She can swim!

We are so proud! In the beginning of summer she wouldn't even put her face in the water! Since this was taken she is doing even better.
Since I am bragging about her anyway...
She can write her name and recognizes almost all the letters of the alphabet! Talk about a growth spurt!! I can't believe that she will be 4 next month.

First Day of School

Aren't they sweet?

Reagan is not going to school yet of course, but why not get her sweetness in there too?
I still have more things from the trip to post but I wanted to get this one on the blog for the grandparents to see!

The Almost Deadly Curve

It was a dark and stormy night in December of 2002. Aaron was coaching basketball at a high school in a nearby town. The town was not very far away but the only way to get there is a mountain road with only two-lanes and a ton of curves. Aaron had driven it many times but this time it was different. Another car coming up the mountain was going way too fast and crossed the center line. As you can tell from the picture below, there is no place to go to avoid another car!!
If you look at this next picture you can see just how steep the mountainside is ...

That picture doesn't even do it justice. It is deeper and the other side it just as steep. We just didn't want to hang out on the side of that dangerous road taking pictures!

Needless to say Aaron is fine. He was lucky enough (or blessed enough) to be driving my mom's tank of a Volvo. The impact totaled the car and trapped Aaron in it but he did NOT go down into the ravine and didn't even break any bones. He was pretty beat up but was able to walk away from a head-on crash!

This is an old story but Aaron still is uncomfortable driving two-lane highway roads and his torn sternum still aches. The reason for posting this is to show you all just how crazy of a road this is especially at night in the rain!
(and we just drove it while we were in CA)

CA Trip - The Beach

When we were in California on vacation we took a little drive out to the coast. My dad followed us on his motorcycle too. It was a cold overcast day but that meant we were almost alone on the sand (and it was nice to get out of the heat). The air is different by the ocean, so clean and fresh. We spent a little time near the water, letting the kids get dirty, then we walked around the little town of Mendocino, looking for ice cream. For equal time there is a picture of each of the kids...Sweet girl with "monster feet" Papa made from the mounds of sand.
He makes this face for almost every picture now.

He kept finding crab claws and legs and putting them in his pocket, eww.

It was fun watching them explore everything on the sand and remembering the same wonder I had when I was a kid...