Let's just start way back a year ago......
June 2012: We went to Idaho to watch our brother in law compete in the Ironman. The kids participated in a 1 mile fun run. Here they are after the race with their medals.
July 2012: Cody celebrated his 4th birthday...Angry Birds style.
We went camping to Cape Dissapointement. The picture below is of the "shrine" that sat outside of our tent for over a day while Ryan sat next to it puking. Poor guy got food poisoning on our way to camping and had it for about 24 hrs. Not really fun when you are in the great outdoors.
August 2012: Brynn celebrated her 7th birthday.
October 2012: Halloween. We had a vampire. Queen and Mario and Luigi
December 2012: Paige had her Christmas piano recital. She is doing such a great job learning to play.
January 2013: We took the kids (along with a cousin and a friend) to the reptile zoo. They were all in heaven. They has such a great variety of snakes and reptiles. Paige lets me know all the time that she wants to be a Herpetologist when she grows up.
February 2013: We went down to Lincoln City, Or for a couple of days. Rebecca rented a vacation house for the weekend to surprise my Dad for his birthday. We met up with Shelley and John and all showed up together to surprise him. It was such a great weekend with family.
The next week, we hopped on a plane and went to Arizona for 12 days. We were able to help Ryan's mom and stepdad pack up their house for their big move back to Washington and we were also able to go to Tucson and visit with my Grandparents. We love visiting there and just wish we could do it more often.
May 2013: I ran in my first half marathon! I was pretty impressed with myself since I am not the athletic type, but I did it and it was FUN. I am currently checking out the race schedule to pick another one to do.
Paige celebrated her 10th birthday. I can't believe she is that old (or that I am old enough to have a 10 year old :). Paige is growing into a wonderful young woman. Here are 10 great things about Paige.
1. She is a great swimmer. She has been taking lessons on and off for a few years now and is very good. She has been told that she should do a water sport when she gets older. She would really like to play Water Polo in high school.
2. She is doing very well at the piano. Her piano teacher moved in May and I have taken over teaching her. I am not sure how long this will last since she has a thing about me being her teacher and the attitude comes out as soon as we hit the bench, but I am hopeful. The great thing is, is that she can pretty much teach herself as long as I am there to supervise.
3. She is going to start playing the flute next year in band.
4. She is excelling in her school work. So far she has been the kind of student that just comes home and does her work. I don't have to reminder her or nag her to do it. I hope that continues :)
5. She likes to read and will sit up on her bed reading until I make her stop.
6. She doesn't sleep very much. She tells me all the time that she wakes up early (between 5:30 and 7) and reads before we wake up. She also stays up late. Most nights she is not asleep until after 9. She has many nights where she can't sleep well and will be up a lot of the night. She has a clock on her bed so she can always know what time it is.
7. She is wearing contacts about 50% of the time now. She still likes her glasses though since they are easier.
8. She is still super skinny, but healthy. I think she just passed the 60 lb. mark.
9. She is very emotional, both in good and bad ways. She definetely likes things done her way. I wonder where in the world she got that from?
10. She is a great big sister and daughter. She has grown up so much in the last 10 years and I couldn't be more proud of her.
Whew! Of course there are so many more things that we did over the last year, but it took me almost two hours to do this post, so this is what you get for now :)
