We celebrated our 15th Marine Corps Ball on Thursday night. It was held at the Westin in downtown San Diego. We had a nice time.


The happy couple!


Tom played the Marine Corps Hymn on his bagpipes when the cake was being wheeled in. He's so talented!

The Birch Aquarium

On Thursday Kelly and I went to the Birch Aquarium for her friend's birthday party. We watched a shark feeding, touched sea stars and saw lots of sea life. Kelly had a great time.


This is one of the whale fountains out front. Our little girl is sure getting big!


There was a kelp feeding at the large tank. A diver is at the bottom feeding the fish. Notice the humongous sea bass with his mouth open. He weighs about 200 pounds!


The kids decorated wooden boxes. As usual, Kelly was the last one done. She loves arts and crafts.


The kids enjoyed touching sea stars at the tide pools.


Being eaten by a large shark!

Coastal Academy Thinkers Reception

Tonight we attended a "Thinkers Reception" at Kelly's school. Every teacher from each grade level chose 3 students who they believed to be great thinkers. Kelly was one among twenty-four to receive this award.


Kelly was very nervous about going up in front of the audience, but she did it. This is when she received her certificate.


This is a group shot of those students who received the award.


The picture on the certificate is Kelly's recent school picture.


Kelly and her proud Dad smile as Mom takes ANOTHER picture.

Happy 60th Birthday Lou!!!

For quite some time we've been trying to get Lou to tell us when his birthday was. Awhile back Rob Seling called Lou's brother and found out that it was on Halloween. Lucky for us, Halloween fell on a Friday this year. That's our regular night that the guys play music and Kristin and I play Scrabble. We told Lou we would be celebrating Annie's birthday to make sure he didn't cancel out on us. I even made a cake for "Annie". Imagine Lou's surprise when we walked in the door and everyone yelled "Happy Birthday, Lou!".


The kids sprayed silly string when we walked in. That's Kelly's head with the silly string attached.


Lou was giggling and so surprised!


As usual the Seling's made an amazing feast. We had smoked brisket, smoked chicken, salmon and homemade coleslaw. It was delicious!


Here's the birthday boy with the cake I made.


The girls enjoyed cake and ice cream, and there's our Scrabble board. We never finished our game that night.

Married Couples Fellowship

Saturday night our married couples fellowship was held at the Old Spaghetti Factory. We had a great turnout, about 20 couples. Pastor Brad was the guest speaker. It was a fun night filled with food, fellowship and fun.


The happy couple


Some of my gal pals, Jill and Summer.


The musicians, Mike, Tom and Ben

Happy Anniversary

It's been 3 years since we got to know our friends, the Seling's. Although we attended church together for months before, we never realized how much we had in common. Now we hang out all the time and thank God for our special friends. Love you guys!


Kristin made the same dinner the first time we ate at their house-Mexican manicotti, YUMMY!


Tom and Rob made fresh pomegranate juice.

A Few Random Pictures

We went to the park on Thursday.


I'm not sure what the "peace" is all about???!!


It was crazy hair day at school on Friday.

Welcome Autumn

It's almost October and now that autumn is here, there are plenty of festivals. Today we visited Bates Nut Farm for their Farm Education Day. While we were there we saw all kinds of animals, learned about bees and bats, watched wool spinning and looked at old steam engines. Tom and Kelly went through a corn maze and we looked at all the pumpkins. We even tried homemade ice cream to help cool us off. When we left our thermometer read 101 degrees!


This is a view of one of the many pumpkin patches. The pumpkins pictured here are called Big Macs.


Hanging out with the Big Macs.


Kelly tries to lift this gigantic pumpkin.




Among the many animals were miniature donkeys. There was even a mini baby donkey with her mother.

Wild Animal Park Field Trip

Tom and Kelly went on the 2nd grade class field trip to the Wild Animal Park. They attended the "Night Owls" program and camped from Thursday night to Friday morning. They did all kinds of fun things. They started the afternoon with a tram ride, ate dinner and had a campfire. They were even able to get a close-up view of some wildlife. Kelly got to touch an alligater.


Tom and Kelly had an entire 6 person tent to themselves. Here's Kelly lounging on the sleep mats.


This is a view of the outside of their tent.


They ate dinner alongside the giraffes.


There was a speaker from the zoo who spoke about this owl. His name is Archey and he has a crooked wing.


Here are some of the campers. Kelly's in the back row, third from the left. If you look closely at the campers you'll notice most of them are wearing matching t-shirts. Each of the campers and the adults received these cool, glow-in-the-dark t-shirts.

Free Starbucks for Homeschool Teachers!!!

On the last Monday of this month, Sept. 29th, Starbucks will give homeschool teachers a free tall coffee when they present proof that they are homeschool teachers. Here's the link to the news story.

http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/200809231.asp

On Sunday we took a leisurely sailing trip from Long Beach down to Newport Beach. Our friends, the Seling's invited us to go with them. Rob's brother, Steve was in a race and needed to return the boat to Newport. We had a great time. The kids even had a chance to steer the boat. Here are some shots from the trip.



Tom and Rob get ready to set up the main sail.


The sail is up and we're off!


Our newest little sailor.


I had a great time on the boat and I even managed not to get seasick (thanks to Dramamine!).

Kelly joins Annie at the steering wheel. In the background you can see the city of Long Beach.


Kelly and Tom enjoy some time sitting together.



Tom controls the spinnaker sail.

My Attempt at Creativity

I tried to get a little creative and take some fun pictures. Here's my attempt.

Latest Project

My friend, Rebekah, asked if I'd help her make a tablecloth for her school table. She bought the fabric from this amazing quilting shop called Fat Quarters Quilt Shop. Here is the finished product. This table is a bit larger than the one she's using.




Rebekah wanted large rickrack sewn between the two fabrics. It really added to the tablecloth.