Sunday, December 9, 2007

Hudson's Christmas Greeting

I just had to post this! Hudson has recorded our latest answering machine message w/ his rendition of "Feliz Navidad" and I got him to sing it on camera and had to share it!
I hope you enjoy Hudson's version of "Feliz Navidad"



Monday, December 3, 2007

The trips & Thanksgiving

I'll start by saying that our trips were great! Matt stayed healthy and we had a good time in Arizona!

Here are some photos/highlights from Matt's trip...

the kids love having their picture taken! Matt had many pictures of the kids smiling, showing off muscles, etc.



Matt spent a lot of his time fixing doors (sorry for the sideways picture, for some reason it just won't go the right way!) the place where they stayed had no doors that functioned properly, ie... they wouldn't close! so Matt spent many days getting them to open and close. This is important to keep the bugs out! there were lots and lots of bugs there!



Matt also got to meet the kids that we sponsor through 'Children of the Nations'! Our kids are Robinson, Osias & Ariendy. Matt was able to take them gifts and spend a few minutes with them. The 2 younger ones were super shy so Matt said between that and the language barrier it was challenging. But the older boy and Matt were able to have a good conversation (with an interpreters help).


I mentioned bugs! I should've said BUGS! There were huge bugs all over the place!! lots of mosquitoes and lizards and beetles and moths larger than matt's hand!



There are the beds that they were able to build while they were there. They made 15 beds (5 for each of the 3 hardest hit villages) and also donated mattresses. This was awesome because these families all share a bed and due to the hurricane they lost their beds.


These are 5 of the ladies who received the beds.


I'm sure this was a major highlight of the trip! This is them riding on the top of a big truck (look at picture below to see what I mean) They had to duck power lines (what an adventure) and hold on for dear life... just what the guys love to do!



All in all, I think they had a good time, blessed many people and all but one person stayed healthy!

and at the same time... in Arizona...
Hudson taught himself how to do a belly flop...

We swam... a lot... and played in the pool with Grandma Vicky! The goggles are important so you can have conversations under water! :)



Camden wowed us with his swimming ability and diving ability! (diving for toys underwater, that is) and both boys jumped in just about every way imaginable!



We all returned safely on Saturday night before Thanksgiving...
then we went to Puyallup to spend a couple days with Matt's parents (Gaga & Papa) and our thanksgiving tradition is to get up in the morning, head to TOP foods (where you'll find an open starbucks) and then we go...

That's right... BOWLING!! Have you ever heard of that one? we've been doing it for over 10 years now!!




as you can tell by the pics, we had a great time! nobody really takes bowling too seriously... and we always a blast!



Then there was turkey at our friend's house (the family friends we bowl with) and all of the 'traditional' Thanksgiving happenings.

On a sad note, while we were away on our trips our puppy (and our friend's puppy) escaped their yard and we think they were stolen. They searched the local shelters, put up signs, contacted tons of people on craigslist and no puppies to be found. Apparently two beautiful puppies like Kemper & Stella were too tempting for someone and they decided not to return them to us. We're still hoping that someone somewhere decides to give them back!
the last picture I took of him. :(

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