End of Summer

It's officially the end of summer with the first day of school today. Eliyana and Caleb were up bright and early for their first day. Caleb was a little nervous to start Kindergarten but he did very well when I dropped him off this morning. Gideon was convinced he also had to go to "his school" today, but I convinced him to come home with me to wait another 3 years.



August flew by quickly. We enjoyed a visit from our Israeli friends, the Zadoks. It was good to catch up with them. They lived in Escondido in 2003-2005. Meidan was born only a month after Caleb, so it was fun to see them play together.

Eliyana had a pool party to celebrate her 8th birthday.

I've been getting back into surfing again, mostly going after work on Friday since I work only 10 minutes from the beach. I also went out with some of my church friends on a Saturday morning in August to attempt to teach them to surf. They had a great time and would like to go again.

Last week we went to the beach with our good friends the Keele's and Fesko's, for one last beach outing of the summer.

Yreka and Oregon Coast Vacation

Our family enjoyed a great week of vacation in Yreka (with Josh's parents) and on the Southern Oregon coast. The week previous to that Josh's parents had Eliyana and Caleb. They've gone up there on their own for the past 4 years. It's a nice break for Josh and I. Gideon stayed with us again this year since he is still a little young. And we were also working on potty training with him. Good news is he is pretty much potty trained. He is even to the point of going on his own without any prompting. Here are my favorite pictures from our trip. If you want to see the full online photo album go here:


http://picasaweb.google.com/vaneejh/SummerVacation2010?feat=email#

I love summer

The month of June has quickly lead to the start of summer. Every year I am amazed how refreshing the start of summer is. My schedule doesn't change much at all, but somehow it is still a break for me to have Josh and the children off from school. We've had a great month so far. Our project for the summer is building a second story for our treehouse. We've been envisioning for the past year so it is fun for us to be putting it together. Josh started working on the platform when his sister and brother in law were visiting at the beginning of May. He put Joel to work (I think he was willing) to help him build the platform for the house.


Memorial day I helped to frame in the house. I'm not a fan of heights, so this was a stretch for me.


Now Josh is working on the paneling. We've stalled for a couple weeks, but hope to finish the sides so we can paint it on July 4. Then will come the roof, windows and inside carpet. More pictures will follow as we make progress throughout the summer.


My neighbor invited me and the children to come along with her and her 2 children to Legoland soon after school let out. We spent a fun morning there with the children.


A couple weeks ago we had our good friends, the Fesko's and Keele's, over for a pizza night. And we decided to also celebrate Beor Keele's 5th birthday while we were together. I offered to make the cake and on a spur of the moment decided to make an animal shaped cake. I guess I was inspired by my sister-in-law's fun cakes she makes for her children. So I make a crocodile cake. I was surprised how well it turned out. Unfortunately (or not) now I'm afraid these kind of cakes will be expected for my children's birthdays. Anyone have a good (and simple) one to recommend?



Last weekend we drove to Visalia to meet up with Josh's parents. The real reason was to transfer Eliyana and Caleb to them for the week and Visalia is somewhat half way between our homes. The other reason was so that the men could go wild pig hunting again. Well, they didn't get a pig, but they did see 5 blackbears and caught 2 bullfrogs. So instead of wild pig meat, we had ourselves some fried frog legs. I can't say I'm a fan and I don't think they taste like chicken! After Visalia, Josh, Gideon and I drove up to Hume Lake (in the Sierras/Sequoia National Park) with our good friends, the Frese's. They have a cabin by the lake. We spent 1 day/1 night at their cabin and enjoyed the smell of the pines and mountain air. We got in a couple holes of frisbee golf and a little walk by the lake before heading home.



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On the way out, we stopped to see the big sequoias in Grants Grove. I'm always amazed how big those trees are, even though I've seen them previously. Pictures don't even capture it.

Piano Recital

Eliyana had her first piano recital this morning. She played 2 songs, both which she had to memorize. Unfortunately Josh had to miss it because of Westminster's graduation happening at the same time. She did well and wasn't too nervous.

Ready for Kindergarten

Here's our Caleb. He just finished his pre-k year and is ready for kindergarten. They were taking pictures at his preschool a few weeks ago. Of course we forgot about it and Caleb dressed himself that day in his favorite (and very worn out/stained) t-shirt and jeans. The photography must have had a black jacket to "dress up" the boys who's parents forgot about picture day. We weren't going to buy any photos anyway, but I couldn't resist when I saw them. Could you have resisted?

Surprise Wedding!

We had a unique experience this past weekend. We thought we were attending a surprise party for John Walter's girlfriend, Debbie, on a dinner cruise boat in the San Diego Mission Bay. John is my dad's cousin. His parents are Jimmy and Becky Walters and Becky is my grandfather's (John Yoder) sister. Got that?! Anyway, we were invited by John to Debbie's surprise birthday party a few weeks ago. When we got to the boat we found out that John was going to propose to Debbie and then there would be a wedding on the boat. They had been planning to get married in Greece this summer but ran into too many roadblocks with the Greek Orthodox church in Greece so what a great idea to get married on a boat when all their friends were already gathered. Debbie said "yes" and we had the privilege of witnessing their marriage. I didn't have my camera, so this is the best I could do with my camera phone.

Family Visits

The last few weeks we've been very busy with visits from family. Joel and Heidi and their family (Josh's sister) were with us for 2 weekends while they were at a conference in San Diego. And Josh's mom came down for some days during that time also. It was a little crazy in our house with 4 adults and 6 children, but lots of fun and good memories. It was great to see the cousins play together so well. We enjoyed visits together to the Natural History Museum, Model Railroad museum and Zoo.

Here are the cousins climbing on an elephant statue at the Zoo

Here are Gideon and Josiah on the sky ride at the Zoo


Then last weekend we had my brother, John, his wife, Andrea, and her mother Luz visit us. We had a good time seeing some local sites in San Diego and doing some wine tasting in Temecula and Escondido.

Gideon really took to his Uncle John.

Wine Tasting in Temecula:

Walking along the San Diego Bay near the U.S.S. Midway Aircraft Carrier:

Relaxing in Little Italy on our San Diego Tour

By the Hotel Del Coronado:

Trolley Ride in San Diego:

The kids having some sparkling apple cider while we wine tasted at Orfilia Winery in Escondido:


We had some time to plant a very LITTLE garden this spring. I stress little since it is only 4' x 4'. Still the children have enjoyed watching their seeds sprout and watering it each day.

Now that we have only 2 more weeks of school. We're looking forward to the break and change in our normal routine.