5th Grade Camp

Well the school year has almost drawn to a close so that means it is time for 5th grade overnight camp! Tim hung out with Peter for his activities on the first day, then led an orienteering course (with a compass - not a GPS!) on the second day.

Peter examines a set of leaves and matches it to other students' descriptions.
We led the kids out into the forest, blindfolded, and gave them a tree to "hug". They each spent 10 minutes with their tree, then we took them back to the starting point. After removing the blindfolds, they had to go back and find their tree. They all did it!

I got to light the fire for the camp that night. Mr. Erickson told me to make it big - he didn't know what he was getting himself into!
Mr. Kissel, Peter's teacher. I finally got a picture of him smiling! He always plays the "bad cop" with the kids at camp, so my mission was to get this picture!
The two homies, Peter and Hunter, hanging out, waiting in the chow line.

4th Graders descend on Tucson!

Tim and Jack survive the 4th Grade Overnight!

We went on a 2 day field trip with Jack's class to Tucson. We visited the Casa Grande ruins, San Xavier Mission, Corbett house, the NOAA National Weather center, and the ASU bookstore - and that was just the first day! The second day we went to the Desert Sonoran Museum and the Old Pueblo Archaeological Center, where the kids got to go on a mock dig, look at petroglyphs and walk a labyrinth. Then it was off to Sweet Tomatoe's to feed 60 kids, and finally back on the bus and return home by 10pm - fun and exhausting for all!

Chris, Jack and Tanner at the San Xavier Mission

A screech owl - check out those hypnotic eyes!

Jack (with bloody nose), Chris, Tanner, Nick and my co-chaperone, Dan Koonz.

The boys on their mock dig at the Old Pueblo Archaeological Center.

Hi cutie!

This little guy decided to pose for me so I just had to snap his picture...

Lewises to teach English in China!

The Lewis family is going on another adventure! We have decided to teach English and other technology subjects in Hangzhou, China. Hangzhou is a large city of around 6 million people with a good contingent of expatriates, so hopefully we'll feel right at home. We will be renting out our house and moving there for the 07-08 school year. Know someone who wants to rent our house? Here's a link for more information: http://www.glenhavenestate.com. Living in a 2 bedroom apartment, it will be quite a change for us! We think the Jiliang University will give us an extra apartment - maybe the boys will have their own pad! Here's a map of where we'll be:


We may end up having to look for an apartment once we get there. I plan on updating this blog frequently so check back often for pics and stories! If you're one of our many techno-wiz friends, you can add this blog as an RSS feed to your home page.

Sailing in Arizona!

Today we went out to Lynx Lake to meet Billie and take a ride on his sailboat! It's a typical small Arizona lake but the weather was great and the wind cooperated - sometimes!

Here's Peter the sailor man

Jack and Sophie waiting their turn for a ride

Jack loved being by the water!

Peter with his friend, Danielle

Sophie, hangin' at the beach in her new swimsuit!

Hey, what happened to the wind! Suddenly it died down, and Billie had to provide his own form of locomotion. Such is the life of a sailor!

Row, Billie, Row!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Today we celebrated my birthday and Easter! Judy, Balin, Perrin and Sam came over for an Easter Egg hunt. I "hid" easter eggs for them along the driveway, then made a much more difficult hunt for the boys on either side of the yard. Here's Sophie helping me celebrate! Some people may have thought that Peter and Jack were too old for an Easter Egg Hunt. This was not the case! Anything that involves the ingestion of large quantities of sugar - they are up for it! Sophie and Perrin teamed up to brave the wilds of the Lewis yard.
... and their expedition proved successful! Perrin can taste the candy merely by sticking her tongue out!

Sophie discovers another one out here in the wild! The Easter Bunny was busy!
Here are all of the participants and spectators of the Easter Egg Hunt! ... except for me behind the lens!
We also broke open the jar we had been using for months to save up for a trip. It turns out that trip will be China, and we had over $3000 saved in the jar!

Happy Easter and thanks for looking!

Coloring Easter Eggs

From Sophie: Happy Easter Everyone! Her second favorite part of Easter was sucking the frosting off of a cupcake. Rupa and her girls came to dye Easter Eggs with us. Sue and Rupa, bosom buddies!
Peter decided to experiment with a Patriotic Egg. Sam, that shirt is much too nice to dye Easter Eggs in... let's get it dirty!
Easter boogers?
Here's the some of the booty created by the kids.

Sophie's strategy was to dip in as many dye's as possible. Lots of brown ones :)
Sam's favorite part was definitely the cupcake. He chose the one that matched his shirt!

Adding stickers to the egg carton was even more fun than dying the eggs!
Look at all of my color choices! I think I'll do one of each. Can a person eat too many eggs?
Happy Easter!

Happy April Fools' Day!

Today we hung out at home and had a very relaxing day. Sue spent most of the day dreaming about the time when her building is complete.
Here's a pic of Sophie hanging out in the front yard with Sue. She's having a great time in the warm weather!
I'm standing in my new 'office'. I'm a little worried about how small it will be!!



Sophie and I decided to try out the bathtub that is about to be installed. Looks like it will work great!