Robin Hood & a New Camera

Nate and Drew performed this weekend in the Missoula Children's Theatre production of Robin Hood. After 4 days of intense rehearsal the kids were ready to act Saturday morning. The show was great and everyone did a terrific job.

Here is Nate (on the left) in costume as the Sheriff of Nottingham.


Here is Drew (in the center) in costume as one of the guards. (no sword :-<)

The pictures aren't the best, we know. It is very difficult to get a good shot in the base theater. After the play Saturday morning we went camera shopping and came home with a new camera (Sony DSLR-A350K) we hope will do wonders while we are in China. We took the new camera to the pool today and gave it a test run. So far, it's working great!

Lilymei Day and Missoula Children's Theatre

We have just received confirmation that we will pick up Lilymei one day earlier than we thought!!! We are flying into Hohhot around noon on Sunday, July 27th and we will meet Lilymei later that afternoon! We were wondering if our travel itinerary was correct and this morning we awoke to an email from our travel coordinator, who received word from Beijing, that we will have Lilymei with us Sunday night. Oh my goodness! Less than 3 weeks away! Scott is home from work today, trying to get ahead on some of his MBA coursework so he won't have to worry about it while we are gone.

The boys are busy this week with the Missoula Children's Theatre. This is Nate's 3rd year participating in Missoula. The first summer we were on Guam Nate was cast as a farmer in Jack and the Beanstalk. Drew did not want to participate that year. Last year Nate was the lead character of Rumpelstiltskin. Drew was a gnome. It was a great show. This year the crew will perform Robin Hood. Nate has been cast as the Sheriff of Nottingham while Drew is one of the guards. (He really just wants to have a sword!) Rehearsal runs from today through Friday, with the performance Saturday morning. What a great organization this is. I hope the next base we move to also has this program available to the kids. It is amazing what 2 traveling professionals can teach the kids in such a short amount of time.

Photos from Father's Day Lunch at the restaurant RED:



Days until we travel:15
Days until we hold Lilymei:19

July 4th Weekend

We had an enjoyable 4th of July holiday weekend. We celebrated with a party on base Thursday afternoon. On Friday, we cleaned the back patio, got the toddler bed ready, had burgers on the grill for lunch, and went swimming at the Hyatt Hotel where we are members. Saturday, Scott and I had more passport photos made; the boys mowed a couple of lawns and then we ordered pizza and watched the Bee Movie. Sunday after church we bought all kinds of travel size toiletries for the China trip (along with a few goodies for Lilymei) and mowed 4 more lawns. Since we didn't get ice cream Friday night Scott promised the boys we would have Cold Stone before Sunday night. It looked like it just wasn't going to happen though. The boys were disappointed but they went to bed Sunday night without too much complaint. Just before they fell asleep we went into their room and surprised them by taking them to Cold Stone anyway. They love it when we catch them by surprise!

Here is a view of sunset on the Philippine Sea from the Hyatt Hotel, on the 4th.


Here we are wearing our Old Navy t-shirts. We had our picture taken outside one of the restaurants at the Hyatt where we had dinner on the 4th. Even though we live here, the host of the restaurant thought we were on vacation from the US mainland when he saw all of us in the same t-shirt. He kept saying "Have a nice trip!". We laughed and thought "Yes, we will enjoy our trip to China." That's what you can expect when the majority of the hotel guests are visiting from Japan.


We hope you all had a great 4th of July! Only 17 days until we leave for China!

Blankets for Lilymei

We are so blessed to have friends who have lovingly made blankets for our little Lilymei. We love them and Lilymei will too!



Don't they look great?! Thanks Natalee and Tina!!!