The newest member of our house

While we were out with our friends last week we had a special delivery. A parlor grand piano! It's beautiful. Back when we were planning on moving into the Dublin house we had arranged for our friend Luz to come and live with us. During that time she asked if she could have her piano, which was housed at her parents house, moved in too. I of course said yes! I've been dreaming and scheming for some time as to how I could get a piano back into my life as a keyboard is just not the same. So when Dublin fell apart Luz asked if we would still take her piano. As crazy as it seemed, being we are already busting at the seams in our house, my heart was set on having a piano again. I'm so glad we said yes and moved some things around. I have been so blessed by it's presence over the past week.

Almost immediately I began lessons with Taylor. Per her constant begging. She's done quite well thus far!

Thanks Luz for trusting us with your piano! And for what it's worth I'd rather have had you live with us than your piano... but your piano will do for now :-)

Saying Goodbye

This week we have been busy saying goodbye to our dear friends the Hansen's. We go back a long ways with this couple and have been truly blessed by their friendship. As I write Jason and Chris are in a very packed car, headed for Gaithersburg MA, in preparation for the Pastor's College. As sad as we are to be without them for a year, we are so excited for them to receive the rich care and training we received from the PC four years ago. Also, four years ago Jason was driving back with Chris from Maryland dreaming of a day where Lord willing Chris could drive out with Jason. From the sounds of it the boys are having a great time!

I have been spending some time with Tiffany, attempting to be helpful but more just getting a few last moments in with her before she leaves.

Last Sunday we went out with a group of our close friends to say goodbye. We are all so thankful for the sacrifices they've made to go!


Here's a picture of the guys before they hit road!


So please pray for continued safety and if you are in the Gaithersburg area take some time to get to know our friends- you'll be glad you did! Also you can read about her PC experience on her blog. I know she'll resume blogging once they arrive and get settled. We'll all be bugging her to:-)

Sand, Sand, Everywhere Sand

Ok so I'm about done bombarding you with all these vacation posts :-) I've saved these last two posts for no reason other than my husband was going to use some of the things I wanted to write as illustrations for his message tonight at the singles meeting. And out of the kindness of my heart I didn't want them sitting there thinking, oh yeah I read that on Tara's blog. Not like that's happened before or anything...

Well what trip to California would be complete without some time at the beach? I only brought my camera down one day so I'm kind of stuck with the pictures I got. But I did bring it down on the day the best ever sand castle was built! Leave it to men to like a little competition. Chris and I made some friends who were sitting next to us on the beach one day. It went a little like this-

us "Hey can we borrow your shovel to dig a hole real quick? Our tiny plastic one isn't doing the trick."
them "sure, no problem, here ya go"
us- start to dig and instantly break their shovel.... "uh sorry nice new people on the beach... we owe you a shovel"

Well they were kind and let us know it was conveniently about to break before they gave it to us. We talked for awhile, found out they live within ten minutes of us back in AZ, found out they don't attend church, talked to them about the Lord and invited them to church. Gosh I love Chris' evangelistic heart! Ok so back to the competition. It's now a different day and Chris noticed our new friends building a sand castle with some people. That got Chris up and he decided that he too needed to be building a castle, which got up our long time, reigning champ in sand castle building, family friend, Tom up. It was awesome. Chris ended up taking Rylee up to the room for a nap and Tom completely took over and created a masterpiece. Stairs, Tunnels with "T"'s on them, trenches to collect water etc. The kids, and Tom, were so proud!

nice clean trevor before it all began





not so happy rylee:

happy rylee:



The kids enjoyed playing in the water. The first day Rylee would cry anytime she went near the ocean and Taylor kind of steered clear. Even Trevor was unsure. But by the end of the week they were loving the water. Trevor couldn't get enough. He rode a boogie board with my dad pulling it through the surf as the wave crashed. Taylor & Trevor created this game where they'd take fists of sand and run out into the ocean and through it at a crashing wave then run back. Almost as if to taunt the waves. They've yet to experience God's power through the ocean :-)

A Wedding

The last day of our trip we had the privilege of seeing my cousin Corbin and her finance K.C. get married. They were kind enough to plan their wedding during this week's vacation knowing most of my mom's side of the family would already be out there. My cousin is not only beautiful but has an amazing decorative touch. Her wedding was no exception- it was stunning!
We had fun seeing our family and enjoyed our last night in the beautiful California weather!

A few quick shots I got of the decorations:




There was a moment in the cermony where they remembered the saints that have gone before us. Corbin's dad and K.C.'s mom. Also not in attendance was my Aunt Wendy, Corbin's step-mom. We miss you Uncle Bobby & Aunt Wendy!


Some couple portraits:

My parents


Chris & I


Ryan, Danae and soon to be born, baby owen


My cousin Amy & Kyle and their adorable little girl:


cool dude trevor


And of course Rylee's favorite person on this trip, her cousin Madi.


This is sadly the best I got of the three kids together. Too bad cause they looked precious all dressed up :-)


The kids definitely enjoyed themselves at this party. They had a special picnic table set up for them, which I think only Rylee and Madi frequented. Taylor was given a camera by our long time family friend Tom and told to go get as many pictures as possible. She was quite the paparazzi getting some great shots of Corbin! The next morning Tom paid her $5 for her work. She was so excited and wanted to use the money to buy a gift for her bff lauren. Trevor was in an out of one of the two bathrooms they had with Chris pretty much the entire night. Apparently he had to much fruit that day. It was pretty funny, considering I wasn't the one taking him. He'd get to cut in front of the line each time, who can say no to a little kid doing the potty dance. But hey no accidents! The kids were some of the first on the dance floor showing everyone all there moves. I wish I had it on video to share because it was quite the scene. I kept wondering where they learned there moves from... then Taylor told someone when asked that she watches me dance in the kitchen. They had set up a photo booth for guests to take pictures and leave in the guests book throughout the evening. Before you went in there were masks and other accessories to choose from. Rylee took one of the masks there and insisted on dancing with it on. She looked like a mini phantom of the opera girl!



and it was with that last look we knew it was time to go home :-)

Date night on the beach

My parents and Brother & Sister- in -law were gracious enough to give us an hour or so off duty from the kids last week. Chris had arranged it without me knowing so while I'm in the middle of chasing the kids on the green, with my back done in from all the walking we had done at legoland the previous day and having an oh such a great attitude, Chris walks out with some beach chairs, a bag and said to me let's go. It was a welcomed surprise. We camped out on the beach and went for a walk, sipped a little wine and watched the sun go down. So romantic! Thanks guys for giving us some time to catch up just the two of us- it was definitely a highlight for us!

Train Station

There is a train station in walking distance in Carlsbad. Each year we've been blown away (literally) by the trains that will come zooming past. Watching the train go by became a daily thing and on the last day we decided to surprise the kids by joining in on the fun. We took a little train trip down to another beach city, walked around for an hour, and took it back. The kids had a great time!

Would you believe this is only picture I have of all three of them together... trust me it's not that I didn't try either :-) Oh and if Rylee's nose looks dirty in any upcoming pictures it's a leftover scab from one of her many falls she had last week.







They had a bazaar going on in the town we visited and it was well... bizarre!


My parents & Ryan and Danae drove down and meet us in the town. Then my mom & Danae rode back with us. Trevor did you just love your first train trip?

Fun On The Green

As you saw in the first picture the resort has a large green area surrounded by the condo's. Next to the beach, this is the place we spent the most time. Eating dinners, playing, making new friends. Within day one of being there the kids discovered that there were snails in the garden planters surrounding the green. They had lots of fun collecting the snails and letting them crawl up their arm :-)




The other thing the kids like to collect was flowers. I got flowers from my kids all day long. I don't think there are many left on the green either.


Rylee got in a fight with one...

but she won...



We did just about everything we could to try to contain them to the green so we could relax too. One afternoon we brought out bubbles and that kept their attention for awhile.




We also brought our stroller out to try to contain rylee... but that was one big joke all week long as she kept finding ways out!

The green also provided a great spot to take pictures. Here's one of Taylor sitting by a little pond filled with fish. When we lost Rylee on the green this is usually where we'd find her.


Here's another picture of Rylee & Daddy, I thought it was a sweet pic.


Next post will be on the kids first train ride!

Trevor the Philosopher

Trevor cracks us up pretty much daily. Vacation was no exception. One morning Trevor woke up next to daddy, he made a habit of coming to our bed most mornings at about 5am and sleeping a few more hours with us, anyway Chris told Trevor about his cool dreams and asked him what he dreamt about. To which Trevor replied in a serious voice:

"Dad I don't close my eyes to dream, I open them to see".

We didn't know whether to laugh or cry or ponder deeply about what was said. Chris asked him where he heard that from and he laughed and said I made it up dad. Thankfully he went back to his usual self later in the day when he said:

"Daddy you want to play a game with me outside?"

"Alright dad but I win and you lose."

Now that's a daddy's boy speaking if I've ever heard one ;-)

Home

We had a wonderful family vacation. It's hard to return back to normal after having my husband around for ten days! We made lots of memories with the kids- beach days, legoland, chasing the kids on the resort grassy area, which we affectionately call "the green" (see picture above), outlet shopping, golfing and much more. But those of you with little ones will know what I mean when I say it's a different type of vacation these days. It's still work, just work away from home. Chris lead us in preparing our hearts before we left knowing from previous years that temptations abound and I'm happy to say that God poured out much grace to our family and our hearts! This was the first vacation though that I came home exhausted :-)

I have so many things to write about and pictures to post that I think I'll just devote separate posts to different memories.