Mikey's High School Graduation

Mikey finally did it! He graduated from High School and we are very proud of him. Mike's classes all had competitive grading and he had to work quite hard. He did very well and maintained a 3.8 GPA for his Senior Year.

We were debating whether or not he would graduate this year. Because of his autism diagnosis he is eligible to stay in High School if there are still IEP (individual education plan) goals for him to achieve. We considered having him stay in High School to have the school system pay to place him in a vocationally oriented school called EVIT (East Valley Institute of Technology). They have a program in Film Making/Media that Mikey was quite interested in. In talking with the school, it appeared that EVIT would not accept Mike coming there through the school system. (It turned out later that their advice was complete baloney, but we didn't know that at the time) Anyway, with that information there didn't seem any real reason to keep him in High School and he was definitely interested in experiencing the graduation experience with his class and so we agreed to let him graduate. He was very proud going through the ceremony and so were we. Lots of "thank you's" to all of you for your cards and congratulations for Mikey. Here are some pictures of his big day.

Easter Visit

Once again, we took advantage of being close to California again to come on out for a quick visit. We came out for Easter and had a nice time visiting with Leslie's mom and the kids had a chance to see some of their Wilcox cousins. It was also a chance to get the little monkeys all dressed up for a picture. Here's how they looked. It's so hard to get them all to hold still for pictures, so if you see a copy of of one of these handed out around Christmas time you'll know why!

March Visit to Seattle

Mt. Rainier in distance.

When we left Washington, there were a number of things that everyone missed. We all missed the beautiful green trees everywhere. We also missed our small church in Covington. It was a close knit community and we felt very much a part of things there. Mikey missed his Life Teen group at church most of all and was the most upset about leaving those people that he had grown close to over our years there. To help ease the transition, we agreed that he could go back to Washington in the Spring for the Life Teen retreat at our old parish.

The retreat was in March and we made all the arrangements to go. We had Alicia come out to watch the kids over the weekend and then Mikey, Leslie and I flew out to Seattle so he could go on his retreat. Of course this left Leslie and I with something that seldom comes our way. A weekend getaway without the children!

We got a hotel in downtown Seattle and spent the weekend roaming the city seeing things that Leslie never had time for while we lived there. We went on the underground tour of Seattle and roamed through Pike's Place Market. Me also managed to have dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant in Seattle, Assagios. I also also took her on the bus so she could experience that, but we mostly walked everywhere. Boy, were we tired by the end of the day! We had a great time as did Mikey. Here are some of our pictures from that trip.
Beginning of underground tour.

Underground the Pioneer Square Area.
More underground areas.

Picture of the old city.
Yes, it's an old chastity belt.
View of Puget Sound.

Leslie and I

Christmas at Sea World

Since we were in So Cal already we decided to make the most of our visit and take the kids over to Sea World. They like it a lot and there's lot's of educational opportunities so we gave it a go. Of course the kids had to drag me on to the Atlantis roller coaster ride. They keep hoping that I'm going to scream like a little girl. Anyway, there was lot's to see and everyone had a great time. Here are some of the pictures from that day.

Kristmas Visit with Kunzes!

Finally! We're actually close enough to visit California more than once a year! We took the opportunity to visit So Cal. for the dual purpose of seeing our Kunz family and also to celebrate Leslie's mom's 85th birthday. We had a great time and I'll let the pictures say the 1,000 words.

1st Christmas Back in AZ

I'm jumping from "moving in" to Christmas because the time just blew by! We've been frantically unpacking boxes as quickly as we can and of course we're still not done! And what do we do about it? That's right... we go out and get more stuff to put in our house! Oh, well! I can't fight it, but I look forward to finding discarded toys in the months ahead! Bwa ha ha haaa!!!

I see you looking at my toys!
"Ain't I cute!"
Just what I need in AZ, snow boots!
I hope no one notices my red eyes!

Back to Arizona (Aug & Sep)

The family spent all of July in California while our new house in AZ was being built. I flew down from Seattle and drove them all to Mesa to get them ready to start school. As part of our relocation package, my company included up to 60 days of temporary housing. We spent the first two weeks in a Hampton Inn Hotel until there was an opening at a Corporate Housing condo in Mesa.

I had to go back and forth from Arizona to Washington because I was moving my company's Data Center down to Scottsdale and I was managing it from the Washington end. I also had to handle the sale of our house up there. After I got it all moved I was finally able to get back to Mesa for good.

We were able to watch our house being finished and that was fun. I have included some pictures for you to see. I'll write more later.