December Happenings

Heather turned 38 years old on December 1st. I had a great day going sailing and spending the evening with my family. I got a new ipod shuffle (that Megan loaded full of music) so I can have something to listen to exercising. I also enjoyed a big slice of Chocolate Cream Pie.

Here are a few pictures of the majestic view we are privileged to witness on a daily basis. I call it the many faces of Mt. Rainier.

Erica visiting with Santa. I am sure she is asking for a Puppy. For most of you I know this is a sad amount of snow, but for us it is a big deal and the kids were very excited to take pictures. But most of you can not say you have Rudolf's family living in your backyard. If you look close you will see the mother behind the fence in the middle of the picture.Here is our beautiful Christmas tree. The girls had lots of fun making old fashion popcorn and cranberry strings for decorations. We are having a wonderful Christmas Season and hope you all are as well. Hope to see you soon in the coming year.

Erica's Baptism

We were lucky to have Grandma Yost, Grandpa Yost, and Uncle Thayne come to visit for Erica's baptism on Novemer 8th. (You will see pictures of them sailing with us in the previous posting.)

Erica was so excited to be baptised into the Church of Jesus Christ of Lattrer-day Saints. She has grown up so much over the last year.

Erica recieving her own scriptures.

Sailing Adventures

We took every opportunity possible to shanghai family and friends to go sailing with us. We are still learning the basics, so it is great practice to go out with other people that know nothing about sailing, because they don't know what we don't know!

Here is a picture of Heather trying to remember how to tie a bowline knot on the jib sheet. (Don't you love the sound of the pirate terminology.) And Tracy teaching Megan some basic sailing knots.

Just enjoying the quiet ride and trying not to freeze in November.

Megan and Grandma Yost in front of the Gig Harbor lighthouse at the mouth of the harbor.

Josh posing at the mast after the trip.

Erica likes to be daring and ride up on the bow pulpit. If we ever loose anyone overboard it will most likely be her.

Here are a few nice pictures of Gig Harbor. It is a beautiful little harbor. I often feel like I am just on vacation then remember I am so lucky to actually live here.

Soccer

This Fall both Erica and Josh played soccer. They practiced on evening a week and had a game every Saturday. It was great to have practices just down the street at the school so they could walk to practice or back home if needed. Games were really fun. Of course they played rain, fog, or shine. Thankfully we had a mild fall with mostly sunshine. Here are a few action shots.

Josh playing in the worst downpour of the season!














Joshua playing his last game of the season.

Erica (a.k.a. Jake to her soccer team) playing center defender. She was the big hitter on the team.

Birthdays

Erica was so excited to turn 8 years old on October 10th. We had a fun party with lots of new friends, and one of her best friends (Leah) was able to come visit from Oregon City for the weekend.
Megan turned 14 years old on September 27th. We had a surprise visit of friends from her Girl Scout troop in Oregon City. They came up on the train and spent the weekend with us. They gave her a cocoa mug with all their names on it. We had fun hanging out with old friends. I took Megan to see the "Phantom of the Opera" for her birthday present, and also took her to the Portand Ballet to see "Swan Lake" with her friend Hanna.

1st day of School

We hate to say goodbye to the summer, but also very glad the first day of schol jitters are over. Everyone was nervous as I dropped them off for their first day of classes, but I am glad to report everone came home with a smile on their face. Josh and Megan decided walking was easier than finding a seat on the crowded bus. I enjoyed walking Erica to school in the morning and she rides the bus home in the afternoon. It is only a 5 minute ride this year!!

Victoria B.C. Aug. 15-17th, 2008

Since we were not able to go back home this summer for vacation, we decided to take the weekend and go to Victoria, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island. It took less than 2 hours to drive to Port Angeles to catch the ferry, then 90 minutes to cross the Straight of San Juan de Fuca to Victoria.

The city was perfect for a weekend get-a-way. The city is on a beautiful little harbor and we could walk to our condo in 10 minutes from the ferry dock. We spent Friday evening walking around the harbor area and eating dinner at a sidewalk restaurant at the harbor. Then Tracy stayed with Josh and Erica to watch a magic show by a street performer while Megan and I hunted down someplace to get goodies for breakfast. We had fun walking along the quite neighborhood streets singing "Mama Mia" songs together in the dark.

Saturday morning we took the kids on their first kayaking adventure. We paddled around Victoria harbor, watched some the Dragon Boat races, and just had a beautiful morning in the

sunshine. The kids loved it!

That night Tracy took me to dinner at an old Victorian house called The Gatsby Mansion restaurant. I had Rack of lamb and Tracy had steak. We celebrated our 17th Wedding anniversary(Aug. 23rd) and had a wonderful evening dinning on the porch, looking out at the harbor, and watching the people go by.

Sunday we spent the morning walking around town to get our pictures taken with as many totem poles as we could find. We wandered through Beacon Hill Park and visited the petting zoo. Then we had to get back and catch the 3pm ferry back to Port Angeles.

We had a wonderful weekend and I can't wait to go back again.

Happy Birthday Tracy

Tracy had his 39th Birthday August 8th. We baked him a cake and Erica made Birthday party hats. We gave him sailing lessons for his present. And took him on a 2 hour sailing cruise in Gig Harbor.

Gig Harbor lighthouse. Josh steering the rudder.

Hanging out enjoying the scenery.

Our sad news.

We thought our cat Vicki was adjusting pretty well to the move, but it didn't go as smoothly as we thought. To make a long story short, she stopped eating after we moved. We thought since she was overweight she would be OK for a while and would start eating again soon. Little did we know, when overweight cats try to metabolize a lot of fat, their liver does not do a very good job at it. By the time I took her to the vet to see what might be wrong, she was already in liver failure. We had to have her euthanized July 30th. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life.
The kids were upset, but moved through the grieving process quickly. Erica just wants to know when she can get a dog now. Here are a few pictures of Erica and Vicki a few days before we had to tell her goodbye. Vicki was 9 years old and our only pet.

Gig Harbor Washington July 1, 2008

Well we finally made it to gig Harbor. Yesterday was a long moving day and I won't get into the chaos of the slow movers. Actually the 2 guys that came were very good, they just needed 2 more guys to help. Needless to say we are now in our new house. We slept on the living room floor the first night. We woke up at 5am with the sun shining through the giant windows welcoming us to a beautiful new day.

We have a new pet for Erica since she can not have a dog. The deer live in the back yard without a care in the world.

Leavenworth Vacaation June 2008

As soon as the kids got out of school on the last day (June 13th) we packed up the van and headed to Leavenworth, Washington for vacation with Trent and Troy's families. We had a great week relaxing together. The kids loved playing with their cousins and having sleepovers every night. The adults had fun playing "Settlers of Catan" and "Puerto Rico" every evening into the wee hours night.

All the cousins at the local museum.

Museum at Cashmire, WA

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Touring the candy factory!

Megan and Erica climbing "Barny's Rubble" with Dad on belay.

Erica and Megan golfing. Josh and Mom at the putting course

Megan after combing out her hair. What more can I say?

We think she is beautiful!!!!