Last 3 weeks recap

These past few weeks have been a blast!  We continued to have a relaxing time in Canada and even took a family quad ride.  We finished our time in Canada with a cougar sighting!  Since being back, we've had the opportunity to hang out with friends in Minneapolis.  We also got together with a few of my girlfriends near Green Bay and went to Lambeau Field to watch the Packers practice.  Unfortunately we got rained out after only about 30 minutes of practice, but it was fun anyway.  We spent our last weekend in Eau Claire where Aden was dedicated at our home church, Valleybrook.  Spending time with so many of the people we love has been a blessing. 

This past Sunday was particularly special to us.  Even though we can only attend a few times a year, Valleybrook really feels like our home church still.  We were able to attend our last service of the summer and then Aden was dedicated to God by the assistant pastor and a good friend of ours, Grant.  A handful of friends blessed us with their presence and witnessed the event.  Aden was so good during the entire thing.  He tried eating the microphone the whole time Grant was praying which got some laughs. 

This weekend Jamie's brother will be getting married so we'll have more great pictures to come. 

Tara

 Family photo!

 What a cutie!

 Lambeau!

 The girls

 Aden, Daddy, and the PACKERS!

 Rodgers and Driver....who Tara affectionately calls "her boys"

 Playing with "cousin" Danner

 Dedication

Jamie and the guys

Oh Canada!

Yes, we are in the middle of our annual summer visit to Canada to spend some good quality time with Tara's parents Don and Kim.  Most of our time is spent relaxing and letting Nana and Papa play with Aden.  Of course there are always projects of various sizes we help out with a little and we usually try to make it through a season of CSI while up here too.  One of my favorite things to do is see the community they are living with up here.  Last night we went to dinner on the reserve and Tara and I met the new chief of the band (or reserve) and were able to visit with some people we have seen for three years now.

Aden is having a fun time with all the attention he gets up here.  He has also been able to get more familiar with Kim's dog Maggie and cat Mittens.  They were both a little interested in Aden at first, then they discovered he is better at pulling hair rather than petting.  However, Maggie will still lick Aden's hands and face looking for something tasty left on him.  Aden is also very familiar with mosquitoes unfortunately.  As much as we try to protect him from them and cover his cot with bug netting they still have gotten his cute little face.

That is about all we have been up to here.  We will be back in Wisconsin on July 31st.  Also, we will be having a baby dedication on August 14th for Aden at Valleybrook church in Eau Claire.  Anyone in the area who would like to come is welcome, just shoot me an email and I'll get details out to you.  Even though we aren't able to attend Valleybrook much because of being overseas we still view it as our home church and want Aden to be dedicated to God there before leaving for the school year again.  Fortunately for us a dedication for babies and children was scheduled at a time we could be there.

"Hey look at me.  I'm over here being all cute" - Aden

Mommy, Aden, and Mittens

Necessary mosquito precautions

Aden in his new towel Nana made for him.

Family ATV ride.

Papa and Aden hanging out on the floor.

Nana, Aden, and Maggie

thankful thoughts and pictures

 We have been fully enjoying our time in the States.  We finished our time up north by relaxing at the cabin.  We did some fishing, boating, and just hanging out.  It was really nice to have time to do nothing in particular.  Then we headed down to the Eau Claire area.  Our friends Steve and Meredith Dehn joined us there to go camping.  It was Aden's first camping trip and he did a great job.  We ended up putting the pack 'n play in the tent with us knowing we would all sleep better that way, but it did make things a bit tight.  Aden loved being outside and the mosquitoes didn't seem to bother him at all.  We stayed in Eau Claire for four more days, but stayed at a hotel.  We spent our time visiting good friends, eating at all the restaurants we had been missing, and doing some serious shopping.  Thank you to everyone who took the time to get together with us.  It really meant a lot to see you all.

One thing we got to do while in Eau Claire was visit our home church, Valleybrook.  We sat in the balcony and as I looked out over all the people singing and praising God I realized how much I had taken the church for granted before we moved to Saudi.  It really is a blessing we have here in the States to be able to come together and worship.  We can listen to songs and sermons online at our home in Saudi, but it is not the same.  So, if you find yourself at a place of worship this week, take a moment to think about it and be thankful for that freedom, not everyone has it. 

Tara

 Aden loved driving the boat.

 Petting Grandpa Ron's friend Redbutt

Aden on his first boat ride.  He didn't really like the life vest so it was a short ride.

Visiting Great Grandpa Howard

Camping!

Our tent, Aden took up a lot of room

Hanging out in the tent with daddy

Scotland Part II, then back in Wisconsin

We finished our Scotland trip with a stop in Aberdeen, some highland games, and a visit to the William Wallace National Monument.  In Aberdeen we met up with a friend from Eau Claire who was studying in Scotland for the summer.  From Aberdeen we drove south to the Drumtochty Highland Games where Scottish guys were throwing hammers and trees in their kilts.  I also had the opportunity to do a 5 mile hill run.  It was great as soon as I made it to the top of the hill.  From what I heard it was a 1000 ft. climb to the top.  When it was all over I was very glad I did the run.  It was good training for the triathlon I am doing in a couple of weeks and the views were amazing.  I only wish I could have carried a camera with me.

On my birthday we left Aberdeen and visited a very small micro-brewery in Bridge of Alan.  Some of their beers were just weird (licorice flavor?), but they had a double expresso beer that was fantastic.  From there we went down the road to the William Wallace National Monument  which was pretty interesting.  My favorite part was seeing his sword.  apparently he must have been 6'6" to have used it properly.  It was a pretty cool stop for any Braveheart fan.

As of now we are in Northern Wisconsin visiting family.  We plan to do some fishing, boat rides, and are starting Aden on solid foods.  If you are reading this we will probably be seeing you soon.

Enjoy some pictures.

Jamie

This guy is throwing a big hammer

Best and worst part of the trip for me.

MooOOO!  Aden in a highland cow hat

William Wallace National Monument

Family pic at the top of the monument with a sleepy boy.

William Wallace's sword!

Mmm Mmm.  Aden getting his first rice cereal.

Scotland part 1

After the craziness at the end of the school year, we are finally done. It was a great year that Jamie and I will both look back on fondly. It's nice to reflect back on what we've learned. It has been a busy, yet satisfying year. Here's a quick list of what we accomplished:

• finished one year of our master's program
• had a great trip to Dubai
• had a baby!
• finished our 2nd year of teaching
• visited Wisconsin over spring break
• saw the largest oasis in the world (Hofuf)
  
• made some great new friends

On another note, we made it safe and sound to Edinburgh Tuesday morning. Aden did a great job again on the plane rides. He is going to be a pro flyer in no time. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Edinburgh. Edinburgh Castle is supposed to be pretty neat, but that was dampened (no pun intended) a bit by the downpour of rain that soaked us while we were there. Let's just say the next morning we found a Mothercare store and bought a rain cover for Aden's stroller. Since then, it hasn't done anything but sprinkle a bit. I'd rather be safe than sorry though. The funny part was that Aden laughed when the wind and rain hit his face. He has been such a trooper this whole trip. The weather has been much better the past few days. Wednesday we hung out on Princes Steet which has some beautiful parks. We just absorbed as much greenery as we could. We also toured HM the queen's residence in Edinburgh, Holyrood Palace. She will be coming to visit in about a week and will be throwing a huge garden party for 8,000 people. If we have a chance, we're hoping to make it back to Holyrood Park which has some wonderful walking and views.

After a great time in Edinburgh, we headed north. One of Jamie's goals for the trip was to visit a scotch whiskey distillery. We went to the Dewar's Distillery in Aberfeldy. It was really interesting to see/smell how they make the whiskey and compare it to the brewery tours we've taken. Then we drove a bit farther north to Newtonmore where the MacPherson Clan Museum is located. My side of the family has lineage that goes back to the MacPherson clan. The museum was small, but gave a lot of interesting information about the clan and its history. One more trip in the car took us to Braemar, a small town in the Cairngorn National Park. That brings us to today. Jamie and I like to take a day and do some scenic hiking when we go traveling. We ended up doing 2 hikes, both about 4 miles long. We had wonderful views of the mountains, the town, rivers, pastureland, and even a castle. Aden tried out his new backpack carrier and loved it!

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

Tara

 outside Edinburgh Castle

 Daddy and Aden posing

 Aden's new aspiration, to be a bagpiper

 We got a sweet deal on upgrading to an Alfa Romero, so we took it.

 Aden enjoying the Romero

 Daddy, Aden, and the Dewar's Whiskey Highlander

 Gillaspie's, you would have loved the curator unfortunatly I didn't get a picture of him. 

Picture crazy long grey hair and a kilt.... pure awesome.

 Unplanned pit stop on the side of the road to change a blown out diaper.

Aden thought it was a lot of fun.

 Hiking in Cairngorn National Park

 One tuckered out little man.

Settled in and Leaving

We are pretty much settled into our new house now.  Our goal was to have everything all ready so when we came back in the fall we wouldn't have a whole bunch of work to do.  We are leaving in 5 short days and only have two days of school left.  The end of the year is extra crazy this year with the move and we are just finishing our last masters class of the year on top of it all.  We are looking forward to our week in Scotland and then coming back to visit our friends and family.

Enjoy the pictures.

Jamie

Aden's room all put together

Aden playing at Mommy's desk.

Our tenth graders at their graduation dinner

Yep, a baby in a dump truck.

In the New House!

Sorry about the delay between posts, but we have been super busy.  We moved out of our old house and into our new house this Wednesday and Thursday.  It was/is exhausting.  Third period on Wednesday I was asked to leave school and move all the big items a day early because the truck was available now.  So I did, and after the movers and I finished I found out the temperature was around 120 degrees.  Yesterday we loaded up the smaller stuff in a school van and we finished off the move.  It was probably only 110 degrees yesterday though, piece of cake.

On the new house end, all the workers were trying to finish up the last minute cleaning and preparations.  It seemed like there was a time management problem on their end, but they sort of finished and we are in!  Our first night in the new house will be tonight.  Our principal  and his wife offered us a room at their house if the paint fumes were too bad.  Needless to say, the painting was finished the day before and the place reeked, so we took them up on their offer.  After a night of open windows and air purifiers running, we should be good to go.

We'll post more pictures as things progress.  Compare these pics to the ones from a few weeks ago.

Jamie

Aden hanging out (literally) in our new house.

What?

Living Room

Living Room from the other side

Spare bedroom.

Aden's room.

Master bedroom, minus closet doors.

Dinning Room

Kitchen.

This was supposed to be a picture of the beach, but it was a little humid outside.