Happy Birthday Ian!

Happy Birthday to my brother-in-law Ian! Speaking of Ian, I posted this a few months ago, but was forced to postpone the announcement by Natalie until she was ready to tell everyone at work (you know how fussy Natalie is – JK Nat, ATW):

April 4, 2007 – Ian will soon graduate from Thomas Cooley Law School and has secured an internship in the chambers of the Honorable Judge Winston, Warner, Windmill . . . I can’t remember, but they’ll be moving to Boise in August! Congratulations Ian and Natalie!

And Happy Birthday to Ian! We love you (and Stella misses Uncle Ian)!

Day 4 – 05/31/07 – Carlsbad California Camping 2007

We all woke up this morning and started cleaning up the camp. I have a great dislike of set-up and clean-up time. Everyone gets really stressed out and you’re either in the way or not doing enough to help. I try to avoid the whole situation all together and act like I’m taking care of Stella. Adam and Xan and their family took off for home while I was showering and we were on our way shortly thereafter. We were going to go into San Diego for a little sight-seeing, but decided to plan another trip (just the two of us) for that! I was sleepy the whole way home. Poor Elliot . . . I’m a horrible passenger. Stella and I ate a lot of licorice. It’s so cute when she says licorice that I had to take some pictures of her saying it. It’s just cute.

“LICK”

“RISH”

Day 3 – 05/30/07 – Carlsbad California Camping 2007

Since we all got the crap burnt out of us on the first day, we didn’t know what to do today. We sat around camp until 11 o’clock trying to decide and then got in the cars to drive to a beach in La Jolla. Why drive to another beach an hour away when you have a perfectly good one just 400 steps away you might ask? Well, I was asking too, but it was worth it to get all of the kids to take a nap and to be able to sit in the nice air-conditioned cars without baking in the sun. It was a little cooler at La Jolla too and also a little scarier for me since Stella still wasn’t afraid of the ocean. There were these horrible rocks just off of the beach in the water that would have torn her to pieces if she got swept out.


The waves chasing Stella

George just daring the waves to come near him!

Clairie Baby

Anabelle, Adam, Xan, Claire, Raymond, & George

Mere and Anabelle searched for seashells and the boys found some tiny crabs on the rocks. I think we were all pretty tired already.

Day 2 – 05/29/07 – Carlsbad California Camping 2007

On this overcast morning as we made our way down the campsites with all of our beach gear on our backs and arms and in our hands, we passed several messy-haired campers just crawling out of their tents and asking, “You’re going to the beach already?” It was still pretty cold and they all looked at us like we were morons.

Raymond had his goggles on upside down

Good morning Sunshine!

Stella already soaked in minutes

Xan and George in the fort reinforced with seaweed, rocks, and the wrath of George

Claire, Adam, and Anabelle during snack time

Stella in the sand castle just moments before the girls destroyed it. I was especially impressed with my bridge which would allow flowing water underneath. It was the first to go.

We had a great time playing in the water once we all got used to the cold. We played Frisbee, tossed the football around, found a dead octopus, built a sand castle which the girls happily destroyed, got out of George’s way when he was so protective of his fort, and tried to dig a hole to pass the time. Some of us took naps in the sun against our spouse’s wishes and got a sunburn.

Day 1 – 05/28/07 – Carlsbad California Camping 2007

We got to the beach camping site in the later afternoon and went straight down those ginormous stairs (which actually weren’t as bad as the picture looks) to the beach. Stella sure wasn’t afraid of the ocean like she was last year in Portland, probably because she’s a little older and it wasn’t bitterly cold and windy in California. She just got right in to get her feet wet and we all ended up pretty soaked before we even planned on getting our swimmers on.

The Stairs

My favorite people in the whole world!

Anabelle and Stella

Watching and listening to the beautiful ocean

Updates

Forgive me for not updating recently. I might just be a little overwhelmed with the number of updates I’ve racked up in the last several weeks. Plus, now that I’ve been spoiled at Natalie’s house with high-speed internet, I think I’m just dreading the uploading process of all of my photos at my house. Since I was reprimanded in Michigan by Natalie and my new sister Brittni for my past update efforts which end up being 20 at a time, I’ll try to do one or two a day to catch up and try not to do anything else interesting during that time so I won’t get backed up. Enjoy!

05/27 – Self-Portraits

One Sunday afternoon Stella and I were bored, so we started taking pictures of ourselves again.

Happy Birthday Kaiah!

Happy #5 Birthday to my niece Kaiah! Stella and I can’t wait to get together with you to play tea (hot cocoa) party and princesses! We love you!

06/08 - Happy Birthday Tom!

I missed Tom’s birthday, mostly because I wasn’t sure when it was, so Happy Birthday Tom! Funny story (maybe only in my memory, but I still giggle when I think of it). After Lindsay and Keith got married, the whole family met at the resort pool to participate in the Anderson Olympics 2005. We did silly races like running across the pool (try it, it’s really hard and totally funny), holding your breath, pencil races, and other races that drew the attention to our area of the pool. After one particularly challenging and close race among the boys in the family and as they were all looking around trying to decide who won, Tom popped up out of the water and said, “OH! Was it me?!” It doesn’t sound very funny, but the way he said it and the fact that he was the last to pop out of the water made it really funny! Happy Birthday Tom!

Tess' Blessing

On Sunday, June 3, 2007 my cousin Doug blessed his baby girl Tess Louise Anderson. I couldn't be there because I was on my way to Michigan. What a good looking family!

Tess, Erica, Doug, Trey, Ben, and Chase

Happy Grandma's

MaSan (Aunt Sandra)

Happy Birthday Keith!

Happy #29 Birthday to my brother-in-law Keith (he's a new daddy)!

Happy Anniversary Father & Mother

Happy #34 Anniversary to my in-laws Kent and Barbara Jean Dibble! I'm sure glad you got busy and made my sweetie! Congratulations! I love you!

Happy Birthday to Natalie!

Happy Birthday to my silly sister Natalie! I'm so glad I get to spend it with you here in Michigan! I love you!

New Auntie!

If you haven't already, you need to look at LINDSAY's blog right now! I think you'll all be pleasantly surprised!

Happy Anniversary to Grandmother and Grandfather!

Happy Anniversary to my Grandmother and Grandfather which would have been their #70 wedding anniversary! I love you Grandmother!