It's finally ours!

Finally after 3 long years of hoping to buy our house and farm we did it!  We are so grateful that things have come into place.  Now we are planning for a remodel.  They say if your marriage can survive a remodel it can survive anything(I don't know who "they" are).  But I  don't think it will be too bad since we already built a house together.  I'm really looking forward to getting rid of the 8 different colors of carpet, including the carpet in the kitchen....what were they thinking????

Doesn't anybody want to stay in one place anymore?

These are Kyla and Mackenzie's friends that moved to Arizona last week, we were very sad to see them go.  They did leave their older brother behind to finish his Senior year so we are glad they will need to come visit for football games.

 I grew up in the same town for most of my life, in fact my mom told me this week they have lived in the same town now for 40 years.  Hard to believe it's been that long. 

The first 7 years of our marriage we moved 7 times, then we stayed in CA for 2 years, Portland for 7 and now we've been in WA for 8 years.  It's been hard to see so many people come and go but I guess that is how life is.  Although now it's nice to know that we have so many friends in many places.

Anyone want to move to Lynden?

Skiing at Mission Ridge

Craig and I decided that we wanted to take our kids skiing for Christmas and let those that have never been skiing give it a try. After much debate we dicided on Mission Ridge over on the other side of the mountains. I was lucky enough to find lift tickets for half price and we found a house to stay just outside of Leavenworth that was large enough for our brood. As it got closer to going I started to worry because of the lack of snow in the mountains. The good side it made for a really easy trip picking up Brendon and then going over the pass. Bad news was there was only about 20 inches at the base and maybe twice that much on top. The resort was making snow but I found out for the first time it just is not the same. The other issue was it was soooo cold. I don't think it got over 20 degrees that day any the runs that were open didn't even see the sun

It ended up not being too bad for most of us. Brendon is already a ski bum, Craig and I both grew up skiing and it was like riding a bike. Kyla and Jensen did not have fun and ended up in the lodge most of the day. Kaden started out frustrated and then finally caught on and Mackenzie is a natural. So......5 out of 7 Mayberry's love skiing. We hope to try it again at another location with even better results.

You know it's been a long time since you've blogged when........

You have 9 months worth of pictures to blog about.

Christmas was 6 months ago and you haven't bothered to download them and blog about them.

Your friends ask about your blog and why you haven't updated it.

You have almost forgotten the web address for your blog.

Guess I'd better get caught up!

Graduation

Mackenzie and her friend Abby

 Hard to believe but our 3rd child has graduated from high school!  It was also our 3 graduation that was held inside the gym because it was raining outside the day before and ended up being a gorgeous day on Friday.  Thankfully the gym wasn't nearly as hot when Kyla graduated.

Mackenzie will be heading off to BYU-I in the fall.

Jake and Mackenzie

Mackenzie, Kyla and Taylor

7 Long years......come to an end

When Craig decided to go back to school to get his PhD we thought we had the big plan all figured out. He'd go to school for 4 years, graduate, get a job and we'd live happily ever after.

The reality was we lost our income from our business in OR when it shut down. I had to go back to work, Craig had to find other income(including a paper route for a time) and both Brendon and Kyla graduated from high school before Craig graduated. Although Craig ended up employed with Western Washington University even before he graduated but it still took 3 years longer then we had hoped. Craig had said the last few years he was not going to walk in graduation and I said he was. Guess I won. It was pretty cool. Each of the PhD students had a short write up about what they had done their studies in. Most of the group had done their PhD in some kind of medical research, but Craig was the only one that was business related.

We were also lucky enough that graduation was American Thanksgiving week-end and Kyla was able to come home. We sure wished that Brendon could have been there too. Maybe next time.....oh wait, there had better not be a next time for Craig just the kids!

I'm glad he went back to school but I'm also glad he's done. Farewell UBC!