Fun in the sun in Pheonix. Always a favorite past time when the family gets together for a birthday! This occasion was Uncle Brian's Golden Birthday (29 years on the 29th) We had a great time playing together, it was a much needed funtime after all the months of school! Thanks Brian for the excuse to play!

Sanddollars, starfish, sand crabs, clams, sea snails, and the fish/payne families!!! Rockport, Mass. We had so much fun and the water wasn't very cold, we still didn't want to swim in it, but it was warmer than we thought it might be. The girls had a ton of fun exploring the tide pools and digging for clams to watch them dig back down faster than you can blink! Thanks Nick for the demonstration! There were thousands of live sand dollars all over the beach. They were tiny and covered in brown fuzz so we called them sand pennies.They even glistened in the water like you see in public fountains that are sparkling with wishing pennies.

Salem, MA

We had an amazing time in Salem, MA. As crazy as my girls are about Halloween and witches and stuff they enjoyed that there is a place that actually is witchfully decorated all year round! But the best part was the Maritime museum on the port. The girls did activities to be sworn in as Junior Rangers for the National Park. We got to walk out to the end of the pier and see a swarm of jelly fish float by, and we got to see an old ship in the dock. It was a beautiful day and perfect for family adventures! We even learned that the American Revolutionary War was almost started here in Salem where the British troops tried to seize military cannons and arms of the locals there but they would not allow it and resisted the 240 British troops. 1 man, Joseph Whicher, was pricked with a British Bayonet, the first bloodshed of the resistance to the British Rule. True Story! However, it was this skirmish that caused the troops to be more agressive and the minutemen resisting those troops to be more agressive in the battle of Lexington and Concord which actually took several lives.

Graduation, May 15th 2010

On his way to snag his diplomas! Can you tell he's excited?

His posse of classmates. John Heidenreich, Jared Stringham, Ben Buckley, and Travis Johnson. We missed Brandon Mecham who didn't come back for graduation from an externship in Utah.

Eric's LLM graduating class.

We are so proud of our man!!! Eric worked tremendously hard to push himself to accomplish sauch a daunting task! And he asked his family to sacrifice so much to support him in this law school endeavor: daddy time, money, a big move across the country and away from family and friends, and our sanity. But throughout these last three years we have watched Eric grow and push himself to the limit while pushing ourselves farther than we've ever been asked to. In return we have been blessed with so much. We've grown closer together as a family for taking advantage of any rare and splendid time we did get to spend with daddy. We are blessed with emotional and mental strength for working independently from dad so he could work on his classes. We have been blessed with patience as we tried to depend on daddy even though he needed to work on his class studies resulting in many no's : "sorry, I can't", "I don't have time too", and "just try without me". We were blessed with so many friends who reached out to give us the support we needed while living so far from family. I look back on our Law School life and I woudn't trade it for an easier life resulting in less blessings. I love you Eric and I am so glad that you pushed us to our max and gave us such a wonderful growing experience!

Goodbye friends! Sniffle, sniffle. Our last hurah at the Common Man restaurant with the Johnson Family, Gardener family, Stringham family, and the Heidenreich Family. We'll miss you!

Martha's Vineyard

The best time to go to Martha's vineyard is the week before Graduation!!!! All the shops are open, the busses are running, and there are NO tourists yet!! Way fun!!! We had the island to ourselves! Although it was very cold because there was a storm coming in. We saw thousands of seashells (but thankfully only brought a few home instead of the few hundred the girls wanted to bring home!) and a beautiful sunset as we were on the ferry back to the cape. It was so much fun for the adults and the kids.

U.S.S. Constitution "Old Ironsides"

What a neat part of history! A must-see for anyone wanting to visit Boston! Even though it was being renovated there was a lot of cool things to learn and look at. We got to go below decks and see where the sailors slept, ate, and fired connons! Pretty cool stuff. Our tour guide was a Navy sailor herself so it was fun to hear her tell the history of this amazing warship.
After the Old Ironsides tour we walked up to the Bunker Hill monument and climbed all 298 steps to the top. I left my camera lens cap up there! Ha Ha!!! I think I'll leave it there. I did the climb up, I don't need to do it again! It was quite a view though. Boston is so pretty from above even when you're winded from the steep climp up the tower!

Hair cuts

Chop, Chop!!

10 Inches!!!!