Congratulations Ashley!!

We spent the next Morning having so much fun!! We went down to breakfast , then back up to our room to get ready to go to Ashely's graduation ! The girls discovered the weather,traffic and movie hotline on our room phone and they had fun punching the button and listening to the prerecorded information !!

 I had fun having nothing but time to do all the girls' hair and nails!! When we were all set and ready to go we headed out !

We were so proud of Ash and cheered her on as she received her diploma.

 We had fun baby nephew holding during the grad ceremony! This little guy fell asleep on Ryan!

                         All awake and rested....    Babies.......

 Big brother Ezra found the service long too!

 Picture time with Ashley . Melissa from our church got in on this one too!

Elle and Melissa Whitters

 Ashely loves Dr. Doherty .

 All  of our N.B.B.I. "kids"!!

  Ashley with More of her fave staff!!

 Uncle Michael delivering treats for the girls from Auntie Julia!!

   Ashley's mom made the trip up to see Ashley graduate too!

Waiting for Ashley to say her goodbyes!...

   When we were all packed up and ready we decided to take our girls to see the longest covered bridge in the world!! They were excited and Ryan decided he would let all of us girls have a fun walk across while he drove and waited for us on the other side.

Elin was a little nervous of the water beneath us and stayed close to the boarded up side ..for a while...

  Then in true Elin like character, she decided to have a closer look at the rushing water below!!

  Reunited with Daddy on the other side.

 

The next day Mom and Dad came for lunch and we decided to surprise Ash with a celebration cake and flowers!!

Elle made her a special card as well!! We are looking forward to having Ashley here for 2 months until she leaves for camp ministry. We all love her like crazy and are so happy she has joined our little family while she is home in Sussex.

Race Day!!

 To set this post up, I have to share how I got into running. Last October I went to a Ladies Retreat with my mom and ladies from her church. One of the ladies was telling all of us how she loves to run but doesn't have a running partner anymore and my mom turned to me and said" Oh Sissy you could run with Heidi. It would be fun. Oh Heidi ,Joanna would love to run with you." Now I need to explain I had never dabbled in running. I loved a good , brisk power walk to stay in shape, but that was as far as I went. However, 2 days later I was hitting the trail with Heidi, huffing and puffing. When my friend Marjorie in our church heard I was running, she called me up in February and asked if I wanted to run in a 10 k race with her. I said yes, and began training in earnest. We were feeling a little nervous arriving at our first real race, and here we are with all 300+ of our fellow runners awaiting the start signal.

   And we are off. Marjorie and I are somewhere in the middle of the pack.  The race  took place at the St. John airport on the runway in between scheduled flights. Ryan and the girls had to watch from one of the hangers as only the racers were allowed past that point.

                Poor Marjorie and I quickly realized we were way our of our league, but we bravely trotted on. It is a little intimidating being passed by a hundred runners or so and remain confident in your own racing/running skills!!

 So here Marj and I are finishing our first 5 k (I'm in the pink t-shirt)to the left of the green inflatable starting gate. We had 5 k runners running  with us and they got to finish at this point. It was a little sad having to run by the gate knowing we had to do the course all over again, but Ryan and the girls were cheering us on so loud and happily it gave us the encouragement we needed to run up the hill and around the track again.

   Here we are approaching the finish line!! We were so excited to be done.

   Our goal was to run the race in a hour and we were sooo excited to see the clock at 59 minutes as we ran over the line!!

                            Here I am almost there!! The clock was a little fast as it was started at the beginning of the race. We were all wearing electronic ankle bracelets (scarey!!) that started and recorded our own personal time when we as an individual ran across the strip laid on the ground at the gate .

    Heading to get our medals....

    Ta da!!

             Lining up for our water and bananas!!

    I was welcomed by a happy little family of fans and a proud husband!!

  We did it!! We came in 92nd and 93rd place out of 123!! and 13th and 14th out of 20 for our category.. So definitely not setting any records but we did beat our goal!!We had a big weekend planned as our Ashley was graduating from her 1 year program at N.B.B.I. the next day. Since we were going to be in St John for the race, Ryan and I decided that we would "splurge" , get a hotel room for the night, and head to the graduation the next day. Well our 2 youngest have never been in a hotel before and our 2 oldest have but were so young they don't remember. So you can imagine the excitement  as we got all packed and ready to go. However as we pulled into the parking lot and the girls gazed at this 12+ stories high ,brick structure in the middle of a parking lot, they got nervous. Elle shuddered and said"I don't know if I want to stay here Daddy" and Eva chimed in"me neither!" Once we arrived in our room and got all settled in they were squirming with excitement!! ( We did peek in at the pool on the way by and let them help with the elevator buttons!)

 After a late night swim and shower they all got snuggled down under the covers. It didn't take too long for them to nod off!

This turkey took a little longer to drift off as she was in bed with Ryan and me. She was soooooo excited to sleep with us!!

   Em decided not to sleep up with her sisters and they made it work just fine! 

Spring is FINALLY Here!!

 Spring's Arrival usually coincides with Easter..this year it was a little hard even with a very good imagination to see that spring was on its way..We did have a wonderful weekend celebrating Jesus' resurrection even in the midst of snow squalls! Ashley came home and we had an extra basket on the breakfast table filled with treats just for her. Sadly I didn't get pictured of the girls' beautiful Easter dresses that my Mom made each of her granddaughters this year..our Sunday was filled with company and I lived that day to its fullest and didn't take time to step back and get pictures!!

  Easter morning surprises!!

                                      The first melt day happened that week and the girls and I were on our deck drinking up every drop of that beautiful sunshine.

                           I'm not sure where this comes from (Ryan of course :)  ), but she pulls these poses all the time when she sees the camera. It just makes me giggle.

                                          Even though the snow was almost up to my clothes line...the sun was shining and it was above freezing , so I hung out my laundry.

 The sap ran so well that day...that translated into beautiful maple syrup!! Yipee!!

 Another milestone that happened was our "Bear" turned 1 years old! He is the sweetest boy. The drooliest too. Notice Ryan's sleeve as we went to town the other day...yuck!!

   Bear gets terribly embarrassed by being picked up now. He gets all sheepish ,but Ryan loves keeping an eye on his weight. So right before his big birthday they headed to the scales. 115 pounds!!

 Spring is also the time of our Heritage fair. This year was Eva's first time to participate. She was so cute. She chose to do it on Scamper, our (Emily's ) cat.

                      Emily chose one of her favorite authors.

 

 And our ever knowledge hungry Elle researched Whales and loved sharing her interesting facts with everyone who stopped by her project.

 Aunt Jenny and her girls dropped in and saw the girls and their work before they got judged .

  Then the waiting began..Eva tried to calm her jitters by crafting.

    Elin enjoyed her morning thoroughly !! No nerves for her!

     We arrived back that night for the awards ceremony. The 4 girls recited Psalms 23 for everyone who came. We were so proud of our big girls. They did their best and all placed in their age groups. Elle got 3rd, Eva 2nd and Emily came in first.

    Looking at this picture I'm not exactly sure when she grew up but she hardly looks like that ity bity little one that made us ,a young 23 year old couple, into a little family 11 years ago. She was so happy about her outfit. I helped her sew her skirt , but she got together the rest of her costume and did her hair herself. She is a huge Road to Avonlea fan and she knew exactly how she wanted to look for her project!
All of the girls received a Dairy Queen gift card for participation.So the next day Ryan took us out to eat and we celebrated in fine style their hard work!!