Snow in October

Kaylee loading up the wagon
Brooke and her toothless smile

Ryan and Taryn working hard together.

In this picture Ryan is bossing Taryn around, I mean he is delegating and running the job.

On October 12th we got hit by a serious snowstorm. Jeff was in Utah for the BYU game and ended up sleeping in Utah to avoid bad roads. We had Rob & Janelle's kids for the weekend while they were in Hawaii. They picked a good time to leave. The snow stayed for a few days and then thanfully it was gone! We have enjoyed pretty fall weather ever since.

Ryan's 7th Birthday

This year we celebrated Ryan's birthday only 3 different times. There was the school treats, Taking a frind to the fun zone on his birthday, cake with our family and the archibalds, and then the family party with grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. Ryan is such a good boy. We are so grateful to have him in our family. We also look forward to see what he will become in the next few years. I measured him and marked it on his growth chart. He grew almost 4 inches in one year. Wow, talk about growing like a weed!

First Day of school

Kaylee's first day of preschool. She goes to Playhouse preschool which is conveniently just down the road from our house
Ryan on his first day of 1st Grade. He goes to Gate City Elementary and Mrs. Johnson is his teacher. So far he is doing great. He is one of the top readers in his class.
Taylor is always ready for a picture. Notice Kaylee chose a princess backpack.

Vegas Vacation

Last weekend Maja and I made a weekend trip to Vegas for a break from the kids, good food, good shows, and shopping. We flew out Friday morning and came back on Sunday. We stayed at the MGM Signature hotels, which besides the drunks coming in from partying at 5AM and waking us up, it wasn't a bad place to stay. It was just off the strip and a quick cab ride to anywhere we wanted to go. Unfortunately we found out that the stores in the malls will ship your purchases, so the economy is not suffering from a lack of our input! My partner (business that is) Eric Johnson and his wife Nancy went with us. We parted was with our wives Friday afternoon at the mall so we could go look for computers at the apple store. About two hours later we hooked back up. They claimed to be shopping, but I found a flyer for the Thunder down under (see pic below) so who really knows what Maja was doing. Unfortunately "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas," so we may never know the truth. That evening we ate dinner at one of Emeril's restaraunts in the Palazzo casino, Table 10. It was really good food. I'd highly recommend it to anyone. We then went to see the off Broadway showing of Jersey Boys. On the billboards it states "Warning: Authentic Jersey language" Were they correct! I sounded like pittsburgh again with the F-bomb being used as an adjuctive for most any action of object. Other than that it was a great show with great music. It was a show about Frankie Valli and his career.

Friday we ate breakfast at the Paris at their Le Village buffet (can't go to vegas without hitting a buffet). We then went shopping again. We had lunch at a really good steak house located outside of the Fashion Show Mall, the Capital Grille. The food was really good, especially their desserts. That night we saw the Blue Man Group at the Venetian. I don't know if we were expecting more or that we'd heard too many good things about them, but we were disappointed. It was alright, but doubt we'd see them again.

We had a great time and can't wait to go back again. If you ever see any CE courses and want to go, let us know and we'll meet you there!

Cruise to the Bahamas

The end of September I had the chance to go on a cruise with some members of my family. It was a wonderful getaway from the everyday stresses of my life. We went to the Bahamas for 4 nights. Our trip started in Miami and then we stopped at Grand Bahama Island and the city of Freeport. Erica, Marcy, and I went on a Kayak adventure through a Mangrove. It was really fun. It started to rain about halfway through which felt really good at first and then it really came down. We were having a hard time seeing because it was coming so hard. We were soaked and cold by the end. We did get a little bit of time at the end to warm up in the ocean and play in the water. The water was such a pretty color of blue/green and so warm. The next day we docked at Nassau. This was a much more populated island with shopping, and fancy hotels. What a different culture. I got called pretty lady more times than I can count. Pretty lady, you take a moped ride with me, pretty lady you ride carriage, pretty lady you buy purse, shirt, dress, shoes, souvenirs, etc, etc, etc. The morning we were on Nassau I decided to swallow my fears and embark on a discover scuba diving adventure. I am halfway certified so I couldn't do the bigger dive trips. It was awesome!! we were diving by a reef and the water was so clear. there were so many pretty fish and colorful coral. I was put at ease by the dive master that they don't get sharks in the Bahamas at only 13 feet which is the deepest we went. He did say we might see some barracuda, I was glad that for my first trip I only saw cute fish. I was proud of myself that I did this alone without my buddy. The third day we spent on Great Stirrup Cay which is the private island of Norwegian cruise lines. We spent the entire day on the beach snorkeling, playing volleyball, taking a hike, eating(of course everything revolves around eating on a cruise), and just enjoying beautiful surf and sand. It may have been my favorite day besides the scuba diving.

Fall photo shoot

A few weeks ago I took the kids to the mountains for a photo shoot. I got some good shots of them individually, but the group shots were really hard. Next time I am going to take someone else with me. The trees were so beautiful it reminded me of the fall in Pittsburgh-minus the mountains of course.

Alaska

Jeff spent a week in Ketchikan, Alaska with his dad and Mike Bright. They had a great time fishing, eating, and fishing. The fished for Silver Salmon and a morning for Halibut. Besides getting a little sea sick and spending some time bent over the side of the boat, they had a great time and brought back a bunch of salmon. Anyone need fish?

Pictures from summer

I would like to catch everyone up on the fun that we had from this summer. Just a few highlight(in the form of pictures of course)

Finally on board!!

Since I finally have a night free from obligations, I will make a posting or two. I am new to this blogging thing and all of our friends make it look so easy. You are all so creative. I will make up for my lack of writing talent by wowing you with photos of my family. I will also post pictures of my recent trip to the Bahamas as soon as I download them, or convince Jeff to do it. So that is it.