Sydney the Swimmer

We have discovered a sport Sydney loves!  Swimming!  She joined a little swim team at Gold's Gym - perfect for beginners, and she loves it!  This was her second swim meet, outdoors in 106 degree temperatures!  She was refreshed, but spectators were not!  Most importantly, she had a blast!

 Look at the grin on her face!  So cute!

Awesome dive!

Camping at Wench Creek

We took our last camping trip before school starts this past weekend at Wench Creek.  It was our second time visiting this campsite - overall, it is a great campground with a reservoir, bike trails, lots of trees, and nice sites.  The only downside is the bathrooms - PU!  

New Family Member!

Well, we did it!  We finally broke down and added a dog to our family!  The kids have been asking for years, but we always felt with all of our travels, that it wasn't the right thing to do . . . until now!  He is a doll!  He's a Blue Merle Australian Shepherd, which we were first introduced to by our long time military friends Shawn and Katherine!  We know they are smart and need a lot of exercise, but we know what we are getting into!  I think it is a perfect family match.  So far, he is proving to be a great addition!  We named him Oki after our love for Okinawa, a place we will always hold close to our hearts!

 He's unusual, because he has a Black Tri face and a Blue Merle body!  Our breeder asked if she could show him in local Aussie shows . . . we said yes right now and his show name is Oki, Ride the Wave!  His first show will possibly be in October.  I don't know how deep we want to get into the show scene, but we will give it a try.

 His favorite toy - it smells like his mommy, Gaga!

"Oki all Day" was a favorite saying in Okinawa, and the girls all have t-shirts!

Amelia Grace turns ONE!

Amelia celebrated her FIRST Birthday!

It seems so unreal that one year has passed.  She has met all of her milestones and had a great year!  She's a tiny little thing with a whole lot of personality - a spitfire actually!  She only weighed in at 15 pounds 14 ounces at her one year check-up and has her doctor pinging, but after blood work, monthly weight checks, and much reassurance from mom, he has relaxed a bit and realizes she is just little!  :)  The good thing about being little is that she gets to wear her clothes for a really long time!  She is still fitting into her 6 month clothing!  Woo Hoo!  She started taking steps around 10 months, but true to her personality, she is just now walking at 12 months, on her own time schedule!  Once I stopped breastfeeding, she started sleeping through the night, so that has been another one of her blessings!  We look forward to another year of growth, increased language skills, and laughter!

Visit to Colorado Springs

Immediately after our company departed, our family boarded a plane destined for Colorado Springs!  Dan attended an Orthodontic Conference, and I couldn't let a Colorado trip pass me by!  We were hosted by the Clancy family, which was a great reunion from our Okinawa days!  It was super fun catching up with my friend Carrie and the kids had a great time shooting pool with "the boys" (Ryan, Kyle, and Connor).  We were able to do quite a bit of sightseeing, before the horrible fire broke out, which has pretty much decimated  an entire neighborhood in this beautiful city.  It was wonderful to be up in the high altitude country - beautiful state, beautiful city, and a wonderful host family!!  (Now, Amelia did NOT do very well on the plane flights this time around, but I'm not going to dwell on this point!)

Visitors from Wisconsin!!

Well, it was something we were looking forward to for months and months!!  Leslie, Todd, Hannah, and Jack finally arrived!!!  We had a wonderful 2 weeks with our company from the midwest!  Barbara was able to come down and join the party for part of the visit, which was great!  We did TONS of things while the company was here:  San Francisco, Six Flags, Raging Waters, Sonoma, Lake Tahoe, Sacramento, and a little bit of Vacaville and local areas!  WHEW!  It was totally AWESOME!