Back in the Northwest...

It's been busy the last few weeks. Mike had a trip down to Dallas for work and he went to a Cure concert with his brothers and best friend, Zabe. He came back for his birthday. We planned a casual barbeque with some of the branch members, the missionaries and our neighbors. Then Connor, Aubrey and I flew over to Seattle for mom's graduation. Oh, how I love the northwest. For all of you that live in the Seattle area, I know it's been cold, and a bit rainy for summer but I am so relieved to be away from the heat and the humidity back east. We just experienced a major heat wave in NJ and our a/c is broken so it was pretty miserable last week. We really had a lovely weekend and attending mom's graduation was the highlight of the weekend. It was so amazing watching mom walk. I felt such an emotional sense of pride watching her at the graduation ceremony. It was so weird to be in the same position she was in 10 years ago. How amazing to feel what she must have felt watching me. Now that is a little freaky realizing that I've been out of college for 10 years! I'm amazed at my mom. She graduated with honors. Now how many people can say that about their moms? One shocker of the weekend was when Connor decided to take a pair of scissors to mom's scholarly project. Her project is entitled, "Getting to the Core, Improving Core Measure Delivery in the Hospital Setting," and there is a picture of a small apple core directly under the title. I guess Connor decided to cut out the apple core. My huge gasp and terrified look shocked him and he immediately began pleading his apologies over and over. I was so shocked, I didn't know what to do. Part of me thought is was funny but I was just so stunned and confused. Yeah, he had to get in trouble for that one. Then a little later that evening, I put in one of mom's BBC videos of Jane Austin's Persuasion. Connor sits next to me and says, "Is this Princess Diarrhea?" I couldn't help but laugh hysterically and remind myself how adorable he is. Pictures to come.

We've Got Talent....

We had our ward talent show last weekend and both the boys wanted to do something. Check out the performances.





And there's no real talent show without Mahna Mahna!

"So what do you miss about Germany?"...

...is a common question we hear when we tell people that we lived in Germany for almost 2 1/2 years. We would often reply with how we missed the yogurt, the amazingly beautiful and delicious cakes, the eis cafes, driving on the autobahn, traveling, the chocolate, and the Rhein river. But what we miss most are our dear friends and the Gemeinde Bonn. Mike had the chance to visit Bonn after working in Brussels. He took a train to Bonn and stayed for the weekend. Our friend Tine was having an engagment party that weekend so Mike was able to attend and had a great time.

Alex, Christian, Nadine and Jared

Jenny and Sebastian

Mike, Tine, and fiance, Jonathan

And we do miss our Touran. I never thought I would miss a car fueled by diesel but it really was a great little car. There's nothing like it in the US.

Another Preschool Graduate

We have another graduate in our house...preschool graduate, that is. Connor graduated from the Gingham Giraffe Preschool last Wednesday. He's had a funfilled year and he's learned so much. He surprises me with facts that he picks up from school especially from the science lady. I have particularly enjoyed all the beautiful artwork he has come home with. We sat down and went through the massive pile of artwork and decided what we should keep and what needs to go. We were both feeling a bit sad at the goodbye pile. Maybe I'll just have to make a digital art gallery for him. It will definitely take up less space and it will make me feel better about the pile of preschool art in the garbage.

The cracked bell, philly cheesesteak, and sharks...

We had a great time in Philadelphia on Memorial Day with the kids and Melissa and her sister, Emily. We took a tour of Independence Hall, and then we saw the Liberty bell. Aaron's teacher told him about the Liberty bell and he was excited to see it in person. After we saw the Liberty bell, we went down to Pat's King of Steaks in South Philly. We got a kick out of the ordering instructions. Then we headed to the Aquarium in Camden. The highlight of the aquarium for me was seeing the giant sting rays. And for the boys, it was getting to touch tiger sharks. Aaron also enjoyed feeding crickets and meal worms to the wild birds.