Five years ago today...

Gabby became our daughter!

I can't believe it has been 5 years!! The time has absolutely flown by.
We celebrate Adoption Day each year kind of like a birthday. So I guess you could say that Gabby has two birthdays a year. ;) Here are a few pictures from actual Adoption Day and then each of the following.

Adoption Day 2003

2004

The Old Spaghetti Factory

Renton Family Fun Center


2005

Old Spaghetti Factory


2006
The Cheesecake Factory
The Renton Fun Center

2007
The Cheesecake Factory

Went to see "Becoming Jane" with a few friends

2008
Rainforest Cafe

Volcano for dessert

And of course Starbucks and shopping

We have had a lot of fun celebrating this very special blessing in our lives! I couldn't include all of the pictures so I just gave you a sampling.

Fun and crazy week

We have had 3 family dinners since last Thursday.

Teresa's dad made biscuits and gravy for everyone on Thursday night. It was YUMMY as always! He makes it every time they're in town and we all love it.
Then on Saturday there was a birthday dinner for Teresa's step-sister Vicky which was yummy as well.

On Sunday we went to Teresa's mom's for a family dinner before they left on a trip.
All in all a lot of fun and a lot of food. :)

A week off...

We had planned the week off and knew that we wanted to do more than paint. So we decided to head over to the Olympic National Forest. We left Tuesday and came back Wednesday evening packing in as much as we could...Hurricane Ridge, Lake Cresent, The Hoh Rain Forest, Ruby Beach and of course seeing a lot as we drove. Here are a few pictures of the highlights.

Hurricane Ridge

Wild flowers up in the meadows


Cresent Lake (we drove along it on our way to Forks to stay for the night)

We encountered an elk (up close and personal) this was just as we entered the Hoh Rain Forest part of the park we were quite surprised at how tame he seemed.

This is the roots of the tree that Gabby climbed on and that you can see behind her in the next couple of pictures.



These are of Ruby Beach. And yes even Teresa hiked down to the beach it was the hike back up that took a while :)

There was a stream coming down from the hills and onto the beach that Scott was trying to help Gabby get the technique of skipping stones. Unfortunately he was in the way of seeing the stone he threw that skipped about 10 times.

All in all we had an wonderful time! Then of course we came back to the real world of fixing computers and painting bu we were very thankful to have the time away.

This Past Week....

This has been a busy week...
On Sunday, July 27 our church had it's service & picnic out at Lake Wilderness. Following the service there were several baptisms and then a food and fun games. I've included some pictures. Gabby even participated in a water melon eating contest. She didn't win but she had a lot of fun.



Then this weekend was busy with activities at Scott's sister Carol's. Saturday She & Scott got baptized...

...and on Sunday she hosted the Youth Hang Out time for the youth group. Fun was had by all.

We are taking this week off of work to finish up some projects and relax.