April . . .

James is finally home and life is back to normal.


Now that we are in the new house, James was finally able to put together our bedroom set. It looks great and it has helped to make this house more of a home.

This month James and I volunteered at the Special Olympics, we helped out with track events. James was in charge of firing the starting pistol and I helped track times of the runners. We ended up being there for eleven hours and had horrible sunburns by the end of the day. But it was all worth it and had so much fun.

The YES foundation had their annual auction, and I was sad that I couldn't be apart of it. But I was able to make another baby afghan and donated it to the auction. 

The cupcakes I made for James' company bake sale. They were a big hit!

The ones on the left are chocolate with caramel frosting and the right is a cookie dough cupcake, with actual cookie dough inside sans the raw egg. James found the cookie dough cupcake recipe and insisted on me making them.

   

James company planned a dinner cruise. It was a lot of fun and we had a great night. 

(not the best picture, but the boat was a little rocky)

Went out with the girls to celebrate April's 25th birthday!

Our neighbor brought us over a plate of goodies!

April was a great month and filled with many activities.

August!

August was a bitter sweet month, with summer ending and being packed full of events. Summer program ended and it was hard since it was my last one with all the kids. This summer seemed to go by so fast, mainly I think because time seemed to go by so slow while James was gone, that now that he is back it has seemed to just fly. We had a great group of kids this summer, which made the summer a blast.

My girls and I

Vincent, one very funny little boy, who became my shadow

Love this picture, Jordan, she is such a character

The kids practicing for their play

Love these girls, Lily and Lynn, summer wouldn't have been the same without them

My group monkey around at the zoo

UGM White Center, Summer Staff 2010

In August we also celebrated James and I getting married. It was great getting celebrate with all of our family and friends, especially since we will be leaving soon. The weather was beautiful like we hoped, the sun poured down on us at my aunt and uncle's farm. It was a fun day, and I am so thankful for everyone who helped me prepare for it all.

Beautiful backdrop, Mt Rainier

Thank you so much Candace for all your help!

Candace, Me and Fa'ana

I love these girls!

Another big event in August, was taking 8 high schoolers on a 20 mile backpacking trip. It was an adventure, many of them had no idea what to expect, and one we (Pat, Micah and I) had to talk into going. He complained about it the whole ride up, but ended up being the first one to finish and was really proud of himself. It was a tough 3 days but it was totally worth it, the kids were very encouraging to one another and helped keep moral up by singing Mulan songs up the mountain. I was definitely not in good shape for this one, I was in so much pain afterwords.

All of us on day one, before the pain set in

Linda and I, (our 3rd year in a row) we are missing our hiking buddy Keliah.



End of day one we were so happy to finally set up camp and be done hiking for the day.

Copper City, an old ghost town we stopped to check out along the way

Day two, swimming in the lake

The last day, we finally made it to the summit.

We were told many times that we had made it to the highest point, just to come around another bend to find

another trail ascending upwards. 

 We also did a family outing to the Circus, it was a blast. I hadn't been to the circus since I was little. There were so many great acts but my favorite were the little miniature donkeys, they were so cute.

Kenny, my nephew, sporting his circus hat.

August ended with the YES Foundation of White Center's

10 year Anniversary Luau.

Tammy and I giving our speeches

Got some beautiful flowers and words from Pat, since I was leaving. A very nice surprise.

It's my last first day . . .

Today was my last first day of summer camp and everything went smoothly. It's a little bit of a bitter sweet kind of thing since it's my last summer, but I'm excited for the future. Only 80 of our 96 kids showed up today. We kicked off the first day with the Jack Thompson Sports Camp put on by RunToWin and The YES Foundation of White Center. A three day camp with five different sports for the youth of White Center to participate in, lead by some amazing coaches, with great scripture shared.

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith." ~ II Timothy 4:7

Maybe this year I'll be able to make it into the group photo,

all these years and I've always missed it.

Christmas in June . . .

Got to witness an amazing event that happens in White Center once a year, Christmas in June! And yes as the kids say it is a holiday. The YES Foundation of White Center, goes to 3 local elementary schools and makes sure that each kid gets a ball before summer starts so they have something to play with. They also do a drawing at each school so that 4 lucky kids get a bike. It was such a great event to be a part of, the look of surprise and shock of winning the bikes on these kids faces was priceless. White Center is so lucky and blessed to have such an organization that is so devoted to it's community!

Pat Thompson the most popular woman in White Center!

(Founder of YES)

Two of the lucky bike winners!