Lots of Pictures

Yahoo - it is sushi time. Samantha was in heaven - she stuffed herself with good food -finally!

Daniel loves sushi too - I will keel over if I can ever get a normal picture of my son.

Uncle Ike and close friend Garth - celebrating with us.

Not only were we celebrating Samantha's wonderful scans, but Uncle Mike's birthday was last week. He is so excited to finally hit his 30s -- lol.

Isabella is slurping her lemonade. She is not a big sushi fan yet - so she shared Uncle Mike's dinner.

Friday was a wonderful day -Daniel had a friend hang out and they watched movies and played some video games. Samantha had her friend come over as well. I ended up taking the whole gang to the mall - (surprise!) Actually it was really pleasant. Samantha's friend stayed over. Then Saturday -we all loaded into the minivan to get Daniel to work. He ended up helping his dad's friend (who is a caterer) all day and evening. The rest of us headed over to friends for a wonderful dinner.

Then Sunday arrived. The kids finished up packing and we all loaded back into the minivan for a trip into the mountains - up near Estes Lake - Camp Wapiyapi time!

We arrived to cheers, smiles and hugs - all around. Sam was a bit nervous - although she would never admit it - but she is a trouper. I think this week up there will be wonderful for both Sam and Daniel. I miss them terribly...

After we dropped off Samantha and Daniel - Isabella and I hit the trail. She had a class assignment to fill up a nature bag since they are studying mountains and plains this week at her summer program. We had a wonderful time.

Big Tree - above.

Itsy bitsy - teeny tiny tree.

We hiked until snow started falling - it wasn't much but we were pretty high (at the base of Long's Peak) so it was kind of chilly.

After Isabella filled the bag - we hopped back into the van and headed home.

We did a wonderful bike ride tonight (Monday) - took a bath and headed for bed. So normal and ho hum... The house is so quiet.

Please say a prayer for a member of our hospital family - Jenna Anderson died Thursday evening from the cancer she had been battling. I didn't see much of Jenna - she usually was feeling crummy - but I talked with her mother a lot. She was devoted to taking care of Jenna - always moving and grooving on her behalf. I am going to try to go to the funeral tomorrow. I want to show support - but it will be really hard - can't lie about that. Again - I am so grateful for our family. Samantha's beautiful smile is always on my mind - I want all families to be as lucky as us!

There is also a fund raiser for Justin Miller - so I am going to try and stop by there as well.

Positive energy to the Anderson and Miller families!!!

Love to everyone - big hugs all around.