visits from family

in october, aunt christy came out for a visit. clay and i went to a marriage retreat with our church and christy generously agreed to watch the girls for a night. the girls had a great time and clay enjoyed some one-on-one time showing his little sister around the city.

my dad also came for a visit. we took him to one of our favorite places, 300, and out for sushi. thanks for the visit, dad. hopefully the rain won't keep us indoors for the next one!

door decorations

the girls are never out of creative energy...

madison's birthday

it's hard to believe that our youngest is now 8! clay and i are often remarking on how fast the time is going by. happy 8th madison(now stop growing up so fast!)!

the girls have to wear uniforms to school, but on their birthdays, they are allowed to wear "regular" clothes. thanks to her grandmothers, maddy had a lot to choose from :).

our block party

fall is our very favorite time of year. the weather is cooler, the leaves are gorgeous, the tourists are gone, and the block parties are abundant. this is a new york tradition in which we close down our block (wreaking havoc on the traffic around us) and the entire block comes out to play. this year we had a steel drum orchestra, we played limbo, we talked, and we ate a lot of great food. we have been blessed to live on a diverse block where those who have lived here 70 years mingle with young families who have just moved in and people of every race and color are welcome.
welcome to sterling street...

first day of school....

the summer passed all too quickly and we are off to school again.
jessica is a 6th grader this year (please pray that we will survive the middle school years :)), hailey is a 4th grader, and madison is in 3rd grade.

the company of friends...

after our cruise we were able to stay an extra day in orlando to visit our friends jason and tara and their daughters, eden and selah.
thanks for entertaining us, andersons!

sail away, sail away...

we were fortunate enough to take a cruise to the bahamas to celebrate the close of a very busy summer. we all had a great time tanning in the sun, swimming with dolphins, eating great food, relaxing, and laughing together.



the girls won a high school musical competition



is this not the cutest pre-teen you've ever seen?

we celebrated maddy's birthday a little early on pirate night.

argh!

they kinda look like a special ops team, huh? the girls snorkeled for hours. at the end of the day, their backs were a lot browner/redder than their fronts.










hailey couldn't remember having seen a palm tree before. anyone who knows hailey knows she has to touch everything. when she saw a palm tree on the beach she said, "i just have to touch that, dad. are we allowed to touch them?". i've never seen anyone so excited over such a simple thing.





that is not a smile, it's sheer terror on my face. the dolphins totally gave me the creeps.

my much braver daughters







4 princesses






one of the great things about cruises is that the food is all-inclusive, which means you can try things you normally wouldn't pay for. our last night on the ship escargo was on the menu. we told the girls we would give them $6 (the price was lower to start, but they have become savy negotiators) if they tried it. hailey and madison were takers. here's how it turned out...