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.