Disneyland!

We have wanted to go to Disneyland for so long, and have looked into it several times, but it is always soooo expensive. A couple weeks ago, one of my host families called me to tell me they were taking their exchange student to Disney. They found a great deal online. Well.......I looked into it, and sure enough, it was by far the best price I've ever seen. Brad and I discussed it and quickly came to the conclusion that this was the time.

Since we were already planning to be in Portland for Caleb's chess tournament, we scheduled the trip for then. The tournament ended on Saturday, we spend Sunday at Auntie's, and then flew out early Monday morning for L.A. Unfortunately, Brad could not take any more time off work, so it was just the kids and me.

We took an early morning flight and arrived in L.A. around 8:30. We got our rental car and drove straight to the park. We had 3-day hopper passes, so we spent the first day at California Adventure, the second day at Disneyland, and the third day hopping back & forth between the two. Our hotel was walking distance from the park---an easy 10 minute walk in the morning, but a killer walk in the evening when our feet were sore from walking all day.

The trip was amazing and we all had so much fun! It turns out that both of the girls are roller coaster fanatics. I expected this from Julianne, but Elisa surprised me.

We flew back on Thursday morning and drove straight home. We've wanted to do this trip for so long, and now that we've been there, we want to go back even more! Next time we will make sure to bring Brad.

2nd in State!!

Again this year, Caleb qualified for the state chess tournament, so we headed to Portland for the two-day event. The first day was team competition, and the second day was individuals. Coquille didn't place in team competition, but Caleb was able to come away with a beautiful 2nd place trophy for individuals. We are so proud of him!! Great job, Caleb!

Meet Miriam

It's almost spring, and that means time to start placing next year's exchange students. We have chosen our newest family member, and here she is:

Miriam is from Germany, and based on her profile, she sounds a lot like our family. She's only two years older than Julianne, and the two of them share many interests. Miriam is a Christian, and her father and grandfather were both pastors. We've spoken to her on the phone and are happy to report that her English is excellent. Her parents speak English too, so we will be able to communicate with them, which will be a first for us.

She will arrive in August and we are all very excited to meet her!

P.S. Thanks for reminding me, Mom....she is from Hamburg, in the north of Germany.

San Francisco

I had the fun of jetting off to San Francisco again this year for the annual AYUSA training conference. This year was so much fun! I got to room with my good friend, Stacie, who started out as one of my host families, and ended up moving to Central Oregon to become a Regional Director with AYUSA. It was lots of fun to see staff that I hadn't seen since last year, and an extra-special treat was getting to spend some time with an AYUSA staff member from North Carolina, who just happens to be Brad's sister. Who'd have thought we'd ever meet up in San Francisco?

I was there from Thursday-Sunday, and would have had the opportunity for some great pictures--if only I had remembered to bring my camera. . . . *sigh*

The only real down side to the weekend was that I had to miss Caleb's last basketball game. Brad kept me updated by text messaging me while I was in my meetings. It turned out to be Caleb's best game ever--he scored 20 points!! I am sad to have missed it, but so proud of him.