Just thought, whilst I was going through photos today, that I would post my own of our vacation. They are pretty similar to Bree's, and most of them aren't very good, but I got a few cute ones of the kiddos. Did Joe manage to get any with his super nice camera, other than the group shots? I have a video of us all bowling, but it might take awhile to get it uploaded here. Oh, and Happy Birthday Jacko!!!

Inspired(by Vee)

Thanks to a few of you for getting the communication ball rolling again. Can you believe it has almost been a month since we went to the beach? I did a stinky job of taking pictures but thought I ought to post what I had before too much longer.

Also, a few from our rainy day @ The Children's Museum.

Hope you all have a happy Monday!

cross country adventures

so, first thing's first.  the impressive packing of my car.

kent managed to fit everything I wanted plus a few extras like my bike and my lemon tree. the lemon tree has successfully made it across the country and is happily settled on Lewin's front porch next to their profusely green and healthy tree.

I picked Teri up from her home and Tacoma was showing off for me.  The mountains were popping out, the water sparkling, the flowers gracefully dewed.  Everything was challenging me to dare leave the majestic beauty of the Pacific Northwest.  By the time we had reached Portland, I was ready to accept the challenge.  It was cold and rather drizzly.  But we arrived at Anne's house for delicious donuts and freshly brewed coffee.

next stop on our journey was Salem!  Jackie prepared an amazing meal for lunch as usual and we enjoyed hearing julian play his pony head stick bagpipe, and a fabulous original composition on his harmonica.  We also stopped by the church to see the progress on Christopher's office.  Too bad it was such a fly by visit!

Our last stop for the day was our dear friends Zach and Deana down in Eugene.  Mrs. Jack was there visiting as well and we had a relaxed evening of catching up on each other's lives, listening to good music, eating and eating until we felt we would burst!  Ari showed us his exciting fire truck.

Next morning, we did a bit more driving than the first day and arrived in Tiburon in time for a bon fire, walk along the beach, and sweet fellowship over dinner.

we left with the sunrise in order to make it to our camp ground at the Grand Canyon!  It was well worth the early wake up call.  Teri set up our tent then we ate dinner and we slept soundly through the night.  We woke up early and it was already hot.  We ate breakfast, cleaned up our camp site, avoiding as best we could the disturbingly large ravens all around us and took off for the visitor center.

We caught a shuttle ride that rode us around the rim of the canyon.  We got off the shuttle and strolled around.  Not walking too fast for fear we'd pass out from the heat.  Even standing there, we couldn't really comprehend how grand the grand canyon was!  It just seemed unreal.

but here are some pictures, none the less.

I wasn't quite sure if this gentleman was real at first, but he was... then I wasn't quite sure if he was alive, but I did see his chest gently moving up and down, so I think he was just doing what we all wanted to do in that heat...pass out.

Well, the rest of our journey was pleasantly uneventful.  We drove until we were tired and stopped at some lovely hotels to do some swimming, relaxing, eating, then we'd do the same thing the next day.

Despite the heat, we were glad we chose the southern route because it showed off for us the whole way.

arizona

memphis

lake nicknack
and we're home sweet home!


well, how's that for my first blog entry?
love to you all,
vero