Catching Up!!! California Trip

I am slowly catching up... The next event on our list is the California trip. Jane got home from her mission on 24th of July, her homecoming was the 26th and they left for 9 days to Huntington Beach on the 28th. After the trip the family would only be home for two days before heading to Clayton week at Bear Lake. During that week Charles and I would be heading out to Texas... so, I had to go to Huntington with them, or I would hardly even see Jane!!! Right? I also convinced Charles to take a day off of school and come for four days. Besides the Fourth of July, this was his first break from school since February! (Even the week after winter semester was taken up for studying for and taking the FE.) I am glad that he took this much needed break! We had a lot of fun.
The first two days Mike and Becky were there with their kids: Sam, Will and baby Molly Grace. There was a day that I was alone at the condo with Sam and we had a fun time hanging out and we made brownies. Note: this was a distraction because Sam really really wanted to watch "Emperor's New Groove," which is a great movie, but was in the room where Will was taking a nap... so Brownies! Making the brownies took a lot longer than it usually does, but it was fun to just relax and let Sam do as much work as he wanted to. Egg ended up on the floor, but other than that there weren't any major mishaps.

Here is the end result: Happy, sunkissed, chocolatey Samo.

When Charles came the next day we spent most of our time at the beach. I actually didn't see Charles that much because he literally was in the water almost the whole time we were there. He wanted to take advantage of his break. The only time he came in he was just "switching tools" as my dad would say. The "tools" were the surfboard, the boogie board and the skim board. I was actually amazed at how long he could stay out, but it is probably a good vacation for us because I can sit on the beach and read and go out as much as I want (which wasn't a ton this trip... except to make sure that baby got to go in the ocean for the first time) and Charles can play as much as he wants.

Happy Boy!

Catching the wave.

Jane is home and ready to play!

Jane and Charles' board (the yellow one.) Papa Lon calls this "getting clothes washered."

Papa Lon and Charles out for more fun.

One of the best skimboard crashes. Charles' body is actually not touching the ground yet.

24 weeks. I think now my tummy is bigger, unless it is after we ate at Chili's...

We had a lot of fun and can't wait to go back!

The Return of the Siblings

This past month Jane and Daniel came home from their missions! We are happy they are home and just wanted to say we love them!

Jane returned home from the Canada Toronto West mission on July 24, 2009 (two years and four days after Emily came home from the Canada Toronto East mission!)

Daniel returned home from the Armenia Yerevan mission on August 21,2009.

WELCOME HOME!!!

Lots of New Stuff....Starting with move #1

Apartment 91

Well, a lot has happened in the last month and a half! I will start with move #1. We moved from our little one bedroom apartment to a one bedroom with a study. It is in the same ward (by my request) and is only about a hundred feet away from our first apartment. While I was getting ready to move I felt a little sad to leave our first little apartment. When we first moved in I HATED the cinder block walls. I guess I still feel the same way about them, but I remember a morning sitting at our table eating and looking out into the courtyard and just feeling like I was so happy in this little apartment. Here are some fun memories from our first little home.

The Kitchen: If you look closely you can see one of the things I really did become attached to- the turquoise-with-gold-speckles counter top. This is combined with one of our favorite nights: Fondue Night!

Charles' Christmas present to me (December 2008): A New Bookshelf!

Setting up our new game, Settlers of Catan! (Thanks Megan and Andrew!)

One of our first Family Home Evenings: training the bonsai.

I think there was a storm and our screen fell off... so, instead of walking out of our front door (which might have taken an extra 11 steps) he decided jumping out of our bedroom window would be the best exit route. No one can accuse him of taking the easy way out!

Celebrating Swiss National Holiday and proudly hanging our Swiss flag. This, incidentally was the a year to the day that we first saw each other after his mission and my mission. It was a good reunion after three years!

Saturday morning breakfast on our patio. Eating on the patio in the summer is one of our favorite things!

We will miss our first little apartment and we will always have fond memories of our first little home together.