Andrea Kay Graduates!!

How is it that this is happening AGAIN!! It seems like just yesterday I was shocked to find out out I was having "another" baby.. Then SO extremely trilled to find out it was a girl!
My cute, sweet little girl has grown into a very beautiful young lady! She graduated from Oakland High School on June 5th.
Can't begin to express what a great day it was, watching her celebrate this milestone!
Here are a few of the pictures from the day.

Dad, Andrea and Mom


The Whole Family!!!


Brayden and his best buds Tyler and Matt holding the Graduate!


Andrea and her good friend Darien, who came up from San Diego


Oakland High Class of 2010 - after a long day at Great America in CA for their Senior Trip. They had a BLAST!!!

STATE 2A Track

Nathan has had a great track season this year. He placed 3rd in both the 110 and 300 Hurdle races at the Mountain View Conference Meet. There was a guy that we had not seen run all year who snuck in and took the 2nd state birth right out from under him. He did PR in both the races and seemed very happy with the races he ran. This picture he is very high on this hurdle, most of the time he is right down there close...Was amazed at how much stronger her was this year!

Next year we will have our eye out for the sneaker... and make sure Nathan is ready for him!

He is also the 3rd leg of the boys 4x400 relay team. They qualified to compete in the State 2A track preliminaries on Friday the 21, and made it to the finals on Saturday the 22nd. Rex flew in on Saturday morning, and was able to watch him run in the final later in the day. It was SO exciting to watch him compete. They ended up taking 8th place and got a metal! They are on the far right.


It was a great weekend, and SOOO nice to have Rex home! He's here until after graduation! So hopefully he'll be able to get a lot of stuff done for me at the house.. I have such a hard time keeping up with all of the things that he usually does.
Hard to believe that there is only 2 weeks of school left.
Andrea has already registered for fall classes at Umpqua Community College. Will be a BIG change for her. I'm just glad that she's going to be staying around here for a while longer!!
Just LOVE having my kids around!

WOW

It seems like I have the best intentions ever to keep more current on my blog, but always fall a little short.
Track season has come to an end for Mikayla. She did a great job for her first year participating. Each time she ran the 100M hurdles she improved her time. She even places 3rd at one meet and got a medal! She was SOOOO excited!


Nathan is running in Districts this Saturday. I expect that his relay team will qualify in the 4x400 and possible the 4x100 relays.
He is 2 10th's of a second behind the #2 guy in the conference in the 110 High Hurdles. He will have to have a great race in order to qualify for state. Only the top 2 get a state birth. He is also running the 300M hurdles, he also has a chance in those. I'l just keep my fingers crossed and hope that he has a great race day all around!

Andrea is counting the days until graduation. She is such a beautiful girl! I have not idea what her plans are for next year.


I think I may be going through a mid life crisis.. not sure, but whatever it is ... I wish it would be DONE!!!

UPDATE...

Seems like I just can't keep up with all of the things I WANT to be doing, and most of the things that I NEED to be doing.
The end of March, my brother and his family were in Oregon for a visit during their spring break. The kids and I meet them and my Mom & Larry in Eugene for a fun afternoon of mini golf and pizza! It really was a lot of fun, & great to see them all again. It had been 9 years since we had seen one another.
The kids really enjoyed getting to know one another again!



That same day after we got back, the kids got their piglet to raise for fair... It is always an adventure! Lets hope they all three make weight!!
Here is Colton with his pig!


On March 31st I picked Rex up at the Eugene airport. His flight didn't get in until Midnight.. we kept it a secret from the kids... On thursday morning, he went into wake them up for school.. that was PRICELESS!!! They were all SO happy to se him. Nathan pounded on the wall a few times just to make sure that he wasn't dreaming.
It was a great time having him home, he was able to be here for 10 days. He got to see Nathan run 2 track meets, break his personal record in both the 110 High Hurdles and the Triple Jump. He also got to watch Mikayla in her first track meet! They were both very glad that he was here to watch.
He left last night for New Orleans. He will be there until Graduation June 5th, then probably back out there after that... really don't know, and just try to go with what they say.
Can hardly believe Andrea will graduate in 8 weeks! CRAZY!!!
My kids are growing up so quickly...keep me busy and bring me MUCH JOY!!!

Caribbean Cruise!!

As most of you know Rex has been traveling for work for about 18 months now. He has been in Florida since January 5th.
Several years ago, we bough into a cruise vacation plan... it has been amazing to have and has allowed us to travel with the kids as well as alone.
WELL we figured that we would take advantage of his location and take a Caribbean Cruise! We had a Delta travel voucher, so I used that for my LOOOONG flight out.
I left Eugene OR. at 1:00pm on Friday Feb.19th and Flew to Salt Lake City.. I had a 4 hour layover there, So my Dad and Kris came and picked me up and we had dinner. It was nice to be able to visit with them a little.
Then I boarded a plane to Los Angeles.. yep how dumb is that... any way.. my flight to Fort Lauderdale left at 10:15pm and I arrived in sunny Florida at 6:00 am the next morning.. which I'll remind you is 3 hours ahead for my body clock.... and sleeping on the plane, well that didn't go so well.... BUT I was in Florida and just 4.5 hours away from Rex. See he was working in Key west, and HAD to finish the job before he could leave.. SO I rented a car and drove to key west. Let me say that was a LOOONG drive. Once I got there, I showered and took alittle snooze while I waited for him to get back from work... It was SO wonderful to see him.
We spent the night seeing Key West, and left the next Morning to drive back up to Miami to get on the Cruise Ship.. we were soooo excited.

Here is a picture of our ship. This day we were ported in Cozumel, Mexico!!! It was BEAUTIFUL!!!


We had an absolutely amazing time, just being together was fabulous! We had 4 ports of call
Costa Maya, Mexico - Bellize City, Belize - Cozumel, Mexico and this is a picture during our tender boat ride in Grand Cayman...


The sunsets onboard the ship each night were beautiful


We got some great pictures taken... but had to narrow it down to 1..they are not cheap...here's what we choose.


We met some great people, who will be friends for life now! Had so much fun with them! Phil & Debbie Scott
They actually live in Ohio, close to where I grew up.. we had a ton of things in common..It was great! We even spent a fun morning in Fort Lauderdale together before we dropped them off at the airport for their flight home.


We spent the rest of the day and night in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday. Rex dropped me off at the airport at 5am Monday morning March 1st. It was very hard to say goodbye after our wonderful week together.

We didn't have anyone stay with the kids this time. Figured they were old enough to handle things themselves... and they did a fine job. Andrea really took care of everything, especially Mikayla. She is an amazing young lady!
They were ALL SO happy to see me when I got home. It made me feel very loved and special.
The girls told me that they were hoping that I was going to surprise them and bring Rex back and not tell them... NO such luck, he flew back up to Jacksonville on Monday evening. Not sure how long he'll be there. Could be 3 weeks could be 6... It makes it hard not knowing when he'll be home. And even though I got to see him for 9 days, the kids are missing him, it's been 7 weeks for them.
I think we will be getting on Skype this weekend so they can see and talk to him.
I feel very lucky that I was able to go and spend time with him... and that I have wonderful friends here that looked over my kids while I was gone!!!

A little catch up... AGAIN!

Things are busy busy, Basketball is in full swing. It is SO much fun to be able to watch both Colton and Nathan play together..
The are both starting on the JV team... and both see considerable minutes.. Colton plays much of the game and is the point gaurd. He is very good, and has been given alot of responsibilty. Nathan is playing alot on the JV team and swinging to Varsity.. he doesn't see much time on the floor, but its great for him to be a part of getting ready for next year! I've been streaming the home games so that Rex can watch them. Technology is an amazing thing...



Josh is playing ball for Umpqua Community College. He is enjoying it and continues to improve. I happy that he has been able to keep up with something that he loves so much. He is on the front row #15


Andrea has started her clinical's with her CNA class, and has told me she never wants to live in an "Old Folks Home"
she is doing well, and learning a ton!



Mikayla and I are able to spend more time together after school, since the other kids are at practice or class. It has been very fun and makes us both happy.
Rex is has been working in Jacksonville Fl. for the past month, and will be heading to Key West this weekend.
It is hard having him away for so long. We all miss him.
I'm going to be going down there on the Feb 19 and we are taking a Caribbean cruise for a week! WE CAN'T WAIT.. I'm so glad that we bought cruz points years ago when money wasn't so tight, with out them we would not be able to go now!
I'll try to be a little better about posting... keep you fingers crossed.

NO TIME!!

How is it possible to have not time, when there are 24 hours in a day??? WELL what ever the answer is... It is how I live!
Running around like a crazy woman, most of the time...
It was refreshing to go down my list of blog's and notice that I am not the only one who hasn't updated in quite a while!
I will try and do a better job.. maybe I'll post a picture of Andrea after she gets her wisdom tooth out later today... or some basketball pictures, or maybe holiday shots... who knows what it will be, but I will try and post something new.... besides just text! Until then.. much love to all who read this !!!