs. Kirk. Emma had a great first and second day but by the third day she didn't want to go anymore. It was heart wrenching to leave her at school crying. When I asked her that night why she didn't like school she said "it was to much work." Oh boy, we may be in for a long 18 years. She has been doing great this week...we shall see.

Oh Canada

A few weeks ago Emma and I went to Canada with my family to visit my Grandma and some great friends. Unfortunately Alex and Jacob had to stay home this time. (Girls have all the fun :) I was born and raised in Ont. Canada but have lived here for almost 15 years...wow. It is always great to go back and visit and reminisce. We went by my old house and school to show Emma, I don't think she cared very much :)

(Carol,mom, Kait,Casey,Emma)

We went to the beach ( Lake Huron ) where I spend many weekends. Of course we picked the one day that it was cold and windy. The kids didn't seem to mind. Brandon got in the water and Emma and Kait jumped the waves.

This was all of us with my Grandma and Aunt Shirly (Dad's sister) out at our favorite resturant, Swiss Chalet. They have the best chicken ever and it comes with an awesome dipping sauce...YUMMY.

(Grandma and Dad)

My Grandma turned 90 this year and is just as beautiful as ever.

Me and Bran sipping on some milkshakes.

These are two of my oldest friends. Brian and Lynette (the picture in the back was painted by Brian). We can go years without talking and when we get together it as though we have never been apart. We had a great Vacation, we spent alot of good time with my Grandma that I will cherish forever. We had some great family photos taken of my whole family but of course they were not on my camera.

This and That

I thought I would just post a couple pictures from what has been going on lately. A few weeks ago Brandon was in a swim meet. It was pretty cool, school's from all over came and camped out at the pool. It was quite the event. He did really well.
A few days after that the family went to the community pool to cool down.
Emma had a play date with two of her friends from dance. They had a lot of fun. Hopefully she will get at least one of her friends in her kindergarten class.
Last weekend we went to the Lake with Kaitlyn. The kids had a blast. They surprised me by swimming in the water because there was icky seaweed in some places, it didn't faze them. Jacpb mostly cleaned the drift wood up and chased the geese.
The last picture is of a bear, it is hard to make out but the glowing dot is his eye and you can see the outline of his body if you look close. This bear has been getting into our garbage almost every night. At first it was pretty awesome to see a bear in the front yard...now it is just a huge pain in the butt. One night he ran with one of our garbage bags in his mouth and we had to hike down a hill to clean it all up in the morning. Alex put a vice grip on the can to keep it closed, so far it is working.
Anyways sorry this blog is a little choppy but I just wanted to get a couple pictures up. Hope everyone is doing well.

Cooling off at the river

This Friday my mom and I took the kids to the river to cool off. It is such an awesome sight. To get to the river you take a short walk through the biggest redwood tree's you can imagine. The water was just perfect. In some of the pictures you can see how smoky it still is from the fires. We had a couple clear days and just recently the smoke has returned.
Anyways we had a great time and hopefully we be going back alot this summer.

I just have to say how incredibly amazed I am by my brother Brandon. As most of you know he had to have his foot amputated recently because of a birth defect. Well let me tell you it doesn't stop him from doing anything...as you can tell by the pictures. He climbed the rocks and jumped off just as well as the other boys. I am so proud of him, he is a true inspiration.

Guess What ?!?!?!?

Today I meant up with my mom and she had just come from looking at some Shih tzu puppies. She kept telling me how cute they were and that I needed to see them. As most of you know I have been researching and thinking about getting a puppy for about a year. ( I am an indecisive freak ) So I said I would go peek at them while she watched the kids at McDonalds. As soon as I walked in I was in love, they were the cutest furballs I had ever seen. I talked to the lady forever and left thinking they are cute but we will never get a shih tzu. Alex called on the way home from work and I mentioned the puppies and how cute they were, he was going to drive right past the salon where they were so I told him to stop by...thinking he would say no. Well he did and to my very BIG surprise he brought the little girl home. I couldn't believe it, he said it is my B-day present. So to make a very long story short, we have a new addition to our family and her name is Daisy Mai. She is so sweet and so far seems to be very good mannered. Here are a few pictures...

Arizona Vacation

We just got back from spending ten days in Arizona. We had a great time with family and friends. Of course we wish we would have had more time to see people, but we did what we could. The kids enjoyed spending alot of quality time with Nana and Papa. We made alot of special memories.

We went to Tucson to spend a couple nights with Stef and Lucas. On the second day all the girls and kids went to get our annual pictures taken...that was quite the experience. There is now eight kids, so getting all the kids to look at the camera at the same time is almost impossible.



That night Stef through a little party for everyone to get together. We had so much fun just catching up with each other.



We stayed with Nana and Papa for the rest of the time. We spent alot of time in Aunt Gina's pool and just hanging out with the family. Thanks for letting us move in for awhile :) We can't wait to come back.

Dan and Megan are expecting their first baby (boy) in December.