San Diego

This past week we spent a wonderful 3 days in San Diego with my dear friend Kathleen. I worked for Kathleen for 6 years at College of the Canyons before Micah was born, and she has remained a part of our family even though I don't work for her anymore. She recently moved to San Diego and invited us to come spend time with her so we took advantage of a little vacation time to do just that. It was a wonderful visit and we fell in love with San Diego. She lives just 2 blocks from Mission Bay ~ who wouldn't love that?!! Thanks for a wonderful time Kathleen! It was so good to see you again!

Taking a walk down to the Bay

We spent one day at the San Diego Zoo. What a great place! We loved the design of this zoo and how close you could get to some of the animals. It is so big that we didn't get to see all of it, but we really enjoyed what we did see.

Have you even seen a koala move? Since they live in trees you would think they would be really nimble moving around on the branches, but not this guy. He moved ever so timidly, carefully getting a good grip before advancing the other arm forward. It was so fun to watch him though. Doesn't he look so cute? Makes me want to pet him.

Micah enjoyed getting close to the elephant

His favorite animal was the sea lion

But the best part of the day was the Skyfari Aerial Tram!!!

While we were looking at this reindeer, surrounded by many other admiring guests of the zoo, Micah loudly commented, "Hey Daddy! Do the reindeer have meat?" "We should shoot one! They'd be good to eat." I was horrified, but Nathan just laughed. This kid needs to move to Idaho so he can go hunting.

Although I don't think she cared much for the animals, Ashlyn had a fun day chewing on her links.

Micah fell down while climbing on a rock so we made a trip to the First Aid station to get bandaged up.

As I said, the tram was a hit, so we rode it 4 times that day.

Lovin' on my buddy boy

Our last day there we enjoyed a picnic on the beach

Then we rented a pedalboat so Micah could get out in the Bay.

I wasn't so thrilled though when the boys yelled out, "Watch this!" I looked up to find Micah flying off the boat. Good thing he had swimming lessons last week!!!

Kathleen and Ashlyn enjoyed hanging out on the beach

Once we returned the boat, Micah spent the rest of the time building a river bed in the sand and filling it with water.

Micah and Cookie

Micah, Cookie, Kathleen, and Ashlyn

Time Off with Daddy

August brought with it several days of vacation to play with Daddy. We really enjoyed spending time together as a family, relaxing at home and having a few adventures out and about...

Daddy and Micah spent several days in the pool for swimming lessons. Micah has always loved the water, but now he is becoming a really good swimmer. One day I told him that I thought he was a better swimmer than me now, so he is quick to repeat that comment to anyone that sees him swim!

Learning to twist so he can come up for air

And of course, there has to be play time after the lesson is over!

We had a few quiet days at home to just relax. Here's Ashlyn practicing on her tummy.

Making sissy smile!

The weather has been quite warm here so the boys tried to cool off outside with a water balloon fight. They had tons of fun and even enticed some of the neighbor kids to come play with them.

Daddy started off gentle

But Micah was ready to fight

In the end Micah was soaked

Finally... A Day at the Beach

I'm sad to say that it is August and we are just now making our first trip to the beach. But since it stays warm well past the end of August, I'm sure we'll make it out there again several more times this year.
This was Ashlyn's first trip to the beach. She enjoyed the light breeze blowing on her face, but she could do without the sun in her eyes.

Although she almost always wants to stand, this time she was only content to sit (in the sand of course!) I think we have finally gotten all the sand out of her hair, clothes, blankets, etc.

As always, Josiah and Micah had a blast. I'm not sure if they realized there was an ocean next to them though as they spent most of the time playing in the sand.

After seeing some other kids digging a hole, they decided to dig their own hole. With the Olympics in China this year, they decided to dig a hole to China...


By the end of the day, a hole big enough to sit in and get covered up in was much preferable than a hole all the way to China.

After her escapade in the sand, Ashlyn was content to sleep in the shade of the umbrella.


Joshua enjoyed a nice nap snuggled up against his mommy.

Following a day in the sun, we all enjoyed a nice dinner at Wood Ranch. Thanks Micah! It was so yummy!!

The babies got to look at each other while the rest of us ate.

We ended the night with a game of pinochle - boys against girls. Since it has been nearly a year since we played (thanks to pregnancy sickness and new babies), Bonnie and I were quite proud of our family and double pinochle. Watch out boys - next time we may get a double family!

Our Busy July

We anticipated that July was going to be a busy month for our family and it certainly exceded our expectations! Nathan serves as the Director of the Summer Institute Program at Master's College and all the students in that program are on campus for the 4 weeks of July. After spending 6 months interacting with nearly 150 students via phone and email, it was a joy for him to finally meet all the students and get to know them a little. But it also kept his schedule very full so he wasn't home too much. The kids and I went over the college a lot to see him though. In doing so, we also got to meet many of the students and make lots of new friends. Above is a picture of some of the students, faculty and staff who were here this summer.

I was blessed to participate in the program two ways this year. First, as a professor (wow! that sounds very official!!) And I feel very unqualified for such a title. But it was a huge blessing! I spent a week with 4 women in a discipleship-type class. And although I was the instructor, I learned so much through the experience. Second, I took my LAST class in the MABC program!!! Yeah!! And I was so fortunate to have Dr. Stuart Scott as my professor. He is a great teacher and I learned so much from him in the course of just one week.

While I was at school, Micah and Ashlyn had fun with Dianna (or Dinanna as Micah affectionately calls her). Thank you so much for caring for our little ones during this hectic time Dianna. It was such a blessing!

In spite of all our busyness though, we still managed to have some fun. So, here are some pictures from our fun times during our busy July. Enjoy...

We ate dinner in the cafeteria at Master's quite a bit this month. I loved it because I didn't have to cook. Micah loved it because he always got a special slushy drink and Miss Alma was constantly giving him yummy desserts. Add that to the soft-serve ice cream machine and you can bet that this kid was overloaded with sugar!

Nathan and Uncle Micah took a night off to take these two cute boys to a Dodger game. They had a blast, although I don't think they really knew there was a game going on. Micah andJosiah just had fun playing around together. But Micah now says he wants to be a baseball player when he grows up and he wants to play for the Dodgers (much to Daddy's chagrin - he's a Giants fan). As we were laughing about that thought, someone made the comment that if he ever did sign a big league contract with the Dodgers, Daddy would quickly become a Dodger fan!!


The Schlegel family (from Israel) was on campus for a few days so they had an IBEX reunion at the pool. Bill shared with us all about some of the things that have been going on with IBEX and also shared a devotional with us from Romans.


It was fun to see Stephanie again. I haven't seen her since we left Israel... 6 years ago.


Rod, Micah and Martin ~ Gooday Mate!

There were several students from Austrailia this summer and Micah had so much fun with them. A few of them came over one night to play games and teach Micah how to speak like an Aussie. They kept encouraging us to come visit Down Under and Micah is all ready to go. Now all we have to do is find the money to pay for the plane ticket! Yikes!

Ashlyn, Micah and Mama at the Hollywood Bowl

Micah's favorite movie is Mary Poppins. So when I found out that Julie Andrews would be at the Hollywood Bowl this month I knew he would love going. Most kids might not recognize Julie Andrews today as being the woman who played Mary Poppins, since it has been over 40 years since that movie was made. But on the 40th anniversary DVD there's a special bonus feature with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke reminiscing about making the movie - and Micah loves that just as much as the movie itself. Although they didn't play any music from Mary Poppins, there were several songs from the Sound of Music, another favorite of his.

Josiah and Micah at the Hollywood Bowl to see Julie Andrews

As we sat in the stands waiting for the performance to begin, Micah was so excited he was shaking. When the orchestra began with the Sound of Music, pictures from the movie appeared on the big screen, and Julie Andrews came on stage, he could hardly contain himself. It was fun to see him so excited! It was a great evening with wonderful music (including Jubilant Sykes as one of the guest vocalists). Micah gave us a good laugh at the end of the evening when he asked if we could go see Julie Andrews. He didn't understand that she doesn't know us since we know her so well. Doesn't she see us when we see her on the TV?

Lovin' on his sister...

We had fun cooling off at the Aquatic Center one day...

In addition to all that was going on at work, preparation for the Men's Conference also consumed a considerable amount of Nathan's time. There were nearly 400 men at the conference this year. Praise the Lord! It is exciting to see so many men eager to learn so they may effect change in the lives of others. If you weren't able to make it to the conference, DVD's from the 4 main sessions and MP3's of the breakout sessions will be made available through the website at www.masters.edu/mdm

Micah and Bonnie led the worship for the conference

Besides coordinating and "MC"ing the conference, this year Nathan got to join a great lineup of speakers in teaching one of the breakout sessions. It was a privilege for him to do that, but it also made for an incredibly full day. He was so thankful for the many volunteers who helped make the conference successful, especially Summer Martin and Dave Hulet - you guys were lifesavers!! Thanks so much!!

You can see more pictures from the conference at http://ckvphotography.wordpress.com/2008/07/27/324/

While Nathan was busy with the Men's Conference, I was busy with two little boys - Josiah spent the day at our house while Micah and Bonnie were at the conference. While I didn't find time to snap any pictures of Micah and Josiah, I did get one of Ashlyn and Joshua together at the end of the day. Joshua is growing fast and starting to catch up with Ashlyn.

It was a joy to have Karen Avinelis over for dinner one night. She is our friend who invited us to pick blueberries at the beginning of June. Micah enjoyed a partner in building a train track and reading Bible stories.

Ashlyn finished up the month with something new... grabbing her feet! It's so cute!