Wet and Wild

This week, we are so blessed to have Auntie C here for a visit. Auntie C is Mrs. J's step-sister who just graduated from high school and will be headed to AF basic training in a couple of months. The kids have been having a blast with her. Today, we planned to go to the base pool for some swimming. So after we got all the kids packed up, float rings blown up, and the car all loaded up, we were bummed to find the pool parking lot empty. Apparently Thursday is "super chlorination" day. So, I wasn't about to drive home after getting everyone read... so we did the next best thing and headed over to the "dinosaur park" where the kids played at the splash pad. Here are some fun pics... and don't worry, we will make it to the base pool before Auntie C leaves!

This is how we dry off after getting wet. It works quite well!

Evening Walks

My sister and I love taking walks with the kids. Since our husbands are gone, it gives us something fun to do in the evening. Usually in the middle of the walk, Deanna and I take turns running by ourselves while the other one watches the kids at one of the parks. Here are some pictures from last week....

Miss M sometimes rides her bike, and we let Miss O have a turn. I love her tongue!

Another sunset picture

Miss E loves smiling at whoever is pushing her stroller.

Notice the purple tutu under Miss O's dress!

Go Aunt Nanny!

California part 2

In early August, on our way up to Washington, we took the long way through California. Here are some more pictures from San Francisco and the Redwood forest.

The boys with Alcatraz in the background Miss M and I on the ferry
Mr. J's aunt and uncle who used to live in San Francisco, told us about this great spot where we could go and watch the sunset and see the bridge. It was beautiful!
At the Redwood forest
Miss O and the stick she found

There was a gift store right past the redwoods that had a huge Paul Bunyan at it. The kids thought it was quite cool... until he began talking to them. They had someone in a secret location that was being his voice and Olivia thought it was so scary!

Spokane fun

One of the highlights of our trip to Spokane was going to Liberty Lake park on Friday night with the Weaver's and Ashmoore's. We had Thai food while the kids played and got all wet. Then we set up our blankets to watch the Fox and the Hound, when out of a no where a huge thunderstorm came! We all had to run in the ran to our cars so we wouldn't get struck by lightening. Thankfully Mr. Weaver's parents lived close by and they let us invade their house for the evening. The kids had a blast playing and watching Toy Story while all the grownups got to chat. We love our Spokane friends so much and look forward to the day we will get to move back there. That is our long term plan... but we will have to wait and see what God's plan is! Even if we don't end up back there, we will have so much fun hanging out in heaven some day!

Angie took all these great pictures for me. I don't have any of the Ashmoore boys that day, but below is one of Miss O and Grant when they were very small on Christmas Day 2005. Also while we were in Spokane we got a chance to see the Stordahl's and help celebrate Haley's 4th birthday! I can't believe she is that old. I knew Christian before she had Haley. Unfortunately, since I forgot to bring my camera to Spokane, Christian took lots of lovely pictures... but then her camera got this wild idea to go swimming in the lake. Thankfully, before he dove into the water, he left her this letter. Below is a picture of Haley and Miss M when they were quite young! Time sure flies.

And we had a wonderful time with the Martin's while we were in Spokane. I finally got to meet The Bird (that is their nickname for their sweet baby girl). They have since moved to Germany and are enjoying their adventure. I really miss my daily chats with Susan, but treasure the times we do get to talk.. like this mornings wake up call (they are 8 hours ahead of us).

So this is a picture when they came to visit us last July. I was huge pregnant with Mr. T then.

Alright, I am off to clean the bathrooms since everyone is asleep. Blogging is so much more fun than cleaning the bathrooms, but somebody has to do it :)

P.S. Bethany and Susan, if you are reading this, I think you two should start a blog so I can see your cute kids grow!

California part 1

We stopped in San Francisco on our trip up to Battle Ground. We had a great time. We stayed at the lodging facilities at Travis Air Force Base. Military bases are great places to stay with a family, because we had something like an apartment with 2 bedrooms, a full kitchen, living room and even a washer and dryer... all for $34 a night! You can't beat that. Travis is near the town of Vallejo, so instead of driving into San Fran in the morning, we took the ferry.

The kids loved riding on the boat.
This is Mr. J, Miss M and Mr. T on a trolley! It kind of felt like we were going to fall off, with our 3 kids and a stroller, but it was fun... After the trolley ride, we stopped at China town to walk around a bit and then went to the next trolley stop. However, the wait for that trolley was like 2 hours, so we decided to get on the bus. Getting on an almost-full bus with 3 kids and a stroller helped us to understand why not a lot of people with big families live in the city....
I think this one may have been near Fisherman's wharf.
Ghiradelli chocolate factory... delicious chocolate sundae! The girls really enjoyed it, but I think Miss M was getting kind of full.

Mr. T liked it there too! There were lots of statue things out in front of stores and the girls loved getting their pictures taken with them. It was so funny.

At around 4pm, we decided to take the ferry back to our car in Vallejo and drive into the city. We wanted to drive the golden gate bridge and some other things.
We thought it would be fun to drive down Lombard St.... but so did all the other tourists in town, so it took us like 1 1/2 hours to get to the top, and like 2 minutes to drive down it. It was pretty cool. Thankfully, the 1 1/2 hours spent in the car was used for napping and making sub sandwiches out of our cooler.

Stay tuned for more pics of San Fran...

P.S. These are smaller pics than I usually post, but I think if you click on them, it will make them big.

Highlights of our summer

Hello Friends!

I apologize for not posting in so long. Life has been a bit busy in the Jones house the past couple of months. So, to start off, I thought I would give you some highlights.

• We found out July 24th we are expecting Baby Jones #4... due the end of March 2009. We are very excited that God has blessed us with another baby. We have an ultrasound scheduled for the end of October to hopefully find out if it's a boy or girl.
• We put in for an assignment to Yokota Air Force Base in Japan on July 21st with a report date of April 2009. We waited until the end of August to find out someone else got the assignment. What happened is the man in charge of picking was not able to get a hold of Mr. J on his cell phone while we were in Washington and so he talked to a coworker of Mr. J who gave him some misinformation about Mr. J's qualification. This caused him to choose someone else (whereas if he had known the correct info, Mr. J would have been chosen). We are confident that this is all a part of God's plan for us. It is nice not to have to figure out all the details of moving a newborn half way across the world.
• We had a great time in San Francisco and the Redwoods on our way up to Washington.
• Jones Family Fun Day was so much fun at Mr J's grandparent's home in Battle Ground. The cousins have a great time together.
• Clark County Fair! We spend a day there with my dad, his wife and stepsister and had a blast. I got my fill of fair food and the kids loved all the rides and the rodeo. Miss M and Mr T enjoyed the animals but Miss O was pretty much afraid of everything.. including the bunnies.
• A quick trip to Spokane ! We got to see the Martins before their big move to Germany, Manito Park, the Stordahls, the Weavers and Ashmoores, the Bades and go to Faith Bible Church. We miss you all so much there!
• Mr. T's 1st Birthday. This was a great time to see friends and family at Lewisville Park. Thank you everyone that came out for that. We loved seeing you all.
• Hanging out with a great friend from college and her kids. The kids were part of a Biker Gang while we were there.
• Wedding festivites for Deanna: a great shower thown by Jamie and Jenny, a Bridal Par-Tea, Bachelorette fun in Portland, decorating memories at moms.
• A Beautiful Wedding! You can see more pics on her website or facebook.
• A 1000+ mile drive from 3am - 8pm on August 19th to get home to our...
• Ant infested house!!!! Yuck. The kitchen was so bad, I thought my sister had spilled coffee grounds everywhere on the floor and counters... but no, it was just dead ants. It took 2 days before the ant spray guy could come and spray and even after he came they were still hanging around. It sure made the kitchen easy to pack up because I just threw all food stuff that had been previously opend away because there were ants in it. They especially liked the powdered sugar. The only thing that made this ant thing bearable is that we were moving in to our brand new base house 4 days later.
• On Aug. 22 we moved in to our large, beautiful base house. I promise to get pictures posted soon! Thanks to Zack and Jason for helping us move. It is so spacious and there are lots that we love about it including storage space, garage, filtered water, a big sink, real floors (our old house had school cafeteria-like flooring), an ice maker in the fridge, lots of ceiling fans, etc! It is great. The best thing, according to the kids, is that our back yard backs up to a park with a play structure and swings. In the evening, all the little neighbor kids come out to play and they have so much fun.
• I turned 27!
• Working 2 days a week at the clinic on base. The people I work with our so nice. Also, I am learning a lot about strep throat, upper respiratory infections and urinary tract infections. I see as many as 8 patients a day with these ailments. So if you have any questions, you can ask me.
• Mr. J and I enjoy following politics and are excited about the Sarah Palin pick.
• Mr. T walks now!! Like a pro. I am sure it won't be long before he starts running.
• Miss O is quite the talker now. Can you all believe she is now older than Miss M was when we moved to Vegas?
• Miss M started preschool again on base. She likes playing with all her new friends. They went on a field trip to the commissary, so when we were there the next day shopping, she showed me that they sell octopus in the fish case.
• MOPS started! This is my 5th year and I love it! If any of you all our mothers of preschoolers and would like to find a group in your area, click on the link. I am a discussion group leader and the registration gal.. and that job is always a bit busy at the beginning of the year.
• We went on a fun hike to Mt. Charleston to see a water fall.
• Our roommates (Deanna and Tom) got a cute little base house that they moved in. The girls like to play hide and seek there.
• My friend Amber and Jason welcomed baby Julia last week.
• We had lots of dr's appts last week. The baby seemed to be doing great.. I even got to hear the heart beat. Tuff weighs in now at 27 lbs! Miss M is growing great as well.
• For some reason all my google stuff has turned German into my main language. I have changed it back a couple of times but it keeps going back to German. If any one knows how to permanently fix this, please let me know.
• Oh yeah, and our house is Spokane is for sale and for rent. It's a great house and we are praying for a family to move in soon! I have been working a lot with our property manager to arrange house cleaning, carpet cleaning, carpet replacing, staging, and setting back up all the utilities. If anyone knows some one that might be interested, please let me know and I will give you our realtor/property managers information.

Well there you have it. Highlights from the last couple of months. I have lots of pictures to post and will try to get them downloaded for you all to see.

Family Camp 2008

We spent this past weekend in Duck Creek, UT camping with all our friends from Grace. We had a wonderful time in the beautiful forests of Southern Nevada. The kids loved digging in the dirt. Mr. T still has a bunch of it under his fingernails. We also enjoyed getting to know more of our church family. We shared delicious meals with them, played kickball, sang songs around the campfire and ate smores. Mr. J was a hit among the preteen boys, many of whom are boy scouts, as he displayed his stellar fire building skills. Deanna and Tom also joined us for camping. On Saturday, we visited a place called Cedar Breaks in Bryan Head National park and after we broke down camp on Sunday, we drove to nearby Zion National Park. It was awesome to see God's beautiful creation.

Apparently Miss M has her daddy's fear of heights. This is the closest she would get to the railing.