Cousins

I love that our girls get to grow up with their cousins here in Idaho.  Memories of these years together will be precious to them throughout their lives.

 

Hot dog roasts around the campfire.

Exploring the beautiful mountains.

Swimming and fishing in the alpine rivers and lakes.

Picking cherries in Emmett.

(Oops!  Sierra needed to go spit out a cherry pit.)

Reading together at the cabin.

 

But, we all feel a little sorry that this kid is the only boy in the bunch:

 

 

 We feel your pain, Riley-Boy!

Birthday Season Recap

Birthday Season has, once again, come and gone in the Mouser house.  Marc and I are now the proud parents of a 5, 8 and 10 year old.  How is that even possible?!

 

Valerie decided that eating her donut was more important than blowing our her candle!

Ally had her donut at the end of the day because we were at the cabin in the morning.

 

And Sierra had to snarf down her maple bar before VBS on her birthday.
(There won't be room for 11 candles next year!)

We had a birthday celebration for the girls up at the cabin again this year.  Many of our friends were so very kind to drive up for the day.

We had scavenger hunts while it was still chilly in the morning hours.

A hot dog roast for lunch.

Some rousing games of box hockey.

The Potty Barge - or the Party Barge
...whichever title you prefer!

River float trip guided by Marc and Mike.

 

And archery, of course!

Marc + Serena = 16 years

 

 Our very first picture together - taken before our first official date (to a Dodger game).

 

 Saturday trips to Santa Barbara during college.

 

Marc planned an elaborate date on the beach on the evening before I left for a semester in Israel - complete with dinner and live saxophone music.

 

Camel ride in Jericho - Marc came to visit me in Israel during Spring Break.

One of our engagement pictures.

Cutting the cake at our wedding reception - May 23, 1998.

 Our first apartment on Newhall Ave.

 

Proud Papa - Sierra's first Dodger game.

 Our first "official" picture as a family of five!

Picture Update

Somehow the last 4 months have flown by and we are just weeks away from our summer vacation.  I won't even bother to say that life has been busy.  As the saying goes, "The days are long, but the years are short." Here's what we've been up to -  or at least what my camera has captured.

 

Jigsaw puzzles kept us entertained through the winter evenings.

 

Ally got a season pass to Bogus (thanks to Chuck and Missy!) and has discovered a new hobby.

 

We borrowed some AG dolls from "Grammy Carol" as they fit into our history curriculum and the girls loved playing with all of the accessories.

 

Piano lessons continued - and Valerie tried her hand on a borrowed violin.  Unfortunately, she thought that it might play itself.  She'd rather not bother with notes and such.

 

Spring break staycation with friends is even more fun that staycation alone - go figure!

 

This little girl learned to twirl her own hair all through the night rather than coming to visit me in the middle of the night. As a reward - THIS HAPPENED:

  

We finally have a dog!

 

"Dodger" is a Beagle/Dachshund mix that we adopted from a local shelter.  He has turned out to be just the perfect little fit for our family.  To say that he is well loved is a major understatement.

 

Strawberries are now in season and that makes Valerie super happy.

 

We have been enjoying the warmer weather with trips to the park.

And AWANA is over for the year.  Ally is headed into T&T in the fall - how is that possible?!?!

 

So, there you have it.  I do plan to do a better job of recording our summer activities here over the next few months.  See you soon!

Christmas Traditions- BROKEN!

If you're going to break traditions, you may as well do so in a BIG WAY - that's what I say.  And that's exactly what we did this Christmas.  Ever since Sierra has been around, our Christmases have been spent around the fireplace at the cabin.  We play games, go sledding, watch movies, do puzzles, etc.  Not so this year!

 

The girls were beyond excited about their very first airplane trip. (Sierra had flown during her first year of life - but that doesn't count.)  This was no small jaunt either - we were going  to fly with the Becks and Grandpa and Grandma Cook all the way to FLORIDA!  Their carry-ons were stuffed with snacks and activities and we were ready for an adventure.

We were the first of the Cook clan to arrive for our big family reunion.  I can't believe that I didn't take pictures of the outside of the houses, but we stayed in a vacant house right next door to my Grandma and Uncle Gary's place in Mulberry, FL.  They had every detail arranged and ready - from snacks in the pantry to shampoo in the bathrooms.  We have lots of family already in Florida, but the rest of us were coming from Idaho, Michigan and Brazil.  There was an average of 30 people around for most of the meals.  I can't even begin to explain what a special time this was.  If you are blessed to be part of a big, loving, Christian family, then you will understand.


One of the highlights of the trip was our day at Disney World.  Even Mom got to come!  We prayed so hard for her to be able to make the trip to Florida - and here she was with us at Disney!  She spent the day in a wheel chair, but she was able to ride a couple of rides, watch the parade and just be with us.

This next sequence of pictures is one of my favorites ever!  Marc was clicking away as we tried to decide which direction we should go in the park.  Do you know this feeling?!?!   That's my cousin Mike who joined us for the day.

Mom's injury allowed all of us to scoot to the front of the line a couple of times - here she is getting into Small World.

Of course, we had to take my Dad on the teacups.  I think that he may finally have met his match with my girls.

The castle was beautifully lit for Christmas.  The park closed early that night for a separate event, but we were tired and happy to go home at about 7:00p.m.

The next few days were filled with fun theme dinners - we had Mexican night, Italian night, Brazilian night and American night.  Tables were set up under a tent outside and the decorations changed with each event.  It was unbelievable!  My Uncle Gary had been planning and working on this for months.  No detail was left out.

Here are some of the cousins (first and second generation) enjoying our Brazilian day.  What a special bond we have because of the many years that we have all spent in Brazil as missionary kids.  Poor Marc was lost with all the Portuguese being spoken!

Another highlight of the trip was being able to meet up with Marc's younger brother, Dustin, at the aquarium in Tampa.  We have not seen him in about 12 or 13 years and he had never met our girls.  It was great for Marc to catch up with him and to spend the day together.

Unfortunately, Ally was very sick for a few days in the middle of our trip.  She had a high fever which really knocked her out.  Sierra came down with it too, but not quite so bad.  Ally missed meeting Uncle Dustin and going to the aquarium the first time...

 

...but as soon as she felt better, she and I went back just by ourselves.

 

Then this happened:

 

Christmas Eve was a big event with lots of family pictures.  Here's my Grandma Cook - hostess extraordinaire and proud matriarch of the Cook family.
 

Marc's birthday is the day after Christmas and we spent it at Clearwater Beach in Florida - a pretty fantastic place to spend a birthday!  The sand is like bleached flour there and the sun was gorgeous.

It was hard to say goodbye to family and to Florida!  We are very, very grateful to have been able to go and will treasure the memories of those special days.  Thanks so much to those who made it possible for us to be there - you know who you are.  There are so many more details that I want to remember, but they will stay with the 300+ pictures in our photo album for now.