Fall 2008 Seasonal Garlands

Roadtrippin’ and Homeschoolin’

Jeff, Z (in backpack), S and J on the blue diamond trail in Breckenridge, CO.

We had a wonderful 2½ week roadtrip in August from San Diego to Littleton, Breckenridge, Denver, Littleton, Centennial, Frederick, Westminster, and Ft. Collins. In the car, our kids enjoyed listening to Adventures in Odyssey, watching cartoons, and seeing the beautiful Utah landscapes. We spent time with Wendi’s parents in Breckenridge where we hiked, went swimming and had loads of fun.
We took mini-trips to visit Jeff’s folks in Littleton (and celebrated their 40^th anniversary with Jeff's sister Julie), attended Jeff's 20th high school reunion (Denver Christian HS class of 1988), met our newest cousin B, born to my brother James and Lauren in August, and stayed with my sister Stacy’s family in Ft. Collins a couple of nights. We had hoped to meet up with friends in Westminster at an outdoor gathering, but a deluge of rain unfortunately canceled that engagement (and caused it to snow in the high mountains – snow in August, you gotta love it). We visited our old church, saw our dear friends’ new home in Frederick, and had an overall wonderful time reuniting with family, friends, and beautiful Colorado.

Z behind the wheel.

Roadtrip lessons learned: bring a potty in the car with you for little ones; go swimming a lot; bring snacks and more snacks; cousins are the best; friends are awesome; wives love to talk, men like to drive, what a great combination; and finally, don’t forget your car phone charger (like we did). Road trips are a great source of inspiration, taking us out of our normal routines allowing us to see those we love in their own elements. It was awesome.

J and S working hard on their schoolwork.

S is the only "official" Kindergarten student, but J likes to think otherwise.

Kindergarten is in full swing at the Garland Homeschool. Our dining room has been taken over by magnetic calendars, counting charts and colorful alphabet posters. Every day glue bottles come out as we clip magazine photos and assemble homemade books. We use plastic knives to cut cheese sticks into halves, then quarters then eighths, and so on. S and J love to work on projects together. Z does too but that’s not always a good thing. We are learning to balance learning with family, fun and love. S also attends Kindergarten classes at her school part-time that enhance the subjects Wendi teaches at home.

With 3 young children, we are completely exhausted each and every night, but we also continue to be overwhelmed by God’s blessings. Jeff loves his job, we love church, AWANA, school, neighbors, friends, town and family. We're so very blessed to have wonderful family and friends like you.

Bring on the pumpkins, costumes, crisp apples and falling leaves... welcome to fall.

We send out these family updates 4 times per year (one per season)... if you're not on our emailing list and would like to be, just shoot me a note.