California Trip Part2: Grandpa and Grandma

Here we are for Part 2 of our CA trip!!!

On the road again!

This was the infamous "Cactus Shop"!  It said on the wall, "Desert's Best Kept Secret!"  Unfortunately, it look more like a Junky's Heaven than a really good secret! 

Someone fell alseep... I won't mention any names!  ;)

We laughed soooooo hard when we saw this sign!  I don't know about you, but to us, a "Foot-long Jalapeno Tuna Melt" sounded pretty gross!

Getting ready to visit with Grandma and Grandpa...

This picture is very interesting as you can see Eden from two angles and then me looking into a different mirror!

And here we are with Grandpa and Grandma!

Visiting...

"Is Havilah asleep?!"

Shiloh and I have a free moment to take a picture!

I thought this picture was kind of funny...  it looks like I am chasing Judah down the hall! 

Eden tries on Grandma's hat.

Awww!  Cute Boy!

This is a picture of the house that Grandpa built.

We went to "Rosa's Cafe".  We used to go there with Grandpa and Grandma a lot so it was very fun to go there again.  Fond memories!

Having dinner together.

Judah with Daddy and Grandpa.

Shiloh and I goofing around after the delicious meal!

Benjamin shows his drawing off.

A guest appearance from the infamous "Vik & Nes!"

(They're at it again!) 

Shiloh, the traveling musician, just had to get her picture taken with Nes!

(Special thanks to Vik for this photo!)

It was a delightful two days!

"We miss and love you, Grandpa and Grandma!"

Posted By:

~Bethany

Of Mice, Rocks, & Bricks

Photo Credit: Google

Today, I got to clean out the nest of three mice who had moved into our goat supply shed.  Maybe more, but I didn't take the time to check.  In order to keep me company and help me live through cleaning up this scary mess I took along my three youngest siblings on the adventure of the epic, "Who Can Find the Mouse Game".  Eventually, the clean up became a wonderful object lesson as I showed Judah (5), Havilah (5), and Benjamin (3) how mice build their houses out of shredded up trash. 

"Shiloh, there is a glove!" Benjamin announced to which I replied, "Yes, the mouse went and took that out of the trash and put it in his house.  Are we supposed to live in trash?"  Havilah answered with a very solemn, "No."  Finally after cleanning a bit more, Judah announced: "Shiloh, when I get married, I am going to build my house out of rocks and bricks and more rocks and bricks!"

Moral of the story according to the 5 year old: We should live in houses built of rocks and bricks... not trash.


Posted By: ~Shiloh~

California Trip Part1: Aunt Jenny's House

The beginning of March brought The Trip of the Year for us as we packed our bags and headed down to sunny SoCal for a week and a half of relatives, fun, laughter, good memories, dancing (of course!), and the very anticipated wedding that some of us were involved in!

We have been super busy so that is why we were not as prompt as we would have been, but better late than never, you know!  I will be sure to get a Part 2 up promptly!

On the road!  

We rented a big 15 passenger van which was such a blessing to have room like that!

Our first stop was in Northern California at Aunt Jenny's house where we spent the night with her.

Judah and Aunt Jenny at Rubios... this used to be one of our favorite places to eat when we lived here.

It couldn't pass up Wahoo's Fish Tacos though!

Aunt Jenny and Mommy.

 We spent the evening catching up and looking forward to the next day when we would see the girls!

Shiloh serenades us on one of the cousin's guitar!

Awww!  Judah is still our "Cute Boy"!

The next day we were sooo excited to meet up with the girls Cassidy, Audrey, and Chloe.  It had been about six years since we saw them last!

Eden and Cassidy.

Cassidy and Audrey wanted to show us a stunt that they were working on, so the asked me to help. 

 Once again I am caught doing something dangerous!

We laughed so hard about this picture... it looked like Audrey  was an angel coming down from the sky!

We took a quick walk to the park while the guys went to take pictures somewhere.

Fun in the sun!

When everyone got back, we sat down to play one of our favorite games: "Catch Phrase".

Hmmmm... what is that word?!

Love everyone's expressions here!

That evening, Daddy cooked us up a magnificent dinner!

YUM!

After dinner, we ran outside to learn how to "Rip Stick".

Chloe shows us hows the pros do it.

Although it doesn't look like it here, I did get the hang of it (sort of).

Jordan's two seconds of a ride!

Then we ran back inside to do a little Irish Ceili Dancing...

The dance in full swing!

Oh, and then we had to sing a few songs... yes, we had six years worth of things to catch up on, so this was one busy day!

And then we had to take pictures...

The girls.

All the cousins.

Skinny Girls!

Think it was easy to get all of us smiling like that?  Nope!

One of those pictures where everyone is looking every which way--except at the camera!

Being Mac users and all... we were elated to find that Aunt Jenny had WiFi.

That night we packed up and left really early to continue down to Southern California for a full week!

"Thanks, Aunt Jenny and girls, for the wonderful time that we spent at your house!  We love you all!"

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Posted By:

~Bethany 

Congratulations!!!

To Jordan!

Yesterday both Jordan and I competed in a Young Artist Competition.  It was just two days after we arrived home from our trip to California--yes, we are going to update about that... so stay tuned!  We had such a wonderful time at the competition and enjoyed the surprise when we found out that friend, Bethany J. had entered with her harp and performed right after us!  :)

Jordan won and will be performing with the orchestra on May 20th!

I came in a very close second and will be watching the performance on May 20th!

Here are a few pictures that Eden took for us:

Doing "The Theme from Schindler's List"... it was my best performance of it!

Jordan did a fabulous job on the First Movement of Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto.

Bethany and Bethany (you can decide who is who) after the competition!

It was a very delightful evening and we are very excited to the upcoming music that will be vibrating through our lives!

"Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs."

~Psalm 150:4

God is greatly to be praised!!!

Posted By:

~Bethany