40 & 6

My oldest brother Scott

My cutie nephew Ethan

Happy birthday boys! We enjoyed being there to celebrate with each of you!

Teddy Bear

First Day of Kindergarten

Last week, our little girl started Kindergarten. It was a big event for the whole family. She took some of our sunflowers for her new teacher. After a two week strike, everyone was very thankful to be finally getting into the swing of school life. Week one was a total hit. She loved EVERYTHING about school, especially mastering some of the outdoor play equipment with aid of older helpers. We are very excited to be part of our school's community.

Ice-cream at the lake.

We just got a new camera and our enjoying playing with it.

M&M

Washington Outdoor Women

Check out the WOW 2008 crowd! Rich has circled myself and my friend Deb in this group shot. This was my first WOW event and it was AWESOME. To get more of a flavour of the event, check out the gallery of WOW pictures - pics. Thankfully the weather was beautiful, and i spent the bulk of it on a nice, quiet lake learning about canoeing and kayaking. I also took a handy course on Survival Skills 101 to perfect my fire building skills, knowledge of emergency shelters, an introduction to knots and an extended version of the ten essentials.

I'm planing on going back to WOW next year, and they are also planning a Wee WOW for girls/mothers age 4-6. Let me know if you want to go! Mina and i are pumped!

Waiting to Bloom

Readiness...check

Backpack...check

New haircut...check

New shoes...check

Teacher assignment...check (yippee!)

Teacher...negative

Our teachers are on strike. The "official" first day of kindergarten was today. It did not happen and i have no idea when it will occur. I'm not expecting anytime soon. For the last few weeks, we've been prepping Mina with the strong possibility that school would not start as hoped. We stopped the countdown to kindergarten and cautioned everything with tentative statements.

So now, i'm just wondering and waiting. Thankfully, the weather outside is nice, and we are able to easily just continue our daily routines. This morning, when i went out for my morning walk, there was a banner across the school sign. The banner said, "We love our teachers". Later in the morning, we saw our teachers, walking around with picket signs, waving back at us as we drove by, to meet a friend at the park.

We are ready for Kindergarten - but until then, we'll savour the sun and togetherness.

Canoe ride

sunflowers, part two

Aug. 28, 2008 DNC

I can't seem to find the link anymore to this awesome picture but it was on the Seattle Times webite - unfortunately, not my picture.