Next quiz: where are we?

Italia! Randy and I took a two week vacation in Europe - starting in Vienna, then Venice, Rome, Florence, and Berlin. I was lucky enough to have two conferences in Europe. And have generous family who would watch our kids while we galavanted around Europe. And to top it off, we got to stay with wonderful friends in both Vienna and Florence. Here we are on the Rialto Bridge in Florence, and in the Colesseum in Rome. It was a wonderful trip - I highly recommend it.

Where in the world are the Templetons?

Check out the photos and see if you can guess.


We were back in Maui this week - for a medical conference of course. It was a lot of fun to have my parents join us this time. And, the surf was way up, we watched a surf competition, saw 30 feet waves.

It's such a beautiful place, that we immediately came home and starting searching for real estate there. Don't hold your breath - I doubt we'll have a guesthouse in Maui anytime soon.

First day of kindergarten!

I put my little girl on the bus this morning for the first time. She, and all her fellow kindergartners were all smiles and they eagerly hopped right on the bus.

Hum the song "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof, while you view these pictures.

And then she was gone.

No, I didn't cry, but I thought about it.

Camping

We bought a big family tent, (which makes our 4th or 5th tent now, I've lost track). The kids loved it. Tyler diligently "roasted" his marshmallow for a good 20 minutes, before he realized that he could eat it.

Bedtime

We're so lucky that our kids enjoy each other so much.

Happy Easter

We forgot to take a family photo when we're at church, so here's a photo of us in our Easter finery sitting on the stairs. Although you can't really see it in this photo, my mom made Anna's dress.

Milestones

We (finally) finalized Tyler's adoption in the US. His adoption was actually final in Vietnam, but in order to get him a US birth certificate and officially change his name, we had to go thru the legal procedures here in the States. The judge was great, and he smiled warmly, despite the fact that Tyler had a poopy diaper.

Next milestone, Anna has finally joined a soccer team. Well, they don't actually play games against other teams, (who'd be brave enough to play a team called "Scott's Soccer Tots"?)but they sure do have fun playing around.

My crazed son

Anna's 5th birthday

Hooray! Anna is a big five years old now. We had her birthday at the ice skating rink. Although all the kids did a great job skating, I think the snacks, cupcakes, and games of tag were really the highlight.

Yes, kids wear helmets now when they iceskate.

Tyler is finally clean cut

We (finally) took Tyler in for his first haircut this weekend and he looks like a brand new boy. He went from a mullet to clean cut. For Anna's first year, I would hack at her hair, and we thought she was so cute that we didn't notice how bad her hair looked. Fortunately, it only took me about 6 months this time to realize that my son needed a real hair cut. So folks, next time you see my kids looking shaggy, tell me to get their hair cut!

Before - note the mullet

During

After - note the clean lines