Amber's new look

Well after two long years of yucky braces on her teeth she is finally free of the metal! It was a good day last Wednesday. She was so excited she could hardly sleep the night before. At the ortho's office waiting her turn. They're about to come off!! I was really excited for her too.

Now she's a thing of beauty. And the first thing we did afterwards was go buy an apple so she could eat it whole! Then after buying Ben some birthday presents we went to lunch at Famous Daves.

She hasn't been able to eat corn on the cob for two years. She was really savoring the moment. All she did was smile the whole day at people and run her tongue across her teeth! She's very happy and now has to re-learn how to blow into her trombone :)

Keaton starts school

Keaton started school! He started a week later than the other kids. Don't ask me why, but it was a very long week of having him home all day with no brothers to play with, and him asking me every 20 minutes if it was time to go get Ben and Sam yet, and "when do I get to go to school?" Also his new backpack and lunch box, his new shoes and school clothes were laying in his room very lonely. He wanted to wear them! But couldn't until school started. Finally the day came and he was up with his brothers getting ready for the school. He helped me pack his lunch and got ready with plenty of time to spare. He was very excited and was all smiles in the car. Which if you know Keaton, that is rare. Its hard to get a smile out of him.

We walked to his room and saw his teacher, "Miss Sue" or Mrs Lawson. She sent me a couple of pictures of Keaton's first day. He made some friends and got to play with lots of fun toys. I must say that Keaton didn't start Kindergarten like I wanted him too. He's in what's called PreK. Didn't think he was quite ready for that this year. So he goes everyday from 8 to 1:30. Which he really enjoys and has a hour and a half at home with me before the boys come home. He's been really into coloring lately so we do a lot of that, and also he gets to enjoy the Wii with out anyone else needing to take a turn.

family vacation part ?

Traveling along the coast of California and Oregon was so wonderful! But we had to get on with our vacation. We drove to Portland, OR where we stopped and visited the Temple. This is where Bret and I were married 18 years ago, and 4 kids ago. I feel it really made an impression on Amber. Which is always a good thing. We had a nice man take our picture, but I wish we would've been a little more dressed up. But one can't be picky when your on vacation. Bret and I were able to do a session the next morning at 7. It was just Bret and I and about 5 other people. Smallest session I'd ever been in. We got to be the witness couple. I thought that was very appropriate.

Next it was on to visit family and friends. Bret had an old High school friend that lived in Kennewick, and she invited us over for lunch. It was on our way so we stopped and the kids had a great time playing with their kids. I must say that the landscape was a lot different in southern washington than what we've been seeing and the drive to Kennewick and to Ephrata was extremely dull, and seemed to take forever! We spent a few hours with Jannie and her family which was nice just to be out of the car. Then on to Ephrata, where we stayed for about 4 days playing with all the cousins and Aunts and Uncles, and Grandpa and Grandma! It was so fun watching all the little cousins play together. They divided into teams and played a game called Astronauts and Aliens. It was so fun to watch. Everyone got along so well and played so much together. I wish we lived closer to everyone just for more moments like these.

Last stop was Spokane to visit Grandma and Grandpa Heileson. Most of that trip was spent at the lake. Which we all love. John and Marilyn surprised us with a brand new trailer at the lake! it was so nice! I wish we could've spent the night there. Maybe next time. Everyone had a good time water skiing and riding the tube, and playing on the beach. Ben and Sam for the first time rode on the tube! It was a big moment for all of us. Bret did the water skiing thing and loved it. He's fun to watch too :)

This is Sam and Bryce watching the big boys Sam and Ben on the tube!

It was sad to see out vacation end. Sad to say goodbye to the rental car that had been our set of wheels for so long, that was now full of memories. Also sand, crushed pine cones and seashells, and the crumbs from many many meals and snacks eaten in the car. We headed to check in our bags, and go through security, they had to stop and check the boys backpacks because they had big sea rocks in them and they weren't sure what those were on the X-ray machine. They kept saying "More rocks." We got on the plane and flew to Minnesota to change planes. We were about an hour and half late taking off because the flight attendant that was supposed to be on our flight didn't show up for work! So we got into Omaha around 1 am and home a little after 2am. We just dumped our stuff at the bottom of the stairs and hit the sack! The next day was Saturday, and thank goodness because we all slept in till 11:00! But I have to say that this was the best vacation we've had so far. It is so much nicer, easier, and so, SO, more fun to go on these kind of vacations with older kids, than with a baby or toddlers! Well done everyone!!!

More vacation photos. We just all loved the beach! It was so refreshing and it smelled so good, and it was so hard to leave. But we had to continue on to Washington for the family reunion.

So on to Portland, OR. and Washington for the next leg of our trip.