Here are some cool pictures Aaron drew. There is one for each member of the family. Can you guess which one is for which person? Answers on the next blog.

Exhibit A



















Exhibit B



















Exhibit C



















Exhibit D



















Exhibit E

Here are the other three pics I promised.

I know everyone must be tired of my excuses for not getting my "weekly" blog update out on time. This week we have two really good ones.

We went to the Schans house this weekend in Williamsport to reconnect with our good friends. We celebrated Father's Day with soccer, a mini-LAN party (if you don't know what a LAN party is, you probably aren't interested in them anyway) and a visit to their church. One of the higlights of the weekend was a hike on a nearby hill to find a geocache. (Those of you who endure through the rest of this will be rewarded with pics from the hike.)

The other thing that consumed our time this week is buying a new house! We are moving to Litiz. We will be 8 minutes from my work instead of 25. It is a bigger house with room to have parties and 2-1/2 baths. (One patient told me that amounts to one bath for Leslie, one for Shannon and 1/2 for the three guys.)

We didn't decide to get the house until Monday. I signed the paperwork Tuesday and arranged for a realtor to come view our house Wednesday. We stayed up until 2 am last night cleaning up and planting flowers so it looked good for the real estate agent. We decided to put it on the market in one week so we would have a chance to take care of the only real eyesores we have: peeling paint on parts of the exterior of the house and peeling paint of the porch (it is painted concrete.)

Well, it turns out it is going to rain all week in Lancaster starting Thursday night. Instead of waiting an additional week we decided to do the painting right awat. So, after small group let out at 9:30 pm, we scraped and prepped the porch and scraped and painted the bare spots and peeling areas on the house. And here I am at 12:30 pm writing to tell you about it. Leslie will get up at 6 am to paint the porch.

So, I should be exhausted. But, I am too keyed up to sleep right away. I love home improvement and I am excited about the move. We don't get the house until 8/31 though. Feel free to come help us move 9/1 or 9/2!

Here is your reward: (I will put the other three pics on the next blog.)

California trip (part two - see below for first part.)

We went out to eat a couple of times.



And Lois managed to squeeze in a party on the last night. It started out as a chance to see Leslie's old elementary school friends but turned into a birthday party for Christopher. (Check out the look he is giving the cake.)



It was a thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing trip and a great chance to reconnect as a family, both with the Hansons and with each other.

We are a bit tired now, though. We travelled all day yesterday and didn't arrive at home until one in the morning. Then, Leslie had to run to Wal-Mart to stock our fridge with food for Christopher's birthday party today.

Next, we had to get up at 5:30 am (OK it was 8:30 Pennsylvania time, but 3 hours earlier California time) to get everyone ready for church. Aaron was baptized today! He prayed to ask Jesus to be his savior in May and asked if he could be baptized shortly thereafter. We remembered the camera, but the batteries ran out.

The whole family caught some naps (except me) and bounced back into action to host a lovely evening birthday party outside with the Leiseys and Mylins.



So, now we face the burden of unpacking and catching up on a week of work not done. But it was worth it. At least we'll be able to catch up next weekend. No, wait! We are travelling up to Williamsport to see the Schans next weekend. Catching up may have to wait a while.

As Gordon pointed out in an email today, I am woefully behind on the blog thing. I would give an excuse, but it would reflect poorly on the technological condition of my dear in-laws' house, so I merely apologize.

A lot has happened. We flew to California on June 3 and Christopher met Granddad and Grandmom for the first time.




We spent a lot of time playing and having fun to gether with the grandparents. On Monday, we went to the Natural Bridges formation on the Santa Cruz coastline. There were seabirds of all types and tide pools with crabs and sea anemoenamenas (how do you spell that?) and all sorts of beauty all around. And we forgot the camera.

The kids love Granddd's back yard, especially the pond.



They also got some nifty clothes as gifts.


There was a great amusement park called bonfante gardens with cool trees. (They are sycamore trees that are repeatedly grafted together to make odd geometric shapes.)






(To be continued.)