Lisa's Excellent Adventure!

SADDLEBACK CHURCH

This is the church where Donnie has been working for the past 2 years as a youth intern. This church is pastored by Rick Warren who wrote the Purpose Driven Life. This first building is the children's complex, the next picture is the steps up to the main worship centre and and the third is the main worship centre.

DISNEYLAND!!

Thanks to a friend of Laura's who works at Disneyland, we were provided with free admission to both Disneyland and California Adventureland - what a great day! This is Tyler and I in front of the castle.

Here's a few floats from the parade that runs down Main Street USA every day.

Later in the afternoon we decided to ride the train that goes around the entire Disneyland park - Tyler didn't see much!

Here's a couple of attractions from California Adventureland which is right next door to Disneyland.

We rode this huge ferris wheel. Our car was one of the ones on the inside that runs back & forth on a track and rocks back & forth - kind of nauseating!

Here we are on the ferris wheel, up high where it's constantly moving & windy.

While in Disneyland, Tyler got picked out of hundreds of kids to go up on the stage with about 25 other kids to learn how to fight in the "Jedi Training Academy". Once he learned his fighting routine, he had the challenge of fighting Darth Vador - he did a great job & was so excited!

LAGUNA BEACH!!
Laura, Tyler and I took a day and went to the beach - what a beautiful place!

This is the pool & hot tub area located in the complex where Laura & Donnie are living.

We spent a few hours one day at Downtown Disney which is a free shopping area with shops & restaurants. We enjoyed watching a parrot show and then our our picture taken with these beautiful birds.

California is a beautiful place and the views from all over the area are spectacular as seen here with the mountains in the background. Thanks Laura, Donnie & Tyler for a great visit - love you all!

Laura's Mouth

Just the kind of pictures you want to see with your morning coffee. Make sure you click on them for the LARGE version!! Laura will have this appliance in her mouth for two months, with us ratcheting it wider every two days. After that it stays there for 4 months to let the bones grow and solidify. So two months from now Laura will have her braces put on. The fun two years for Laura begins!

New Car

Here's our 2001 Caravan. It's been giving us trouble and we thought now was the time to replace it. (Go back to August 2005 to see a picture of Lisa really happy to get it.)



Here's our new 2005 Grand Caravan with the cool Stow 'n Go seats. It wasn't very nice to get a nice clean van on a day with snow and slush everywhere but it's nice, that's for sure. And Lisa gets to keep her very precious 7 seats, as we decided we couldn't afford what we wanted, a new Crossover type vehicle. At least the car payments aren't too much of a jump with this one!

A fun day on a Moose Jaw street

Here's us playing football, hamming it up, and even a quickie of Andrew!



Andrew riding his new bike!

Sleeping Beauty?!?!

I have so many pictures of Andrew sleeping in strange positions. This is just another one to add to my collection which we took last night.

Andrew's New Bike

Daddy and Andrew getting the new bike adjusted at the perfect height. This is still March, but the weather was so warm, everyone was out in shorts & t-shirts!

Always ready to serve Daddy chaperoned Laura on a field trip to 15 Wing Moose Jaw to visit the home of the Canadian Snowbirds. Here's a few snapshots of our day! As the weather wasn't all that great, we had the fortune to meet the grounded pilots, in a couple of the pictures.

Our old bed, on a (still) nice Ikea bed Frame. the mattress though, is about 10 years old and was very cheap. I was happy to push it out the door!

Our new mattress, on the new bed frame, with the new furniture. I asked the delivery guy if it comes with a pole vault to get into it!

Laura gets to have her bed back, actually it's her new bed, as we're putting our nice Ikea bed frame down there for her. she's not happy about this as she was enjoying sleeping on a piece of foam on hard futon slats. Ahhhh, to be young and have a good back!

The worst 8 nights of my life!!!

Hope that title grabbed your attention. We finally bought a new mattress today, our last one was rather cheap and has been giving us back aches for several months now. So now we have 8 more nights to sleep on it before the new one gets delivered next Friday.

The funny thing about the whole process was that I didn't mind paying the $$$ for the mattress, but my eyes shot out for the far less amount we paid for the sheets we got for the bed. But, boy, those sheets we got were the softest thing I may have felt in my entire life.

So here's the mattress below, because I know how much people want to see it! The lady doesn't come with it though!

Wow, she's incredible!

Lisa's an absolute gem of a wife, mother, and household cleaner. She taught me how to clean the bathroom tonight. I always wondered why it took so much time but now I know. There were several things she did that I had no idea she did on a weekly basis.

So here's to the best wife a guy could have...

Lisa Taylor

Thanx Lisa, I'll never doubt you again! (Do you believe me?)

We never saw this in Ontario

Apparently this is called "Ice Frost". It happens when there's so much fog and there's so much moisture in it that it comes out as ice crystals. This is on our fence at around noon, and it was gone at 4:30 p.m. I think it was so cool!

Not exactly the NBA

Here's a video of Laura playing in her first ever basketball game for the Cornerstone Christian School Falcons "B" Girls Team. It's mostly Grade 5 and 6's, although we've now played 2 games against teams with grade 7's and 8's. So it's sometimes hard playing seeing our girls play against teams that are literally a foot taller than them. But we know this is a fun league for the kids to learn how to play B'ball. Enjoy the video!

Wow! She did it!

The seconds were ticking away, the first half of the basketball game was almost over. Cornerstone "B" was playing the "A" Empire Tigers and the game was close. Suddenly, with the game on the line, a Cornerstone player steals the ball and runs straight to the basket for a free shot at 2 points. An Empire girl chased after her and there was our Laura following behind. As I sat there enthralled I realized Laura could be in a good position for a rebound. The shot was taken and it missed. Then there was a ball coming down. Laura grabs it! Does she have a chance for a shot??? YES!!! She takes it, but will it go in? It bounces on the rim and for that split second you think it may come out... but it doesn't, it goes in and the crowd goes absolutely crazy, cheering, yelling, whooping it up. We look at the scoreboard, realizing with pride that our daughter has just scored her first basket ever in a game. Lisa and I get teary eyed. The score... it's close but Cornerstone is back in the game.


Empire 20
Cornerstone 2


(But the final score is a little better, Empire 28 Cornerstone 12)

We had a Super Bowl party tonight with about 15 folk here. Our friend Curtis here was sitting beside the picture of Lisa's brother-in-law in California and we decided to take a snap of them side by side. See a resemblance?

Female Grooming

We had a girl's makeover day today. Kathy, who is Aysia & Rayna's mom, is very talented and was the one responsible for making us all feel glamourous & beautiful. This is Kathy working on Courtney's hair while Laura, Aysia & Rayna work on their nails.

Kathy starting Laura's transformation.

The new Laura!

Laura & Aysia with their new dos!

Laura, Aysia & Rayna looking beautiful.

Courtney & her sister Morgan with their beautiful new locks! (don't you just love Morgan's red hair - it's gorgeous!)

Male Grooming

Not quite as complicated & involved as the grooming we females did today!

Cousins

Goofy Cousins!