Our friends got this picture of Melia yesterday at the splash park... She LOVES doing anything with water. Knows where her swim diapers and bathing suits are. She tried to get us to go today. She grabbed her bathing suit and shoes and was coming up to us saying Water? Water? Anyways, just thought I would share this picture because it has become one of my favorites of her!

By the way, if you want any of these pics, you can download them from the album.

Click here to view the pictures that were taken on my camera from Lake Shasta. Enjoy!

Kenn, you've got talent. No doubt about it. Maybe you should take up Hula dancing as well?

So Dave, I have a question for you. It is now that time again in Jane's life when she is ready for braces. I was looking at your site and reading about invisiline and that it is the future. Is that mostly for adults or are kids doing it too? Is it more expensive than regular braces? Tricare already paid it's share with Jane's first set for her cross bite so her vanity might just have to suffer:). I would love to have your take on the subject before we get stateside and find an orthodontist.

Also, who will be in town mid Julyish? I'm hoping we will be up in Washington either before or after our Bennett family reunion in Yellowstone the16th through the 19th. No, we still don't know exact moving dates. It should be around the 10th. I'm hoping for the 7th. Mike's curtailment has been approved, they are ready to cut his new orders, now we are just trying to find the EROD paperwork that is here somewhere. I should have an answer today.

The kids are doing well. Sawyer is crazy. He cruises along everything and we occasionally find him standing and balancing while he looks at something. Scary, he could be walking way too soon.

Well Jane is sitting here looking at new pics that someone must have just posted (I started this last night and then got on i-chat with Mike). I think her face is actually turning green with envy. I'm glad you all had fun. Maybe we'll get to do the next trip.

We love you all. Adina, thank you so much for Knuffle Bunny. Sadie loves it.

Happy father's day!!! (I KNOW!you are probably sick of it by now!) I am so blessed to have such a great father. Papa, happy father's day. And all the uncles, Happy father's day too!

love you guys,
me

Papa, we hope you have a wonderful Father's Day! We love you and miss you!

love,
the Mike Stinchfield kids

Yes we did have snow... it didn't stick... but we did have it yesterday! And it is going to be in the 70's tomorrow and for the next week.
Well we just haven't blogged lately so I figure I would put a post up. 5 more weeks of school and I am done with classes in college and all I have left is student teaching. It keeps getting closer and I am happy! I also found other student teachers that will be going to the same place I will be so that we can carpool because of these gas prices. It is killer.
I am taking my Praxis exam which is the teacher certification test on Saturday. I am taking one of them and it is the Health Education one. I have to also take a Physical Education one, but I won't take that until August. Pray for me! I have to pass it in order to teach after my student teaching. I am sure I will do fine... I have learned all the material. I am reviewing everything this whole week.
Treven is currently at his military science class which is interesting. There are four classes here that anybody is able to take. He took it to see how he would enjoy it because he is considering doing medical school through the military. He is loving it. They paintball and go repelling and white water rafting. Hard class right?
6 more weeks until the due date for McKenzie. After much debate, we just decided to stick with the spelling as McKenzie. Thanks for all the input. My stomach is measuring right on time and they didn't have time to check if she was breach or not today. SOO they are going to check in two weeks. I am not worried. She is moving like crazy so she could be in any position.
Wish we could be in Shasta this next week, but baby and school. Enjoy it for us as well!
We are still looking into moving in Washington in December... I may get a job here in Idaho from my student teaching so we don't want to make any definite plans.
Melia is getting bigger by the day. I will put some pictures up from about a month ago. I need to get the other ones off of my camera.
That is really all I can think of for now.
Miss you all and love you!
Kimberly

This is one powerful Toyota Corolla. The Boat weighs overe 6000 lbs with trailer.

This would be Sgt. York. New member of the family.

Hello Family,

Here I am coming from the long lost world of Sports Authority and Vancouver. Buffy and I took a labor and delivery class this last weekend and these pictures are the only thing I got out of it. The teacher asked if anyone wanted to try on the empathy suit and of course Buffy's hand shot up and volunteered me for the suit. I thought I had my camera, but as I was putting on the suit, Buffy stole it out of my pocket. Then I thought I was safe because she did not know how to use my phone, but once again no luck, someone else in the class had the same phone and showed her how to use it. I figure it was a fun and games, but we seriously learned some good stuff and feel much more prepared for what is to come. Buffy is growing and Noah is definitely kicking like crazy. We can wait to have this addition to our life.
As for work, the store is doing very well. We had a visit from the CEO and President of the company last week that went very well. I feel like I am very lucky to have the team I have. One great honor that was given to me that might happen was that I was asked to help with opening another store. This time not my own but due to the fact that I did so well with this opening, my bosses want me to go to Hawaii and help open the new store out there for about 7-8 days. I know tough life huh. Buffy wants a ticket also and thinks I should make that a requirement to me going. I just know how much this is helping me with my future.
Anyhow, it has been great reading about all of your lives and figured I should contribute a little. I will be jealous of you guys going to Shasta. Have fun and love you all.

Yesterday I had a good day. We ran some errands and found a place that we think we might sell our car from. Went to the PX because I remembered that my friend had told me that she had seen a whole bunch of trampoline. We went there and the PX said they would call us and they left an answer on our answering machine, (well, at least they said they did), and they were supposed to save one for us and they did. So, we took it home and arranged for my best friend's family to come over and help us set it up. We took it out and it seemed too light, so my mom looked at customer reviews. Non of them were good, so we took apart the small part that we had put together in the box to take it back today. Earlier in the day my friends mom had bought a watermelon. She offered to cut it up and bring it over here. So we did that and... me and my friend had an idea. We are doing a summer party in my back yard. We are going to have a mini raffle, games, soda, and chips. I think it will be a blast. It is only 4 people besides my family and hers, so nothing big. She stayed till eight planning and making invites and we all had fun. Earlier in the day we had gone to Ellyn's end of the year party. That was fun. Ok one more thing before I forget, the other day me and my mom were going to the and we were on post there is a guy running along a side road trail thing in black sweats and carrying a machine gun. Weird and a little bit freaky. Well I better go...

LOVE,
me

Hi, I need someone to set me up on Sundry Seven. I did not know that my mom would let me use her account so I could blog on here. Well, anyway. Sadie is such a sweet heart. She used all her birthday money to buy me an American Girl doll. She got one for her birthday and wanted to buy me one so that our dolls can play together. She got the one that looks just like me.


Love,
Jane

Last night after hanging out at Tom & Tracey's house, I was driving home and talking on the phone to my friend Michelle. I was going south on the 15 and about when I got to the 52 my car's handy flat tire indicator light came on. Ugh. No thanks. So I got all paranoid, remembered something about part of my drive computer being messed up that I didn't feel like paying $300 to fix last year so maybe it was that? It didn't feel flat and I was only about two exits from Friars Road, where I needed to get off.

I made it to the exit and then I see that there are thousands of cars and people everywhere and the stadium is blazing with light. On a Wednesday night? I say to myself. What could be going on? Well, apparently it was the Mexico vs. Argentina soccer game. The same one that I think I got stuck in traffic for about 3 hours last year. So as I slowed down to the light I could totally feel the flat and didn't think I was going to make it the few blocks to my apartment, especially with all these people trying to leave the stadium. So I took the first turn off which took me up a huge hill - awesome for the car, by the way -- and I pulled into a dark neighborhood that I didn't even know existed. Sidenote - I am totally going to write our mayor Jerry Sanders a letter about how many of the street lamps don't work. Luckily because of the soccer game there were police EVERYWHERE. I have never seen that many police cars in one place. It was pretty crazy.

So I called AAA (thank goodness for them) and waited for the tow truck to come for my car. For those of you who don't know -- Mini's don't have spares because, well, there isn't room for it and they have "run flat" tires which you are supposed to be able to drive on for like 60 miles so you can get where you need to go to fix it. That is a load of bull. They totally don't work but of course they are way more expensive. They towed me to my apartment and I slowly eased Remus into the underground parking into my spot and went upstairs to sleep...finding dead bugs in various places along the way (it was my first time home since the fumigation). So I left Tom & Tracey's house at about 10:30 and didn't get home till 1am. Awesome...

This morning my savior friend Joel came over to help me figure everything out. I had to change my mind like 12 times on what would actually be done because I had the whole dilemma of not being able to drive my car anywhere to get the tire fixed. So we had to lift the car, take off the tire, then decide we didn't need to do that, then we did, then we didn't. Sigh. It was especially difficult because I guess my car has super high performance, big, kind of rare tires that not everyone carries and is crazy expensive. But I finally found one which I can't get until tomorrow morning so hopefully that will be resolved faster tomorrow morning since we know what we are doing.

So we finally figured it out and I made it to work -- thanks to St. Joel - the saint of auto mechanics and rides -- and now I feel like I am 15 because I have to get a ride everywhere. :)

Remus will be back in full shape tomorrow morning, I hope, but I think I am going to ground him for a while so he will realize what happens when he poops out on me.

Some more pics of Andrew and Beck playing together.


















I woke up to Andrew standing next to me wanting to play with the camera that was sitting on my night stand. This is one of the pics I got of him.
Ever feel like you are in the way?

I gave Andrew cheerios for breakfast and I found him picking them up with his plane like it was a fork.


Andrew loves to go and sit down next to Beck like this when they are watching tv. It is pretty cute to watch them interact.

Check out the new website at www.discoverydentistry.com.  It's been a long time coming, a lot of revisions.

Anne and I were cruising the web looking for houseboat tips and ran into this about.com review. I thought some of you might be interested to get a sneak peek at the boat besides the brochure pictures.

http://gocalifornia.about.com/od/topcalifornia/ig/Houseboat-Rental/Why-Rent-a-Houseboat-.htm

So on another note I have an embarrassing moment to share. I recently purchased a pair of biking shoes and clipless pedals for my increasing interests in biking. I have been enjoying the gas savings as well as the twice daily exercise aspects of biking to work a lot more. So I was pulling into our driveway this evening and heading for the keypad to open the garage. I mistimed my pedaling and had to hit the brakes mid stride so I didn't hit the garage...small problem is I was still clipped into the pedals. I managed to get my right foot out which was great except that I was leaning to the left(right leg no help), and caboom! It's a good thing my shoulders have never been a problem and I was wearing my helmit. So with a quick look around and no one in sight I was just hoping there wasn't someone in their home across the street enjoying this moment to my dismay. I'll never know I guess. Anne saw me pull up to the house, looked away, she said and then when she looked back the bike was on its side (hmmmm that's not usually what he does) So she comes out with Andrew to find me stretching on the ground trying to play it off as a post work out stretch, yea right. Andrew proceeded to play with my bike with no idea that I just bit it on the concrete driveway. Then as Anne is walking back in to the house says so sympathetically, Sorry I gotta go change Beck's diaper, he's been pooing all day. I guess no bones broken and no blood, her thoughts were get up and help take care of the kids you're late! So that was a quick glimpse into the Olsen household earlier today and besides my bruised pride it was just embarrasing and not damaging.

We are really looking forward to the Lake Shasta trip and can't wait to see you all. Brent and Buffy, we will be in town for the day before and the day after the trip. We would love to see you then.

Peter

Editor's note: I read and still laughed at Peter for his sweet moves today, and yes he WAS late, Anne

We just finalized the scheduling of two of our Conflict Resolution Workshops to a big oil company in Bahrain! Cool, huh? Our trainer will be teaching 40 managers (all men) of the company to learn how to resolve conflicts peacefully so that everyone wins.

I think it is pretty cool and we are all very excited here to bring these ideas to that area. It'll be very interesting to see how these concepts and methods of communicating, which are pretty dang different than what they have been used to, are received.

And now I am off to email people in Greece, Romania, Switzerland, the UK and Canada. "It's a small world after all....."

We had a great weekend over Memorial Day spending time with my parents and my sister. They came for “one last visit” but I worked hard all weekend not to think about that part of it an to just enjoy being with them. I kept reminding myself that if wasn’t really their last visit, it just meant that the next time they visit it will be a long plane ride instead of a long drive. Practically the same when you consider gas prices these days! :)

It started off with a great day at Disneyland on Thursday. Tom had to work but I met my parents there and we enjoyed the magic of Disney. The only down side to the day was the rain, but in truth I don’t think the kids complained about the rain even once, it only bothered us. At one point Hayden I were on Thunder Mountain Railroad and the ride stopped in the middle just as it started to rain. While we sitting there on the ride, in the middle of the track with no where to hide it started to pour!!! We just kept laughing and Hayden was saying “this really isn’t funny” and then laughing as hard as he could. Then he would say “it could be worse, really!!!” The other passengers thought he was hilarious. Needless to say after that we were soaked! Luckily my parents and the girls had taken cover and were mostly dry. We then went on the Pirate’s Ride and Haunted Mansion to get out of the rain for a while. It was a great day.

Then on Friday night my parents were awesome and watched the kids while Tom and I went out on much over due date! We went to the temple and then did some shopping and went out to dinner- at Red Robin of course. Thanks to my sisters awesome Marriott discount we stayed at a great Marriott in La Jolla for cheap and actually slept in! Then we went running on the beach in the morning before heading home. It was a dream come true! T

Saturday we went to Torrey Pines and hiked down to the beach, it was gorgeous! Sunday we met up with a friend of mine who was learning how to take family pictures at the beach and needed a family to practice on. They took hundreds of pictures of us, it was a great experience and the pictures are cute. I’m glad we finally got a picture taken of all 5 of us! Sunday night we enjoyed a stroll at the park, trying hard not to remember that this was our last night together for a while. Monday morning we said our sad good-byes and Hayden saw me tearing up and was good to remind me “Mom, it’s not sad, we’re going to see them again!” And he’s right, we are!

We spent the rest of Monday hitting some Memorial Day sales and stocking up on some clothes for the kids in the next size up since we’ve been warned the shopping there is limited and expensive. The rest of the week has past in a blur. Tuesday night I was in charge of the End of Season party for Hayden’s t-ball team. It went well and we got the coach a nice gift and he got great trophies for all of the kids and said nice things about them. Despite all of Hayden’s complaining he was sad to learn he only had one game left and really enjoyed running around with his team mates. He is in love with his trophy and keeps on saying “I can’t believe I got my very first trophy!” He made a sign for it so he could keep it in a special place.

I continue to prepare for the move and have suddenly started to feel really anxious about it. I hope the anxiety passes soon, I am working on organizing my to do list because I keep stressing that I won’t possibly be able to get everything done. I can't wait for Lake Shasta and the chance to just sit back and relax. It should be a lot of fun, the break I need because once I’m there I can’t stress about things to do. But in the meantime I am stressing about getting everything ready for that trip as well. Hooray for Adina dealing with all the food prep!! Thank goodness we cancelled the Hawaii trip or my head just might explode! Hayden is starting to feel the pressure of moving as he has the “last” of so many things. He came home from school on Friday telling me he is going to have a Halloween party at our house right now because he wants one last party before we move. We keep focusing on the positive so hopefully he won’t get too sad about moving. It’s going to be really hard to leave his friends because he still clearly remembers how it felt to leave his friends in Cleveland. Luckily is so good at making new friends he’ll be okay once we get there!!

Okay, I have to stop typing and must get things done.