Clovis farmer market

a picture after we cut Austyn's hair this morning. He held still just fine during the hair cut, but not so well after when we were trying to get his picture.

Below are picutres of the Clovis farmer's market on friday. I really enjoy going. And the kids have a blast.

preschool and water skiing, but not together...

Finshing up our vacation we met my parents at Millerton Lake and went out on their boat. We ventured around the lake and went water skiing (something I haven't done in the longest time). My mom and I were able to get up and ski. Russ tried once but with his slightly injured ankle from earlier he decided not to push himself. Maybe next time.

my mom skiing




Russ right before we took off....the other pic wasn't much more than some water crashing. LOL

me skiing



Penelope driving the boat with Grandpapa


As for most people, come September, life has started as usual. Penelope has continued in Preschool. Her backpack zipper already broke, got to go back and buy her a new one. That's what I get for buying her a new one when she had been using a hand-me-down one just fine before hand. LOL. She is in a new class and happens to be in class with one of our friends from church, Declan. You can see him in the pictures below.




Penelope at her cubby hole
Penelope and Declan right outside ready to start a learnin'

walking among giants

The family and I just got back from a wonderful vacation camping at the sequoia national forest. It was so wonderful, breath taking, great! We all LOVED it! Here are some of the pictures. It was so wonderful I want to go again and again.

the camp site

Russ making breakfast. Here we had french toast and eggs. YUM

on one of the shuttles that take you around the park.

we got a chance to see a couple of deer during our trip here. This one was at least holding still long enough for me to be able to snap a picture.

I believe the giant sequoia in the back is Sherman.

This hollowed out entrance is out of a fallen sequoia tree.

A picture of a the group we went on a tour with. Kind of gives an idea of how BIG these trees are.

Here the roots are exposed on one of trees that had fallen down. Penelope, Kayle, and Nathan.

the ranger who gave us a nature walk.

a sequoia seed.

this was our only real sighting of a bear. We were on one of the shuttles heading back to camp from an excursion out with the kids and at one of the stops spotted a mother bear with her 2 cubs. This to me was the perfect scenerio: behind steal and glass. LOL. We did hear our campers next to us saw a bear one night. I am glad to be back home where I don't have to worry about it.

Below are pictures of us at the camp site.

dirty boy

Here are pictures of Hume lake. It was a piece of heaven for Russ and I. We could have stayed there all day long. Ahhhhh.....

Below are pictures of Beetle rock.

okay. I could go on forever with the amont of photos I took. But I only showed you the good ones. LOL.

here I am

Well it has defiantly been a while since I have posted. My life is slowly coming back together since the escrow, move, Penelope's birthday, our anniversary. We are settling into our new house. Pictures to come. The only rooms left to be painted are the bathrooms. I got a new light fixture for one and new towel racks that need to go in. So I can paint one of them. We also got a ceiling fan for our bedroom that we need to install. It seems like we don't get as much done as we try to squeeze into one day. Plus we are kinda of beat from everything we have done already. After a long day of work, honestly, I just want to take it easy. There are many more things we would love to do to the house. We are still waiting for our kitchen table to arrive. We put our old one in the dinning room and are eating most of our meals at that one. We also ordered Penelope's dresser. And there are several blank walls that I just haven't found pictures for. But I'm not rushing it. If I have to look at the picture I want to want to look at it. LOL. Overall, it is such a beautiful house and I feel blessed beyond measure.

We gave Lucy, our beloved dog, back to the no-kill shelter today. We were all very upset about it but we all knew it was what needed to happen. We will see how Penelope does with missing a pet. We might get a small animal like a gold fish or something. But for right now we are trying to just be a family.

For Penelope's birthday we had a small get together at our new house (had just moved in the weekend before). We invited a couple of friends over and Granna and Papa joined us. Penelope smiled the whole time so it was successful. Russ and I were able to slip away the following weekend for an anniversary date. We went to Fleming's for the first time. It was delicious! And then we saw a theatrical show at Second Space Theater. We saw 'Skin Deep'. It was hilarious and a wonderful date! We need to have those more often.

I'll have to go around and take pictures. I'll add it to my to-do list. LOL.