Summer 2018

I have not updated the blog in a long time! I will just run through some highlights of our end of school and summer days.

The kids were pretty excited on the last day of school! The boys had such a wonderful year in first and third grade.

Jason did his final report on Leonardo Da Vinci. We had so much fun putting together his costume and prop.

The first thing on our summer list was the Jungle!

Derek and I went painting again! We are going to have a whole room full of our masterpieces.

Glori and her kids came to stay with us for a week! It was so fun to see her and for the kids to get to know their cousins. We had a lot of fun, but we had a few disasters, too! Almost every outing had a little trouble- a whale watching trip in which everyone was seasick for three hours, a trip to Happy Hollow where Cara arrived with no shoes, a visit to the redwoods where we were stuck in traffic for 2 hours with 6 screaming kids in the car- it was a memorable visit, at least!

The kids enjoyed panning for fools gold in the town next to the redwoods.

On our way to church

Our big vacation was going to Florida. We headed over to Fort Lauderdale to watch the boys compete in the National Taekwondo tournament. They did great! They were at the bottom of their weight and age classes this year, so the kids they were fighting were much bigger than them. Brett lost his match, but put up a good fight, and Jason made it to the semi-finals, winning a very exciting match with a difficult opponent. He lost his next battle, but they both did a great job in a tough competition.

We headed over to Orlando to meet Grandma and Grandpa Liau and spent a week going to Universal Studios and Disney World!

We met Dr. Doom and the goblin

Taking a ferry to Disney World

Cute Cara

Jason and I went on the Everest ride four times! It is so much fun to ride roller coasters with him! We both liked this one and the Aerosmith ride the most.

This guy behind us is an expert photobomber!

Jason took a cute selfie

We really liked Epcot center where you can visit the different countries!

Worn out on the bus!

Also worn out on the bus.

The seven dwarfs ride kind of freaked Cara out.

Using the force

Derek doesn't need the force! He's got muscles.

Chewie!

BB8!

We had such a great time on our trip! It was a busy and fun two weeks. 

We stopped in Denver on the way home for a couple of days to visit Alex and Catherine and Madeline. It was so fun to see them! It happened to be my 40th birthday on the day we headed over there. I wasn't expecting anything, but they had balloons, a crown and (best of all) a cake with 40 candles on it waiting for me! That is a major bonfire going there! Alex was so thoughtful, he even remembered to get my favorite flavor- mint chocolate chip! 

There is no place I would rather spend my birthday! I'm sorry I didn't take more pictures with Alex and his family. I think we were so tired from Disney World that we just didn't think about it. We had  a great time visiting with them and exploring beautiful Denver a little bit. It was a great vacation.