Words to live by.....

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give" -Winston Churchill

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world" - Mahatma Gandhi

"Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right" -Grateful Dead

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

 Our very own sledding hill
                            Catherine and Hunter lovin' our first snow storm in Sandpoint!
Sophie, Holly, and Kai in out leaf pile













                                              Our future Lifeguards

                         We are always so happy when we are in Sandpoint :-)
                        A happy Mike chillin' in the lifeguard seat and enjoying his Starbucks


                    On the shores of Lake Pend Oreille, City Beach, Sandpoint
                                                          Our new home almost complete


                                                        The front yard, and at the end of the
                                                         yard will be the new Stella Farm


                                                          The beautiful view of the "7 sisters"
                                                           mountain peak from the house.



Friday, April 04, 2008

Life continues to be busy in our ever growing family! We got home from China and had a wonderful Christmas here in Seattle. What fun it was to watch a 7 year old experience her first Christmas. She thinks Santa is the coolest thing ever! In January Holly celebrated her 4th birthday and Sophie celebrated her 5th. How time flies!!! In February we packed up 6 kids (Catherine flew down for a week as well) and 11 horses and moved down to Thermal CA (near Palm Spring) for 5 weeks of show jumping competition. The competition went very well for our Grand Prix horse, young horses, and our clients, so we were pleased with those results. A lot of hard work and training all winter paid off for the horses, and it always feels great when hard work pays off! The kids all had a great time as well! The horse show grounds run a wonderful little school for the trainers kids so Ciara, Hunter, Ruby, and Kai all enjoyed that. Our good friends rented a condo near the show grounds and were kind enough to let us invade their pool and hot tub, and then another friend let the kids use his hotel pool (equiped with multiple water slides) so there was no shortage of water fun! Add to that our trips to cool places like the Living Desert Zoo, the Sultan Sea, and Legoland, and you can imagine the abundant laughter! Mike and I wondered what Ruby would think of our nomadic horse show life and she loved it! She acted as if she, like the rest of our gang, had grown up in the sport. She really is amazing. Here are some pictures of the kids taken between Christmas and now.

Catherine, Ruby, and Kai in the RV at Thermal, CA

Ciara and Sky at the show in Thermal

Ciara and Ruby on the Fairytale ride at Legoland

Kai kite flying at the horse show in Thermal

Hunter enjoying the hot tub at our friends house in Thermal, CA

The Gang at the Living Desert Zoo, Palm Springs, CA

Ruby in the pool at Thermal, she loves to swim!

Holly in the pool at Thermal, CA

Sophie and Hunter on Sophie's 5th Birthday

Kai (just after his lip repair), Sophie, and Ruby