ten year reunion

I was a bit nervous about what to expect of our ten year reunion. Maybe its the 15 extra pounds I am carrying or the fact that I have had a baby or perhaps the fear that my accomplishments since high school wouldn't be enough when compared to others...the list I make in my head of my for insecurities is long but I tried to surrender those and throw caution to the wind. I enjoyed seeing old familiar faces, catching up on where life has taken us and of course reminiscing about the good old days when homework and making it through another boring lecture from a certain teacher was our biggest worry-oh how life has changed!

Play Group

These three are destined to be best friends. Here are some updated photos.

Life is GRAND!

JJ and I feel so blessed to be entrusted with a beautiful girl, but we feel equally blessed to watch the relationship unfold between Olivia and her grandparents. We must admit we enjoy seeing their faces light up when they look into the eyes of their granddaughter! Each has a unique way of greeting her and some of their reactions to her can be quite predicable. We love that Cathy never stops asking Olivia to talk with her or that she is always asking her “how big is Olivia?” And we know we will never be shy of pictures, due to the fact that Holly has a new found love for photography…she even took over 300 pictures in just a few hours! Please don’t assume that grandpa’s are removed either…Dale would stop by everyday if he could, and John talks to Olivia through the cell phone! These are just a few that bring laughter to our hearts and there is nothing more special than knowing Olivia will be surrounded with loving arms to care for her!

In Loving Arms

Aunt Katie
Uncle Sean

Great Grandparents Elmer & Alena
Auntie Lori


2nd Cousin Colby
Uncle Pete & Auntie Erin

Cousin's Emma & Cora

a long drive

We are returning from a long drive over to Idaho...to be quite honest, Olivia has exceeded our expectations with the car ride. She mostly slept, in between feedings and diaper changes at random truck stops!

We traveled over to celebrate the marriage of our two friends Josh and Molly Hodges. We attended a special Hawaiian themed reception reflecting their wedding which took place on the sandy beaches of Hawaii on 8/8/08 and 8:08am! We enjoyed the gathering and consider our selves blessed to see this new family come together!

We also had an opportunity to spend some time with other college friends who are still located in the area. Saturday night we shared dinner with the Torrez, Boothby and Hocker families, the adults tried to carry on conversation as all 6 children chased each other through the house. Olivia was a bit overwhelmed at all the commotion and energy, someday that will be her!

Sunday, before heading home, we stopped in Caldwell to visit the Benedick family. We shared a few pizzas and did some catching up!

All in all the trip went fast but was very refreshing! We enjoyed seeing friends and just wish we could have had more time with everyone. We are also proud of how well Olivia did, she is a little traveler already!

three peas in a pod

All the babies are here. Ok, so the perfectly planned six week schedule didn't really turn out, but still, we got about as close as we could. Carson(middle) is 6 weeks older than Olivia (right)who is 2 weeks older than Lanie (left)!

what fun it is to experience first time parenting with two close friends! we are determined to keep each other sane and sensible through all that comes with having a child!

camping at the coast

Our love for camping has become a bit tainted. No longer can we just hop in the truck and head away into the wilderness-now we are plagued with renting a u-haul for all of Olivia's belongings. I wonder how something so small can need so much. After spending two hours loading the back of the truck, we headed off to the Washington coast for the adventure of a life time! We felt brave and courageous....just four hours later we were feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. Our first obstacle was overcoming the wind, which must have been blowing at 80 miles an hour! It blew over our tent several times before we could manage to find a spot below some low lying tree limbs which helped to shelter it. JJ assured me that the winds die down at night! After bundling Olivia is 5+ layers, we enjoyed the campfire and felt like everything was going great, until bedtime. Olivia actually slept right through all the ruckus; those same limbs which sheltered our tent, were now thrashing back and forth as JJ and I prayed that our tent wouldn't be punctured or blow over while we were in it! We thought we bought a great, sturdy tent. HA! Finally, when Olivia woke up for her 3am feeding (after having slept for 6 hours) we decided since we hadn't slept a wink, to move everything to the canopy of the truck. So for two nights we climbed in the back of the canopy, onto our air mattress, put Olivia right next to us in her car seat, and slept soundly! Not exactly the tent camping we had in mind. Another obstacle included fighting off two furry little creatures in the middle of the night when JJ went back to the tent on a diaper run! Yes, two fat raccoons seemed to think our food and garbage was there's to enjoy! The Nerve! All in all, the weather was great, aside from the wind, really, I can hardly believe the sun was shinning all weekend! Aside from our little obstacles, we are grateful for the memories we are making as a young family and all things considered, would do almost all the same thing all over again...

P.S. JJ says next year we're buying a trailor!