Happy 5th Birthday, SOFIA!

Our sweet little Sofia...who's not so little anymore. Today she turned 5! She's been so excited for this birthday...literally counting the days for the past month. She knows she's a big girl and is so proud of the fact that she is 5!

We had our traditional family dinner (my pozole soup, salad, and bread) -- mom and Jay came, Mike, Kristi, Jenny and Courtney, and the Sandbergs. It was a full house, but so much fun. I loved this picture of the girls with Aunt Kristi and Uncle Mike.... : )
Grandma and her girls....she never misses a birthday celebration. In fact, everyone was just here for Audriana's bday dinner 3 weeks ago.

Sofia had a lot of gifts to open up. The theme this year seemed to be Zuu Zuu pets with a few accessories (the car, the pizza parlor and their house), arts and crafts, Littlest Pet Shop, Webkins,Halloween Barbie dolls, Moon sand, books, Belle doll, Dora calendar and phonics workbooks. Great gifts! Thank you everyone!

Grandpa and the kids........love it! We also love (and appreciate) that the Sandbergs drove all the way from Ephrata to be with us tonight -- it's a tradition that we love and the kids just love being together so much. More memories being created!

Happy Birthday Sofia! We love you!
Pirate and Darth Vadar.........so scary!

Our Halloween kiddos!

The Kiki's put on an awesome show up on their deck! It was the hit of the neighborhood! Dawn is so super creative, it puts me to shame!!

Sofia's friend, Sophia Thompson, came down at 7pm to go trick or treating with us. She is a really sweet girl and one of Sofia's best friends from Montessori Central. We also invited her other best friend, Addy, but she couldn't make it. We missed her, though!Oh my.....it's Mickey the Pirate!!! Nice job, Martin!

Trick or Treating fun!

What a fun night....celebrating Sofia with family and friends. Life really couldn't get any better than this.

A Halloween Party at Janel's!

Janel turned 40, so she decided to celebrate with her friends and family, and hosted a wonderful Halloween party at her house tonight! Here are me, Janel and Rachel -- we sure have changed a bit since our West Valley High School days!

My angel Sofia (er....I mean, Sponge Bob) is enjoying her last few hours of being 4! Tomorrow she will be 5 and she is so excited!

Sponge Bob and Darth Vadar!

Pinata Time!

Sofia hangin' with Rachel's boys....14 year old Ian and 11 year old Adam.

Pumpkin Carving 2010!

Ok, so we normally drive up to Greenbluff and do the whole Fall Festival thing (pumpkins, pumpkin donuts, apples, etc.), and we had good intentions of driving up there today after Church. But, it was pouring rain outside today, and when we found out that our Church was selling pumpkins in the parking lot, we quickly changed our plans! : ) We purchased 4 pumpkins (which helped support the Church Youth group) and headed home to carve out our masterpieces.
This is our "Before" picture...............

..........and the "After" picture! Mine is on the far left, then Audriana's skull and crossbones, then Sofia's traditional, and Martin's creative one on the far right. : ) We had a lot of fun today!

Montana, the Bennett's, and Yellowstone.....all in one weekend!

What a weekend! We got up early Saturday morning and we were on our way to Montana by 5am. Our destination was Emigrant, MT -- and to the new home of our good friends, the Bennett's! We have been planning this weekend for quite a while -- ever since they moved to Montana this past August. The girls really miss each other and have really been looking forward to this trip. The trip is 7 hours if you drive straight through, but we stopped for breakfast in Missoula, plus a bathroom break and a gas break, so it took us a good 8 hours total. It was all worth it to see the happiness of all 3 girls when we pulled up to their house. : ) They are a few miles south of Emigrant, just off the 89 highway. This is the very same highway that takes us right to the North entrance of Yellowstone Park. They have a beautiful mountain retreat with 3 acreas. They look right out to the Absaroka Mountains and overlooking the Yellowstone River. It is truly a sight to see -- so peaceful and beautiful.
Here is the first picture of the girls as soon as we got out of the car. We have really missed Maria......for the past 5 years we would see her multiple times a week, so this was a special time for them to be together again.

We took a walk after dinner just down the hill from their house, along the Yellowstone river. It's the same spot that they swim and tube in during the summer. The river was pretty low at this time of year, but fills up each Spring.

Maria had planned a sweet birthday party for the girls -- complete with a strawberry birthday cake, presents, and her playing "Happy Birthday" on the piano for the girls. Audriana got the set of Little House on the Praire books (yah! one of my favorites!) and Sofia got some soccer books and a Flower jewlery making kit. Such a sweet and happy night.....

Sunday morning we woke up early and were on the road by 8:30 to drive down to Yellowstone Park - we were excited about the day ahead of us! Above is a picture of the entrance into Yellowstone, the famous Roosevelt Arch that President Roosevelt dedicated in 1903. I remember visiting the park with my family back in the 70's, riding in the camper, and seeing Old Faithful...good memories. I hope Martin and the girls will remember this first trip to Yellowstone with the same happy memories that I have of when I was a child. Just a fun fact to know that we traveled 4 states in 3 days....Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming!

We saw Bison, Elk, Moose, and more Bison, Elk and Moose!

The geysers and fumaroles were a bit smelly...according to the girls. They were right....a strong sulfur odor surrounded us!

Beatiful Yellowstone sights!

This Bison was right on the side of the road -- I could have literally reached out and touched him (not!).

The star of our trip -- OLD FAITHFUL GEYSER! It erupts every 90 minutes or so and shoots up over 100 feet in the air each time.

Sofia checking out Old Faithful close up!

It was Joye and Sid's wedding anniversary, too! They are a great couple and show us a great example of true and lasting love.

There it goes! Wow!

Below is a picture of the hot mineral pool at Chico Hot Springs. This 100 year old resort is near their house and we were lucky to get to go and sit in the warm mineral water for a couple of hours (until we were so hot we couldn't stand it anymore!).

Maria has her own horse and was so excited to show us Carly (she's the one in the background). They board Carly just a few minutes from their house, so they get to go see her daily and give her "horse treats"! The girls were a little nervous at first to get into the coral, but Maria was quick to show them how to approach Carly and how to feed her the treats.

It was sad to see our long weekend come to an end, but we did have to drive away on Monday from this special retreat. The Bennett's were perfect hosts and we thank them so much for their wonderful hospitality. We were thrilled to have been able to spend time with Joye, Sid, and Maria and hope to plan another visit soon! This is a picture of their house, with the snow-capped Absaroka Mountains in the background.

The Palouse Wheat Fields........

These pictures were actually taken during Labor Day Weekend.....and I'm now just getting around to getting them posted here! I thought that the late summer wheat was a perfect backdrop for these "end of summer" pictures. The girls had fun running around and posing for these pictures.