Thanksgiving in Ephrata

A long weekend in Ephrata for Thanksgiving

turned into 10 days of an

extended stay with Michael in the

hospital for emergency gall bladder

surgery. Here he is with

his new beard, that he grew during

his illness!

Fred took wonderful care of us while we

stayed for longer than expected!

We enjoyed Thanksgiving Day with Michael's brother
and his family!

The boys had a great time trying out their snowboards

on a hill outside the neighborhood where Michael

grew up. They did really well! (Much better than I

had expected they would-I tried to lower their

expectations before they started and told

them to remember that it would be really

hard to balance and that they might fall often!)

Finishing Up Soccer for 2010

Alex and Josh both had great seasons for soccer

this year. We so appreciated their

coaches and the good attitudes

that they transferred to their players!

They both improved their

skills as well:)

Here's Josh about to give the ball

a big boot!

He really did give it a big boot!!!!

Both boys had pizza parties as their

end-of-the-year team get-together.

Here is Alex waiting to receive his

medal from his coach!

Josh's coach posed with him and gave

him the big thumbs up!

Josh got a great trophy and a ball

that each member of the team

had signed! Great memories:)

Alex with his medal. (I forgot to take

his picture with the medal at the party!)

Josh in action!

Josh's Teeth!

Josh has had two loose teeth for

quite a few weeks!

They were looking crooked

and scary at times.

First, the left one came out while he was

eating cereal! It was dangling by a

thread but he wouldn't let us pull it.

Then, this past Sunday afternoon, he let
a friend's dad pull the other one!

He was ready to sing the song, "All I want for

Chirstmas is My Two Front Teeth"!

Two lost teeth in a week. He might be a little

late, but they are coming out quickly now!

I finally checked his baby book recently and saw

that he only had two teeth when he reached

his first birthday. (No wonder he has

been later in loosing them!)

My memory isn't so good, obviously:)

Barn Dance 25th Anniversary Party

Recently we had a great time at a 25th

anniversary party of friends from church!

We enjoyed dinner, dancing and hanging out

with friends and horses in the barn:)

Look at those cowboys smile!

Feeding some of the horses around the outside
of the arena.


Beautiful horses at the barn that was owned
by relatives of the couple
who were celebrating their anniversary.




Crazy Mike was a crazy dancer-He wore me out!

We loved being with friends from church and

learning a new dance!

Alex cut-in and gave Michael a break!

(Alex's best friend's dad was on the microphone

leading the dancing! He did a great job.)

An evening at Oaks Park

Again this summer the boys were a part

of the summer reading program at the library.

At the end of the program they

give out certain "rewards" and one

is a discounted ride bracelet

for a particular night to visit Oaks Park-our

very own amusement park here in town.

We had a great time as a family

enjoying the rides on a nice

summer night!

We took some fun pictures near the crazy mirrors!

This slide and the roller coaster were our

favorite rides. We got right back in

line many times after we

got to the bottom, to go down again.

We tried to have races to see who

could get to the bottom first.

Josh and Dad went really fast on this ride

and also backwards!

Despite, Alex's cool look in the picture

above, neither of us like the spinning

dizzy rides so we didn't go on the car one!

Oaks Park also has a roller skating rink that

was included with our ride bracelets.

We had a good time rolling around.

The boys had treats on the way out, but poor

Mom; they were out of popcorn!

Birthday Girl!

My birthday was on a Monday, but I felt like I had

a whole birthday weekend because of

all the festivities I enjoyed!

Dad and Mom graciously had my family and some

friends from church over to their house

on Saturday for a great spread of food

and fun for all!

Alex got some grapes stuck in his lip!

(We won't mention any names, but another

adult had the creative idea first:)

I have some wonderful friends who

came to celebrate with me and gave

me sweet gifts as well!

Those boys always teasing poor Lauren!