New Wheels :)

12 passenger

We've been wanting to buy a van so that all of our family could travel together for a while. We put money aside and just as we thought that we were making progress something would come up. Be it Dr. bills, Abbygail's surgery and other things and we decided maybe we were being unreasonable to think we could make it happen. This January Barbara talked to us and said she wanted to help us find a vehicle we could all travel in. We couldn't believe it. What a blessing that would be. We started looking around, checking out consumer reports, looking on auto trader, newspapers, checking out dealerships etc. Barbara was doing the same thing down her way. At times it felt like we were on a wild goose chase. We wanted to get something that was in good condition and at the same time not too expensive. Barbara looked up in Washington and just didn't see what we were looking for. She said not to give up and we would all keep looking. When we got back from Gabrielle's wedding we went back to work. Josh ended up having an extra day off when we got back and so we were going to drive up to Newport and possibly swing up to Portland to take a look at a couple of vans that looked promising. I even looked up a mechanic and set up a tentative appointment just in case. Before we had gotten things together for another road trip I came across a van that was auctioned off in Reno Nevada and owned by the university. It is a 1999 but only had 44,600 miles.
It was like it was made just for us. The whole family can ride in one vehicle with a few more seats for friends too. It has vinyl seats that are easy to clean and the floor can just be swept out with a broom ( not carpet). It has a rack on top to put all our camping gear and a hitch on the back. We had a mechanic checked it out thoroughly. It came back with flying colors and our search was over. Heavenly Father really knows us is all I can say. He knows our needs and sends angels our way to help up out when things seem out of our reach at just the right moment.

Easter Egg Hunt

Confessions of a Photoholic

Ok so I know that after you have read this you might think I am a little more dorky than you previously thought but I had to get this off my chest. I love pictures! My children will tell you that at times I can take it a little too far. Maybe if I explain why it will mentally justify the fraud I have perpetrated on my poor, unsuspecting, blog readers. I like to scrap book and try to capture some of the things that we do as a family. As time goes by you realized that you can no longer remember some of the details of an event, or completely forget something. You sometimes forget the exact way one of your children looked when they did .... So by taking pictures and scrap booking it helps me remember the things we did and then in turn brings back fond memories I would have lost due to time. Well, on Saturday morning after I got home from work I told the kids they had better get their shoes on and grab a trash bag because some kind of animal had knocked over the trash and it was all over the yard. They begrudgingly started to head outside. What they didn't know was that I had gone and hid about 140 something Easter eggs all over the yard. After a few seconds of, " I don't see any trash anywhere" they realized they had been duped. They excitedly ran around gathering eggs, looking in holes in the fence, finding some in trees and grapevines. It was so much fun watching them! I had only one slight problem. I had forgotten to charge my battery to my camera. Everyone continued with their Easter egg hunt. I was a little bummed but I thought that maybe I could have my pictures anyway. The following week I took the kids to the park and we had another Easter egg hunt. They were pretty good sports about the whole thing and I think they had fun finding eggs all over again. So there you have it. The above pictures of our fake Easter egg hunt :)

Trying to play catch up

My computer crashed a while ago. Thank goodness I have Carbonite and so I didn't loose everything. It's been a little busy around here and so I am finally getting around to updating the blog.

Spring Break

My sister Karen, my aunt Marilyn and I caravaned up to Washington to visit my brother. My mom and dad flew up from California and so I guess we had a little family reunion. The older cousins stayed up late playing games, the little girls had fun in the little play house in the upstairs room. The boys had fun building things with Lego's and playing with Star wars toys. I think Joy had bought half of Toys R Us for her nieces and nephews to play with. It felt like Christmas. We had a great time just hanging out. Here are some of the pictures of some of the things we did.

Boys will be boys

While visiting my brother Mark in Washington the boys were playing with this squishy ball and it accidentally popped. They found other ways to entertain themselves

Bowling