My dreams have come true...I am GIDGET!!!!

I went down to San Onfre on Friday night to learn how to surf. And SURFING IS THE ULITMATE!!!! I paddled out to the waves and it was about 7:30ish at night, our friend Eric was coaching us and it was beautiful. The sun was setting and it really did look like a scene from some surfing movie. I was nervous because it seems that although I love the ocean, she tends to just mall me and slam me into the sea floor so every other time I have tried to do something in the ocean I just come out worked, wondering why I even went in in the first place. So we get out there and the waves are starting to to die down a little so we are just sitting on our boards and it was so relaxing that I almost fell asleep. But anyways my first attempt I rode it in on my knees and it was so fun so that next time I stood right up and went for a little bit and then I lost my balance. The third time I stood right up and I rode IT ALL THE WAY IN! My teacher was quite surprise and said that I was a natural and I told him it was because I had watched Gidget so many time. It seriously was the coolest thing I have done since moving to California. I am going to go once a week and get really good and I am getting a surf board for christmas. So I have three months to work on the practice boards so that when it's christmas I can get a real one. It was soooooo fun. We surfed until is was totally dark but the moon was so bright that we just keep surfing, night surfing until I was shaking so bad because it was kind of cold after the sun went down and my arms were so tired from paddling. Then we had a bonfire and it was really fun. I loved it.

I am posting some pictures. Some of them are from my beautiful pot garden on our porch. Now I know it's no Mom and Dad's garden, only the two of them combined can produce amazing results but it has kept me busy and I have loved doing it. I got some of the plants from the Fair Plant sale. They have a big OC Fair every year and they decorate it with plants and stuff and then they have a big sale and they sale everything for super super cheap. I went not knowing that I was going to hit the jackpot but I did. I bought some beautiful hibiscus trees for only $20 bucks and everything else was a dollar. I was running away pulling all my stuff together and there were grandmas that were trying to take my stuff. I kept haven'ting to tell them to back off. Obviously, I didn't say that but it would have been kind of funny. I politely would tell them that they were mine and then we would sit and admire them together, me and the grandmas enjoying our purchases together.

I am glad that Joni is home and that she survived the foriegn land. Why don't you post some pics of your trip Jones. I am so excited to see you tomorrow. I want to hear all about it. Ty and Erica have you decided to move yet? Rich and Shelane, are you alive? Tim and Tanis, I want your child to come live with him. And Mom and Dad how's the befriending of the people that live on our property by the river, have you talked them into letting us demolish there house so that we can build there? That sounds mean but I dream about that property.

I am posting a video of claire singing at the cabin if I can get it to work and a lot pictures from this summer. Enjoy and talk to you all soon. Love you, Marsupial.

I am sure you have been dying to see...

I am sure Erica is going crazy by now since it has taken me forever to get her pictures done. So I finally finished editing them last night at about 1 so I thought I would post a few of my favorites. I absolutely LOVE actually most of them. Claire and Porter were troopers for sure and we actually got quite a few great shots of Claire- which was probably one of the hardest kids I have shot. But we love her for her little personality.

Erica, I hope you like them. There are so many that now is the hard part......picking.

Love you,

Tanis

An update from Pittsburgh

So, it has been a couple weeks now since we have been back and things are going good. Finally my house is under control with the flood, dead mouse, satellite somewhat fixed (Tyler can appreciate the enormous amount of trees here) and the plethora of car troubles due to the humidity.....oh how I love Pittsburgh. But we made it and things are pretty much back to normal. Hudson is currently playing cars on the ground and I am trying to get caught up on some photo editing......Porter and Claire to be exact!! But I thought I would take a second and post some of the pics from our fabulous trip out there. Mostly I just want to say that Tim, Hudson and I had so much fun at home that yet again, it was kind of hard to come back. Everyone asked me if I got sick of it and was excited to come home and honestly, I could have stayed forever. We honestly have the best families in the whole world and I miss you all everyday that I am not there. Hopefully we will be closer to all of you at some point.

Thank you mom and dad for all that you do for us. I cannot imagine greater parents and I am so thankful for your example as that is what I want to be for my own children. I know you both put up with a lot, just the sheer worry factor of life probably drives mom crazy, but I want you to know that I am thankful for that and everything that you do for us. Hudson LOVES his grandma and papa and just this morning as I was getting him up for the day, he said to me, "mommy, water, boat, catch nemo". He loved everything about being in Idaho and with you both. He is constantly asking me if he can talk to papa or grandma. So know that you are both loved.........more than you will ever understand.

I have included some pics of Hudson's new "Cars bed" which he cannot get enough of. We seriously bought him the sheets the night we got back here to Pittsburgh and he has slept in it everyday since. It has made this transition heaven.........who knew that I would one day be praising the makers of cars.....all I can say is they are genius and they make a lot of money, especially because of us.

We love you and are already looking forward to Christmas, although the thought of another winter here is making me think again..................

Love you all,

Tanis, Hudson and Tim

missed picture

This picture wouldn't post so I had to put it back in.
LOVE YOU ALL
MOM

Yellowstone

Well everyone I just thought that I would post a few pictures of some of the fun things we have been doing this summer. First our trip to yellowstone was so much fun! We had a reenactment of Tyler when he was a little kid. The buffalo story! Porter saw a flyer that they were giving out on a buffalo goring a little boy and so of course that stuck with him and he wasn't going to forget it. Our first stop was to see the buffalo one was laying down and suddenly he started rocking back and forth to get up and Porter turned into speedy gonzales and ran away because he didn't want to be anywhere near that buffalo. Anyway, I can still see it to this day, I wish I had a video. We had a great time we saw lots of crock pots! as porter would say(hot pots) and we saw,yes it is still there, OLD FAITHFUL. The kids really liked that. We had a great time there. We went to Bear World the next day and yes, I learned my leason, I didn't get yelled at by the bear police. They have lots more bears now though. We even got to ride the rides there. Porter even saw his old friend the pig there. We enjoy any time that we get to spend with all the kids. Then we got to spend another fun fishing day on Henrys Lake. You can see the serenity of the beautiful lake in that picture. It should bring back great fishing memories for all of you. It is a beautiful place. We caught lots of fish and nobody else was. We are having a great summer. Well, I have to go eat at my friends house to help her boy with his eagle project. So I have more to say but I will end here. Joni is doing well finally after a week of homesickness but she went to church today and that has helped her a lot.
We love you all and everyone write about your life!
LOVE MOM

Stories of Grandpa Condie

Yesterday when we were fishing at Henrys Lake which by the way was another good day of fishing. We caught our limit by 11 o'clock. Richard caught a five pounder and we had two more big ones and the rest were nice fish. Anyway we took Richard back up to the Bennions cabin and went in to visit everyone for a while. We stayed for lunch and while we were there Rex came over and started telling us stories about Grandpa so I thought you would all like to hear them.

He said that one day they were duck hunting and had set the blind all up on a river. They were waiting for this duck to come in and as soon as he got close enough they let him have it. There was lot's of shooting then they heard this guy across from them on the river start yelling and waving. They didn't know why so they went over there and found out that a bb from their guns had gone through the side of his glasses and lodged into his eyelid. They didn't even know that a guy was over there.

He then told us of the time they tried to "borrow" some watermelons out of this watermelon patch. He said that they filled their arms with as many as they could carry and took them to the edge of the patch and went to go get the car to get them out of there. They got in the car and turned it on and they heard this big loud bam. Grandpa had his arm out the window so his elbow was showing. The guy had shot at them with the shotgun and bb's lodged all the way up Rex's car and Grandpa got bb's in his elbow. They took off to the hospital to get the bb's out of grandpa's arm and while they were there a cop approached them and asked them how he got hurt. He said that Grandpa made up a story about rabbit hunting and the cop believed them.
(Tyler, I wonder if the pumpkin incident had anything to do with Heredity!)

The last story was about a time they were rabbit hunting and a phesant jumped up. It wasn't phesant hunting but Grandpa just couldn't resist. They took the phesant and put it in the hubcap. Little did they know but a game warden was watching them through binoculars. He came over and asked them how they were doing and had a nice conversation. He asked if they had shot any birds and they said no. He said let's look in that hubcap there. He found it and took their guns! It took Great Grandpa Condie 7 months to get their guns back even with a lawyer.

We love you all and have a great time with all of you in the last month. Joni did get to Den Haag and is having a little shock but she will make it. Everyone keep her in your prayers.

Love MOM
I would post some pictures but I forgot how and I lost my last post so I am just sending it and will try to send pictures latter!