Outting with my Boys

Azores!

roses growing on the Barbed Wire, I love it! on our route home

Praia getting ready for Praia Vest!

Best time of year!!!
Mary Statue View's
Best Bros!

OHHH! The view

Best view of Praia
OK! I got all my house work done and I just had to get out of the house ASAP! Steve got home at 1am last night from work and then was off to work again at 7am before I even wolk up. We never even see him, it's not easy..I took the kids down to get ice cream and just see some sights, when I'm home all the time it's enough to drive one mad. The boys had a good time and I was happy to get out of the house.

1st time for everything..

Quinn was tired, Taken by Steve

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Family Pictures done

BUY ME!!!

We had pictures done today, sorry no copies yet it will be a few weeks. We went to a BBQ with some friends, the boys played on the playground and didn't want to leave. We took it easy today, cleaned a bit and slept, we are going to have our friends over tommarrow for dinner and to play Phase 10, Sar and Chris are the best friends and they leave in a week :( we are sad but we'll see them again. So many of our friends are leaving the first of August. We are hoping that somebody will PCS here in Aug and need a Van since we are selling ours. Pray that we sell it!! Then I can buy our tickets to get home in Oct.

Board on a Rainy day!

Yesterday,I was board,so I was playing with the photo's

enjoy!

Steve's Project for July

At work...

Changing out the Radar Antenna

This was on the 4th of July weekend, it was a big project at work.

Past couple days

I took the scenic route home from Amy's (This is the ferry we will take to Sao Miguel ,5 hrs away next month, we are so excited!!!!)

Kylor feeding Quinn

It's been busy these past days, Yesterday Steve and I went and re-did our Wills getting ready for this next year,

Today Steve got to eat lunch with a visiting Colonel up at the TORC (the club on base) & Steve showed her the Radar which is part of his duties. He's the working NCOIC aka: Person in charge, it's alot of responsibility and he's be away from home alot since his supervisors are on leave. While he was busy at work, Audrey went to Amy's, we had a going away for a friend Mona, that is leaving next month, Kylor and her son are good friends,we ate some yummy food and visited and had a good time it's been a rainy day today we spent our times indoors..gotta love living in the mid-atlantic!

Quinn is every where, he's climbing the stairs to quickly now, he's starting act so similar to Ky, Orion when they were his age. I just love our boys so much. I've been working with Kylor on reading so he doesn't forget or get lazy during these months. He's doing good still sounding out the words. Orion enjoying being Mr. Independent, he likes to get his own Milk and Chocolate Syrup out of the fridge and make his own chocolate milk, sometimes he get's snappy when I try to help him. He does make a mess sometimes but it's good that he wants to do things on his own.

Quinn climbs stairs!

Yesterday Quinn climbed both sets of stair in the house alone! Wow he's now a climber!

Girls Day Out

View of Quatro Ribatis

Amy, Rebecca, Saraiah,

Audrey went out with friends Amy, Rebecca, and her sister Saraiah we drove around the island yesterday First to a swimming area, Quatro, then to La Travitia for lunch they make pizza's in their brick oven it's the best! Then to Sao Mateous for the Cheese factory yummy! and a Tile place. It was nice and we had some youth from the branch watch our total= 7 kids they were so great to do that, it's not often that you get to just go out with friends and no little ones..

• This morning I went to the Gym we too the walk up the hill, Me and the 3 boys they are good hikers, I love the way I feel once I'm done working out all, then to come home and Shower it all off! I have more energy to get through my day and I feel so much better about myself. I've noticed I've been craving more healthy foods like pinapple juice and tuna more than sugary things, it's so good. I even drink more water, I have alot of Lbs to drop from having the boys...

Life

Life, is a crazy thing, I never thought that we'd be living in the middle of the atlantic, on a small little island and love it. You just never know what life will bring you. We have so many people here that we love that are moving, and we are pretty much next. Living here has changed us in so many ways, it's a great thing to be able to live oversea's, it open's our eyes to new things in a new light. It's something that we will never forget and never regret.
We are also looking forward to the big changes ahead. Steve in Korea will not be easy but we are looking forward to the things that will come of it. We are planning a Disney trip June 2009 on his 30 dys leave, then he'll be back in December 09 for us to move to Germany.
Our time here is coming to a close within the next few months and I just know how much we will miss the Ocean and the beauty that surrounds us here. We have certainly been blessed to have had this experience!

Map

Audrey has been to Faial for a lay over, this next month we going to Sao Miguel for a Youth Conf. We are very excited! I thought I would post the Azores Map so you can see where we live..We live on Terceira

Fun Weekend!

Our romantic view when we went out to dinner, Saturday night! It was so pretty

venom Orion

yellow spidey

typical cattle traffic on our way home

most common island flower
adventuring the dirt roads
morning after camping

view of Sao Jorge

Sunset when we were camping

Mona Cook'n

Sao Mateus Church

Quick run down of our past few days..Thursday, Kylor had his last day of summer school. They learned alot in the 4 weeks he went to school,Tessellations, Patterns, about the classical music artists Bach, Mozart, etc. Elvis, made a kite, and did a color wheel. We went camping that night to Cinco Ribeiros on the other side of the island with our friends, We got no sleep staying up late and laughing..Friday, got ready for the Flea Market, Saturday was the big flea market and we sold a bunch of our things for the move, made some $$, then off to the neighbors for a Birthday party... That night we went out with another couple Sara and Chris some of our closest friends out to the Brazillian Resturaunt in Angra, our first time there, tried 10 different meats, including lamb, several beef cuts, chicken, best part fresh pinapple! it was so good! We drove home the long way, around the island and didn't get home til late. We are still recovering from lack of sleep! We had a good time though. We saw several new things on the island we have not been before..the camp ground was so nice and right by a swimming hole we would have gone swimming but overcast a little Friday morning. Sunday to church then a nice afternoon nap for all of us! Time to get ready for another busy week, gotta love summer!

Adorable ones!

Baby Quinn! He's our little Angel, starting to get into everything! I took some pictures of the boys after dinner, just mess'in with the Camera..

Our special day

Monday

Octopus Catcher: Mike

I feel so happy! I walked to the Gym again with Quinn and Orion while Ky was in school. It's becoming habit now, I like going to the Gym rather just working out at home all the time. I ran a little, the base is very hilly so by the time I get to the Gym my warm up is complete. They have a mom/cardio room, with a glass wall you can put the kids in and workout equip in the same room, I really like the Gym here. This afternoon, Steve helped out with the Base Drug awareness camp with kids 9-12 years old. We went to Praia Beach and Snorkeled, *Lucy watched our boys*I was able to go with him along with another work friend Mike, Mike caught a little octopus with his net and I touched it, the suckers stuck to my fingers, it was crazy, the kids had fun looking at it too, they released it back into the ocean and we watched it swim. We saw lots of fish that were blue and silver, sea urchins..This time when we snorkeled reminded me of when we were in Hawaii. Snorkeling is alot of fun!

Sunday

Steve is conducting our Sacrament meetings this week since the Branch Pres is TDY! and The responsibility falls on him being part of the Elder's Q. I guess it's good practice, a member leaned over to me and said "You must be so proud of him, he speaks with such gentleness" I smiled, and said thank you. Steve does do a good job though. Audrey taught our combined RS/Priestood class on Obedience Chpt 13 in the manual. We have such a small branch so we still down to 2 hours at church.
Later that day, we had the Missionaries and a friend Steve works with over for dinner , Lumpia, Asian Chicken, Rice, Stir was what I made. Our friend is not a member but he's trying to find out for himself if it's true, he knows much of the church since his GF is mormon. He's a really nice friend too.
The Church is so awesome! I really don't know what I would do with out it. It keeps me grounded in a crazy world where we are being thrown all around and having to make decisions that test us each day. I'm very greatful for the gospel and all that it has brought into my family. As my knowledge of the gospel increases so does my faith and testimony, though I've grown up in this church I have still had to learn all about what we believe. Last night I read in Alma Chapter 32 about Faith! I'm very greatful for the Book of Mormon.

Exploring Angra's sites

A Field Trip to Angra with school today...One more week and it's all done. I was able to go down with them, it was fun. We saw the sites together, Kylor, John and I drove down in our car. Then tonight we went to the movies as a family and saw "Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian" it was neat, Kylor said he liked the funny mouse..We don't go to the movies very often here, so that was a fun thing to do, we get to see it about 2 months behind the states schedule. Steve and I were going to go Jet Skiing tommarrow but they told him he's working, Huge Bummer, it's an 8 hours shift, this is two weekends in a row...Dang! We are going to try and hit the beach without him..

More Turtle Play

Luigi Rocks!

Today

Climber already!

Ok! Today was fun! Kylor had some friends come over after school they played all afternoon. Me and 5 boys in the house, John and David came over and they played video games, Lego Starwars and Over the Hedge on the game cube. I consigned several items at the Thrift store today and I've even gone to the GYM twice this week, I've began running/jogging again, it feels so great!

High light of my day...this is funny! I went to the commissary with the three kids after their friends went home and we saw a friend of ours there, the kids were very excited though we usually see people we know there...anyways...her 2 year old boy Henry, got on the Handicapped automatic cart and took off..moved a plant, bench or two, he didnt know how to stop...it was so funny! The checkers were all laughing, he got off unharmed..Ky and Orion even found it amusing too, we go to church with this little boy, his Mom said it was not the first time...I just thought that was so funny. Tonight after cleaning Luigi's cage we played with him ...He's the coolest turtle! We are now down to one cat Felix and our little turtle, he's grown alot since we got him back in the fall. I also gave Felix a bath tonight, he's easier to bathe than a Dog, he just sat there in the tub and let me clean him off using a cup. He's a great Cat. I was in shock!

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Mini Garden

Kylor's sunflower plant he planted in Kindergarten in a cup, we replanted it and look at it now!

The cucumbers!

I forgot to post on our Cucumbers! In all the year's we've been married we've never done a garden, granted we have not lived in a place that made that possible. Things grow so well here. We have our own cumcumbers and we have alot! They took over our flower garden in our back yard, They are so yummy for the Salads! Lettuce is hard to come by here, it doesn't last long before turning bad due to the moisture. We are proud of our little starter garden! The watermelon that we tried planting didn't take though...the small watermelons just fell off the vines ??

Our days

We had a good weekend. Today was Orion's last parent teacher conf with his school. His teachers are so nice. Orion did much better this last term, teachers said he is a good boy. Aug 15th we are going to Sao Miguel with Youth Conference, another island here in the Azores we are very excited to be part of that. We are planning on going Jet skiing this Saturday with some friends Jet skii's at Cabo da Praia, that should be very fun, our friends said they saw some sea turtles and dolphins when they went last..We are so excited to go!

The fun!

We had a great day! The kids played on the jumpy castles and big hit here, and Steve and the boys watched the Hula show, Audrey danced in one of the dances and helped out friends back stage, then she went and helped the ESC booth sell hot dogs and chips for a couple hours, Steve was with the boys and Missonaries having a good time. At the end of the Hula Show they had everyone grab a person to teach them to Hula, I tried to get Steve to come up, but he was being shy...I took Elder Dimik up instead...Quinn seemed to be trying to stand up on his own and really liked watching the fire works at the end. We all had a really good time. They had a live band from the states come and play for us. The kids had fun dancing to their music.

playing with a Poi ball

The Dance