When friends come to town...

Making Brownies with Anna

 Girls night

Enjoying a visit and espresso

My friend Holly came to visit this week. I had such a great time catching up with her. She moved away a couple months ago and left a big hole in my life. She has been one of my running friends for the last couple of years. It worked out that she was able to stay a couple days with me. We did so many fun things together. We got to go on several runs. She has become quite the speedster. We definitely challenge each other in our runs. We also got to do one of our favorite things. Goodwilling! When she lived her we would go several times a week after the gym. It was such a fun day. On Tuesday night we had our friends over for an appetizer/wine evening. Holly and I both love to cook and share recipes. We spent the afternoon preparing for our special dinner. She made Ina's Brownie Pudding with Anna. YUM! It was an absolutely lovely evening visiting with friends. I did something that I never do on a "school night". I went to a 9:30 movie with several of the ladies. We all wanted to see the movie "The Help" and didn't think our husbands would enjoy it very much. I am glad I drank the espresso at 3:00 PM to keep me awake for the movie but I wish that I had been able to fall asleep before 2:00 AM. I guess that is the side effect of coffee too late in the day. Holly had to head home today. It was such a good visit and I can't wait for the next one!

The many adventures of summer on a farm.

We just got home from a two week vacation to Oregon and Wa. We go home every summer to visit our families. It is definitely one of the hard things about being so far away from "home". Our kids don't get to spend a lot of time with there grandparents. The kids had an especially good time this year.
Anna loves helping in the garden, gathering eggs, riding the neighbors horse and feeding the sheep at my parents small farm. It is so fun seeing her having so much fun with her baby cousins and soaking up time with my parents. They even took the kids camping and on a fishing trip.
At the other grandparents house they played with cousins, picked blueberries from some of there many bushes, rode the four wheelers and played in the woods. Marks parents live on a wooded lot and it is great for building forts or just having adventures with the cousins that are all the same age.

Oregon Coast

The cousins at the beach



Farmer Anna gathering eggs



Mark got to borrow Papas jeep for some adventures.

Jonathan and his cousin Sawyer. They became wrestling buddies!

feeding the sheep

My sweet sister met us at the airport for our last "goodbye"!

Anna and Addy 2 peas in a pod!

Grandpa with his two oldest grandkids.

Anna and our precious Calvin

Celebrating Steff's birthday. Check out her beautiful kitchen.



Dinner with Papa and Grammy.



Cowgirl Anna

Family time

Anna and Calvin

My darling niece Laura!

The cousins!

It would be great to live closer to our family and maybe one day it will happen. I am so thankful that we can go home to visit and pick right up where we left off last summer.