Been a long time...

O.K. So I was all gung ho and started this blogging and then sort of let it go; and I'm less busy than ever before. Go figure!

So much has happened since the last time I wrote in May that I don't even know where to begin. So I will start with what I have pictures of - the end of school, Matt's Baptism, haircuts, and our trip on the train.

Both Emily and Katelyn received awards the last week of school. Emily received a Scholar Award for receiving high grades all year long. Katelyn was awarded the "Husky of the Year" - a prestigious award given to one student in each class. We are very proud of both of them! And speaking of proud, Matt made the decision to be Baptized. I was thrilled to be able to be a part of his Baptisim. For more about how we do Baptisim in our church, you can go to http://www.reedleyfbc.com/ and check out Gilbert's message. But basically our Pastor believes you should be Baptized by someone who has been instrumental in your faith walk. For Matt that was myself and our dear friend and mentor Linda DeRuiter. Thanks Linda. You mean the world to us. :)

Here are the girl's new doos!

Of course, then Daniel wanted to take a picture too

to show that he and I also got our hair cut!

So much for my bi-monthly time to myself! :)

And Finally, the children and I surprised (sort of) Matt with a trip on the Amtrak to Discovery Kingdom (formerly Marineworld). Since I am not going to be around tomorrow, on Father's Day, I thought it would be nice to celebrate Matt early. So we boarded th Amtrak early Wednesday morning and headed for Vallejo. It was a blast! Emily kept saying, "It's so cool. We can eat, walk and go to the bathroom all on the train!" Katelyn and Daniel enjoyed it too. We played numerous rounds of Uno, colored, and just hung out. When we arrived in Vallejo, we quickly dropped off our stuff at the hotel and then headed out for a full day of fun. I was pleasantly surprised. No, it's not Disneyland, but it is very clean and there are a lot of attractions for both kids and adults. And there were not a lot of people so the lines were relatively short (except for the outrageously priced food). I will add a few pictures here of our adventure.