Summer Wrap Up

It's been a full and exciting summer. We've made trips to Canada, Oregon (twice), and Seattle. Now that the kids are back to school I have a few minutes to post some pictures.

Pam with her mom and sister Jackie up in Portland for her wedding reception. This was trip #1 to Portland. Short but sweet.

Death in the family. Megan brought home "Tippy" from school at the end of the year. He, unfortunately, smelled rather strongly and was banished to outside dwelling. We had some very hot weather a few weeks later which he did not survive. Funeral services were held that night and he was interred under the Japanese Maple that we were planting. In lieu of flowers please send condolences to Megan.

Fun visit in mid July of Melissa and Laura. The kids loved their time with their cousins.

After visiting Brooke's baby blessing in Seattle we drove down to Oregon for visit #2. Dad dragged the family off the main highway to take in Mount Saint Helens. The before and after mountain is amazing as is the changed landscape over 25 years later.

Abby and Megan enjoying some beach time with cousin Grace. We had a super time spending the week there with Pam's family.

Pam and the kids.

Joshua putting on a big smile. Our kids love nothing more than digging in the sand.

The summer ended with a first time boating excursion with the family. Here I am trying a bit of wake boarding. Blake was able to get up but not stay up on the wake board.

The kids really had fun the the pulled tubes. They got to try "Molly" here as well as the "Rock Star" which Blake flipped on several times. In all a great time out in the sun together as a family with the Carvers who let us come with.

Finally - back to school. Joshua has been SO excited for the start of kindergarten. After years of being the little guy, he's finally feeling like he's made it into big kid status. The only problem for him was that his first day was only one hour with mom and a few other kids as orientation day. He was trying to decide what to bring for lunch that first day and the older kids were giving him a hard time about it. "You don't need a lunch for one hour, Josh." Needless to say, he's now pleased that he's staying longer and bringing a lunch. He's even stayed afterwards for the 50 minutes until Abby and Megan finish since that's what some of the other kids do. Now, he's been asking when he gets to ride the school bus. He'll have to wait for a field trip for that.

Swim Team Summer

We had the kids do another year of swimming. They, mostly, loved it. Abby and Megan were on the 7-8 year old swim team with hour long workouts. Joshua did "Minis" with a couple of lessons a week while Blake 4 weeks of lessons not with the swim team. It's a big time commitment to do the swim team for Abby and Meg but they really have become very confident swimmers. They're not even close to the fastest around but the exercise and personal skill improvements have been tremendous.

Megan mid breath in breast

Abby ready up on the blocks

Josh swam in one meet at the end of the season. Here he's "diving" in on a medley relay team race.

Jackie's Wedding-who are the real Canadians?

June 4, 2009 our family hopped on Bart to the San Francisco Airport headed to Canada. The kids were really excited because they hadn't been to Canada since last August. Once we arrived, we got the grooviest vehicle-a Ford Flex. So we grabbed our rental wheels, and started for Cardston. I don't think the kids planned on 10 hours of travel, but we made it.

The next morning Chris and I attended the wedding of David Gipson to my sister Jackie Glenn. David and Jackie had all of their siblings, several friends, and extended family members in Cardston. We took a bunch of photos, then David and Jackie took off to Waterton to take more photos. I was a little worried about the weather, because we got rain and hail on the way back to Calgary. But Jackie said they had the perfect weather in the mountains. The reception back in Calgary was lovely. I think the kids enjoyed running around with their cousins. By the time we left, it was really raining.

To our surprise, we awoke the next morning to three inches of snow. Wow! Snow on the sixth of June. I had to make sure the date stamp was set on the camera, so I could prove the date to myself. The kids were SOOOOO excited. I think Chris was pretty disgusted. We had planned to go to Banff so Chris could do a final high-altitude run, and we went despite the crazy weather.

Celebrations

We've enjoyed some wonderful celebrations the last 6 weeks.

We drove to Portland for Thanksgiving and to celebrate Gabriella Wood's baptism. I, actually, wasn't part of the "we" and flew up Thanksgiving morning after some late night work. The kids had the whole week off so we took advantage. 2008, among other things, will be the year that the Severson family finally learned to take travel in stride. Sure, a few "are we there yet's" and minor scuffles in cars and airplane this year, but as a whole we move pretty effectively. Big breakthrough.


While in Portland, we visited my grandparents and the kids all took turns riding on Great-Grandpa's tractor. Blake was super thrilled to have even taken the wheel.

"Mary" Megan

We've enjoyed a magical Christmas season. I was fortunate to have a very favorable work schedule and, for the first time ever, was able to make every Holiday gathering as well as Christmas eve and morning. The kids love their new Wii and do a great job of playing it all together but, I think, they also appreciated Christmas for Christ and time spent with family more than ever.


On the 28th, Blake celebrated his 10th birthday. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since Pam and I gathered up our things for a trip to the hospital. Most of a day later, Blake arrived and has been a source of joy since.

Sledding Fun

Pam and I have questioned if this would be the year we take all of the kids skiing. Instead, we took a one day trip up sledding. Pam's sister, Jackie, was a good sport and went up with us. I wasn't exactly sure where to sled but thought we'd strike out up Highway 50. About 15 minutes outside of Placerville, we came upon a gas station with about 200 sledders on the hillside and we joined the revelry.

The only incident (and every sledding trip has at least one) was Blake getting struck by a "human missle" from behind while retrieving his sled. Thankfully, no injuries.

Joshua refused his coat

Angel Meg

All that Glitters is not Gold

The kids had Veteran's Day off of school this week so we took a long anticipated trip up to "Gold country" east of Sacramento in the little town of Coloma.

A bit of history: We learned about a few members of the Mormon Battalion working their way back to Utah who had stopped to help build Sutter's Mill late in 1847. While digging to divert part of the river in order to power the water wheel, James Marshall, the foreman, found a pea sized piece of gold. On January 24th, 1848, two of the Mormons recorded the date and finding in their journals. Word spread quickly, for the times, and soon the "Gold Rush" was on.


We made quick stops in the museum and blacksmith shop before heading down to pan for gold and strike it rich on the banks of the American river. We had, unfortunately, forgotten our pans but were able to dig through the silt bottom for treasure. Abby was convinced we'd be filling our pockets with gold in no time and was quickly disappointed. The adventure was salvaged when Pam and I started helping, though. We found pyrite (not that the kids cared - it glittered) and some gold as well. Our total haul was a bit less than what you'd collect from running your fingernail along the edge of your Bible but that's just details. The point to all involved was that we came for gold and we found some.



Our last bit of fun for the day was spotting a bunch of geese in a field. I suggested to the kids we sneak up on them and give them a scare - which we proceeded to do. The geese weren't too skittish, though. Locals walking by laughed and told Pam (who was uninvolved in the mischief) that they'd been chased before. The geese mostly ran from us until they, reluctantly, took flight. The point - like the rest of the day - was the adventure, not the magnitude of success.

"No pictures, please"

Halloween 2008 started out with Joshua parading with his pre-school class and telling Pam, "No pictures, please." Not sure how he decided that but it's an instant classic.

It was a bit rainy so the crowds were down a bit. We had about 250 come to the door, down from a more typical 350. Good times were had, of course, by all.

Indiana Jones



Snow Queen



Cleopatra