Write to Our Son!

BTW...Sam LOVES getting mail, he mentions it every time he writes. In his last letter, after talking about what a morale boost it was to get mail (how did you survive Mike?) he said, "You guys can write more if you want." (and we send something just about every day :)

Just sayin'

ps. I erased the actual address, let me know if you need it again. (not sure why but I didn't like having it up there).

This is how it's done!

Thanks to our good friends the Newmans!

Hi Sam Project

Hey Everybody....I have a job for you all. Stop whining, it'll be fun.

I want to send Sam some pics of the family but thought it would be even more personal if they included a message with them.

So, get out your pens and paper (or glitter and glue guns) and get to work. The message should be simple......

....I love just the Hi/Hey Sam in these... but with a specific identifyable location (like say Mt. Shasta in the background...hint hint) or in a funny pose, or in a pool (hey Mike)....be creative.

You can either email them to me so I can print them up or do it yourself if you want to include them in a letter to Sam (I'll send you his address).

Thanks!

Happy 4th!

Just thought you might all like to see what Sam (the future Army Ranger) was doing last 4th of July....waiting to see the fireworks from our roof :)

ps. replace the roof with our living room, the chair with our couch,

Sam with Brad (and Dad), and fireworks with the Iron Man movie

and that pretty much sums up this years celebration.

(and the reason I didn't bother taking a photo :)

City Girls

Annie was in heaven this weekend, shopping in San Francisco with her fantastically fun (and oh so hip) Aunt Ashley. SO glad we have someone in the family who likes to shop (at places other than Whole Foods) so our lovely daughter can get her 'fix' once in awhile. Thanks Ashley!

ps. and thanks John for subsidising our daughters habit :)

And the winner is.....

Annie was asked what her 'Perfect Weekend' would be like...

(this is her yearbook, click to make larger)

Just Catching Up

Just thought I'd throw some photos out there to show what's going on here.

We initially had a pretty good sized side yard which only saw me mowing it once a week.


So we decided to extend the fence that surrounded the backyard and pool.

It is now used so much more than before. The kids can go out and kick the soccer ball around. Visaully, it just looks soooooo much bigger.

Before.

After.

There's still a lot of work to do.

This is a stump they left when they removed a tree. This area is to be our patio (whenever).

We also took out those horrible hedges. I don't think the guy ever trimmed anything, so they were just growing wild. This is to be a flower bed.

A rain barrel made by the local high school kids. Placed at the bottom of the drain spout, it'll provide fresh water to the plants.

I had actually planned on ripping most of what you see out because it all just looked dead. Things really come alive in the Spring.

More hedges. These I can trim back in the Fall and they should be pretty nice next year.

This is the Dogwood in the front entrance.

Naoko just loves this. Coincidentally, the Dogwood was America's gift to the Japanese when the Japanese gave America the Cherry Blossom.

Ok, now a few swimming photos.

Followed by a visitor.

Yes, a wild bunny. These guys are all over the place. This one comes for the mint growing along the house (and yes, everytime I think of wild bunnies, I think of the rabbit in Monty Phython's Holy Grail. How can you not??).

Ok, so these aren't in our backyard, but they are from a buffalo (bison) ranch about two or three miles from us. Plenty of neat stuff to see around here.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and hope all is swell with everyone. Have a nice Memorial Day.