Happy 4th of July!

It has been extremely smokey here in Nevada County because of all the fires. But miraculously it cleared up enough for us to really enjoy the 4th of July. One of the many, many great things about living in Nevada City is being so close to Broad Street. This year we were able to walk to town to watch the parade. It was so much fun! The kids loved it. Jack especially loved the trucks. This is a little goofy looking, but I really love the Statue of Liberty. So there she was in all her glory riding down Broad on the back of truck!

Rick, Caroline, Jack and Gil (trying to stay in the shade) watching the parade
A great shot of the pink hair.
My very patriotic son waving his little flag.
We even saw our pal Harry riding on the volunteer Sheriff's float!
After the parade and nap time we headed to our friend's the Hadley's. The live on a hill just above Lake Wildwood and had a great view of the fireworks from their house. The kids had a blast in their poolTeri, who is amazing in many ways, made red and blue star shaped ice cubes to put in our seltzer water. Yummmmm.Green and purple fireworks reminded us of New Orleans. They were beautiful.

PINK HAIR!!???!!!

As many of you know, Rick and I work with students. Our student ministry is full of very "colorful" kids. We have every color hair you can imagine. Well, as a result, Caroline has been BEGGING us for pink hair. So, after discussing it and buy the official Punky Color hair dye, we made a visit to our friend Wendy. She is the official hair specialist for the youth group.

Wait a minute! Am I sure???
Washing out the dye
Tada! Pink!
I wasn't too sure at first, but it has really grown on me. I love it!
Caroline and Wendy
This is one of my new favorites of my sweet pink-headed daughter.Thank you Wendy! YOU ROCK!!!

Swim Lessons '08

Here we go again! This year Caroline is still a Sea Turtle. It appears that after a month of swim lessons last summer we have not advanced at all. Oh well! She really loves her swim lessons. And I can tell that she is getting more brave with every lesson. Rick and I are so proud of her! Here is her teacher trying to convince her to get in the water.
Finally with some smooth talking she went for a swim with the noodles.

We ran into our friend Angelena too! She is a Sea Turtle too, just in a different class!

Lunch With Upendra!

This past Saturday we had lunch with our dear friend Upendra. Upendra has been in the states for about 7 months now working as a computer engineer. He is originally from Nepal and made us a traditional curry meal. It was sooooo good! Even Jack loved it!

Upendra & Jack

I love the contrast of their skin and hair color! They are completely opposite!

This is beef & mushroom curry. It was sooooo good!
Upendra recently bought a new juicer and was anxious to try it out on us. So along with amazing food we had fresh carrot/apple/celery juice.

Mmmmm, mmmmm good!
Jack loved the juice too! I think I have found a new way to get my meat-and-potato's boy to have veggies! JUICE THEM!
Thanks Upendra for an awesome meal! We'll miss you while you are in Nepal. Come back safe!

VBS! Outrigger Island

We just finished up VBS at our church and it was SO MUCH FUN!!! It was Outrigger Island where we learn to live God's un-shakable truth! Here's me and the kiddos all ready to go! Caroline went straight to the white board in her class room!
This was Jack's first year participating VBS and he had a great time.
Mark Hadley and I shared a time slot for music and story time with the preschoolers. We had an actual turtle in our classroom to help tell the story. We named her "Crush" just for the week. The kids loved the turtle and Mark quickly became known as "The Turtle Whisperer".
I just loved these little guys!

Camping with the Hadley Family!

Over Father's Day weekend we went camping to Scott's Flat Lake, which is about 20 minutes away from us. Our friends the Hadley's came with us. Below you can see Caroline and Brook having some "girl talk". It was so cute!

I'm not sure what game this is that Caroline and Jack are playing, but when I came up the hill this is what I saw. It looks dangerous doesn't it???

Rick and Jack hangin' out in the raft.
The Hadley Family (+Caroline)
My kids taking a break after a little walk
My super dramatic daughter
My very thoughtful son.

One night some "mysterious neighbors" TP'd our tent. hmmmm wonder who that was??It was such a great way to celebrate Father's Day and show Rick how much we love him!

Father's Day

This Father's Day we spent at my parent house with grandparents. It was a really nice day. My Dad built these little platforms for birds to make nests. We found baby birds that day. If you look in the pic below you can see them poking their little heads out of the nest! Caroline & Jack with their Papa!
My Grandma's home made german chocolate cake! Yummmmm
Daddy and his kiddos!
Gil even enjoyed himself!

Sonshine Preschool Circus

On Caroline's last day at preschool (ever!) they had a circus! They dressed all the kids up and they performed "circus acts". I was unable to attend to Rick went in my place and took 122 pictures!!! Caroline the balancing princess is about to walk across the very dangerous balance beam.
I think she might do it!
Then they dressed as "circus dogs" and did tricks.
Their really cool trick was rolling!
I can't believe my little girl is done with preschool. In the fall she will be going to Gold Run Elementary school.

God Made Dirt...

One day while watching our friend Bella we decided to play in the dirt...


I think we have some future landscapers on our hands!!!