Last week we visited Seaworld.  Thanks to the "Here's to the Heroes" program, our whole family was able to get in for free.  Since our admission was free, we decided to take Kelly's best buddies, Emma and Annie along.  There were so many things to see and do.  Tom and I were pooped by the end of the day, but the girls were still going strong.  It really was a great time, and we managed not to lose anyone.

We ate lunch as soon as we got into the park at the Budweiser Pavilion.

Kelly and Emma really wanted to ride Journey to Atlantis, but Kelly was worried she'd get too wet, so I, being the brave soul that I am, offered to take Emma.  I rode it once and won't ride it again.  I just don't like those big drops.

This was right after the first drop.  I was hoping that was the only one, but there were more to come-SCARY!! Oh, and we didn't get very wet since we sat in the back.

(note-no specific reason this is underlined, but I can't figure out how to get rid of it, sorry)

The girls pretended to be polar bears at the Wild Arctic.

The girls enjoyed their Dippin Dots ice cream-yummy!

Kelly loved feeding the bat rays.  We do this every time we visit Sea World.

This was a fun picture of the dolphin jumping.

Kelly and Emma did end up riding Journey to Atlantis-twice.  This last time they talked us into letting them go right before we were going to leave the park.

First Day of School

We just finished our first week of homeschool.  It was a light one due to the fact that Tom had this week off.  On Wednesday it was back to class for Kelly.  She had her first day of workshop. 

Fun at the VanderKarrs

On Wednesday we hung out with our friends, the VanderKarrs. We were also reunited with the Fess family, who were visiting from Idaho. We all attended Living Hope (our church) together. It was great spending time together and catching up.

Here's some of the brood. There were about 13 kids altogether!

Always fun stuff to do at the VanderKarr house.

"The Famous Water Slide" Notice Casey hanging from the slide? He always was fearless.

Wedding Pics

Saturday we celebrated the marriage of our friend, Rosie from church.  Here are a few pics.

Kelly wore her pretty dress and old-fashioned hat.

Tom played the violin while the guests arrived.

He also played his flute while the couple took communion.

Our Family

Thursday was our first visit to the beach all summer.  The weather was just perfect and the water refreshing.  Made me wonder why we don't go more often.

I had to make Kelly pose for a picture of us together since I'm usually the one behind the camera.

Kelly loves to boogie board.....

...and jump the waves with her friend, Emma.

A picture perfect day!

Our niece was in the newspaper. Way to go, Emily!

Click on the link below to read the article.

Twin Valley and Owen J. Roberts students dig archaeology, literally, at Robeson Township iron-making site

Twin Valley and Owen J. Roberts students dig archaeology, literally, at Robeson Township iron-making site

Shared via AddThis

Our Newest Addition

Last night Tom came home from work with this cutie in his arms.  Neither Kelly nor I had no idea he was coming! His name is Henry and he's a 2-year old poodle bichon frise mix.

Kelly's smile shows how very excited she was to FINALLY have a dog.

Kelly took Henry on a short walk so he could explore.

Lovin' on Henry

Henry is a sweet little guy who loves to be held and petted.  He already follows Kelly wherever she goes.

Flying on the Trapeze

This is an older post, but thought it was worth sharing.  When we went to the fair July 4th weekend Kelly took a ride on the trapeze.  She looked like she was scared a little, but in the end, liked it a lot.

After being fitted with a harness, she had to climb a tall ladder to the top.

Then she was hooked up into the ropes.

There she goes!

This smile shows she's not terrified.

All trapeze artists must do the flip off the net.

VBS

Kelly went to vacation Bible school last week at Calvary Chapel Vista. She had a great time and made some new friends.  On the last day each of the classes performed a song. This video is from Kelly's class. Please forgive me for the shaking camera. I was trying to record with my left hand while taking pictures with my right.

Swim

Last week Kelly finished her level 2 swim class. These are some fun things they did on the last day.

She's now ready to move on to level 3.

Sewing Project

A few months ago Kelly picked out some cute fabric.  She's been after me to help her make some pillows.  We decided a pillowcase would be a good project.

Kelly's a pro at using the antique hand-crank machine.

Voila! Here's the finished project-a lovely pillowcase.

I had to take a close-up of this adorable fabric from Ikea.

Happy Fourth of July!!!!!!!!

Chile Rellenos

This is my first attempt at making chile rellenos.  It took me over an hour to make them, but well worth it.  They were delicious!

Coastal Academy End of Year Celebration

Kelly's school year flew by!  To celebrate the end of the year, her school had a carnival.

Kelly with her wonderful workshop teacher, Mrs. Gelvin.

Cake Walk

Kelly really wanted to win a goldfish.  This was her first attempt.

Toward the end of the carnival, she finally won one.

Kelly and her friend, Zoe had lots of fun together this year.

Some Highlights from our Yosemite Trip

Seeing as I took over 350 pictures of our Yosemite trip, I could only put on some of the highlights, and even those took up a lot of space! We can't begin to tell you how much fun we had on this trip. It was our longest stay at the park (a whole week!), and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  This is one of the most beautiful places God created.

This is on the Vernal Falls lookout bridge.  You can see the falls from here, but if you hike further up on the Mist Trail, you can go to the top.

Lower Yosemite Falls

We had a thunderstorm, with hail and all.

Cooped up in the camper for about an hour.

Vernal Falls

Top of Vernal Falls

Mirror Lake

Our friends, Lou, Brian & Michelle and their 2 kids went to Yosemite as well.

It's a BEAR!!!!  He found a cooler that wasn't locked up in the bear box, opened the cooler lid and pulled out some sour cream.  Yelling and honking weren't going to scare this guy away. Finally a park ranger sprinted at him and chased him away.

This one's for Mike and Kelly.  Notice the cup!?!

Tom and Kelly took advantage of the free art classes offered at the park.

Kelly inherited her Dad's artistic ability.

Upper Yosemite Falls

One of the meadows.  I think it was Cook's, but I'm not sure.

Half Dome

Community Chapel

This is a popular photography shot.  I took a class held by the Ansel Adams Photographic Art Gallery. We walked to various locations where Ansel himself shot some famous photographs.

Nevada Falls is about 2 miles above Vernal Falls.  We hiked by this on our way to Half Dome.

This is Half Dome where you can climb the cable ladder to the top.  We hiked about 10 miles to get there. It was a long hike, but worth it. Kelly even made it!

She was, however, apprehensive about making the climb to the top.  Tom took her about halfway when her little hands got too tired.  Maybe we'll make it up next time!

(If you click on the picture, you might be able to see them. They're almost in the middle above the clump of people.)

Above are a few of the magnificent views from the bottom of Half Dome.

Kelly even found some snow to play in!

Making our way back down from our long journey. Only a few miles left to go! Boy, were we tired after 20 miles of hiking all day.

Mandi's attempt at shooting Half Dome at sunset.

While Mandi waited for an hour to capture the sunset, Tom, Kelly and Lou explored. This gauge shows how high the waters have gotten.

On our last morning I tried to capture some sunrise shots of Half Dome.

Throughout the week we saw lots of mule deer.  They graze in the meadows and don't seem to be scared of people. I was pretty close to this one.

I captured this shot of El Capitan on our way out of the valley.  Bye, Yosemite!