Jac's Home!!!

Jannica came home to us in the wee hours of the morning. She has been gone almost seven weeks and we have missed her a ton. We have spent the last seven weeks listening to Ryan say, "Where's Jac? Oh, she on airplane." More recently she has been yelling at anyone who brings up Jac - "Jac's in California, I miss her!" Jannica came home and crashed after being attacked with hugs and kisses by Ryan, me and Kelly. Ryan won't leave the poor girl alone. She had to sneak up to her room to get a nap, otherwise Ryan would follow her everywhere and talk her ears off. We have missed her like crazy! She is such a sweet little blessing in our lives. We really are lucky to have two wonderful daughters who have inherited Kelly's temperament instead of mine! All is well with us. our puzzle is put back together and life is back to normal, well, as normal as we can get around here.....

Our great friends the Martinez's are leaving us. We are so so so so so so sad. Thank heaven's for flight benefits! Ryan is losing her best friends and surrogate siblings as well as the very best babysitter she has ever had (Ryan begs "I go Angies? You go work, I wan' go Angie's house").

On Friday Ryan got to go for a golfcart ride with Araya, as we we driving along the girls were in the backseat and I hear Ryan say, "I love you Awaya, I love you!" I turned around to see Ryan with her arm around Araya and Araya's arm around Ryan. The sweet moment vanished 5 minutes later when I turned around to see that Ryan had gotten out of her seatbelt and she was falling headfirst off the golfcart, all I could see were her legs sticking straight up in the air!
Angie, Anthony, Araya and Ammon have been such a fun family to get to know. They are our family in Georgia and have made living here suprisingly pleasant. A little bit of us will go with them wherever they go and we will always keep a little of them in our hearts too.

Ryan had a play date with her friend Jake and Ryan, of course, wanted to go swimming. That kid loves the water! She also loves the golf cart so their time was spent running between the golf cart and the swimming pool. Ryan has learned how to ham it up for pictures (as you can see in the first one).

Ryan and Jake kept "diving" for these squid toys we have. That consisted of Ryan getting in the pool and putting on her goggles and then putting her eyes in the water. She did not need to do any of this since the squid were floating, but more power to her!

Lastly, Ryan decided to give Jake some driving tips as they were getting away from the "monsters." Ryan is always running from the "monsters." She has definitely inherited my imagination.

As a side note, Ryan loves her goggles and is always wearing them around the house. There is not much cuter than a 2 year old running around in her underwear and a pair of goggles!

Our good friends gave us this awesome new toy. Ryan has been riding her "bike" non-stop for 2 days now. Today she wanted me to ride with her, but I am a touch over the 30 pound limit, so she settled for riding with her baby. The motorcycle goes forward and backward, I often find Ryan riding in backward circles because she has forgotten how to make it go forward. She backed under the table at one point and got her head stuck between the table and the windshield of the bike. Life is never boring with this one!

New Home

For anyone that hasn't seen the new home, here it is. We live in Tyrone, GA. It's a small town about the size of Hooper with a small downtown area. We don't have a sewer system in the town so all houses have septic tanks. So most lots are at least an acre. Tyrone has the beginnings of their own golf cart paths. Many people are buying golf carts to get around town and the city is adding more paths. There are no paths into downtown Tyrone from our house, but we are only a mile away from the golf cart paths in Peachtree City, a city of about 50,000 people that has golf cart paths throughout the whole city. That is where we go for all of our golf cart fun. In case you haven't heard, we do have a golf cart. Several times a week we take a ride just for the fun of it. Often we will take the golf cart grocery shopping, or out for ice cream, or just to visit friends Think a tractor ride with room for 5.

It is amazing the things that you miss in a car, but can see in the golf cart. We never know what kind of wildlife we will see, whether it be a frog, a turtle, a deer, or lightning bugs. Also we can here the sounds of the frogs, birds, and cicada's that we would miss in the car. There is a daily golf cart traffic jam as high school gets out. Only seniors are allowed to drive to school, so the rest of the students drive golf carts to school. You're allowed to drive a golf cart at the age of 12 (with a licensed driver in the passenger seat) and as soon as you have your learner's permit, you can drive alone. It's also great for those senior citizens that can't quite drive their car anymore. The stores even have dedicated parking spots close to the front for golf carts. Church is 10 minutes away by car, but if we wake up early enough we can make it in 30 on the golf cart.

All this to say that we love where we live and are happy here. We do miss being around our family and no amount of golf cart rides will make up for the fact that we do miss them. So we just need all of our family to move out here. We'll be waiting. We'll even buy you your first golf cart.

Charles Bridge

One of the girls favorite activities while we were in Prague and Poland was to see the street entertainers. They watch break dancers, and fire breather/twirlers, big bands and small acoutical groups. The favorite entertainer of both girls was on the Charles Bridge in Prague. It's basically a big pedestrain bridge between two touristy neighborhoods in Prague. At one end of the bridge a lady and a young man were entertaining the tourists with string instruments. The girls sat for 20 minutes just listening and clapping away. If it wasn't Jac taking pictures, it was Ryan. Suffice it to say, Jac loved this trip to Europe. So did I.

The view from the Charles Bridge is amazing. It is one of the most spectacular city views that I have ever seen. On one side is the beautiful old town, and on the other is the biggest castle in the world.

Family Trip to Prague

Right after school got out, we took a trip to Prague. We spent 3 days in this beautiful city. Definitely one of my favorite cities in Europe. The first picture here is Jac in the main square in Prague. It is one amazing big square. The square is surrounded by beautiful old buildings. This is where people gather after work and this is where the street performers entertain.
The next picture is Ryan in the Sedlec Ossuary in Kutna Hora, in the Czech Republic. Basically in 1870 a wood carver was hired by this church to make art from the bones in the church's crypt. 40,000 people's bones decorate this church. Garlands of skulls and femurs adorn the cielings and the central chandelier is made up of at least 1 of every bone in the body. There is a coat of arms and the artist signature made from bones. This is one of the pyramids of the leftover bones. This may have been one of the most creepy sights that I ahve ever seen.
The next 2 pictures are from the Prague Zoo. It is the best Zoo that I ahve ever been to. I've never been to the San Diego Zoo, so what do I really know. The Hogle Zoo takes a few hours to go through. The Atlanta Zoo takes about an hour. The Prague Zoo took us 10 hours. We think that we saw everything. It was amazing the amount of wildlife they had and it's amazing how close they let us get to the animals. Jac got to pet a camel. In one of the exibits a bat flew right at our heads and scared us. The orangatan was on the other side of the glass. The monkey cages were not cages. They were islands with moats around them to keep the monkeys on the island. These two picture are in the lemur cage, where we were allowed to walk around amoungst the lemurs. Most of the habitats looked like natural habitats, but with the possibility to get really close to the animals.