Father-Daughter Ball & Maggie is 10

Winter Sports

Winter sports have finally finished in our household and we are now into spring sports. Only, someone forgot to tell Mother Nature that we would actually like to have spring weather to go with the sports. A few action shots of the girls during basketball. Maggie's team was the Chili Peppers and Lanna's the Tigers. The girls had a great time and again showed improvement from the beginning of the season to the end.

Father Daughter Ball

In February, Dan and the girls attended the Father-Daughter Ball. This is a well attended event and there are four separate events because of the demand. The girls had a great time dressing up and having a special evening with Dad. We all went to dinner at JT's Steakhouse first before they headed off to the ball. (Mom headed to the MMHS basketball game with some friends where she actually was able to watch the game and did not have an obligatory stop at the concession stand.) There was lots of dancing and the girls loved taking turns to dance with dad. They had a nightcap of Coldstone Icecream before heading home, and are already talking about next year.

World's Toughest Cowboy

Dan worked the World's Toughest Cowboy competition in Portland again this year, and we were fortunate enough to attend courtesy of Dan's friend. In addition, Jill, Tina, Cole and Jo were able to attend with us, which made for a great evening. As a bonus, the kids all got cowboy hats to wear. Lanna, of course, was ready to step into the role as cowgirl right away.

Cole, "Cowgirl" Lanna, Jo & Maggie

One Decade in the books!

Maggie turned 10 on Thursday and commented that she is now one decade! Wow, we can't believe she is that old already. She is maturing into a wonderful young lady and is a joy to be around. We made a rainbow cake for her birthday and she loved it. I will not be leaving my job as an engineer to enter into the baking business, as you can see by the lopsided cake. However, the cake still tastes wonderful and looks great inside. Maggie loved it. She received a new camera for her birthday, and some of the pictures on this post are courtesy of her.

Rainbow "Leaning Tower" of birthday cake.

Free Saturday

We actually have a whole weekend free from activities and sports! So what are Dan and the girls doing? Playing Mario Kart on the Wii. (Okay, Mom played some too.) Heading to Portland for a family day later.

2009...so far

It is already halfway through February, and before we know it Spring Break will be here! Here are a few things going on here.

Assembly Leader

Maggie was selected by the school principal to be the assembly leader in February, along with another boy from her class. She was very excited to stand in front of the whole school and lead the assembly. She did a great job and was asked by the principal "to remember us when you are famous". In addition, she was awarded an academic achievement for her school work, the only student in the 4th grade for the month of January. All her hard work is beginning to pay off. Way to go Maggie!


Valentine's Day Dinner

We actually went to OMSI on Valentine's Day and saw the Da Vinci exhibit, which was very neat for everyone except Lanna, who was bored while we read the history boards before we even made it into the exhibit. We went to dinner afterwards and had a special dinner at home the next day. The girls wanted to make a special dinner for Dad, with the help of mom, as seen in their National Geographic for Kids magazine. We made heart shaped pizzas with arrows through them, and strawberry sorbet for dessert. The pizzas came out looking more like gooey ducks than hearts with arrows, but they had such fun making them. Maggie is wearing the hat and apron from the cooking basket Lanna won at the CVG carnival. They each bought raffle tickets to put into the jar for different prizes, and imagine Lanna's surprise when her name was called for the cooking basket. Needless to say, we have been using many of the great items that were in the basket. And I think Maggie has enjoyed using the goods more than Lanna so far.

All smiles as they prepare the dough.

The girls are in awe as mom "tosses" the dough.

Maggie making the hearts and arrows.

The pizzas before we bake them, as displayed by "chef" Lanna.

The finished product, some already eaten.

Protozoa anyone?

Basketball in full swing

YMCA basketball is in full swing, and will be finished next month. I am coaching Maggie's team, which is all girls and is doing well. Maggie has really been working on her dribbling and shooting, and has become quite the point guard. We are the Chili Peppers, partly because of the red jerseys, and partly because they are "hot".

Lanna plays on a 2nd grade coed team, but is comprised of mostly girls (7 girls, 3 boys), who out height the boys by quite a bit. She and Maggie have been attending open gym on Friday nights at the middle school (we are so pathetic we have nothing else to do on Friday nights). The dad of one of Lanna's teammates has been running the open gym doing dribbling, passing and shooting drills with the kids. He has done a fabulous job with the kids and we can already see improvement in both the girl's play. Lanna played great this last Saturday as a result I am sure of the extra touches she has been getting at open gym.

Random Stuff

Lanna: "Scout is a bug. Scout is a bug."

Maggie: "Scout is not a bug, she's a trout."

Just for the record, she is not a trout, she is a cat, but cat doesn't rhyme with Scout.

Dan got a new ringtone for his phone, which is the sound of Chewbacca from Star Wars. You can tell when his humor has rubbed off on his kids when he played the ring tone and Maggie said "Mom, did you say something?"

Our house was blessed with its first TP-ing last night. We woke up at 12:57 a.m. to the sound of the doorbell ringing, at which point I thought "The house is on fire." We then went to the window to see toilet paper drapped high into our trees and over our bushes. It was cleaned up early the next morning, with the exception of a few strands too high to reach. Unfortunately we did not think to get a picture until after it was cleaned up. We do, however, know who did the deed and can now plot our revenge!!

Snow-Christmas-1st Reconciliation

White Christmas!

Christmas came with a flurry of white this year, literally! Dan, Maggie and Lanna were out of school three days early with the arrival of several inches of snow. We were all excited for the beautiful white powder, sled rides and warming up with hot cocoa. The hill out of our street is fairly steep, and during snowy weather we have learned to park at least one car on the next street up, otherwise we will be stuck with out a car to drive. The snow plows don't come into our cul-de-sac so driving out is impossible. After several days of snow, with icing in between, our street was perfect for sleding, but impassible to vehicles. The Schwan's Man was foolish to drive down but unable to get back out. His truck was parked on our street for two days before a large tow truck pulled him out. The girls (and mom and dad) had a great time playing in the snow, sleding, making snowmen, and all the fun things you do in the snow. After a week of the snow, however, even they were tired of it.

We had about 6-inches on Christmas Day alone and I heard the girls groan "Not more snow!" I don't think I have ever heard that. But after two weeks of walking up to our car and driving with chains, we were all glad it finally melted away. Driving on snow with chains is fine, but when you hit clear pavement, it's like driving in Fred Flintstone's car! Christmas Day was a low key affair at our house with presents in the morning, A Christmas Story to watch over and over, a trip to the movies followed by a nice turkey dinner.

Lanna showing off her Top Chef game.

Maggie with her make-up...is she really old enough for that? No!!!

Look what we found under our tree.

1st Reconciliation

Lanna has been going through 1st Reconciliation classes, and last weekend she had her 1st Reconciliation. She was excited for this day and did great. She is now getting ready to take her 1st Communion Classes and will celebrate that sacrament in May.

Lanna's Art

Lanna's class made a family picture and then wrote a story about the picture. We have a frame where we display the a piece of the girl's art for a while, and this is our current display. Just for the record, Dan is not as old as she says, and Carol is not as young, but at least she was closer to my age than Dan's.

Who knew I was a mail order bride?


Goodbye snow!

We leave with this picture of the "Gianormous snowball" the girls made which lasted for days and days after the snow melted. Perhaps we will have snow later...much, much later!

Christmas Time

How to pick the perfect Christmas Tree, Ruiz Family Style...

First, walk through the tree farm looking at each one.

Some are a little too big...

Some are a little too small...

Found it!!

Take obligatory family picture in front of tree.

(Thank Heavans for camera timers).

Cut the tree, with child supervision...Timber!

Throw it into the back of your truck!
(A borrowed truck is best - :-)

Visit with Santa.

Pet (and herd) goats and llamas at petting farm (no pictures, :-(

Take the tree home, place in your house and...

Viola!

Your tree is ready for Santa's visit.

Merry Christmas.

Thanksgiving and Holiday Fun Stuff

The Racoon Racers and Families

The Belmont-Smith Family arrived Wednesday night after an arduous drive up I-5 and we kicked off the festivities the next morning with the Turkey Trot Fun Run. It seems more and more people show up each year to enjoy a run/walk around the Lake Sacajawea. We met up with several groups of friends and it was a great time to catch up with people we haven’t seen for a while. Jill and Cole were the only two from our group to finish the whole lake this year. Way to go Cole. We headed home to clean up, eat some yummy Thanksgiving dinner and watch the Seachickens lose once again. Sigh. Football in Washington this year leaves much to be desired.

Jill and Cole approaching the finish line

We braved the crowds Friday morning for some super deals and then began the process of decorating the house. Although not done, the house is beginning to look festive and the mood is starting to feel a lot like Christmas.

Geo-caching

Dan and Jill "working" the GPS

We decided to try our hand at a fun activity called Geo-caching. Simply put, this is like treasure hunting with a GPS. We went to http://www.geocaching.com/ , typed in our zip code and found several “caches” right here in Longview. So we downloaded the coordinates and headed out to find the stashes, trade a treasure or two and leave our name in the log books for future geo-cachers.

Hollow tree - one of the hiding places

The kids had a blast looking for the hiding places and opening the boxes to find what lay inside. This was a great way to get outside and move around without having to find a place to hike. And it was great for getting the kids to use their observation skills. There are over a half a million geo-caches around the world, so it is something we have decided we can so as a family when we visit places.

We found it!

Lanna showing some treasures

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ruiz and Belmont-Smith Families
Turkey Trot - Thanksgiving 2008

School Pictures and Family Fun

School Pictures!

The girls school pictures arrived a few weeks ago, but I have been too lazy to scan them in and upload them to the website. Here they are finally. Looking back at the previous years pictures hanging on the wall next to the stairs, we can't believe how much they have grown (sniff, sniff!)

Maggie, 9

4th grade

Lanna, 7

2nd grade

WSU Soccer in the NCAA Tournament!

We found out a few days before the actual game that WSU Women's soccer had made the NCAA Soccer Tournament and was playing their first round game in Portland. So we packed our blanket, stadium cushions, dinner and warm coats and gloves, and headed down I-5 to the University of Portland to watch the game. It was so exciting to cheer for a team that actually has a winning record (I will not provide an explanation for the last comment. If you don't know what it is referring too...good. If you do, keep your snide comments to yourself.) It was a close match, but WSU just didn't have enough to overcome a good University of Texas team and lost 1-0. However, it was great to watch how well players at this level play, and Maggie loved watching things develop. Lanna liked when it was time to get hot chocolate. The picture above is of "the girls" at the game. (Dad was there, just not on the picture.)

Sunday pictures!!!

Random pictures from our Sunday.

Lanna was walking around with this basket on her head, I have no idea why, but when I got the camera to take a picture, she saluted me. Ten hut!

Maggie decided to treat her sister to a day at the salon by braiding her hair (as can be seen in the picture) and painting her nails. I hid the make-up, so that is as far as it got, but Lanna felt glamorous just the same.


We went for a walk along the Coweeman River dike on Sunday morning, then stopped at the playground for some playtime on the equipment. Maggie and Dad had a good time on the swings, while Lanna just climbed over everything. There was another dad there with his two little girls, one of which was about 12 months old and in a baby swing. As she came toward her dad, he would say "yeah" and she would laugh and clap her hands. It was so cute, and with her short blonde baby hair and chubby cheeks, she reminded us of Lanna as a baby. This nearly brought tears to my eyes and totally made me want another baby! (See note above about school pictures!) Dan said it was cute, but he wasn't feeling as sentimental as I was. Sigh.

This picture was actually from October, but was too good not to share.

Veteran's Day Assembly

Today was the Veteran's Day Assembly at Columbia Heights Elementary School. Maggie invited Grandpa Dave and Lanna invited Aunt Lisa as their special guests. Actually, Lanna invited Lisa to the Veterinarian's Day Assembly, but it's a big word, she told Lisa and sometimes she gets it confused with the other word. Go figure. Grandpa was all decked out in his Navy dress uniform, which impressively still fits (barely) after more than 35 years of being a "civilian".

We are proud of our family's service to our country, and are greatful to the service they and many others have given so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have today. Happy Veteran's Day.

Mike Julian, fellow Navy veteran, and Dave

Sailor Dave and his bride Sandy