Summer Vacation

Finally, I can tell you about our vacation to Sunriver. Wow, that was so fun and relaxing. We spent a week at the Sunriver Resort and it will be a vacation I will never forget. We rented a house there for a week with all the amenities of home. The girls' favorite part of the house was the hot tub, they could go swimming anytime they wanted. We did things like riding bikes, golfing, geocaching, swimming and tons of other stuff. We went to Crater Lake one day, someday I'll blog about that part of our trip. Grandma & Grandpa came for a visit one day. We started the vacation with John's 20 year class reunion, (I can't believe it's been 20 years for him, that means mine's not that far behind). I would absolutely love to buy a vacation home over there someday or just move to that Central Oregon area sometime. Tip: If you can go either end of the school year or the beginning of the school year they run specials where you can rent 2 nights for the price of 1 or any other combonations of that. We stayed 6 nights but only had to pay for 3 nights, one of the many benefits of homeschooling.

FISH!

Yes, I need a helmet too!

Build-A-Bear

Last December we went down to California to the Emerald Bowl to watch the Beaver's play in their bowl game. The next day it was so cold, wet, and just Willamette Valley miserable so we decided to take the girls to Build-A-Bear which they had never done before. After that experience they discovered that they would like to have their birthday parties there this year. In February we had Riah's party. We loaded up 9 4-year-olds and took them to Build-A-Bear (thankfully they do all the work) and we had fun. So now Emma had her opportunity to have her party. She didn't have as many kids because we had to put a limit on how broke we wanted to be this time. They seemed to all enjoy themselves except the 11 year old thought it was little goofy and young for her sometimes.

The perfect day to end a perfect day! Noni and all her grandkids!

Emma turned 7 last week. Wow, I can't believe it's been 7 years ago and we have gone through so much with her. She is just such a precious angel sent from God. I love my little girls but whenever Emma's birthday comes around it just seems a little extra special since that's the day we officially became parents. Well enough with the sentiment, explain the pictures. We sent Emma on a treasure hunt to find her birthday present. We included the entire neighborhood in the scavenger hunt. She searched everywhere (Riah found most of the clues for her) but she finally found it hidden in our good friend's side yard. This will definitely be one to remember, she really seemed to enjoy it.

Recitals

This last week has been busy with dance recitals. Saturday was my niece Nickelle's dance recital with Albany Dance Academy. Wow, that was amazing. I would love for the girls to go there but with having to pay 2 arms, 2 legs and your first born for gas I don't think we'll be doing much traveling for weekly classes, especially 3 which is what we would like to do. So we settled for the local dance studio here in Lebanon. Well let me just say, they won't be returning next year. My beautiful ballerinas did wonderful but the school has left a lot to be desired. I wish gas prices weren't so expensive maybe we could afford for them to go to a quality school but for now we'll have to find a different gift that God has given them.

Aren't they just beautiful!

Dancin' the night away!

See our current fun we have been having! Emma can get down with the best of them. We have had so much fun as a family using this. Noni got this Christian Dance Praise Dance Mat for Emma for her birthday. We chipped in and purchased a second mat so that we could do it as a family. I'll let you know when John gets in there to do it too!

Yes, I'm in there too!!