Surfing Anyone?

While in Hawaii this weekend, Kelly and I tried surfing together for the first time this morning. Despite living in Southern California all these years this was a first for us both. We had a blast...Kelly was definitely the natural and we have some great pictures to prove it. The best way to sum up our surfing skills is to say that I always looked as if I were about to wipe out and Kelly often looked like she could ride it all the way into the beach. She did awesome! We came away with some great memories and I even managed, somehow, to deposit my wedding ring on the floor of the Pacific Ocean in the process - looks like I'll be doing some jewelry shopping tomorrow.

With our Rwanda trip just around the corner this time together has been a nice break. We miss Taylor and Sammie terribly, but know they're in good hands with my sister Julie.

Talk to you soon cousins...

Eric

Happy Easter!

Today we spent Easter visiting the Gillan Family in "the valley" in their new home.They are in a beautiful neighborhood with a HUGE avocado tree... There might be some guacamole in our future. Next, we visited my parents for Easter dinner, an egg hunt, a pear martini, and good conversation. This was our last visit with my parents (and Patrick and James) until we return from Rwanda. We missed Danny today, we sure do love him too and I hope to hear from him soon. Also, we toasted my parents for their 38th Wedding Anniversary! Happy Easter to you all and enjoy the gift that Jesus gave to you, we sure are! Love, Kelly

Sammie discusses her Webkinz

OK, this has nothing to do with our Rwanda trip, however since Taylor made a video today... Sammie did not want to be left out. Again, you should probably turn the music off on this blog first (the music is at the bottom of this blog page. Click it twice slowly to turn it off.) Sammie is patient, she'll wait for you first!

17 Days to Go!!!

Here's Taylortalking about our trip that's only 18 days away. You might want to stop the music playing at the bottom of this webpage first if you'd like to hear Taylor talk... she can wait a minute for you...

Violin Recital!

Presenting Taylor Burton!

Fourth Grade Honor Student, and a representative of her Elementary School at the CAPO District Honor Orchestra Recital

We're so proud of her - Congratulations Taylor.

Getting Closer!!

Since the last update we've been practicing our language skills, saying thank you to so many friends and family that have sent donations for our trip, and generally trying to stay healthy! It's not easy to do this when our sports practices are at night and we're already keeping the sniffles at bay.

Here's a special note though, tomorrow Taylor will get to play her violin in a special concert put on by our school district (held at our church funny enough). She was selected to represent her school (along with 3 others) to play 8 songs with other children selected from their elementary schools at the Honor Orchestra recital Friday night! So yesterday we went shopping for the dressy dress and shoes for this semi-formal event. I'll post a picture of her dressed up after we're finished tomorrow.

No update on Sammie except to say that she is loving tetherball (sp?) these days and since we got a tetherball pole in the backyard all she can think about is playing it even more!