Our family is growing!

Of course you know that Mike and I each have one daughter, Harli (on the right), Chelsea (in the middle) and we have Eline (on the left) who is our Dutch daughter (she was our foreign exchange student for the 2007/08 school year).










Now we have a new addition to our family. Please welcome Jacob to the clan. Jake is 17 and a senior at Roy High. He is an "A" student who loves math and physics. He's been on his own for about a year. He is going to live with us for his senior year. He's a good kid who has had some tough times. Mike and I have decided that we have been very blessed and now we'll be blessed again by having Jake join our family. I know it won't all be a spring picnic, but we do know how it is to have a new teenager in the house, since we went through that with Eline. And it worked out so well that she is back visiting us for 5 weeks.




This is Eline and Jake playing "Chicken" in the pool the other day.



Chelsea, Eline, Jake and I are heading down to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on Sunday. We will spend very little time there however because we are going to Bryce Canyon and Arches National Park as well.



We all really wish this amazing man could join us. But sadly he is out of the country, visiting Malaysia and Indonesia with his new job dealing with Foreign Military Sales. We'll miss him but he and I will certainly visit the Grand Canyon on our own sometime and get to spend more time, and hopefully get to go down into the canyon.

Garden

Mike was in Europe when we really needed to rototill for a garden so we never got it done. That didn't stop us though. We bought some planters and started planting. So far we have jalapeno peppers, sweet green peppers, red peppers, yellow tomatoes and eggplants. We also have rosemary, basil and parsley. Here are some photos:

















They look yummy don't they. They'll be so good once they ripen completely and we pick them.

Yes, we are still alive

Sorry it's been so long since an update but here goes:

Chelsea and I went to Utah State University last month. We are both happy with the campus, the music programs, and the cost. The best part is that it's 50 miles away so Chelsea will get to have a traditional college experience, but it's close enough so she can come home on weekends if she wants. Looks like she'll be an Aggie next year.






We took Iain and Elias to the zoo and had a great time. They are my Godson's but I consider them my grandsons, since I (hopefully) won't have grandchildren of my own for many years. Elias love the map of the zoo and carried it everywhere.






Here I am with the two cutest little boys in the world.














Mike and I went to the Pat Benetar concert in Wendover last week. It was a good concert and brought back some great memories.














We celebrated our first anniversary on June 28th. We tasted the top of our wedding (cheese)cake but it was terrible! At least our marriage is good! :)

I've been home a couple of times because my dad has lung cancer. He needs to have surgery to remove the lesion and hopefully that will be all. Looks like he won't need chemo or radiation. He meets with the surgeon the first week in August. I was home this past weekend because my brother, Bruce, and my sister-in-law, Tammy celebrated their 25th Anniversary. It was a really nice party and I got to catch up with people I haven't seen in a long time.

I started graduate school last week. I took two "bridge" courses which make up for not having to take the first year of the master's program at University of Utah. I will start fall classes the end of August.

Mike heads off to Malaysia and Indonesia next week. He is looking forward to seeing new countries.

Eline came on Monday. I can't believe it's been a year since she went back home to the Netherlands. She isn't here with the exchange student program so now gets to go jet skiing, 4 wheeling and other things she wasn't allowed to do last year. She's here for 6 weeks and it feels almost like she never left. We love her so much. Having an exchange student was a great decision!