14 June 2009 - Off to Utah

On the Monday before we left for Utah, several of the moms from the ward took a sizable group of children to the Pittsburgh Zoo.This is Jessica, Emily and Madeline with Emma Stephens at the zoo.
When we arrived in Utah on Thursday evening, we stayed in Orem for the night, then went to Angie and Darin's house in St. George the next morning. On Saturday and Monday, we took Uncle Darin's boat to Sand Hollow reservoir. Madeline liked to drive uncle Darin's boat.
Sand Hollow lives up to its name -- the beaches are very red and very sandy. There was a fantastic 4-wheeler riding area in addition to the lake.
When not riding at Sand Hollow, we were able to have some calm slow rides around Angie's neighborhood.
The kids also entertained themselves by playing red rover in the yard.
More pics to come from our second week in Utah on Sunday.

Matt

7 June 2009 - Wedding and Work

One of my first home projects for the summer was to refinish the deck. The wood had never been treated since it was built about four or five years ago. I pressure washed it last week, and this week focused on refinishing it.When we were driving on Saturday, we found the street where apparently we should have bought a house.
I have to confess a bit of a problem. On Saturday, we went to our friend Cliff Bergmann's house for a party for his daughter Carina. Carina was turning 8 and her baptism was on Sunday (the next day). Cliff is a bit of a motorcycle enthusiast, and he let me take his new Honda Shadow Sport out for a ride. I was gone for a little while ;-) Now I want a motorcycle. This is my problem.
While I was off riding, the girls enjoyed swimming in Cliff's (or Carina's) pool, and eating picnic food.
Saturday was a busy day for a lot of reasons. In between riding motorcycles and eating hamburgers, I officiated the wedding of Jonathan Kice and Toni Balzer, who are members of our ward. This is the second of about five weddings I'll be doing this summer.
So school's out for the summer now, but we've certainly kept busy. We're looking forward to seeing many of our friends and family when we come west in the coming week.

Matt

31 May 2009 - Memorial Day Week

We had so much fun at the Memorial Day Picnic that we forgot to take many pictures. It was a hot, sunny day, so there was much water fighting and such. It was well planned and well attended. Madeline even got to go horseback riding.
Since there's no rest for the wicked, it seems I've always got something on my plate. This week I pressure washed our deck to get it ready for stain. It's amazing how filthy it was. It looks like a new deck already -- hopefully I'll have pictures of a finished product soon.This week we also discovered a nest of baby bunnies in our back lawn. The girls have been quite vigilant in checking on them daily and making sure they're growing as they should. I'll have to get some pics of the babies before they get too big and move out on their own.

Take care,

Matt

24 May 2009 - Summer's Coming

Hi Everyone!

It may still be spring, but this week felt a lot more like summer. School's out for W&J, which helps Joanne and I feel summer more, but the kids still have a week or so left -- except for Madeline, who finished with the year end picnic on Wednesday. She had a fantastic time playing at the park with her BFFs.
This ends a four year chapter in our family. When we moved to Washington, PA in January of 2004, Jessica was in preschool. Everyone recommended Church of the Covenant Presbyterian Preschool, but they were full and couldn't take mid-year starts, so Jessica finished preschool at JFK Catholic Preschool. That fall, Emily enrolled at Church of the Covenant 3 year old preschool in Miss Joanne's class. She had two years with Miss Joanne, and just as she moved on to kindergarten, Madeline began 3 year old preschool with Miss Joanne.
Although Emily had a different teacher's aide, Madeline had Miss Amanda as her second teacher for both years, so we feel very connected to these two.
Perhaps what's made it feel most like summer is the fact that it got downright hot. It wasn't anything a little run through the sprinkler couldn't fix though.
The warmer weather also allowed me to finish the painting on the playhouse that I wasn't able to finish before the weather turned cold last fall.
This week should be a good one too. Aunt Jennifer is here for Memorial Day weekend, and the annual church picnic is tomorrow, so more good pics should be coming this week.

Matt

17 May 2009 - Ice Skating

Hi all,

With graduation this past weekend and ward conference on Sunday, I've been pretty swamped. The girls have taken up ice skating lessons. It's kind of nice because now that it's spring, a lot of kids are in soccer or baseball, so the ice skating classes are almost like private lessons.

Emily and Madeline are not in the same class, but their classes are back-to-back and they have the same teacher. She's very good with the kids.
Between lessons there is a 10 minute free skate period, so the girls can skate together for a short time.Most of the time in Madeline's class, it's only her an one boy.

Enjoy spring!

Matt

10 May 2009 - Mother's Day and Baptisms

On Friday afternoon, Jessica's class had Mother's Day tea at school. When Joanne went there she found out that Jessica was supposed to have paid four dollars for the gifts that were handed out to all the moms. She asked Jessica if she had asked me for the money but Jessica said no, she had used her own money to pay for it.After school, we jumped in the car and headed to Delaware to spend the weekend with the family of Joanne's brother Karl. His oldest son, Jacob was baptized on Sunday. This picture is his youngest son, Trevor, reading books with Joanne.For Jacob's birthday, we went to a Chuck E. Cheese style place called xbos. The adults even had a little fun at the bowling alley there.Emily and her cousin Calista had a good time driving this little red car.
It was also cousin Amber's birthday, so she and Jake shared a birthday cake.
Trevor doesn't need his pizza cut up like a baby, he just digs in with both hands and all of his teeth.
In the evening, the kids worked on stained glass painting for Mother's Day gifts.
This is Karl and Jake, ready the real reason we all came together this weekend.Here's the entire group.
If you're a Mother, I hope your Mother's Day was excellent and I wish you a happy and peaceful week this week.

Matt

3 May 2009 - Farms and Fairs

This week was Madeline's preschool trip to Springhouse Farm. It was a rainy, gray day. But at least she got to pet a baby calf.
And she got to milk a cow. She thought it was awesome.I thought this picture was funny because Madeline is the only kid holding her nose.She loved to hang out in the rain with her preschool chums.
Saturday was the annual W&J Street Fair. Although it was gray, it didn't rain. They had a hot air balloon to give rides, but they were having troubles getting it to stay up, and we had to leave before the kids got a chance to ride. A student of mine told me they continued giving rides until after 9 pm Saturday.As always, the balloon artist was there.They also had a build-a-bear type stuffed animal booth. You know how much I love stuffed animals. We waited in line for an hour and fifteen minutes. We figured we might as well make it worth our while, so I even got one. They all have W&J t-shirts.We had a Stake Conference broadcast from Salt Lake on Sunday. L. Tom Perry and Thomas S. Monson both spoke to us. We were grateful for their words of encouragement and guidance.

Matt