Thanks to Jocelynn, we finally got some family photos!

Ellis' got ran over by a reindeer......

So much for our plans to leave early for vacation in hopes of making good time while the kids were sleeping! At 6:00 a.m. we awoke to a loud yell followed by the brakes and impact. According to Annika, we hit a reindeer who is now sleeping in the grass on the side of the highway in Vernon, Texas.

I was actually proud of myself for not getting to uptight about the whole event. After all, who can be upset when you learn that the world still has good Samaritans in it. Within 10 minutes the nicest cop came to our rescue. He gave each of the kids a stuffed animal, showed them his sirens and lights, and took us to the police station. Then his kind wife took us back 50 miles to Wichita Falls to rent a car. Thankfully we were all safe and although we were a little behind on our trip, we learned how good it feels to be helped in a time of need.

Our Trip to Washington D.C.

Despite the Obama overload, Brian and I had a really good time in Washington D.C. Thanks to his teams' good work on a project at Textron, he and his boss were sent to D.C. to represent the company at an awards ceremony. I tagged along for some touring and we met up Linda and Jamie.

Our favorite sites were the Holocaust Museum, Mount Vernon, and Arlington Cemetary. The part that really hit home was when we exited the museum....there were 2 rooms with shoes piled high and covering the entire room...shoes of Jews that were killed by caloused Nazis. I don't know how anyone can not come out of that museum and changed person. It's amazing to think someone that cruel could rise into power and get that many followers to do unthinkable inhumane things.

Linda and Jamie introduced us to some great pizze (Uno's) and we rode a double decker tour bus to see all the sites of the city. It was great to see Straight-A-Jam-ay again. She just finished her PhD and we're very proud of her. Again...she aced her way through everything! Good job Jamie!

A big thanks to Shayne, Jen, Mom, Dad and Tyler for watching our kids so we could get away! It was so nice to be alone for 4 days.

Summer Fun!

You gotta love it when your kids find something to entertain themselves.....a rare occurence around this house! The kids love to jump on the trampoline when it's raining! Micaela and Wesley can do "knee" flips now!

Speaking of trampolines, last night we had a horrible storm come through. Our neighbors trampoline was thrown over the fence into the greenbelt and the other neighbor's buckled. The kids prayed for our family's saftety and for the trampoline and we all made it through. The tornado sirens went off and we sent the kids to the bathroom under the stairs for safety. It was pretty scary to see the clouds moving in a circular motion over our home! I hope this isn't the "norm" for around here. I think I watched the Wizard of Oz too much as a kid!