Our 2nd Grader!

Looking so cool........! :)

First day in front of the school.

Her table mates! Audriana, Cooper (not pictured, but has the desk next to Audriana), Christopher, Tyler, Willow (not pictured) and Sarah.

Class roster

Audriana, Mrs. Sackmann, and Khoral!

I'd like to publicly thank our photographer, Sofia Alfaro, for the picture below. She worked it and it turned out great!

Audriana began 2nd grade today at Mullan Rd Elementary. Her teacher is Mrs. Sackmann. She has really been excited and looking forward to finally getting back to school (I hope she still has that same excitement each and every school year!). Her teacher invited all the students and parents to come to school this past Tuesday, so they could meet her and get acquainted with their classroom. The kids also got to see who would be in their classroom, and who they recognized from last year. Audriana found out that Christopher, Kellen, and Khoral were in Mrs. Sackman's class also -- these were kids that were together in Mrs. Soderquists 1st grade class. She was really happy about that! She also recognized quite a few of the kids from the playground etc. Mrs. Sackman seems very nice and we have heard wonderful things about her from other parents. The school also has a new principal this year -- Mr. McGinnis! As she has done since her first day of Montessori Central (just before her 3rd b-day), she walks right into school and doesn't look back! She has such a high sense of confidence and maturity! As I have done with each "first day of school", I called her back to me to give me a goodbye hug!! LOL!

Here are a few pictures from this past Tuesday when we got to meet her new teacher, as well as some pictures of this morning (first day!).

The Bennett's are Montana bound!

We say a sad, yet heartfelt, goodbye to our awesome friends, the Bennett's!

Sid, Joye, and Maria have moved to Emigrant, MT and we will miss them so much! Maria has been Audriana's special friend since they were 3. The girls have experienced so many "firsts" together, it will be really hard to not have them here in Spokane anymore! As Sofia grew bigger, Maria also became a special friend to her, too! The 3 of them played so much together and created these memories together that I am sure they will all remember forever (with the help of pictures, of course!). Joye and I got through all these wonderful "firsts" that the girls experienced with smiles on our faces, happiness in our hearts, and tears in our eyes. We were two proud mama's watching our girls grow up together. I will miss her just as much as Audriana and Sofia will miss Maria. Below are just a small sampling of the pictures that I have of their wonderful friendships developing through the years.

Audriana 7 1/2, Maria 8, Sofia 4 1/2 and Nikki 7 1/2.This picture was taken the night before they moved...August 15th 2010. We met for dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Fiesta Mexicana on Grand Blvd, Nikki, Caleb and Lynda came too! Sid was missing because he was still at their house with the moving truck making sure everything was loaded. Anyway, Joye and I used to bring the girls here each Saturday for lunch after their little gymnastics class, so it was a favorite for all of us!
Here are the girls at swimming lessons at Cannon Pool - August 2009.

Oct. 2006 -- Greenbluff, WA hunting for pumpkins and picking apples. It was just before Sofia turned 1!

This was taken high above the Columbia River at the Vantage, WA look-out point. We were on our way to see Thomas the Train. Summer of 2007.

In their Thomas t-shirts. July 2007
(look at Sofia -- this is how she used to "smile" at this age! LOL!)

Audriana loved Thomas the Train so much at this age (from age 2 - 6)and Maria loved him to0 just by association -- what a true friend! :-)

This was taken 2 days before Maria moved -- Sofia and Maria became such close friends -- she was like another sister to her! Aug 2010

Same time, but with Audriana. These girls really share a bond that will see them through adulthood! Aug 2010

Each summer we would take the girls to the beach -- this summer of 2010 we found a great spot in Post Falls! They all 3 loved the water!

I bought Audriana and Maria matching Christmas sweaters in 2006 and they wore them for 3 years! This picture was in 2007. This coming Christmas Sofia will be wearing Audriana's old sweater as it is too small for her now!

This was our 2 girls just after Audriana's 1st grade music concert at Mullan Rd. May 2010. Audriana was so happy that Maria and Joye could come to her concert. What a friend......!

The girls with Santa Clause -- our favorite tradition was visiting Santa the Saturday morning after Thanksgiving. We would all go down to the Davenport Hotel and have breakfast, then walk down to Riverpark Square mall to see the big guy. Fun times for sure!

Another ritual was going to Greenbluff to get our pumpkins. We would pick Strawberries in June, Cherries in July, Peaches in August, Apples in September and Pumpkins in October! Oct. 2009.

Because Sofia's birthday is on Halloween, it was a tradition that Maria, Sid, and Joye always came over for my famous Pozole soup, Sofia's b-day party, and of course, trick or teating! What special times!

This is one of our many fruit picking trips -- this time the girls were heading out to pick cherries! July 2009.

The girls went through 3 years of Kindermusik together and this was their graduating class in May of 2009.

Christmas pictures at the Davenport -- again, a yearly tradition!

Another yearly tradition was going to the Spokane fair together each September. This particular picture was taken in 2006, and was the first time having an ice cream together.

You can tell the girls are really little here -- they must be 4 years old. Another one of their "firsts" was SoccerTots. Summer 2006.

This was taken at the splash park in Eagle Ridge. The girls loved going there and playing in the water! Aug 2008

ICE SKATING LESSONS! Need I say more!!?? :-)

This was at the Old Spaghetti Factory for Audriana's 6th birthday! What a fun night that was! :-)

Peach picking at Greenbluff.

Sweet friends. Forever friends! We love you, Maria!

Lou and Ruth Farline

First, some background on our friends Lou and Ruth Farline: I first met Lou back in 1999. I had just gotten the job as General Mgr at the hotel, and for some reason, during my first week of work, I found myself working the Front Desk Night Audit shift. He would come in each morning, around 4am, sit down in the lounge with a cup of coffee and the paper, and smoke a cigarette. Well, of course I immediately told him that there was no smoking in the lobby and that he would have to go outside. He did not like me at all for that! He had been coming to the hotel ever since Ice Storm in 1996, when his power was out at his house on the South Hill for weeks. That began a friendship that is stronger than ever now 14 years later. Many days he comes down twice a day -- 4am and again at 7am. And sometimes he brings his lovely wife, Ruth. What a wonderful couple they are. They are both in their 90's now and have many little age related medical problems, but they are still such strong people. I have really enjoyed getting to know them over the years.
Ruth loves her cabin up near Newport (on the road between Newport and Cusick) and has been wanting us to come up for a long time. It finally worked out this weekend, so we drove up and met them in Newport and followed them to the cabin. Come to find out, Ruth purchased 1500 river front feet back in 1953, and her and her mother built this cabin! By themselves! She says that they did hire someone to do the roof. Wow! Talk about an inspiration and a lesson in girl-power for my girls! She met Lou right around the same time, so he helped out too! It's a beautiful spot -- although they are forthcoming when they say that they just can't take care of it the way they used to. It needs a lot of tender loving care, and Ruth gives it that in spades. It's a small space, but oh so perfect for them. Ruth likes to spend most of the summer up there, and Lou drives her back and forth. He doesn't like staying up there, so he drops her off and comes back the next day. :-)

Lou and Ruth Farline - Aug. 7th 2010 - Pend Oreille River

Ruth and the girls down in the river.

From the river, looking up towards the cabin -- Martin and Lou

A strong and beautiful woman -- Ruth Farline

Lou on the deck looking out to the river.....

Martin and the girls being silly. We had a nice time and spent a couple of hours just talking and chatting with Lou and Ruth. We had to leave by 1pm so we could get back to Spokane and get ready for dinner at Patty and Chad's house at 4pm. What a busy (but fun) day!

Slip-n-Slide Fun!

Summer is meant for fun! And what better fun than a home-made slip and slide!Dawn Kiki set this up and the kids had a lot of fun on it!

Here's Sofia......!

and here's Justus!

Here's Kaitlyn!
Here's Audriana!

Audriana's new love.......Country Music!

I'm not sure who I have to thank....Aunt Kristi, Uncle Mike, and Grandma all listen to country music. The music influence at home has always been Latin inspired (Martin, obviously) and 70's classic music, funk, current, progressive (actually, all music except for hard rock, and rap). Some Country here and there, but it certainly has never been a music "staple" in our house at all......but all of a sudden, it is all Audriana wants to listen to! We have music playing a lot of the time on our tv (Comcast has lots of music channels). It's usually one of Martin's latin stations...until recently. I would say that this has been going on since May.......her favorite songs right now are "Water", by Brad Paisley and "Rain is a Good Thing" by Luke Bryan. We've all kind of gotten into the Country bug because of her -- in fact, I love both of those songs now too. Audriana knows all the words to them -- so does Sofia! When we get in the car, Audriana makes sure we have one of the Country stations playing. And she almost always says..."turn it up, Mommy"! It's funny. The jury is still out on how Martin feels about his daughter's newfound love......he say's he'll stick to his music, thank you very much!