Colorado River - July

July found us at our friends, the Hasvold's, river house. We thoroughly enjoy our time with them at the river each summer. We are truly blessed to have such friends. We arrived late Friday night, and I awoke Saturday to Jan giving Garrett a mohawk for the weekend. I was pretty upset, but handled myself with grace and poise. I only yelled a little before giving in and taking pictures. It was only for the weekend, right?




The Hasvold's have a 14 year old daughter, Tanya, who loves our kids, and they love her.
Jan and Kaile on the boat.
Kaile hanging out listening to "tunes" like the boys do.
Claire constantly ate this trip!
I even had a few moments to sit back and contemplate life and what this next year will bring, as well as have some great conversations with Mara. The skies reminded me of New Mexico skies, just not as brilliant. Still relaxing and amazing. God is amazing.

I guess the mohawk was kind of cute. Garrett is just cute no matter what!
Jan and Garrett playing.

Kaile learned how to kneeboard this trip. She did great! We wore our kids out . . . Claire can't even eat without falling asleep, and Garrett falls asleep while driving. What a pair.

Hopefully I will get some video downloaded some time so you can see Kaile in action on the kneeboard. What a trip! Look forward to August pictures! Luckily we get to go back for a couple of days in August. River, here we come!

Summer Fun

We are having too much fun here . . . soaking up the summer sun. I am loving every minute of it. Warm days, cool nights. Who could ask for more?
Here are some pics from our excursion to the Wild Animal Park with Sarah, Eric and Jan. Sarah and I went in the early afternoon with the kids, and Eric and Jan joined us after work. What a fun day.

We met these guys from Kenya who were Lion hunters. They are here for a month in order to raise money for their community to learn new skills since lions are becoming scarce. Only one spoke english, but was very well spoken and knowledgeable. It was fun for the kids to ask questions.

Our 4th was filled with fun as well. We had a pancake breakfast at the church to start the day off. Too bad I was 45 minutes late because Jan accidentally took my suburban keys to work with him . . . . The remainder of the day was fun with lots of friends, and don't forget the performance of Dr. Feelgood and the interns of love! That is a family favorite every year. The fireworks are amazing, and it was fun watching Claire's eyes light up like it was her first time seeing them again.

This is Kaile and her cousin Kaylee. They are great friends.

We rounded out our weekend by staying at a resort in San Diego for a night as a birthday present from Jan's parents. We just lazed about, and then spent all of Saturday walking around San Diego.

We had a wonderful day, went to see transformers the movie, and then were able to visit Jan's cousin (Shane and Melinda) who had just had a baby girl, named Olivia. What a wonderful way to end the weekend. She is adorable. (Ben and Erin were also in the hospital, but still in labor. They had their baby boy early this morning. LONG labor! I hope to see him today.)

Sarah had watched our kids for us, and we were pleased to see our two oldest sacked out in our bed when we came home. They had a good weekend as well, visiting their cousin Michael for his birthday party (Which I heard was a hit, Amy), and also seeing the movie Ratatoille. Thank you Eric and Sarah!

Flying with Uncle Sam

For Kaile's last day of school, she got to take a ride in an airplane with her Uncle Sam who has his private pilot's license for single engine planes. He took Papa (Eric), Garrett and Kaile up for a ride to the coast. Sam saw some dolphins, but by the time they turned around, they couldn't find them again. Kaile still enjoyed the ride.

She got to go on another ride with Jan and Sarah. Sam took them "up and down really fast" and it made her stomach kind of queasy in the second trip, so she didn't like it as well. Jan, on the other hand, got the flying bug.

We have also been having fun going to the San Diego County Fair. We went several times, and one of our good friends even took them on an elephant ride! The kids were very excited. We also got to watch the freestyle motorcycle jumping. Garrett loved it. Kaile hated it.

Next are pictures of Jan and some of his guys. They won incentives to bungee jump at the fair. They are all really nice guys, and Jan is like the proud papa.

Relay for Life and End of School

So . . . this last weekend I walked in the American Cancer Societies Relay for Life here in Fallbrook. I was team captain, which means that I delegated a lot, and walked the most cruddy hours. :)

It was a truly inspirational experience, and was well worth the sleep deprivation. I don't have any pictures of me there. Maybe I can post some later. Here are my teammates at about 12:30am. I walked from 1-2 am and then from 4:30-6:00 am. I was pretty exhausted by the morning, but still was able to make it to church and stay awake for all 3 hours!!!


One of my favorite parts of the relay was the luminaria ceremony. Not necessarily the "ceremony" in and of itself, but the chance to reflect on those who I know who have passed from cancer, those I have not known, but have influenced my life (my grandparents), and those who I have watched struggle and win their battle. I cried as I walked the track and looked at each of the bags. I knelt down and looked and pondered at those bags which held names that I knew personally. What a small insignificant thing to do. Stay up for 24 hours, walk a little, and donate some money, but I hope the $30,000 we raised here in Fallbrook does some good.

When Kaile found a lump this past year that just didn't seem to go away, I became so anxious about what that might be. I can not explain the empty feeling. I am grateful that it turned out that our little girl just has hormones surging already, but this walk was for her and for all of the parents who don't have such good news. I can't even begin to imagine their anguish. Our time on earth is so fleeting. I am so grateful to have a wonderful family!

Kaile is just finishing 1st Grade. She has learned many new things this year, including lots about bugs, which she loves. She loves science experiments, writing, and reading.
Kaile with her teacher by their lady bugs that they watched go through metamorphosis in class. What fun!
Nana looking at all of Kaile's exciting work. Thank you for coming Sarah!

Jones Reunion

Hi all! We had a wonderful trip to Branson, Missouri last week for Jan's Mom's family reunion. We had 38 people there, which was crazy to try and coordinate, but well worth the effort. We wish everyone had been able to attend. Hopefully the next trip will be more accessible for everyone.

Unfortunately my camera seems to be on the fritz, so most of my pictures turned out fuzzy. Even so, I had a hard time picking out only a few pics to post.

I love getting together with family. There is nothing like watching family dynamics in place and being created. Kaile had such a good time "mothering" Bekah, Brinlee, Abby and Tanner. Garrett LOVED hanging out with Michael, and playing with all of his other cousins, and I think Claire just loved having lots of little people around. One of my favorite memories will be Claire and Abby just babbling and laughing together in the car. They really were good companions.

If I had one wish for the next reunion, it would be that we could find a place that housed us all so we didn't split up into our own family units for most of the time we have together. The nights on this trip were the best. Lots of talk and laughter. Sitting up with Amy, Lyz and Meghan was wonderful. I wish Angela could have stayed up longer, but I completely understand being exhausted when you are pregnant. That little one is more important.

I also think it would be fun to be a little more organized. Maybe have some activities planned out for the kids and older kids (otherwise known as men), and also a game night.

We loved having Amy and her family travel with us. I know that it was hard for her to come without her hubby since she has 3 little ones, but I thoroughly enjoyed our time together. Thank you for putting up with us Amy!!! As you can see, one night we had fun on some bumper boats. They all got soaked!!!

Our boat trip with Alison, Lyz, Madeleine, Tanner, Christopher, Eric, Sarah, and our family was fun.

Another thing I loved about the trip was getting to know my nephew, Tanner. I had only held him for about 2 minutes when he was little, so this was my first real opportunity to meet him and see his personality. What fun it was to see him wrestle with his Dad, to have new experiences, to hear about him traveling so well, and to watch him play with my children. He has the cutest smile and is really easy going. You have a cuttie Christopher, and you are a really good dad!

My love to you all. I am grateful to be eternally bound to you. It is my choice, and my privilege.