Monday

super saturday

after a late night friday night, pat got up early to go play tennis with some of his teammates from 10 years ago and the current USAFA tennis team.

pat and dietz played hard, but i'm afraid the cadets got the best of them.

laurel and i got all dressed up in our blue and white and went to go watch daddy play. (notice the baby bump in this photo? it's growing!)

coach gugat was there to cheer on his boys.


the cadets and the alumni "running lines." pat and coop are far right.


the aftermath. hurtin for certain...



then the cadets reminded them how it's done



GO BLUE!!


next event - the USAFA/BYU football game. if you've never been to a home game at the academy, it is, in a word, amazing. it's different from any other college football experience. you feel like you're not only cheering for your school, you're also cheering for your country. come visit us and experience it!!

laurel loved it, from the very beginning.

isn't this a great picture?!

the cadets - when someone gives the signal to "run like hell." it was fun to sit right behind them.

GO FALCONS!! GO USA!!

i was so surprised laurel and i lasted the entire time. it was HOT in the stands, but it was such a good game, we couldn't leave! yes, you see in the bottom picture that i gave in and let her watch a little of "ariel" on my phone when the game got long. it did the trick!

my new favorite photo.

with about 4 minutes left in the game, the superintendent, General Gould, ran over to the cadet wing and they "passed him up." that's right, a 3 star general body surfed from the field to about halfway up the stands. how cool is that??

so glad we stayed til the end. the falcons beat their big time rival, BYU. 35 to 14.




hit the road jack!
(hope we hear that lots of times this year...)


if this doesn't give you chills, i don't know what will:


the third verse of the air force song. (this is the same song as "off we go into the wild blue yonder..." but the third verse has a different tune and is more somber. it pays tribute to the fallen heroes of the air force. here are the lyrics:

Here's a toast to the host of those who
love the vastness of the sky,
To a friend we send this message
of his brother men who fly.
We drink to those who gave their all of old
Then down we roar to score the rainbow's
pot of gold.
A toast to the host of men we boast
The US Air Force!

busy week!

last week/weekend we celebrated pat's 10 year USAFA class reunion. we had a house full of guests and loved every minute of it. on wednesday, laurel and i went up to base to watch daddy play tennis with nolan cooper. then we got to go out to eat with a big group of friends.

he's still got it! check out the photo on the right. laurel loves coop!

no pictures from thursday. pat played golf, laurel and i went to music class and caught up with our colorado friends. friday was a big day for everybody --

laurel's first day at "school" (mothers' morning out.) she was so excited, and when i dropped her off she was the only kid NOT crying. good girl!

i didn't really know what to do with myself. so i went up to base to watch pat teach. he was a little surprised. what a good teacher! and look how handsome!!


my first time to see noon meal formation at the academy. pretty impressive...

then it was time to pick up little bit.


i wish i had captured the earful i got on the way to the car. she LOVED it!!!!


can you tell?

we met up with a ton of pat's friends that afternoon.

here are a few -- coop (with baby elle), sheets, brooke, t stilly, steve cruz


that night we had a date for the class of 2000 dinner/social. jess and evan jones and their two kids, iris and rhett, were staying with us. they brought along evan's mom, kathy - an awesome babysitter. we were so appreciative!!

our table at the dinner. so much fun -- the joneses, the otts, the walengas, and the mcniff :)

JFC

time for labor day weekend at the beach with the johnstons! we were sad that daddy couldn't go this year. hopefully he'll join us next time!

laurel was a TERRIFIC traveler. we were so excited to see pops and abbi when we got to the pensacola airport. we ate at lulu's in gulf shores and stayed in a hotel that night -- laurel got her own bed. what a princess!

then to the beach club. we love that place. :) laurel got to spend some great one-on-one time with pops and abbi.


bottom right - the original 8: gibby and muff, claudie and maureen, kathy and mark, mom and dad

laurel, waiting on her cousins...





girls, girls, girls!
lucy, maury, rebecca, laurel, lizzie, and caroline.

top picture - bday party for the "big" birthdays this year: muff, gibby, and richard. bottom left - gilbert brought his girlfriend, lauren. i'm sure she thought it was crazy! bottom right - uncle mark with laurel and duncan. duncan and merrill III are a bit outnumbered...

BFFs - laurel and rebecca.









the travel day home was rough, but laurel did a great job.

home sweet home. yay! we missed daddy so much!

the great outdoors

our last camping trip of the season was at 11 mile canyon a few weekends ago. it was perfect!

on saturday morning we hiked to the top of the "mountain" by our campsite. pat carried laurel some, but she did a great job. we ate lunch when we made it to the top. if you click on the picture and make it bigger, i think you'll be able to see the river and the canyon in the top right photo. on the way down apache just laid down in the middle of the trail. poor guy is getting old. :(

the hike wore us all out. here's a shot of naptime in the tent...

the mornings were freezing - until the sun came up over the mountain. we LOVE camping!!!



welcome to the world, Fourie!!

just 3 days after andre turned 2, his little brother showed up.

laurel is already in love with baby Fourie. isn't he precious? and isn't marjorie just beautiful?!?!





laurel and andre being silly. love those little laughs!

andre is TWO!!

we had so much fun at andre's birthday party. we love you, little man!

marjorie outdid herself. the food, the decor - everything was so cute. especially the birthday boy!!
look how precious the caterpillar cake was. (yes, i forgot laurel's swimsuit. we improvised...)



DEE-LICIOUS!!

some summer scenes

worried look, two and a half years later...

dress up queen. bottom right - daddy's home!!

from our bedroom window. i won't ever get tired of this view!

another view - from our deck

laurel and her best bud. what a sweet dog!!



this is really long and may bore some of you to tears. i warned you!



"Thank you for the world so sweet;
thank you for the food we eat;
thank you for the birds that sing (not the boats that sink...)
thank you God for EVERYTHING!"