Beating the summer heatwave!

Well, it seems like everyone is trying to stay cool these days. Today I about wanted to scream. We tried to do very little because we were expecting a high of 106 here in Oakhurst. I learned some good lessons today:

• Don't trust the weather man...it is possible for it to get to 108 degress in Oakhurst (112 in Fresno)
  
• The tin can we live in does not make an air conditioner that can keep up with these tempetures
  
• It is impossible to leave the house early enough to avoid the heat
  
• Micah gets REALLY restless when you try to keep him inside all day
  
• Micah does sweat like his father & turns beat red when he's hot
  
• When it's this hot outside our kiddy pool is useless because the water is now way too hot & it grows algee way too easily
  
• The sprinkler is a wonderful tool to cool off both Micah & Mommy
  
  

So a couple days ago I pulled out the sprinkler & Micah had a BLAST!! We discovered that Mommy can sit in her chair in the sprinkler stream while Micah tries to catch the little bugger!

Micah's first trip to Disney

We ended our trip to FL with a 3 day stay at Disney World. We had an amazing time. Ryan & I had decided beforehand that we would be making this trip as relaxing as possible, especially since we have not had a vacation by ourselves in quite some time. We decided to stay at a Disney Resort Hotel (can I just say, WOW!). We spent two days poolside & naping in our room! The other day we decided to visit Disney Magic Kingdom (the only park that we haven't visited there). It was great! Micah actually enjoyed it more than I expected. He was mesmerized by all of the mechancial charactors! Here are just a few pics from our visit:


Micah waits in line to ride Pirates of the Caribian


Micah gets ready to ride Aladin's Magic Carpet Ride

Our trip to Teen Missions

Ryan & I have really been missing our time at Teen Missions. So we decided this year we would take Micah down to visit the place that was so special to us & do a little volunteering. We spent 4 days at Teen Missions. I spent my time volunteering with Munchkin Missions, their daycare program. This was nice for Micah & I because we got to spend most of the day in an airconditioned room & take a daily nap from 1-3pm. Ryan spent his time working with FTM's (Former Team Members) & SB's (Special Blessing Training - their discipline program). Ryan really enjoyed working with the kids & felt like this was his way of influencing the kids. He had an amazing opportunity to develop presonal relationships with many of these kids. While at TMI we did discover that Micah has his father's tendancy to sweat like crazy.


We were fortunate that there were a few extra seats on our flight out to FL. Micah was able to sit in his carseat for the whole trip, which helped him sleep for the whole trip :-) Micah was facinated by the headphones & watching the movie ("The Shaggy Dog").


Our little FTM (Future Team Member)


Micah plays in Munchkin Missions. All of the other kids (4) were girls & they were'nt too faund of Micah's rough ways.




Micah's Girlfriends - we happen to support both of these girl's families, so it was exciting to finally meet them.


This is us with Jessica Jones, she is a young girl from our chuch out in Lakewood, Co. We have been trying to convince her for a number of years to go on a team. This year she decided to go to the Faroe Islands (just north of Great Britian). We were able to spend some great time with her at Boot Camp while we were there.


This is us with Megan, she lead with us to Poland. Megan was leading the team to India.


Amazingly enough it did not rain at all until our last day there, Commissioning Day. Micah had a great time cooling off by playing in the rain. He discovered that a pretty steady stream of water would pour off of the bigtop tent when it was wet & he LOVED to stand under it & get soaked. And he was TOTALLY soaked by the time we brought him home.


Micah splashes in the puddles.

Bauman's Visit

Our friends from Denver, Ken & Julie Bauman, decided to come out and visit us for a week. It was awesome to get to show them around our little part of the world. We spent a couple days visiting Yosemite. The kids enjoyed hiking around the valley and seeing the waterfalls. Towards the end of their visit Ryan had the chance to join us in a three day trip down to Sequoia NP. It was great to be able to "vacation" with them.


In the middle of their visit, Micah came down with a cold. He spent most of the day sleeping in the car but he wasn't too happy with Mommy making him pose for pictures.






This is Abby, Ken & Julie's youngest. She is about 2 months younger than Micah.


Micah enjoyed tromping around in a high mountian meadow where we had our picnic.


Ryan peaks out from the middle of a Squoia Grove in Sequoia NP.

Micah's First "Real" Trip to the Beach

Well Micah has been to the beach two times before, but he was too small to appreciate it. So in an effort to excape the heat Mom, Andree, Ella & I decided to take Micah to the beach. It was awesome to see him explore the beach. He wasn't too sure about the waves but he loved the little creek that ran through out beach area to the ocean. Micah also enjoyed the sand.

How Micah & Ella party after the party

Well, as I mentioned below, we decided that the easiest way to clean up after the party was to throw the kids in the pool. Since it was over 100 degrees that day it was wonderful (the water was actually a little hot). Micah is my little waterboy & he played for quite some time, then he played with his toys.








"Booger Boy" Uncle Jon couldn't resist catching this photo demonstrating that Micah does take after his mother


Ryan Kisses Micah good-bye before he has to run back to Fesno to return to work

Micah's 1st Birthday

Ok, I know these are a little late but here are the pictures from Micah's party. Well, when I planned this party a month ago I was worried about whether it would rain. I did not plan for a 100+ degree day! It was pretty miserable, which made the ice cream & raspberried that much more appealing. Micah's party was held at my parents house & we had over 30 people there. We were fortunate that most of the family was still around from the family reunion and were able to join us in the celebration. We had a sports/soccer themed party & Micah's cake ended up being a large soccer ball (not quite what I had asked for, but the cake was free :-) Micah enjoyed the cake & Ella helped him finish it. Instead of washing them off we took the liberty to just throw them in the pool. It was a fun party.