London and Prague

Prague - the city of 100 spires.

London. A brilliant city.

Awesome!

Piano Recital

Colin, Brooklyn and Isabella started playing piano in September of 2010. We had their second recital last weekend and they did fantastic. It was a name that tune themed evening and Colin played "When the Saints Come Marching in," Brooklyn played the theme from Beauty and the Beast, and Bella played "Alouette."

Jared is a super star for going along with all of the lessons, group lessons and piano practicing that is done on a daily basis. He can play the first bar of "We Three Kings" and insists that he is ready for piano as well.

Flashback Friday!

Three years ago we were in Hawaii! We had been planning a trip with our friends, Mark and Laura Hamilton, to coincide with our ten year anniversaries since our first year of marriage. Since that time we met Dave and Kim Chapman in Texas and invited them along. At the last minute, our friends Dallin and Sarah Combs decided to come as well (actually Dallin was working in Honolulu at the same time we were going and Sarah decided to join him). It was awesome!

We took them to the Polynesian Cultural Center for some island culture and yummy food.


Hanauma Bay was amazing!

Laura & Mark

Sarah & Dallin

Kim & Dave

John & Jenny

We went boogie boarding at Sandy Beach. Technically the boys boogie boarded while we sat on towels and watched. I think they had plenty of fun without us.

The sunsets were amazing.


We also went to Kauai with the Chapmans and packed our 3 day stay with a weeks worth of activities. Landsurfing is a sport co-discovered by Dave and John. They spent hours in the surf with waves pounding them from all directions at Barking Sands Beach (a.k.a. 10 mile beach).

Kayaking Wailua River

Ziplining in the mountains


The memories are sweet!

Na Pali Coast, North Shore of Kauai

The Best Winter Day Ever!

Yesterday, today and tomorrow the kids will be home from school! Yeah? Jared declared yesterday to be the best winter day ever until he went outside and realized that the white stuff was cold and that wearing shorts outside was probably not the best idea!

Happy Halloween

Halloween is awesome in America, according to the Aussie Rules Football Player, Pirate, Witch and Princess.

A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I think I'll move to Australia! Wait, we did that and took thousands of pictures only to come home and lose them all when our external hard drive crashed and all of the pictures became "irretrievable". Seriously, a very bad day. Maybe I can convince John to let us move back to Australia and redo all of the fun things we did.

But then again, "Movember" makes me wonder whether all of the things we did in Australia were awesome! (Seriously, check out the Stache!)

November 2009 - Melbourne Royal Botanic Garden

Finally!

Jared started school on September 2 and it was a much anticipated event! He loves it. I love it. We both love it. The only problem with school according to Jared is the following, "Mom, I really liked school, but they only ate once and it was a long, long time ago. I'm hungry!" That was said on his first day, but he has repeated it every time since.

Third Times a Charm

It was the first day of school for the kids today! Let me clarify that it was the third, first day of school for the kids this year. They are entering kindergarten, second and fourth grade, but have already done that twice before in Australia. They are thrilled to be returning to school and to make new friends. I am thrilled that they are returning to school as well!

Poor Jared. He has to wait until next Thursday for his first day of school. He was not terribly keen to be left alone, but we were able to satisfy him with a picture in front of the Bronco after we dropped off the others.

Willow Flats

This is one of John's favourite places on earth and we go every time we visit his parents. This year we also went with John's brother Sid and his family, and his sister Dianna. It is truly fantastic.

One of the first picture stops along the route is this bridge.

The Resting Rock - not quite half way up, but everyone stops because this is where you can get lemon drops that make the rest of the trip sweet!

Seriously cute.

Dianna, Sid and John

One of the best things about the hike is drinking the spring water directly from the mountain. Everyone made the trek over slippery rocks to get the purist water.

Some of us even went to extremes getting the water. Colin followed directly after John.


After hiking to the spring, we always spend time around a campfire eating tin foil dinners, making s'mores and enjoying the beautiful area. The conversation isn't too bad either!

Well done Grandpa! The fire was great.

Did You Know...

Flower Mound, Texas has awesome sunsets just like Australia.

June

After traveling for almost 24 hours we made it home to Texas from Australia. This picture of Jared was taken in the huge party limo that picked us up from the airport complete with two TVs, and lots of amenities. The nicest of them all was air conditioning! Doesn't Jared look tired? Not even close to how John and Jenny looked.

Colin was able to go to his first Cub Scout Day Camp and loved it.

We spent many, many hours hanging out with Jay, our highly motivated Realtor. He definitely kept the kids entertained.

All of the kids took swimming lessons and they have definitely paid off for Bella and Jared. They were lucky enough to have their friend Shawn in their class.

The girls participated in a cheer camp with their friends, Brooklyn and Ella.

And finally, Jenny celebrated her birthday with a delicious cake at the end of the month. It was awesome.

Really, the main blessing in June was being back among our friends in Texas. We missed them all so much during our two years abroad. Can you tell from all of the pictures that I took?