Smile!

Abby's walking-to-school buddies!

Sam doing an Angry Birds puzzle with preschool friend Ben!

How can you not smile with this cute face staring back at you?

Pictures and Stories

After we walk Abby to school in the mornings, Lydia and Sam are more than ready for a short stint at the park.  They are always so happy playing and are working on figuring out how to play just the two of them without their ring-leader in charge. :)

We went all together to a park on Saturday morning.  It was so fun to see them all three playing.  I'm such a sucker when I see the three happy together.  We've missed Abby during the school day so the time they have together is even sweeter.  Instead of playing, we had to start out in the dirt doing drawing together.  Funny kids.  Actually, the same thing happens on the way to and from school in the big garden patch at the front entrance.

Sam started preschool 2 weeks ago.  He was so happy to have a backpack and go to school.  Look at that smile!  My favorite Sam moment from a couple weeks ago was when he said, "You know what's a funny word?  Eviscerated!"  His mind is going to keep us entertained.

And never to be left out is Lydia, posing on her first day with only Mom.  That was weird not to have anyone really talking back to me :)  Don't get me wrong, Lydia's chatty, but it's a lot of back and forth to make sure I know what she's saying!  Actually, just to brag for a minute, Lydia has started singing a lot more lately.  Love it!

 Here's Sam's preschool crew.  We hosted B week and everyone wore blue and brought bears.  We are going to have a good time laughing and learning together this year!

Serious faces

Silly faces

Sam also started his sports class at our rec center this past week.  He had a great time, but when we asked him at the end what his favorite part was, he got sad and said he had no fun at all.  When pressed further, I discovered that he didn't have fun because the class was too short.  Thank goodness we have 9 more sessions!

More Pictures!

Happiness Embodied.

 Even the bribery of a cookie didn't produce a smile from Sam.  Stinker.

Sam's new favorite reptile: a blue-tailed skink.

 Not to ever be left out, Lydia had to pose with the snake.

Abby all ready for school.  We're glad she loves it, but we sure miss her!

Malaysia Trip in July

Michelle finally guilted me in to writing about my Malaysia trip I took this last July to attend the Trans Pacific Partnership trade negotiations.  The pictures below represent the highlights of my trip.

And you thought the 'Cars 2's portrayal of the bathrooms in Japan were far fetched.  This was the bathroom in the airport.

Here was the view from my hotel in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia which is on the island of Borneo.

On Sunday, I managed to find an LDS church to attend and in the branches over seas in predominantly Muslim countries where I grew up we met in other peoples' homes. I was surprised that in this Muslim country they had their own building.  I happened to luck out because the 3rd Sunday of every month (the Sunday I was there) was all in English.

I always love finding the local gag gift that tourists always buy.  Stuffed toad purses... now that is thinking outside the box.

A view from the airport towards the interior of the island to give you a better sense of what it looked like.

School!

Abby started school on Tuesday.  She loves being in kindergarten and has been so great at sharing stories all afternoon and evening.  It's been so fun to see how much she loves being in school.  The kindergarten aide has already told me that Abby is so smart and will be one of the easiest kids in the class.  Not a shock at all. :)  We all miss Abby during the day, but she gives the greatest hugs and plays hard with Lydia and Sam when she gets home.

Thank you, Miriam, for the great book!

School Countdown

We spent the last weekend before school started playing with cousins at Frying Pan Farm and went up to the Washington DC Temple and Visitors Center.  We have the greatest kids!