Sharks are moving on, Avalanch will be on the golf course!

Don and I got home in time to watch the 3rd period of Game 6. When we started watching the score was 2-1 for Colorado, but by the almost-end of the game the Sharks had rallied and scored 2 goals and then when Colorado pulled their goalie to try to tie the game, the Sharks scored two empty-netters, finishing with a 5-2 score. We have one very happy son in Alaska right now : )

Dave's birthday dinner

Last night Don and I left the Littles with Dylan and Haley (thanks, kids!) and drove down to Everson where we met Val and Dave for Dinner at the Black Forest. I can't believe what wonderful food they serve there...Valarie said everything is so good because it's all cooked in bacon and butter. So it's definitely "celebration" food as opposed to "every day" food!

Don and Dave each had steaks, and Val and I each had schnitzels. We were all too stuffed for dessert!

Dylan and Haley took the kids to McDonald's for dinner and playing, so it was win-win for everyone involved. When they came home they bathed all three kids and had them asleep in their beds by the time we got home at 8:20!

Kwantlen acceptance letter received

This morning I found the first acceptance letter that we're looking for: Kwantlen Polytechnic University has accepted Dylan into their Music Diploma Program. This program is especially for students who want to transfer to another school for a 4-year music degree, so the classes are more difficult and the program is full of music theory.

When Dylan went for his audition/interview, they told him that by his third year they would have a 4-year degree program in place so he wouldn't even have to transfer to University of Victoria or University of British Columbia.

So now we wait! We'll see if UVic sends a similar letter, and then we have to see what kind of financial incentives each school is willing to offer. UVic in particular is going to have to come up with some pretty hefty entrance scholarships to offset their $16,000/year costs : )

Good job, Dylan!

Hockey night in Canada

Tonight Naylene, her dad Steve, and her sister Tiana came over to watch the playoff game! Steve is the perfect hockey-watching partner for Don since Nathan is unavailable. Especially since they root for the same team : )

Here is Nick snuggling with Naylene. Notice his owie that he got yesterday afternoon : (

International student home visit

Don and I are in the process of trying to be host parents to one or more international students over the summer and next school year. Today someone from the school district came out and checked out our home, met the family members, and generally got an ideal of what kind of home we could offer. She said she was sure we'd get a student, just wasn't sure if it would be a summer school student, a short-term student, or a long-term one. I told her we'd prefer long-term but that we would take anyone : )

The nice thing about having this visit on a Friday afternoon is that my house is starting off the weekend very clean!

I'll post more news as it unfolds.

Rag curls

I got the idea of doing rag curls from my friend's wonderful blog. Last night after their baths I rolled up the girls hair and sent them off to bed. They woke up this morning with two rags left in each of their heads. That's right...two curls apiece and 2 beds full of rags. So today they got to wear ponytails : )

Haley's homerun

Softball season has begun! Haley has been playing for years...not sure how many but a lot! She plays catcher, which means she can throw like a laser. In the beginning of their relationship, Dylan playfully threw one of the kids' bean bags at her. She winged it back at him so hard and so fast that he didn't have any time to react. It hit him square in the chest and he hasn't thrown anything at her since!

Last night Dylan took her to her game and stayed to watch...and it was a good thing because Haley hit the first homerun of her career! Congratulations, my dear! You're beautiful AND talented and it's a pleasure to have you in our family : )

The calm after the storm

Today I'm back into my routine after a week of first anticipating Nathan's arrival and then enjoying his presence.

I drove Nathan to the Bellingham airport Sunday morning after a wonderful three days here. We left the house at 7:45 to be at the border by 8 because he had to be at the airport by 8:45. We got to the border to find a huge lineup. I thought that he would definitely be missing the Airporter Shuttle and that I would end up driving him to Seattle, which would be very disappointing to my sister since she was looking forward to me helping her pack. But lo and behold, when they opened the border (5 minutes late :P) they opened FOUR lanes and we were through the border in 10 minutes. We were at the airport by 8:35 and Nathan got all loaded onto his bus. He made all his flights and got home to Cordova at 7:00 Alaska time.

I went from the airport straight to Val and Dave's to help her do some packing for her impending move. We drove over to their new place and it is very cute! I think it'll work out just fine for them once the owners finish the landscaping and fencing. The house is nearly the same size with the exception of the living room. The new living room is much smaller than their old one. Just about everything in the house has been redone, including new tile floors, new paint throughout, it's just really nice. I have no doubt that Val will have it cute and cozy in no time.

They're planning on moving next weekend and Don and I will be helping them. Dylan and Haley are going to watch the Littles so we can both go.

I came home yesterday afternoon to find that while I was gone Patience learned to ride her two-wheeler without training wheels! Don said she asked him to take the training wheels off, so he did, and she immediately started riding around...no running behind her holding up the bike necessary!

Today Patience went back to school, Jordyn went to a playdate with her best friend, and then I had my daycare kids from after school until soccer time.

Life is good.

Dylan's second audition

Today Dylan auditioned for the local college, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, in Langley. He said he basically blew the audition out of the water (in a good way!) and had a great interview in which he learned that Kwantlen is introducing a 4-year music degree program, so if he went to Kwantlen he wouldn't have to transfer anywhere after 2 years.

He took a music theory placement test that he thinks he did "so so" on. If he didn't do well enough, he might have to take music theory this summer somewhere...not sure where.

So, now we wait. UVic has auditions through April, so they don't notify successful applicants until May. We're basically just leaving it in the schools' hands, so to speak, and see where he gets accepted and who offers him the best financial package. Basically, who wants him the most : )

Of course blogland will be the first to hear how this all turns out!

Mutual Admiration Society

Nathan admires Nick because he thinks he's perfect in every way and will someday be an NHL star; Nick admires Nathan because Nathan takes him outside!

Sean @ 15

The paci game

Nick loves this game: take his pacifier out of his mouth with your teeth, he takes it back, you take it back, he takes it back, repeat indefinitely.

Canucks playoffs, round 1, game 2

Nathan purchased 4 tickets to this game, which made some people very happy! Namely Naylene, her dad Steve, Don, and Nathan!

Let's hope they're this happy at the end of the game : )

Naylene and Nathan in the matching hoodies we gave Naylene for her birthday.

Nick was very excited until he realized that he was going to be left behind : (

Don loves to see Nathan wearing the Canuck's logo!

Steve, Nathan, Naylene, and Don off to the game!

Angel with horns

As my grandfather used to say!

Nick and Elmo

Nick goes to bed super easily as long as certain requirements are met: he needs a pacifier, he needs his music, he needs his blankets, and he needs Elmo.

Easter morning 2010

Wow...now I see just how delinquent my blogging had become; I still had Easter pictures on my camera! I didn't tell the girls that Easter was coming so they were totally shocked to wake up and find that the Easter bunny had visited! There were baskets with goodies and plastic candy-filled eggs for the kids to find. The kids were each allowed to find 10 eggs. Nick totally got the hang of it!

After the early-morning festivities we went to church and had a great service. It was a wonderful day (from what I remember).

Pictures from Nathan's camera

Nathan took these great pictures when he was home in March and this weekend:

The young padawan learning the ways of the force.

The young padawan gets rewarded for his hard work with a trip to McDonald's playplace. Nick is waving goodby. Nathan looks fairly pleased to be spending time with this favorite baby boy!

Nathan and Naylene took the girls mini-golfing after school on Thursday. It was the first time either had played. Nathan didn't bother keeping score because it would have taken way to long to add up all those 3-digit numbers : ) but each girl managed to get a hole in 1!

Don made crepes for brunch this morning, and Storm still remembers how to do his "leave it, take it" trick!

Naylene's Grad Portraits

More eye candy! We especially love the outside shots, toward the end : )

Guess who is here?

Yesterday afternoon Naylene and I drove south across the border (no lineup!), had an Edaleen ice cream, and then shopped at Bellis Fair in Bellingham for a couple of hours. Then, we drove south to Seattle to pick up Nathan! Hurray!

Nathan was in class in Yorktown until 2:15 and managed to catch a 4:20 flight out of Norfolk, which is a 45-minute drive away. He had reserved a taxi, so that was waiting for him when class was over, which helped him make it in time.

I got a cheery, automated message from Delta yesterday morning saying that the flight had been cancelled, but when I went on to their website to see what was going on, I found that they had just changed the flight number...everything else was the same! So I was allowed to "accept a new itinerary" and then we were back to just hoping and praying that Nathan could get to the airport on time.

His flight came in at 9:40 p.m. and after getting his luggage and stopping for a bite to eat, we couldn't make the Aldergrove border crossing and had to go around to Sumas. We didn't get home until 1:30 so we're all a little bleary-eyed this morning.

Nathan and Naylene have pretty much every minute scheduled for the next three days. Their goal is to be sick of each other by Saturday night so that Nathan's Sunday morning departure isn't quite so painful. We'll see how that goes...

On a very bright note, I have to say that Nathan has scored a perfect 10 with this lovely young lady. The more time I spend with her the more I see that she and Nathan are so compatible and they are destined to have a ton of fun together. I just love how both Nathan and Dylan waited for gems : )

I'll post more as events unfold...

Nathan's "freebie" weekend!

Do you remember me telling you that Nathan was going to be in Virgina for some Coast Guard training? Well, he has been there since the last week in March and his second class finishes on Wednesday. Because the Coast Guard allows him two travel days to get from Virginia back to Cordova, he basically has a long weekend here starting with this arrival in Seattle at 9:38 p.m!

Our plan is for Naylene and I to go pick him up, and to take advantage of being in the states to do a little shopping : )

On Thursday Nathan will get to reconnect with the Littles, who have missed him terribly, and to spend some time with Naylene. Last time Nathan was home on leave, Naylene was traveling with 4-H for all but two days, so they really didn't get to spend a lot of time together. Thursday night he's taking Sean to "Honk," Poppy's musical that Dylan is playing in the pit band for.

On Friday morning Nathan and Naylene are meeting with Anita, the photographer who took Dylan and Haley's photos! Nathan will not be here for Naylene's senior prom, so they are taking advantage of this very small window of opportunity to have pictures done together in their finery. Naylene's dress is drop-dead gorgeous, and we're praying that Nathan's suit still fits. He bought it when he was a senior, and I'm pretty sure he's bulked up a bit since then : ).

Naylene and I went shopping on Sunday and bought a nice tie for Nathan to wear that will coordinate with her dress, as well as a few other clothing items for their photo shoot. It'll be so nice for them to have these photos during the months that they'll have to endure without seeing each other at all : (

They have pretty much every minute of every day scheduled, culminating in a Canuck's playoff game that they're going to on Saturday night. And then on Sunday morning we'll have to take Nathan back to Seattle so he can head back to Cordova. Back to reality. But we're all so happy that the Coast Guard gave him this free weekend at home. He's going to make the very most of it.

Soccer

Tonight Patience started playing soccer! It's a recreational league that plays in downtown Aldergrove on Monday evenings. The teams are made up of 5 year old boys and girls and there are only games, no practices. It's very near Naylene's home, so she walked her dog, Roxy, over and watched. Actually, she came to watch, but she ended up taking Jordyn to the playground because she was bored stiff : ) That was obviously a huge help to me. Here they are in all their splendor: