Catching Up

It's been a whirlwind around here the last few days. Friday, we took charge of Alyona for a week while Sean & Tracey are in Montana for a graduation and some much needed family time! We headed to the school on Friday morning for Alyona's talent show. There were 24 acts, and tons of talent there! I was amazed at how good the audience of Jr High kids were, as we sat for over 2 hours for the whole talent show.

Alyona sang some hip pop song...(don't recall the name) and she was in her element! Most kids got up and sang, hands at their sides, scared to death...not Alyona...hands in the air, dancing...she had a blast! We enjoyed all the other act, but were a bit partial to Alyonas!

Here is a quick picture of Ashley, checking out Kristin's rats...or should I say, Mary Mae, checking out Ashley the cat! It was very funny....yet, when Mary Mae is loose, and approaches Ashley, Ashley runs!

Next was the weekend....Ryan went to Hunters for the weekend, and ended up marching the Lebanon Strawberry Parade...had we known, we would have gone up to cheer him on. Bill spent most of the day at the church property cutting the grass....I spent the day going through and scanning pictures for the scrap book for Char & Al that the church is putting together. It was so fun to see some of the old pictures of us...check this out!!

We put together dinner on Saturday night, and realized we were out of soy sauce....so, Robert & Bill cut open all the little packets of soy sauce that we got from all the take out....we had a full bottle when they were done....good job guys!

On Sunday morning, we got up and headed for Portland. Al has taken a call at a church in AZ. ( For those of you that don't know...Char & Al were our first friends here in OR, and our life long friends. We were here for each other when it seemed there were no other young couples in Sweet Home. We both had no family, and it took 4 of us to get through a few months with Kimberlee, who was a very colicky baby! We all adored here, and she is the reason that we have two great kids of our own. ) We arrived in Portland 15 minutes before the service, and Ben (a friend who arranged us being a surprise) met us there, and followed us inside to get pictures of the surprise. They were surprised. We asked Ben to take a few pictures for us...he did a great job!

We spent a great afternoon together, and then headed out for dinner together before parting. We know they are moving a long way, but know that we have deep ties (we are God parents to 2 or 3, and have adopted the 3rd!) and they are Ryan's God parents....so we will always be in touch, and know Char will always come home to Mom's eventually!! (Which is driveable for us!---although, you know us...we've made some pretty long road trips!)

Today was Bill's birthday. What a crummy day it was for him. No Cakes, No Presents....(other than what Mom Richards sent...and the gift card from Tam & Eric--I just meant here at home). Robert was kind enough to buy him a nice set of Jack Stands for his birthday...but they were given early. What a great guy! Alyona & I took off shortly after 7am this morning, she to school, I to work, along with Robert who headed in a different direction for work. I worked until 6pm, and Bill had to get supper for all of us if we were going to make it to the church softball game. It was a great time, and I've never had so much fun. We had SO much fun sitting in the stands, cheering on our team. While at the game, there was a huge Osprey nest on the light pole. I was trying to get a good shot of Mom & babies, when Dad flew in with this huge fish! He later came in with a snake. A few of us in the stands were killing ourselves with our own jokes. "Here kids...fish sticks for dinner--with a side of garter sauce"!!! Ah...guess you had to be there. It's funny to some of us!

Here are the big hecklers--oh, I mean supporting fans.....Bill & Pastor Tom....they were a crack up...between the two of them, there was never a dull comment.

Here's a picture of our own Robert....we won't bore you with the other team picture...unless of course you want to see them, in which case, I'll add a link to here later, after I put up the church pictures on that blog...maybe tomorrow. I have to work tomorrow, and it's already 12:20...so need to call it a night.