My Family 2011

Some of the amazing, wonderful memories made this family vacation.

My parents, brother Greg, brother Garey and his family, and us.
We haven't all been together since 2005.
Hopefully it won't be another 6 years before we are all together again.

Anderson Island

Christmas 2009

CHRISTmas cookie cookoff...

i love my job... i know many of you might think im crazy for this, but... i do... 1 of the big reasons i love my job is my love for my co-workers... some of my best friends in the whole world work along side me at the tacoma costco...

so... gwen helped me(ok... she did it all) bake some goodies for them... i plated them... and will deliver them in the a.m....

happy CHRISTmas...

Storytime

Cole and I were having storytime together yesterday and he was sharing a story with me that he had written. It began, "Once upon a time there was a little boy named Cole, and he had a mom named Mom ..." The story then had us go to the beach and do all kinds of fun things together.

Now, being a stay-at-home mom, and a teach-at-home teacher, and a work-at-home employee, there are days when a small feeling starts creeping into my mind, and I long to be called something other that "Mom." Something crazy ... like ... Gwen or something ...

But, I really am so very thankful that I get to be called Mom. It's the name that I've wanted to be called since I was a little girl. I am amazingly blessed. I love being a mom named Mom.

i love my wife...

my lovely, loving wife made me this pie...

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i wish you all were here to taste this beauty...

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actually... im glad youre not... then i dont have to share...

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but, if you were here, i would share...

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maybe....

we laughed...

on saturday morning we had breakfast with our friends ron and cyndi... it had been a while since we had seen them so it was great to reconnect... and breakfast was good also...


i love that laughing picture of gwen... totally random... so funny...

the rest of the pictures of are ones i tried to take... at arms length since it was just the two of us... by the end of the trip... i was getting pretty good... these are the worst of them... half faces... one of us not being ready etc...




gwen loves the ones that look like im not ready and yet im taking the picture... what can i say...? she says that takes real talent...

music builds tour... san diego california...

the main reason we went down to california, believe it or not, was a concert in irvine... the music build tour... consisting of jars of clay, robert randolf and the family band, switchfoot and third day...

gwen heard this advertised on our local radio station and wanted to go... when we checked into the tour and cities they were going to be in, we found that they were not coming to the northwest at all... so we started looking for other destination cities... we considered chicago, phoenix, minneapolis, and decided on irvine....

we knew at that point we could go to disneyland, head to san diego, and see the show...

jars of clay opened and did awesome... i remember seeing them many times over the years and it was cool seeing them again... gwen and i matched in our white hoodies...

we also saw one of my all time favorite bands... switchfoot... local boys from san diego... they were as good as always... we have seen them quite a few times and they just keep getting better... i think they were the best show of the night...

and to close the night out was third day... gwen and i have seen them before and they again were solid... they sounded great and played alot from a new album... very cool...

the show was long and worth the trip alone...

we did also have a great time in san diego and disneyland though...

15 years for gwen and i... we started planning our 20 year anniversary trip already...

good to be home...

there are quite a few things about our trip that i am going to post about in the next couple of days... but i just wanted to say that we had a blast, but are happy to be home...

we flew first class... for the first time...

noah and ethan won their game 27-20...cant believe i missed it... : (

its good to be home...

post from starbucks... san diego style...(post #5 from cali)

as gwen and i sit and enjoy our beverages here in san diego at the beach side starbucks... we cant help but smile and think... what a great time we are having...


a couple of shots of us at the beach... and im not sure where the sun is so dont ask...

lunch at in- n- out burgers... very nice...




enjoying a drink in old town san diego... we had a lot of fun shopping and laughing here...



me... taking a siesta...




now... back to irvine for the show... more later...

another southern california post... (post #3 from cali)

the day started with a picture with Mickey Mouse... we look good... dont we?



gwen and i also were able to line up as first into the park... we have never been there that early so that was cool experience...

gwen looking good next to mr. potato head...


gwen and i love grizzly river run... very wet and very fun....

it was a wonderful day today... and we are looking forward to another great day tomorrow...

we are here...(post #1 from cali)

one of the things we are most excited about is that they are decorating disneyland for halloween... neither of us have ever been here for this season....



lots of pumpkins... very cool...



gwen and i on mainstreet... right after we got here...(lovin the orange banners)

we had lunch at the Blue Bayou... never have eaten there before... something about darkly lit, sit down restaurants and four kids have not mixed in the past...



this time it was great... the food was incredible... ill post about that another time...



right after lunch... pirates of the caribbean with no line... this is a great time of year to be here... NO LINES....


finally ... first ride on Splash Mountain for gwen ever... we both got SOAKED...

P-A-R-T-Y

We celebrated the Miller family summer birthdays yesterday at Papa and Gramma's house. Happy Birthday to Calle, me, Uncle Tim and Noah! Noah's birthday is not until September 14th, but we thought we'd celebrate his birthday, too, while we were all already together.

Noah counting some of the birthday cash he received. He's saving up for a Wii Force Unleashed game, which comes out sometime in September. He can't wait to take his wad of cash to Costco as soon as it comes out!


Mark trying to light Noah's hair on fire along with his birthday candles. As you can imagine, every dad there was laughing and every mom was yelling, "Maaaaarrrkkk!!!"


Cole with Uncle James and Cousin Tyler. Cole absolutely and completely loves both James and Tyler and cannot get enough of them whenever we are together!


Tyler, Cole and Noah. Noah absolutely and completely loves torturing his mother and cannot take a picture without doing the rabbit years .... uuuugghhh!


Mark, Gramma and Cousin Evan just hanging out.


And sweet Abby and Papa enjoying each other.

We had a super fun day ... thanks Miller fam! Thanks for the pictures, too, Auntie Holly, since I forgot our camera!

(And, for the record, Ethan was actually at the party ... he just always has this way of sneaking upstairs and watching Sponge Bob every time we go to Papa and Gramma's house...)

15 Blissful Years

July 31, 1993 - July 31, 2008