Thankful for family....

Each year for Thanksgiving (we think this is our 7th year) we take a road trip to Southern Oregon to where Bill's family is for Thanksgiving. This year we left Tuesday afternoon for the 8 hour drive and arrived in time to tuck the kids into bed.

Wednesday we headed right over to Uncle Jake & Aunt Jaime's house to hang out with them and the cousins!

Uncle Jake took the kids out for a ride around the neighborhood (and into the hills that overlook Medford) in their rhino. I don't really need to tell you that they loved it!!

It was awesome to get to spend some time with Jeremiah, we are always happy for each moment we get with him. Here's a great shot of all the kids lined up!!

Love this picture of Syrah!

Before we arrived we taught Sadie how to play the card game "13" which has become a family tradition anytime we hang out with family. Here is Sadie holding her cards at her official first game!

Monkey see - Monkey do! Grandpa Bill and Sadie

Syrah and her cousin Koen

Just love this picture of me and McKayla... she made me laugh and smile so much!!

Sadie & her Auntie Jaime on Thanksgiving! Jaime did an awesome job with Thanksgiving dinner... Thank you Jaime!!

Grandma Cindy and the girls... Grandma made the girls the aprons they are wearing and had a special day planned out for them. She is always so thoughtful when it comes to her time with the girls!! She also is a great hostess for us as we stayed with them for this trip! Thank you Bill & Cindy!!

Syrah baking cookies with Grandma Cindy

Sadie doing a little scrap booking with Grandma Cindy.

The kids... Jeremiah, Sadie & Syrah at Grandma Mary Lou's house.

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and found many things to be grateful for!

Time with family...

Over Memorial Day weekend Bill's mom Mary Lou, her friend Bill and Billy's son Jeremiah came up from Medford. We are so grateful that Jeremiah is in Medford and grateful that Mary Lou offered to bring him up on her trip (Thank you Mary Lou). While they were here we had great weather so we were able to take them to the zoo and the Ballard Locks in addition to enjoying good food and quality time with family!

This was the newest addition to the zoo; however, be it that I am blogging so late, I can't remember for the life of me what it is called! All I know it is was cute and like all creatures, I am amazing at our God's creativity!

The family eating lunch at the zoo!

We were able to talk Mary Lou and Bill into playing rock band. I don't think it was Mary Lou's favorite, but Jeremiah had fun!!

Sunday we went to the Ballard Locks. It was very fun to see some of the different sized vessel using the lock system (which is amazing).

The kids were able to catch some waves!

Group picture outside the locks!

We were able to visit the fish ladders too and we came in at just the right time, we were able to hear someone do a small presentation on the salmon journey. This was great timing as Sadie has been studying Salmon in school. It was a lot of fun!

Unfortunately the trip ended on a not so good note. This picture captures Bill caring for Mary Lou after she was stung by a bee. We didn't get through the gardens, but I know we will make it back another time.

We were glad to be able to spend the long weekend with Mary Lou, Bill and Jeremiah; we know it was a long trip up, but we appreciated the fact they came to spend some time with us!

Thanksgiving in Medford

We left Meford last Tuesday and Wednesday most people had to work, so we took the opportunity to have a family day. The best part of the family day was the fact we were complete; Jeremiah, his brother and mom moved back to Medford this summer so we were able to get lots of time with him and actually have true family time. We went up to Ashland on Wednesday, it is one of my favorite places to spend a day... a cute little town, that has charm and fun shops, restaurants and a great park.

One of my favorite shops in Paddington's which is fully decked out with Christmas decorations this time of year. Here is Syrah in their "silver" section... after this photo I forgot I even had a camera!

A group shot outside the Chocolate Factory. The bear has been a family photo opportunity each year we make it to Ashland. This year the bear was inside; we asked the owners why and they said it was a "city ordinance" that it could no longer be outside. They told us to take him outside for the photo and we were grateful... a big bear like that needs hugs and photos!

At Lithia park the boys found a huge rock to climb. The problem... no way down but to jump!!!

On Thanksgiving we went to Jake & Jaime's house (Bill's brother & sister-in-law). Jaime did an amazing job with the food. I was so busy playing with the kids and visiting I hardly took any photos, but I grabbed a very few. Again, the highlight for us was that for the first time we were able to spend Thanksgiving with Jeremiah!!

The only picture I have of Sadie and McKayla and McKayla was on the move as you can see!!

Koen and Syrah were playing with the kitchen stuff for quite some time!!!

Friday we spend some more time together as a family and Jeremiah's brother Ceth joined us. It was fun to go to the park together and let the kids play!!! They all get along so well and Ceth is a really good kid, we were glad he could spend the day with us too.

We had some great photos taken at the park!
Sadie, Syrah, Jeremiah & Ceth

I just love this picture... This is Penny, she is the sweetest dog and I have a similar picture of Sadie several years ago. Penny is a great family dog and wonderful with the kids!

Koen & Uncle Billy; they had such a good time playing together and we hope that we are able to see the kids more often - they are growing up so fast!!

We did our best to take a family photo with Grandpa Bill & Grandma Cindy; after several tries this one turned out pretty good!!! This was our last night in Medford and it was good night! It went by too fast!

Family Pictures

Here are a couple of the family pictures that we snapped at the park.

Jeremiah's Visit (Day 5)

Saturday we went to the zoo, it was very quite there, very few people and we felt like we had some amazing encounters with some of the animals.

The Jaguar was up and pacing; we sat here for a long time as this beautiful cat paced along the windows. It is amazing to think the only thing between the kids and that Jaguar is that sheet of glass.

I will have to dig out the past pictures, but this picture has become a tradition when Jeremiah is visiting.

The kids all were able to feed the birds; we were pretty lucky because they had all just had lunch and we were informed they may not be that hungry, but this little one landed on Jeremiah's stick right away!

Sadie had to be much more patient for a bird to get to her - she was overjoyed when this little one landed on her stick.

This is the first time Syrah has done this one her own; the birds can be a little intimidating and so often she will get "help", but this time she was able to do it and was very pleased to have the experience.

Sunday we all went to church and then Billy took Jeremiah to the airport; the visit went very fast and Jeremiah is growing and changing even faster... we are grateful for the time we have and look forward to times in the near future.

Jeremiah's Visit (Day 4)

Friday was a quite day around the house and we went over to a local park to try and grab some shots of the kids.

This "was" as posed picture until a family of ducks came flying out from behind some shrubs, it took us all by surprise!

A walk in the park

Friday night we went to the Aquasox game; here is Syrah with Webbly the mascot.

At the end of the game they had some songs while they were setting up for the fireworks. Sadie really had a great time doing the chicken dance and here you can see that everyone (including Grandma) enjoying YMCA!

Jeremiah's Visit (Day 3)

Thursday we went down to the Science center; it has been a long while since I was there last and I had forgotten how much there is to see and do.

All three of the kids are blowing bubbles on the bubble maker.

Jeremiah rode the suspended bike.

As you can see from the smile on his face, he had a great time.

We went through the butterfly house (which was AMAZING) I wish I had written down some of the names, but I was too busy taking pictures. This is a HUGE moth (probably the size of my hand all the way open); I have never seen anything like it and I was amazed at it's beauty. I could do an entire posting with just butterfly pictures from that day!

At the end of the day we walked down to the Seattle Center fountain!

Jeremiah's Visit (Day 2)

On Wednesday Billy and Jeremiah had the entire day together down town. They went to the Seattle Underground Tour (first time for both of them) and the Experiance Music Project.

Outside the Underground Tour; which was the biggest hit of the day.

Jeremiah inside the EMP!

The EMP has a great sections that allows you to play different instruments as if you are in the band; both Jeremiah and Billy loved that section.