The Always Elusive Family Portrait

Two weeks ago Brent and I decided to try for the ultimate: a family portrait where everyone is smiling, happy, and looking at the camera. I planned the outfits, arranged the time for late evening, and everything was going as planned UNTIL two hours before the scheduled time, our 6 year old neighbor decided to play hair dresser with Jenna. With butchered bangs and random locks, I wasn't sure what to do. Brent wanted to cancel the whole thing, but I didn't want to wait another year. My friend, Ashley Tanner rushed home for work just in time to work miracles with Jenna's hair. All in all, it wasn't so bad. Hannah went first, as Jenna was a little grumpy, and did beautifully. She promptly fell asleep. Jenna finally warmed up with some smiles and Kara and Tyler were regular models. We had to wake Hannah up to finish our family pics, but it was all worth it. Love you guys.

Sliding Rock

My Favorite Place of all has turned into one of Kara and Ty's favorite places to visit. Sliding Rock is freezing Cold but full of fun.

My Trip

Thanks to Larry H. Miller, I was able to travel to Washington DC, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland to visit many historical landmarks and learn from some very distinguished professors from Weber State University (Dr. Sessions and Dr. Sadler). It truly is an amazing experience to travel with people who share your passion for history and who love to experience it. It was a lot of fun but bittersweet. I would have loved to take my children and show them the sites and share my love of history. I feel indebted to Mr. Miller who values education and appreciates teachers and is willing to spend the money to allow us opportunities to improve our teaching in the classroom.

Thanks Kara

Wow! What a busy summer. Thank goodness for all of the help I received from Kara and Tyler while staying in Georgia. Kara even attempted to keep up the blog and help me out so that we stayed updated.

The Beach

Jenna has so much fun building tall sand castles!

This is Tyler trying to tackle a tricky wave!

This is Kara wiping out on the boogie board. Ouch!

Kara enjoys being out in the cool water instead of the hot sun!

It is nice to see Tyler glowing every now and then!

Dad and Jenna are having a fun time playing together in the Atlantic ocean

Today we all packed up the car and headed off to the beach on Hilton Head island. We all had a splendid time playing in the water and the sand. Even though the sun was hot the refreshing water sure cooled us down. All in all it was an exciting trip that we all enjoyed!

Hannah Banana

Hannah is enjoying the trip to Georgia. Little Hannah and Regan have been getting along really well together too. She is my sweet bundle of joy.

Jenna Bug

Hey guys, we are in Georgia right now and Jenna is having so much fun playing with her cousins in the water. Whether she is jumping on the tramp or sliding down the slip and slide she always has a smile on her face :)

Universal Studios and Characters at Goofy's Kitchen

Disneyland Cont.

Disneyland

Hannah was a great traveller for her first road trip.
Jenna was awake for 10 of the 11 hour drive to Anaheim.
On our first night in town we went straight to the shopping centers to eye what we might want to buy and Jenna loved everything princessy.
Here's the gang at the entrance to Disney, ready to play.

This is a post I'm adding because we went on a trip that was Jenna's highlight this year: Disneyland. We were able to go with Grandma and Grandpa Arnold and Ally and Rob and their family. A great time was had by all especially Jenna