Family Happenings...

• Our Newest Family Member!
• Summer Vacation
• Tidbits

Carmen is Born

Carmen was born on January 9th, 2002 and joined our family in the middle of March. She is a really cute, really fun, really good for our family puppy! And those of you who know us well know that she can only be one kind of puppy... the best type of dog in the world... a boxer! After several years of talking about it, we finally followed through and got Carmen for the kids in particular. Funny enough, the arrival of Carmen not only brought on an era of some things getting chewed, going out late at night into the cold for her to potty, and other such fun stuff. Carmen's arrival seems to help Tyler in his development as well! As soon as we got her Tyler started talking more and he very quickly had to start learning lessons about "limits" (how rough is too rough, how wild is too wild, etc.), because a puppy nips back!

Summer Vacation on the Lake

While summer is the busiest time of the year for us, we were still able to get away for a few days of family vacation in August. It was a bittersweet departure for vacation -- a week at Millstaettersee (Millstatt Lake) in southern Austria. We left home with the arrival of floodwaters just a day or two away, concerned for the thousands of people about to lose everything, thankful that our home would be safe, and eager to see some sunshine. Millstaettersee (whose water is called "drinking water" clean) was great fun for us all! A peaceful, beautiful lake surrounded by mountains; cool, crisp nights; warm, sunny days... ahhh, and no phones or email, just relaxing, swimming, playing games. We spent most every day at the lakeshore. Even though the water was quite chilly, Emily was happy to be in it as much of the time as we allowed, and more! Her only real disappointment was that she periodically had to get out and let her lips and fingers and toes return to their normal color! Tyler, on the other hand, chose to enjoy the lake from the edge. Cold water doesn't normally cause him much problem, either, but this time he had another "enemy" lurking in the water -- fish. Yeah... Tyler has decided that he doesn't want fish to eat his legs, so he isn't going to get anywhere near them! One of the funniest scenes of the week was when Emily and Tyler accidentally flipped our rubber raft over, dumping themselves into the water. We've never seen Tyler move so fast in all his life, as when he swam/ran to the steps practically before he even hit the water! One special milestone was also reached on vacation: Carmen learned how to swim! Carmen has always like water, but was always a little afraid to get in deep. No amount of coaxing seemed to help, but one good slip off a rock forced her into a position where she had to swim back to the shore :-) And as soon as she stepped out of the water, she had a look on her face like, "Hey that wasn't too bad! I think I'll do that again!" And from that moment on Carmen wanted to be in the water swimming! Wow, it sure was fun for us all!

Kid Shorts

• Tyler LOVES going to baseball games. That doesn't mean he loves playing, although he does like it. He just likes being at a place where he can play in the dirt and get REALLYdirty. He also likes the fact that he can go through the crowd and "charm" bites of cake, cookies, ice cream and coke from people. The funniest thing, though, is how Tyler says the word "baseball" -- he calls it "sbaseball." "Dada, can I go play sbaseball?"
• Here is something amazing. While taking Carmen into the back yard to play one day, Emily notices that a deer is running past the back fence -- hotly pursued by a dog! Somehow a deer came down into town and got into the little path between our house and the highway. We're used to seeing hedgehogs, moles and ferrets, but a deer is something kind of special!
• School is back in full swing now. Em seems to be enjoying it a lot -- particularly the social aspect of school. Homework is another thing, though. Tyler, on the other hand, has discovered that he loves to do "homework" with Emily. He even has his own set of colored pencils, just like the schoolkids do!
• Have you ever noticed how much you can learn from someone's prayers? When Emily prays, we hear how thankful she is for all different kinds of animals, and we hear about how she is concerned that God help people (sick friends, hurt dogs, etc.). Tyler, on the other hand, thanks God very consistently for 3 or 4 of his favorite people (Omar, Uncle Brad, Stefan, Uncle Russ) and talks to God in great detail about what he did all day. That's cool.
• Emily is getting to the point where she can enjoy house church without getting restless. Tyler still gets a little itchy, but it is so great to see Em participating more and more in "church life" and growing into a little girl who can privately and publicly express praise and worship.
• Summer was kind of hard on us all because of having to say goodbye so often (we took a lot of people to the airport!). This is the hardest part of missionary life, in fact. It seems like there are more farewells than welcomes :-( Tyler didn't like saying goodbye to our friends, and he would often come up and say, "but I want to keep you" and give a great big hug. He can really be a sweet guy!