July Birthdays

Dowlin turned 16 on July 21! Where does the time go? He has spent this summer working out at his new High School, and playing football. What a great kid!

Olivia turned 1 on July 25! She was lots of fun to watch, she's a joy to us all!

Kids keep cool!

We have quickly learned to survive in Arizona - WATER is a must! Thankfully we have Cheri to be our "Follow me to Fun" tour guide!

We went to this "splash pad" to play for the afternoon. Ya, we packed lunches and lot of water to drink - Otis even brought us popsicles! The kids had tons of fun!

Disneyland

While in CA we took the kids to the "Happiest Place on Earth" - it was fun, really it was, I think we waited to long to take the older kids, they were kinda bored :( (I'll try not to post pictures of the painful faces)

Despite waiting in lines, and "baby rides" and having some of the "classics" closed, we all enjoyed the day together.

Favorite moments were Daddy "Booing" Snow Whites Step Mother, the evil witch as she passed us and having her turn and "hiss" at him. "Oooh's" from the crowd cracked us up!

The Parade was pretty good, you know how Dean loves "Ariel" LOL. Then as we sat on the curb eating ice cream waiting for the fireworks to start... looking at the tired kids, thinking about the walk to the car and the long drive home, Dean and I had a "magical moment" of our own... "Let's go!" No complaints - we were lucky to get to the van before the snoring began.

It was a great day. Family fun - that's what life's about, right?!

Family Beach Trip

Now that we are only 5 hours from the ocean, we decided a trip to the beach and Disneyland was a must! So Memorial Day weekend, we were off! Dean and I could smell the Ocean and what a welcome, after so long in the midwest it smelt like heaven! We choose Oceanside, CA because we had stayed there before and Great Grandma Dowlin lives there -

The kids have seen the Puget Sound while we were in WA when Zach was a baby, but they all learned how fast fun can go to fear as each took a tumble and emerged soaked to the bone. It was so fun to watch their excitement! (Dowlin and Mercedes would argue they didn't "go down" but this was just suposed to be a walk on the beach)

We learned a couple of things on this trip - #1 it's still a bit chilly in May! ~ #2 we need our own boogie boards (Dowlins belly was ripped up after riding all day ~ #3 We suck at sandcastles ~#4 should have used sunscreen! ~ #5 Sand in the crack - how does it get EVERYWHERE?

We had a lovely day with Great Grandma Dowlin -

what a treat, this is why we moved West!

We enjoyed seeing San Diego, and the coastline - I thought this view was so pretty! After I forced the kids to sit there - and they all climbed back to us - Dowlin was ticked off! I then learn behind them the rock they were sitting on was a straight drop about 30 feet down! What a stupid Mommy! This picture is a reminder to me that just because it looks great, doesn't mean it is... I"l never send them out again without checking it out first! UGH

BIG Move West

Welcome to Surprise Arizona!

In February of 2006 Dean took a new job for Lofton Company in North Phoenix. We franticly began preparig the Olathe house for sale! He left for Arizona mid February and began work. Although he flew home every other weekend - this time was high stress for him being away from his family, and high stress for me - keeping everything in Kansas rolling forward!

Dean was able to live in the spare room of our wonderful friends Otis and Cheri Henson. What a blessing! They have a wonderful family and helped him not to get too lonely between visits home. On his weekends home, we painted, stained, recarpeted, put in new kitchen appliances, we even had a new roof put on and I surprised him with having the house painted, so he didn't have to do it. It was hard and laborous work...but it paid off big time! We listed the house and were signing the sale papers in 2 weeks! On Deans next trip home (2 weeks later) we were closing and loading the moving truck. It was a miracle! And to top it off, our house sold the highest in the neighborhood!

We sent the truck on it's way, and we spent a few days at Ken and Taleens. We said our goodbyes to all the family, Messersmiths, Roths, Taylors, and Rosses...and Our Friends the Millers gave us a wonderful Farewell party at their house - so many friends came, it was awesome, we love looking at the scrapbook we created, and reading the words of love and encouragement there! We loved Kansas, and will sorely miss the connections there!

Our House in SURPRISE ARIZONA!

This is our beautiful house in Surprise! We doubled our square footage, it is wonderful! However our back yard shrunk by atleast 3/4! it is tiny and the houses, as you can see, are so close together. OH and the HEAT! May 1, driving into town - 101 degrees! it's only May. When you go outside, it feels like someone left the BBQ grill open, lol. Anyway, we are together - we are happy! We're not sure this is our forever home, or state, but it got us closer West and we are looking forward to this new adventure in our lives!