Anna's school year

Anna had a wonderful 2nd grade year. She did beautifully and had the same teacher Brandon had in 2nd grade. Mrs. Perry is so sweet and kind and loves her students. She appreciated Anna's creative spirit and just let her roll with it.

Logan

Logan had a big solo in the show choir this year. He was amazing. So proud. He is also in a band now and is the singer in it...All Red Lights. He loves it

More recital

Pond

Each Spring it becomes time for my parents' pond to get really pretty again and time to fish! Here are a couple pics of the fishing and one of me and my sweetie.

My dad

My dad went to Anna's school in the spring and taught a couple hours of science. He still does a great job!

Logan turns 16!

Tonya (Tilton) Bowrey met on April 17 to take the boys to get their drivers licenses. Tonya and I were such good friend in high school and then had Logan and Ted on the same day!!

Chicago trip

I took the kids on a trip by train to Chicago. We had the best time. We stayed in a hotel, met Kyle (cousin) and Tania for dinner, went to Navy Pier, Shedd Aquarium, etc. Such a fun couple of days.

Brandon turned 13

Brandon turned 13 this year. We celebrated by eating at FUJI and he bought a Samsung tablet with his birthday money.

Brandon's braces

Brandon got braces in Oct 2011. He will wear them about 18 months!

Recital

Anna had her first recital on Barry's birthday! Hope these pics are ok. Took them on my phone. She was adorable and danced her little heart out.

Been too long!

I know I have not posted in a really long time, but now I will try to post current stuff and also go back in time!
Carly and Anna got their ears pierced yesterday in Bloomington.

Guiping Girls Reunion

We recently had our annual Guiping Girls Reunion for the 10 families that traveled to China in April 2005. The girls were 14 months at adoption and they are all 7.5 now. Only 9 families made it this year. The girls had a blast, as usual.

Click here to view this photo book larger

More pool fun

 

 

 

 

Took Anna and Brandon swimming today and also Tanner. HOT out!

We are so glad to have Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt's pool that we can swim at.

Swimming with cousins

July 2011

Had a fun day swimming at the pool with the Indas!

4th Of July

 

 

 

 

Colorado

 

We had a wonderful time in Colorado. We rented a cabin/house in Divide, Colorado. It was a perfect place waaaayyy up in the mountains in Pike National Forest. It took 15 min from the bottom of the mountain in Divide to work our way up to our place. The Aspen Trees were gorgeous here! We went to the sites surrounding Colorado Springs like Garden of the Gods, Florrisant Fossil Beds, Seven Falls, Cripple Creek, Royal Gorge (horseback riding for the girls and rafting for the boys) and a day to Denver to the Red Rocks and a visit with my college friend Andrea Darschewski White. I really wanted to head up to Estes Park,but we ran out of time. We had a beautiful view off of the deck and played Monopoly and enjoyed the hot tub from there.We cooked dinner almost everynight at the cabin and had picnic lunches every day on our days out exploring, hiking, etc. WONDERFUL TRIP!

Since there are over 500 pics that I took, I will just post a link to the photo book when I am done!

Guiping girls visit

 

Anna always enjoys it when Kailee and Carly visit. The girls always pick up where they left off. They missed Karli B, though!

Zoo Fun

 

Anna and Justin always enjoy the zoo. It was time to renew our zoo passes and sign up for camp, so it was a perfect day to stay and play. I am so glad the zoo lets us add Justin to our yearly pass. We were hoping that Pastor Danny would be our train conductor, but not this time.