Our Trip to California

  SACRAMENTO

The kids and I left to California on May 9th. We spent 4 days in Sacramento and 4 days in Madera.

While we were in California I met up with some friends from high school. Some of these ladies I hadn't seen since high school. It's definitely one of the benefits of connecting with friends through Facebook. We had a great time and I look forward to seeing them again.

Most of our time in Sacramento was spending time with Robyn and her family. The cousins had so much fun together and it was nice spending time with Robyn and Kevin. They always make our trips out there enjoyable.

Cheering Rachel on for her soccer game!

SACRAMENTO RAILROAD MUSEUM

I love their faces in this picture!

 Mother's Day turned out very special. Kevin spoiled Robyn, his mom and me by cooking us dinner. They also got a gift for me from "the kids" which was very thoughtful.

SAN JOSE

We visited my dad and his family in San Jose on our way down to Madera. We had a very nice day together. It was the first time I had met his daughter Molly and seen their new house. Audrey and Molly had a lot of fun playing together and Huyen cooked us some delicious Vietnamese food. 

MADERA

As usual our family is great for pulling out all the stops when we arrive. It always makes us feel so special and makes all those miles traveled so worth while. It doesn't matter who we see on our trip they always make our visit special. As we headed down to Madera, Faith had some fun things planned for the kids. One of those was going to Boomer's. While we were there Ethan hit the jackpot and earned 1000 tickets. We couldn't believe it. 

                               

 We ended our night at Boomer's by playing laser tag. We were the only ones in there which made it a lot of fun. Andrew was the big winner and beat everyone by a landslide.

For Audrey's birthday Grandma bought her and her doll matching outfits. She loved them.

The main reason for us going to California was seeing Andrew graduate from Fresno State. 

We are so proud of him!!!

Columbus Day Weekend

We were so lucky to have my niece Sarah come and visit for the weekend. We ended up doing a lot of stuff over the weekend and it started off with soccer games bright and early Saturday morning. I think she really enjoyed seeing the kids play. I also think they were doing their best for her because they played really well that day.

 After the soccer games we went to see Dolphin Tale. Great movie, but I think Sarah and I might have enjoyed it more than the kids.

I wasn't so good about taking pictures on Saturday, but I made sure I brought my camera when we went to The Arch on Sunday after church.

 The capsule you get to ride in up to the top!

 Looking out over St. Louis and Cardinal's Stadium!

Ethan loves space, so he had to have his picture taken in front of the first man to walk on the moon.

On Monday, Sarah and I went shopping and had a lot of fun. Then she headed back to TCU on Tuesday. It was a great visit and we're looking forward to her coming again.

Dad's Visit

Dad came out to visit us for the weekend. He was able to see the kids play baseball and we took him over to Doug's new office. Unfortunately, it was so hot and steamy at the kids' games that we were all worn out by the time we got home. Maybe next time we can take him to see the arch--especially since he worked for the company that built it when we lived in San Jose in the 70's. 

It was a great weekend and we were so glad he was able to come out to see us.

Updates

Since I haven't been blogging much lately I've missed announcing and updating a few things. For those of you who haven't heard....

Doug was picked up to be the next Squadron Commander of the 906th Air Refueling Squadron here at Scott AFB. He will be assuming command in April or May after spending four months in Altus, OK for requal training to fly the KC-135. This means he will be gone from January through April, but we will be at Scott AFB until the spring of 2013.

Doug's mom's recovery from open heart surgery is going well. It's been four weeks since her surgery, so she has two to four more weeks until she's fully recovered. We're very happy that things have gone well and that the surgery and recovery have gone fairly smoothly.

My sister is preparing for her open heart surgery in December for an aortic aneurysm and leaky valve. She found a doctor she is very happy with and she has decided to go tissue instead of mechanical which seemed like an impossible decision for her to make until recently. It was definitely an answer to prayer since that decision was weighing heavily on her mind. Through my sister's situation, we've learned that there might be a genetic link to arotic aneurysms and leaky valves. Our uncle also has an arotic aneurysm and leaky valve that doesn't require operation yet and my father has a leaky valve. I am having a ecochardiogram at the end of the month. My older sister had one on Wednesday and they now want to do a CT Scan next week. I haven't spoken to my brother about it yet so I'm not sure where he is at in the process. The problem with an aortic aneurysm is that if it burst it would result in instant death so this is definitely not something our family is taking lightly.

Open Heart Surgeries

Doug flew home on Thursday to be there for his mom's open heart surgery this morning. The doctor said everything went well and she should be awake tomorrow. My younger sister told me yesterday that she will be having open heart surgery on December 6th, so my family is preparing to face the same challenge Doug's family is facing right now. However, we know that God is in control of all things. He uses every trial in our lives to try and bring us closer to Him and it is only when we realize that trusting in ourselves is not enough that we are able to see God standing there waiting for us to put our trust in Him.

More Pictures from Sacramento!

Staying at Robyn and Kevin's is always a lot of fun for the kids because Rachel and Caleb are so close in age to our kids. Audrey, Rachel, Ethan and Caleb played dress-up every day we were there!

Sacramento in July

We stayed with my sister Robyn and one of the days we were there we took the kids to Thunderland!

The Five Amigos!

Thunderland!