Howdy y'all!

Just a quick note that we're currently sitting in a hotel somewhere in Texas...Memphis, I believe. The kids have been great so far; only once did Violet have a meltdown and we had to pull over quickly. We only made it to Kingman on Friday night (we'd hoped for Flagstaff, another 2 hours further), but we made up for it yesterday! We drove close to 800 miles in one day and ended up here (about 45 minutes past Amarillo) at 2:30 a.m. Texas time (Central Time Zone). Who would have guessed that Amarillo would have had no rooms in the entire city? There were Harley Davidson AND Jehovah's Witness conventions happening this weekend (seperate we think from each other). This carried over to the subsequent hotels/motels we came across over the coming miles until we arrived in Memphis. Great room and some much needed rest! So we're off to the McNeely's in Garland, Texas today for a fun weekend and visit with Kevin and Allison.

Thanks for your prayers during our travels. We will post some photos in the coming days.

We'll miss you Uncle Ben & Auntie Alli

Last night we had our "goodbye" dinner with Uncle Ben and Auntie Alli. My brother and sister-in-law have been talking for years about moving "up north" and this summer they finally worked everything out. They are actually not leaving for another two weeks; but since we are leaving on Friday for a 17-day trip to Kansas, they'll be gone before we come home. Ben will be starting in the fall as a third grade teacher at McKinley Elementary School in Beaverton, Oregon (just west of Portland), and Alli will be working at a Credit Union a couple miles away. The wierd part? Ben will be working not only at the school were Christa Wiens was (my good friend that moved to Fresno just weeks ago), but the same grade she taught! AND...they'll be living in the same apartments that the Wiens' lived in (right across the street from the school)! So when we go to visit them...we'll know the way already! We will miss them TONS...but we support them in their decision and are excited for them to experience this new stage in their lives and marriage! We love you Uncle Ben and Auntie Alli!

Green Idea of the Week

So, I'd like to say "use public transportation" for my weekly idea (read prior, San Diego post)...but I don't think many of you would do that here in Fresno, at least. So I will give you an idea that you DEFINITELY can do! Bring your own bags to the grocery store! I have done this for quite a while now, and sometimes get wierd looks or comments...but I chalk it up to educating others through my actions! I have four cloth bags I keep in the trunk of my van, so they're ready each time I'm at the store...no paper or plastic needed! Thanks, Jane, for the prompting!

San Diego

This past weekend Randy and I drove down to San Diego to attend the wedding of Jaime Jacinto and Andrea Kellner. Randy works with Jaime at Children's Hospital and has become good friends with him over the past year as they have enjoyed monthly poker nights together with other guys that work at the hospital. We left Friday morning with our great friends, Mike and Abi Alaniz. The traffic was HORRIBLE! It's usually about 5 1/2 hours from Fresno to San Diego...it took us almost 7 hours! YUK! But we got there without any car problems and checked into our hotel and then left to find dinner. And then an amazing thing happened...we got to explore the city and venture out WITHOUT our car!!! Not only did we get to take public transportation (the bus stop was a few hundred feet from our hotel and dropped us in the middle of Old Town), but a tram that runs on electricity, NOT a gas guzzling bus. I cannot tell you how sad it makes me to live in a city that doesn't make public transportation an inviting option. Yes, we have buses, and some of them are even "clean air" ones. However, Fresno's transportation circuit (which right now is ONLY buses) isn't time-effective enough to make sense to our hurry-up, over-busy society. I am convinced that Valley residents would much rather drive their gas-guzzling, super-sized SUVs, than plan an extra ten or twenty minutes into their routine to save money and gas while improving our air quality. I admit, I don't take public transportation here in Fresno either. But when I'm in a big city, like San Diego, that has their public transport system figured out, I love the convenience! I lived in Costa Rica for four months in college and got in a car a total of 3 times! And every time we visit friends in Portland, or San Francisco, the buses and trains get us in, out, and around downtown! So, back to the San Diego weekend...we took the train to Old Town (that's Randy in front of a huge nopales plant in Old Town square) and found the Old Town Mexican Café, about which we'd read such good reviews online! It was a bit of a wait...but well worth it! All four of us ordered the house specialty, carnitas (roasted shredded pork), served family style with beans, avocado, tomato, onion, cilantro, and hand-made flour and corn tortillas. Serve that up with a pitcher of margaritas, and you're looking at the perfect meal (aside from eating in Mike's mom's kitchen)! It was AMAZING! After dinner we walked around a little more and found a stand where a lady was making tortillas, churros, and buñuelos (fried tortillas sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar). We couldn't help but get a churro! We headed back to our hotel for a good night's sleep! The next morning we ventured into downtown on foot to find breakfast...we ended up at Hob Nob Hill, a restaurant that's been open since 1944. The waiters wore black pants and red kitchen coats and the waitresses were in black apron-dresses. There were even chandeliers from the ceiling! But it wasn't expensive...just good, home-style cooking. After that we packed up for a trip to the beach. We wanted to take the ferry across the harbor to Coronado Island, but because of time we drove across the bridge. We spent a couple hours at Imperial Beach. Randy and I have been to San Diego many times, but never visited the beach. Although the water isn't warm, it's not freezing (like at Pismo or Santa Cruz). We didn't even bring our suits though. We walked along the surf for quite a while (it's an amazingly long beach) and sat and read as well. Too bad we weren't able to stay for another week...the last Saturday of July, Imperial Beach hosts the U.S. Open Sandcastle Competition. Now that would be cool. But we were there for a wedding...which, speaking of, we had to get back to the hotel to get ready for. Jaime and Andrea got married at the Immaculata Church on the U.C. San Diego campus. It was a gorgeous setting! We met up with another of Randy's co-workers, Megahn (pictured to the left of Abi and I), who flew in that morning for the wedding. It was a beautiful, traditional Catholic wedding. After which we headed to the Bristol Hotel for the reception...a fabulous dinner, drinks, and dancing under the cloudy San Diego skyline. The reception was on the top floor, in their Starlight Ballroom, where the roof actually retracts! So you have a straight up view of the clouds! It was such a fun night! Sunday morning we woke up, packed up, grabbed a coffee and headed north. We were driving right past Dodgers Stadium on the way home anyways, SOOO...why not catch a game? At, say, 1:10 p.m.? I mean, why waste more gas, and have to find a babysitter for a whole other day, when you're right there? So we watched the Dodgers play the Mets...and unfortunately lose 4-5 in the 10th inning. But our seats were great; the weather was mild; and Randy went home with a great story to tell (check his blog for the details)! What a fun weekend! And what amazing family and friends we have to watch our kids while we were away. We've been able to "get away" two weekends in one month! The last time we'd gotten away without kids was June of 2005! Thank you so much Uncle Ben, Auntie Christa, and especially Grandma Arlene for taking care of the kiddos all weekend! We appreciate you sooo much...and the kids LOVE being with you!

Our "family" day at the mountains

This past Saturday our family went to the mountains for the day. And when I say family, I am including all of the people you see in the picture...us, the Wiens', and the Bergens. Our three families live within a quarter mile of each other...and we love that! God has truly answered my prayers of the past few years by (1) surrounding me with Marcy, and now Christa, two other "stay-at-home" moms in whom I can confide and share the challenge of raising young children, (2) providing great adult role models for my children that they see and interact with day after day, (3) providing play-mates for my children that live in the same neighborhood, go to the same church, and will attend the same schools, and (4) providing great friends that we just love sharing life with! Since this was the Bergen kids' first time in the mountains (and the fact that Marcy is 7 months pregnant), we decided to camp for the day instead of a whole weekend! The day was perfect...cool, overcast weather and only a few people in the picnic area. Here's a few more pictures of our day!Audrey Nicole, Isaac, Audrey Meredith, and C.J. at the fallen Giant Sequioa that you can walk through! The dads with the babies.Violet and C.J. walkin' together!Charlotte loves the mountains!

Green Idea of the Week

Buy products that are fragrance-free, die-free, and biodegradable. Most laundry detergents, softeners, dish-soaps and other cleaning products are toxic and harmful to the environment (and your children if ingested). However, there are FINALLY good cleansers reaching the mainstream store shelves (Target, Wal-Mart, your local grocer) that are better for you AND the earth...just look for them!

Recent stuff

I've had some pictures on my camera that I just haven't gotten around to since the last week or so has been so lazy! So it's finally time to post them. On July 3rd we helped our friends, Aaron and Christa Wiens, move into their new home in Fresno. They have been up in Portland for the last 5 years while Aaron was in Optometry school. Our family is SOOO excited to have them back in Fresno, and even better, around the corner! Yup, they bought a house on the next street over! The kids have been over to see "cousin" Charlotte every day since they moved in! On July 4th, we started off the day with our church's pancake breakfast out at Woodward Park. This year we had some special guests...my college roommate, Allison (Steinert) McNeely, was in town with her husband Kevin on vacation (they live in Texas). And they came to the breakfast to see their California friends (L-R, Allison, Jill Lee, and Christa). It was great to visit for a while...and we look forward to seeing them again in Garland on our road trip in a couple weeks! In the evening, we went to see the Fresno Grizzlies play the Sacramento River Cats. This is, pretty much, the ONLY tradition our family has...of the entire year...seriously. As the tradition goes, we meet Randy's mom and brother at the baseball game (and usually a couple others...this year we were joined by Aaron, Christa and Charlotte Wiens, Ron & Debbie Bryan, Mark & Cindy Wiens, and Peter, Jennifer, Bethany and Rachel Ogawa), watch the Grizzlies LOSE the game, and then watch a spectacular fireworks show after the game. Some years the tradition includes sweating our shorts off...this year it wasn't too bad, hot (about 100 degrees at the start) but with a cool breeze at times, and we were in the shade! In the days following July 4th we have simply been trying to keep cool. We had triple digit temperatures through the weekend (113 on Thursday and 111 on Friday) but have now cooled off into the 90s. We can actually get into our backyard again and enjoy the summer! Here's some recent pics of "normal" stuff around the house.

Isaac enjoying our new swing in the backyard.Audrey Nicole and Audrey Meredith with their roly-poly bugs from the backyard!Isaac and C.J. show off their dirty hands.Violet with a popsicle at Grandma Arlene's house! YUM!

Randy's still got it

Randy got to go out skiing this morning at the break of dawn (literally) with his friends Rocky and Sterling. For those of you who ski, you know how great the water is at 6:30 a.m.! Thanks, Rocky, for the GREAT picture!

Green Idea of the Week

Do you have a "green hour"? In other words, do you set aside at least an hour of every day to enjoy the "outdoors"? I recently became aware of a national, grass-roots movement called "leave no child inside" that is concerned about the long-term consequences (emotional well-being, physical health, learning abilities, and environmental conscience) of spending all your time indoors. Click on the link to read the article I saw in the Fresno Bee last week that sparked my interest on this. There was an article of similar interest in Sunset Magazine this month about the decrease of visitation to National Parks. Click here to read that article. Both of these articles point out that kids who don't enjoy being and playing out-of-doors will be less likely to take an interest in preserving the great treasures found in nature. SO...my suggestion for the week is...make sure that at least once this summer you get yourself and your family into a state or national park. Enjoy the wonders that God has created! Happy exploring!

Happy Anniversary to US!

Since the moment we came back from our honeymoon in Maui, we told ourselves, "For our 10 year anniversary, we'll go back to Hawaii". Well, ten years, three kids, and twenty-four van payments later, we decided that a week in Hawaii was not feasible (maybe for our 15th). So we opted for a nice weekend in Yosemite instead. We stayed in the beautiful Narrow Gauge Inn (pictured above) only five minutes from the south entrance to Yosemite National Park. It is a wonderful, quiet place to stay, tucked in the Sierra National Forest! And their restaurant is fantastic too! So after a wonderful dinner, and a great, uninterrupted night of sleep, we packed up to head into the park on Saturday morning! We parked in the main parking lot and took the shuttle to the Happy Isles trailhead to hike up to the top of Vernal Falls. Here's me on the footbridge (left)... at the halfway point with the Falls way in the background. And here's Randy (below) at the bottom of the Falls! We actually climbed all the way to top of the falls where there is a big pool you can swim in and lots of shady spots to rest and have a picnic. We had no idea it was so spacious at the top! There were probably over a hundred people relaxing around the pool and a dozen of them swimming in the frigid water. We took a while to rest our legs (the last 1/4 mile is STEEP steps straight up the side of the Falls) and then headed back down to enjoy a quick lunch and then hop on our bikes. We rode all around the valley floor, and made sure to ride to the lower pool of Mirror Lake (a good viewing point to look UP at all the huge granite structures of the park). Then, after a rest at the store for water and a popsicle, we packed the bikes in the car and drove up to Glacier Point for a birds' eye view DOWN at the entire valley. What a way to end the day...the view was absolutely AMAZING! With the sun setting, and shadows lengthening over the valley, we said goodbye to a GREAT day exploring Yosemite and headed back to our hotel for a light dinner, dessert, and a good nights' rest! Sunday morning we took the short drive to the Wawona Hotel for Sunday brunch. We enjoyed seeing the hotel grounds and hearing of all its history; but the food itself was just so-so. Still, it was a nice, relaxing way to end our weekend. Thanks to the Bergens and Uncle Ben and Auntie Alli for watching the kids while we were gone!

Vacation Bible School

Well, the kiddos had a boot-kickin', hand-raisin', God-praisin', craft-makin' good time at VBS this year! Both Audrey and Isaac learned sooo much, and couldn't get enough of singing and moving to the music. They still need to listen to the CD at least 3 times a day! I am so thankful for all the volunteers that help make this week happen! It is so great to see the kids excited about learning more about God and worshiping Him! Audrey with some girls from her class (L-R, Lindsey McNeely, Audrey, Violet Yang, and Bethany Ogawa)Isaac with some of his buddies (L-R, Ryan Vance, Isaac, Caleb McCreary, Ethan Lee)