8 Years

We've been married 8 years today! With each year that passes, and every circumstance that they bring, we grow closer to each other and to our God. His decision to bring us together is such a blessing! It has been a privilege to be Peter's wife. Its been a great joy to go through this life together with him. Hurray for 8 years!

Then:


Now:



In honor of the big day, we went bowling as a family and to Jason's Deli for lunch (YUMMM), It was Alayna's first time bowling and my first time in 5 years! Jeremiah and Peter have gone a couple times in past years, but we were all rusty. It was great fun! And Jason's Deli is this AWESOME eatery that has a lot of all-natural and organic options. It is SOOOOO good. All in all, a wonderful celebration!

Toothless Boy

Teeth, teeth and more teeth!

Jeremiah lost not one, but TWO baby teeth this past week. He's pretty proud. We don't do the tooth fairy mumbo jumbo, but he does get a treat....ice cream or a quarter, his choice. And, as a joke, Peter left him a potato under his pillow! Jeremiah thought that was pretty funny. He loved his ice cream treat of Ben and Jerry's Mint Cookie and his not-so-shiny quarter (smart kid--he knew since he lost two, he could get both treats!).

Tooth 1



Tooth 2


Special Treat!



So, he'll be starting second grade in two weeks minus his top two incisors.

CA Fun!

We have spent the last 11 days in good old California. I had wanted to do a day by day journaling of the vacation, but forgot the camera USB cord, so a summary of events will have to do. Of course, we left CA with the homesick feeling that only increased when we arrived "home" (no matter how long we live in AZ, CA will ALWAYS be home) at 8pm to 108 degrees. (I still don't understand how it can be so hot when the sun is on the other side of the earth.) We had an absolute fantastic time. It was really just Jeremiah and I for most of the week, as Alayna was in Nor Cal with Peter's parents and Peter was in AZ, working. The weather started out great (in the high 80s the first few days) but crept up to the high 90s by Tuesday and Wednesday. We visited with a lot of family and friends. Jeremiah stayed with my parents and I stayed mostly with my friend of 25 years, Shannon. I had so much fun with her! She was incredibly hospitable and we had a great time, reminiscing and building new memories. The kids kept on saying "Let's move to CA!", not knowing that we've been trying to get back for almost 3 years now.

The first day there, while Peter was still with us, we drove to our old stompin grounds in SLO. We met Peter's mom there and went to the Pismo Beach Pier. There, we put some of Ezra's ashes in the ocean, as it was the only beach he ever got to visit. It was so cold there! 65 degrees in July?! But, I LOVED it!!! I really didn't want to come back to AZ. I am so homesick now, but am glad the four of us are together again. Special thanks to our family and friends in CA for your hospitality! To everyone who opened up your homes or went out of your way to visit with us, thank you!!! We love you all and miss you already! We hope one day we can truly call CA home again.

There were too many pictures to post, so I put together a slideshow of our fun times in Cali!

Spelunking Adventures

Here's a brief summary of my recent Arizona adventures with Jeremiah and my friend Brett. To read the full exhaustive version of my camping story check out my Facebook page under 'Notes'!

Jeremiah, Brett, and I went down to southern AZ to do some camping and check out some caves. We camped at Peppersauce Campground in Oracle, AZ. For our cave adventures we first went to the AZ state park Kartchner Caverns early in the morning. Later that same day we drove back to the campsite and went a few miles further down the road to Peppersauce Caves. It was interesting to see the vast difference between a government protected pristine cave verses an open cave that has been subject to vandals and other idiots. We had a great time enjoying God's beautiful creation. I hope to visit Peppersauce Cave again sometime. There was more to explore and I read online there is a signature book somewhere at the ends of the cave. Even though Sara and I sometimes feel 'stuck' in AZ it's trips like these that help me appreciate what we have in this state.