Brief Sightings of Dear Friends

We had the pleasure of visit that lasted about a second (okay, maybe it was longer than a second, but that's how long it felt like!) with our dear friends the Gruias.  Carmen and Amy were high school roommates and best friends, and have kept in touch all of these years.  We have had the pleasure of vacationing together with their family and just love both Carmen and her husband Erin.

They arrived here in Orlando with their good friends from Portland as they made their way to a cruise to celebrate Carmen's 'big' birthday (same age as Amy...do the math! :) ) that was leaving from Port Canaveral.  It was fun to meet Rebecca and Lee as well, and later after they had all left, puzzle pieces fell together and we discovered that Lee is a first cousin with Amy's first cousin, Alan!  I guess Lee's mother and Alan's father are siblings.  Go figure - small Adventist world!!

The kids adore Ervin, but who wouldn't love a man who gets down on the floor and plays with you on the same day that he meets you!?

After they left, we were green with envy but life goes on, so have been enjoying the fairly nice weather with the kids and spending some time outdoors.

Phrase of the week:  Kaleb still talks about our old house as our "real house" - so Amy asked him after he mentioned this one day what he liked about our old house.  He replied that he liked the jack-and-jill bathroom between Zachary and Addison's room (why would that appeal to a 6 year old??) and he missed the half-walls that were separating the foyer from the dining room (get that one, because he used to climb up there and sit on it!).  It'll be interesting to see how long he remembers his first home!

Addison's language continues to expand - this week she adds "Done", "Dirty" and "cookie"

Random pictures:

Trying out Kaleb's old bike with training wheels after church one day

Ready for the big Rip-Rider 360!!

Zachary and Luke watching the bagpipe player

Reading time!

Come on.....just come a little closer....I promise you won't get wet!!!

Mastering the climbing wall at the park

A threesome sliding experience!