With the new update released from Sony
today, the PSP now has a full web browser from which I posted this. Cool huh?

Mike

Well, as Anne calls it, I am abandoning her tomorrow to go visit my parents and go camping with my siblings in California. I am excited to go to Dinkey Creek. It is a place that my family went to when I was little for family camp with the ward and it's down the road from Shaver lake which was a big place for us to go to while I was growing up in the scouts and all. We are slowly collecting more camping gear. The new item for this trip is a little camping stove. It's not the deluxe-o version, but I was way excited to test it out tonight.

My niece moved up to Provo a week ago to work and I think go to school. She was visiting tonight and we found out that she is in the same ward as Anne's teamates. Oh, my niece is 19 and has finished a year of college. It's fun to have a niece that old because she is more like the younger sibling I never had.

Last week we were graced with a visit from the Battleground Stinchfields. I keep wanting to call them the Georgia Stinchfields. Anyways, it was awesome to have them around for a couple of days. I had a load of fun at seven peaks water park. I havn't been to a water park for quite a long time. I also learned that you need to reapply sunscreen because it can wash off. It wasn't that bad of a burn though. I also had lots of fun showing Jane my coin and money collection. After they left I've been working on my "your in trouble" face that Mike and Sadie kept giving Jane. Jane really wasn't doing anything but being framed for popping Sadie's toes. Anne just shakes her head and gives me a "you're goofy" look when I practise the look on her. I probably don't do the look justice. It is pretty cute when Sadie does it. Anyways, I love being an Uncle.

Congradulations Tom on passing your boards! Congradulations on getting the new house all taken care of Dave & Adina! Take care all,

Peter

Tom,

Outstanding! Nothing like getting your part I behind you and you'll do well in the part II. I don't perceive that you'll have any problem with that or the state or regional exams when the time comes. Just remember that they did not let you into that institution because you were dumb. You have the intelligence, drive and ambition to get where you want to go. Just keep up with the requirements and great things will come your way. Hang in there, man. L/ Dad

That is just great about your boards. It is so nice to check off those things that you'll never have to take again. It seems unreal that you are at the hump....half-way through.

Mike, Brooke and girls just left after a great evening with us. I think David and Adina should get the keys for the house tomorrow. I'm excited to see the inside of the house...

Love to see updates from you all! We love you all!

Mom

Well the dreaded day finally came and ended in celebration! Tom got his board scores and he passed!!! He couldn’t help but be nervous because the test was so hard but he did just fine on it! We rejoiced by going out to Red Robin, yummy!!!

Prior to going to Red Robin we had a fantastic time cleaning our basement yesterday. What a joyous occasion it was… we have the biggest pile of trash I have ever seen and another large pile going to the Salvation Army… why were we keeping all the stuff in the first place? Our basement is one of those nice dark, unfinished spidery wet ones… it’s a lot of fun but we’re grateful to at least have somewhere to put stuff.

Kenn and Barb thanks for sending the binoculars and the cute outfit for “baby sister.” It was such a fun package to get. Buffy your shopping trip sounded like quite the adventure! I can’t believe she does that alone with her kids! Dave and Adina, congrats on getting the house! It is so cute and in such a great spot. It’s amazing how everything just seems to be working out so well for you! Hopefully we can come see it sometime before a year from this Christmas. We’re starting to look at options for traveling over spring break or something because we miss everyone so much already! Staying here for the next year seems really long!

Marnie, good luck with the transition into the non-school world. You're right that they should do something to help prepare everyone more! It really can be a hard transition, especially when you think about the fact that you have been a student since you were 5! I remember really missing the social aspects as well and feeling really lonely a lot. Getting a job back at Sport Chalet sounds like it might help. Around here you are supposed to stay active in the Institute program until you are 30, regardless of whether or not you're a student, or married or whatever. Are you still taking a class there or going to activities and such? That might help to with the transition too. Hopefully it will get better soon.

Hayden is as funny as ever. His new thing is to sing “Where is Thumbkin?” but to change the words to “Where is Hayden?” and to close his eyes until he says “Here I am!” What a funny kid. He was watching the Backyardigans while he was eating his lunch today and when they would start singing he couldn’t resist standing up in his high chair and singing and dancing, even turning circles while balancing in his high chair. Oh, how I wish I had the video camera running! He has become hugely afraid of monsters under his bed. Tomorrow we are going to go buy him a night light to see if it helps. He wakes up crying and running into our room several times a night until we convince him there are no monsters. I suppose that is just one of the side effects of a vivid imagination!

Hayden is also the king of excuses. For example, Friday we went to Geauga Lake to the water park. We were floating around the lazy river and Tom handed him to me to hold in my tube. He immediately wanted to go back to Tom and when I said no he said “But mom, I’m getting you all wet!” Very clever… After church today he wanted to watch a movie and I said no because it was time for lunch. He kept arguing with me and I told him his tummy was hungry and was saying “I want lunch.”. So he said “My tummy says ‘I want to watch a movie.” He has an excuse or a reason for everything! We were out shopping this week and I was making him sit in the stroller. He asked to get out and I said no and said “Hayden, what do you think would happen if I let you out?” and he quickly responded with “I would run away.” Needless to say, he stayed in the stroller.

Well I better go, he really wants my attention. Today he started calling me “mama” for some reason and he thinks it’s hilarious. He keeps trying to think of things to say that have mama in it just so he can laugh. I hope you’re all having a great weekend. Talk to you again soon!

Tracey

It seems we have had a lot of those lately. Anyway - it is official - we signed the papers today and should receive the keys to the house soon. We're pretty anxious to get into the house - not because we haven't thoroughly enjoyed our stay here. We have been so comfortable and we feel pretty fortunate. We'll be here a while longer - we need to have our stuff delivered and we want to do some painting before we move in. Kids start school on the 29th, so we are aiming around there.

Kenn, Dave and boys are at Father/Son camp out tonight. We ladies had some dinner, then went to Cold Stone for some dessert. My eyes were bigger than my stomach - half of my dessert is in the freezer! Then we came home for a movie of Morgan's choice. I was anxious to watch some super girlie movie like Beauty and the Beast or Cinderella, but what does she pick out? Spiderman! Her brothers have brainwashed her! It was a fun girls night anyway.

Off to bed - I am at the end of Wuthering Heights and I am anxious to finish it. I know it is a dark, twisted love story, but I like it! G'night!

Adina

Personally, I think that people in general need to trust the dentist they go to. More insitutional, "boring" names tend to engender that sense of trust. If you get hung up on a clever name, you could be working against this theory of mine. So my suggestion is Columbia River Dental.

When I get back Sunday I will post something about our wonderful trip to Utah.

Mike

Hey guys, some of you know that I am trying to aptly name my practice. Having a hard time deciding. Had it nailed down to River Rock Dental, but got too much negative feedback. I know, "any name you pick is going to get some negative feedback". Well, it was too much. So here I am again trying to figure out a name for the practice and not being able to come up with anything substantial.

So, this is where I ask you for your help. Give me some names. These are the "criteria" I am trying to satisfy:

• Something to do with the outdoors, Northwest, trees, water.....
• Short enough to be reasonable in length for a sign/website/answering on the phone, etc.
• Have a domain name available (www.name.com) for easy remembering when driving by and seeing it on the sign.
• Must have calmness associated with it. The problem with River Rock was the 'Rock' part....too hard.
• Not already be the name of a dental practice in Washington/Oregon.
• The practice is located on a woody acre with a serene garden that has bird/squirrel feeders galore and a waterfall with a small pond. The practice has been there for 32 years. Both the Columbia and Washougal Rivers are within a 1/2 mile North and South. Washougal means 'rushing water' and it is sometime called the Gateway to the Gorge because it is the last large community you go through before entering the Columbia River Gorge where there are waterfalls, etc. Also, there is a view of snow-capped Mt. Hood from Washougal. That should give you a good feel for the area and hopefully help with ideas.
  

If you have any ideas let me know. I have spent countless hours eliminating names and thought you all would have a fresh perspective with fresh ideas.

Thanks in advance, just put 'em on the blog.

Dave

Of the many places I want to see in LA before we move I was able to see one today... the garment district in downtown LA. It's not an attractive tourist spot by any means, but I did want to see this place I have heard of for so many years. I have a friend who sells clothing out of her home by hosting shows and letting friends come over to shop as well, who makes frequent trips to this place. By the way, she also sells those modest camisoles and cap sleeve tees.
Last Sunday I tracked her down to let her know I wanted to come along on her next trip. That trip came today and off we went in her Odessey with her 1 and 4 year olds. Our first destination was not what I expected. It looked like a large 2 story outdoor mall but all the stores were the exact same small size with clothing in them with either Asian or Latin employees. We went to the stores that Mandy had been to before and any that seemed to have merchandise that she was looking for. She would immediately decide if she wanted anything and then discuss cost and the minimum quantity the items came in. All the while we had 2 squirming children to keep happy.
Several very large bags and hundreds of dollars later, we drove to our 2nd destination which was more of what I was expecting (more ghetto). We parked on one of many blocks of streetside stores of tons of clothing and accessories. You definitely had to know where to go because most stores sold worthless stuff. So as we browsed our last few stores, I could not help but notice people selling dvd's on the sidewalk that were movies still playing in theatres for $5! I then noticed a ripple of these "vendors" down the street wistle to each other that a cop was driving down the street and quickly conceal the pirated videos.
In a 3 hour trip downtown, we packed the Odessey full of bags and headed home. It was kind of overwhelming but I would definitely go back with her again. Since it wasn't my money, I had a blast picking out tops and skirts and helping order 6 to 12 of everything! When we got back I was happy to pick out a couple things for the wholesale price since I helped out (basically I got to play dress up!). Anyway, the main things I learned from this trip was 1) boy is there a huge markup on retail, and 2) this friend of mine in gutsy and crazy but doing extremely well with her home business.
Ok, I'm done with my story now. Sorry we haven't posted either lately, but like you it's just been ordinary day to day stuff here. Oh, and Tracy... I found those Teva's on their website and ordered them directly from it (love flip-flops!).
Brent and I are more and more sure that I should do my final 12 week internship with the clinic in Vancouver. Brent might even beat me up there if he finds the right job and has already been contacting potential employers. I have a week and a half before school starts and am thoroughly enjoying sleeping way past my future 5:30AM wake up time!
K, I'm really done now... TTFN!
Buffy

Actually, it even rained a bit this morning...which was too bad since we had not covered up the BBQ, the lawn furniture or some books from RS last night!!! Oh, well!! It has dried up now and when I finish this I need to go rearrange the deck. We had Encroachment (Dad's name for Enrichment) on the deck last night. We tied quilts and talked and ate. It went well. The turnout was small but we expect that in August. Unfortunately, it was also our anniversary but I would have had to do it anyhow if it was at the church. Dave and Adina got some steaks for dinner for us and David barbequed them on the grill....excellent. David is quite the gourmet cook! It made the RS event less intrusive since Dad had a great dinner when he arrived home even if there were women all over the backyard.

What else? Not too much. I'm getting organized for leaving for France on Sept 5. We can't bring much luggage so I need to put some thought into packing for this expedition. Maylene and Gary Perkins from PQ e-mailed us that they are moving up here for a new job in Portland. So I have been scouting out some houses for them to rent. I just went to see one in Battleground and wrote her the report. Dad is getting ready for the Aaronic Priesthood Commemoration Father son campout on Friday night. Only one member of the bishopric will be there...and only for the evening on Friday. However, it was cancelled in May due to weather and problems with leadership being available(including us who were at Marnie's graduation) so it will not be cancelled again. We're just not quite sure why they picked this weekend. I did find his airpump this morning when I organized that area of the garage.

Well, I'd better go down and put the deck back together and make dinner. Love you all. I saw on the Bennett blog that Mike and Brooke won't be back until Saturday. We're looking forward to seeing them again!!

Love,
Mom

It seems lately I have been getting more output than donating input for the blog lately, so since I have a few mins here at Dick Hannah Honda, I'll go ahead and input.
I am here because our van has a ghost that hides whenever we get within 5 miles of the service center. The light will go on and off all day, wherever we go, then when we approach the Honda dealership, it magically disappears and the service guy thinks I am crazy...at least I think he thinks I'm crazy. Even with that haunting, we love the vehicle and swear by Honda, much to the dismay of those American Vehicle Lovers. I really don't care where the car comes from, as long as it is a good one that is reliable. Today, all cars come from everywhere, so I find that argument about American and Foreign cars pretty pointless.
Work is going well, we just sent out a pamphlet thing introducing myself to the existing patients, and will continue with marketing issues as time goes on. It is looking really good though. Haven't yet signed the papers for closing on the house, but should be this week. At least that is what they keep telling us. I'll believe it when I see it. We are already meticulously planning painting of the house. Our Japan household goods shipment arrived this week, so we just need to close, then there will be a whirlwind of activity through the start of school. The kids are in swimming and soccer now, so our schedule is filling up quickly. Actually, Isaac's team doesn't have a soccer coach yet and they are asking for a volunteer. You know me, I have a hard time saying no when someone asks for help, especially when there will be no team for Isaac if there isn't one. I haven't yet submitted my name, but am thinking about it. I just have so much going on right now with the practice and moving, etc.. We'll see.
Well, Adina is arriving to pick me up, so I better close. I had a lot of fun with everyone here. I wish we were all closer. Visitors welcome anytime!
Dave

Happy Birthday Brooke, Isaac, and Jane! What a great trio! I hope you all had a fabulous birthday! I heard there is a joint party coming up for the kids which sounds like a ton of fun! Wish we could come! Hayden loved making birthday cards for his cousins and still asks me everyday at nap time whether the mail man came to get them. He picked out the pictures for the cards. He misses his cousins a ton!

Things here are good, back to normal I suppose you could say. Last weekend we spent Saturday morning at Tom's softball tournament which was fun except that they had a bad official during the second game. He kept making really bad calls in favor of the other team and it was really frustrating. The team complained to him once and got warning not to saying anything else. Later in the game he overheard one team member complain to another team member so he threw the guy out of the game! It was ridiculous! All the guy had said was something like "He can't make a call from out in that position." Anyway, it naturally got the whole team riled up and kind of spoiled the game... not to mention the fact that they lost the game and the next one... all well. We've had plenty of softball for this year.
Saturday night we went to the Indians game and had a great time. It rained but we had perfect seats that were covered so we never had to move. Again the only down side was the fact that the Indians lost by a lot!! But we bought Hayden one of those foam fingers because he has been begging for it and he loved it. He kept yelling "Come on Travis Haffananer!" He's a great little fan!
I think Hayden is finally over the time change from Washington so we can get him in bed around 9:30 which isn't bad for him. He still likes to sleep in until 9am so it's nice. My bedtime goal is to work up to getting him in bed around 8:30. But now that we have that finished we need to tackle the binky problem. I am dreading it and will probably relish in one week of having it easy to put him to bed before I give it up since last week was so challenging fighting the jetlag.

We are hoping to go camping sometime in the next month if we can find a fun place to go. We're thinking we'll wait until a little bit into September in hopes that it will cool off a little bit. It's been miserably hot and humid this summer. We had been able to console ourselves through out the winter knowing that the summer would be so nice and then this year it just didn't happen. Hopefully that will mean that the winter will be a little bit warmer too... we'll see I suppose!

Dave and Adina did you ever go up to visit Canada while you live in Cleveland? My parents are coming in October and we want to go do that but don't know for sure where to go... I guess I'll just have to take advantage of the internet!

Well I think I have babbled on long enough to give you all something new to read. I too spent the whole weekend checking to blogg only to see my own lame blogg still at the top! Oh, one more useless fact. I have decided to do the "nursery" in yellow. The "nursery" is the corner of Hayden's room where we will put the crib. I figure yellow is the only kind of girly color that will not clash with current room decor. Hayden's room is all done up in navy, red, yellow and green sports motif. Hopefully it will turn out cute. Then again, I am not going to do it until December since he needs space to play in his room while he still can!

Okay, no more useless info, I'm off to clean the house while Hayden is still sleeping and Sophie is being good. Oh wait, one more useless fact. Sophie's mom, the girl I babysit, is pregnant, due in February so when I have my baby I will be finished with my babysitting job. I am sad to lose the job but realize I can't do all 4 kids (for one we could never leave the house since I don't have a minivan, and having two newborns would be miserable!) Anyway, now you all know. Have a great day, hope to hear from you soon.

Well everything is going well here in p-town, busy as ever with master's thesis and volleyball. Our team heads to Park City this weekend for a retreat and it should be fun.

Mike and Brooke...We need to know when you all will be in town. We would love to see you all. Please call us (801) 372-4707(anne) or (801) 372-5449(peter).

We love you all and are missing seeing you everyday.

POST SOME PICS DANG IT, we didn't take any digital pics at the wedding, so I need all i can get.

Love, Anne

Hey everybody!
Just writing in since Treven and I don't have internet and are just going to use mom and dad's for now... easier I guess! Anyway, I haven't been able to download the pictures yet and some pictures are on actual cameras, not digital! Aruba was great! Nice and hot and humid! It was beautiful.
Treven and I were going to go snorkeling, but never went because, of course, ME! The story begins when we rented the gear for 15 dollars and found out the best beach to go snorkeling. Cheap way was the best because other than that it was 40 dollars a person! Treven and I both haven't been snorkeling really and we figured there would be more people on this beach. We got there, nobody around at all! So we headed out walking out about 200 feet and it was up to our mid thigh. And I just looked at Treven and said I can't do it, nobody out here and we don't know what we are doing. Anyway, I just scared myself basically! So no snorkeling for us! Oh well! The beaches are beautiful and we had fun just being there! Wish I would have done it now though!
We will post pictures later! We are so thankful to the family for everything! We had so much fun! We love you all! Congrats to Tom and Tracey! And Happy Birthday to Jane Brooke and Isaac.

Treven and Kim

Well, I just remembered that we had quite a few birthdays this weekend so I thought I would write in to say.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROOKE!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANE!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISAAC!!

I hope you all have had so much fun! Have a great day!

And the previous post still stands....

--
Marnie

Hey guys, this is a plead for something to read. We need to be more frequent on the stories, updates, interesting thoughts. Some people really live off of them. It would help me out. :) Thanks.

--
Marnie

Well, we are finally getting adjusted to being back home. Hayden was so jetlagged, not to mention his terrible sleeping habits while we were there, so it has taken tremendous effort to get him back on schedule but he is nearly there. He is having a playdate with his little girlfriend right now so is very happy. But he still talks about his cousins all the time. Last night we got home from running some errands and it was dark outside and he said "My granmda Barb is sleeping because it's dark outside." You're all still definately on his mind!

Well I better be quick so I can go police the kids, three 2 year-olds tend to have a hard time sharing toys. Anyway, I hope you're all doing well. And if someone knows the address to the Bennetts please send it my way ASAP, thanks!

Tracey

Well I am now ending my last day of freedom before the middle of November. Double days start up tomorrow and my life will be crazy until November. I have to say I am very excited considering this is my last season and I am going to be one of the starters this year. I wish it was possible for all of you to come see one of my games but I know it isn’t that likely considering the business of everyone’s lives.

Peter finished his final today and is very glad to have it be over. He now can focus his time on writing his thesis which has to have to first draft ready by October. Hopefully with only taking 2 classes this fall, he will be able to get it done as soon as possible. We just can’t wait for him to be finished.

We definitely miss the loud noise around us and Peter thinks Morgan must be going through Peter withdrawals. We loved seeing everyone and it has made Peter feel a lot more comfortable in the family.

We love you all and hope to see more pictures soon.

Love, Anne

Another, similiar
Originally uploaded by dankus.

The Kids
Originally uploaded by dankus.