Patiently Playing at the Park

Well, since I'm not well adapted to picking up kids at a certain time,

we waited for that time to come....

 And then left too early...

So we drove a little bit and found a park.

 So we waited for Hiroki while we played at the park.

:)

 Of course, Debany made at least one new friend...

 And Myanna was photo-shoot ready.

(Of course I took advantage of THAT!)

 I had to get all three of them together before we left.

Hiroki! Hiroki!

One of our sweet neighbors told us of a Foreign Exchange program that needed homes for some of the Japanese students!

For 2 weeks!

So we signed up.

Hello.
こんにちは。　(Kon nichi wa)

Welcome to Utah, USA

Hiroki Kassai!!

 Being a 16 year old young man who just had a LONG journey,

naturally he was hungry!

In & Out - Cheeseburger, by request.

 We let him order!  

 Then we came home and gave him a tour of the house 

and his own room!

(I think he was very pleased!)

:)

 The girls read him a bedtime story before he went to bed!

Myanna was really excited because she's getting better at reading.

:)

'SHED' a tear or two...

IT IS FINALLY DRIED IN!

Thanks to a friend of a friend, we got the rest of the project we started...

 FINISHED.

It now has DOORS.

 Dane did the ground work of fetching the tiles and cutting them to the size Juan needed.

(Which is a feat in itself because Dane doesn't know much spanish. *wink*)

 It was cloudy most of the day, which actually turned out really nice.

Not too windy, and not too sunny.

We had a big down pour, 

but that just meant they worked on the doors inside the shed.

 The crest of the roof is done.

(And you wouldn't even know we had to buy some roofing tiles for just a row unless you really looked hard - at the top.  Ooops... did I just say that out loud?  I shouldn't have told you that.  Should NOT have told you that...)

 And the finish work for the roof is done as well. 

Phwew.  

(I'm glad I held down the fort inside the house.)

Hair Play!

We love this hairstyle blog!

http://www.cutegirlshairstyles.com

And with family pictures coming up 

(like I need an excuse to want to play with the girlies' hair)

I decided to go into hair-do  OVERTIME!

(I've wanted to do a front braid FOR- EV-ER, 

and I had enough patience today to actually do it!)

 Above and Below are rag curls.
(We'll try sock curls next.)

 Here's Debany demo-ing her up and coming taste in style!

 Myanna with her waves...

... sporting her new flower and feather.

Here's Debany's Triple-Do (braid, wave, and spiral)

Double Take...

If a picture is worth a thousand words, 

what does this say to you???

(I went in to get something from the bathroom and saw this out of the corner of my eye...

I had to do a double-take to make sure it wasn't one of my girls!  ha ha)

Kids Play Kitchen

The kids barricaded the kitchen one day for lunch...

 Told me I wasn't allowed in the kitchen.

So they named their restaurant, took my order and made everyone's lunch!

And I sat and watched in awe at how fast my kids are growing up...

(I remember loving to do this when I was a kid!)

Cali Trip - Last Day

Our last day, Gma Debi took the kids for a ride on Gpa Wessel's lawnmower!

Porter & Myanna got to steer...

Debany got to steer AND push the gas pedal.

(Brave Grandma Debi!)

 What a NICE looking lawn!

 My Mom and I went to lunch at Las Palmas (my fave mexican restaurant in Visalia)

Best burrito/tamale plate with the Best beans and rice

and Best salad dressing!

(Yeah, I'm kicking myself because I left my 'doggie bag' in the fridge back in Visalia) --- :( 

I was really looking forward to finishing it! 

We also stopped at Kevin's Fruit Stand. 

There are so many fruit stands all over the valley!

The hardest part is which one to pick from.

Here is the stand of the young little man running his family's fruit stand.

 GGma and GGpa live out in the middle of the orange trees!

Here is a fan/windmill out in one of the fields.

It's used to keep the frost off the oranges when it gets cold enough to frost.

(I remember listening to those fans going in the early mornings growing up.)

 AND...  NO trip to GGpa and GGma's house would be complete without going for a walk to the railroad tracks!

 We saw a jack rabbit scamper across our path!

Look!  Tracks!

(What do you think made those?!)

  Gotta feed the horses!

 Grandma Debi sharing more of her favorite pastimes as a kid!  

(Lots of Family History on this trip...)

 Porter is showing the railroad bolt he found...

Myanna's sporting her fresh fruit stand peach she's been gnawing on along the way...

And Debany is striking her pose...

Hey!  Do those trees look funny to you???

(They have machines that come and trim the trees to keep the paths between the rows.

What's really funny is when they chop off the tops... 

We always said they got a crew top cut!)

 Here, they ripped out the old trees to burn and start again...

 On our way back, we met up with some visitors!

GGma and GGpa Wessel!

 And Cousin Chris!

 The next morning...

time to say good-bye...

  The hardest part is saying 'Good Bye.'

Personally, I'm TERRIBLE at good-byes.

So I always say, "Until next time."

... but honestly, it DOES leave something to be desired.

It's just so hard to find the best words to say in bittersweet moments like this.

 So, on the road we go...

Back the way we came.

Saratoga Springs, UTAH...

HERE WE COME!