Sweet Vacation

Yes...its been awhile. But, I have a good excuse! We were on vacation!!!

Last week we traveled to Chautauqua Lake, New York for a huge family reunion to celebrate John's grandmother, Betty Sheldon's 90th birthday. (It is right on the Pennsylvania border)

We stayed at the lovely Sheldon Hall right on the lake. I've included some pictures of the house. The first one is from the front...I am standing half way from the house to the lake! The second, is of one of the dining rooms. There were about 9 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms and cubbies and closets galore. It was beautiful, peaceful, calm and just plain relaxing.

I will write more as I get a chance.

We enjoyed running around on the lawn, canoeing, fishing, visiting family, exploring the area and just enjoying each other's company.

I look forward to catching up soon!!

Oh...and John posted a bunch of pictures from our trip on our website...just click on the "Yates Family" tab to the right.

McKenna's 4th Birthday

My life has been so out of order...so why should my blogs be any different?

McKenna turned 4 on the 26th and we celebrated by taking a plane ride to Colorado.

The girls mostly enjoyed the plane ride. Grandma Shiralyn provided a super fun bag for the girls to entertain them on the ride here.



Mommy and Josiah spent most of the flight in the kitchen with the two awesome flight attendants. We were in row 25 so it was a short jaunt to the back and the girls quickly realized it was fun to go back and forth. Mimi (my mom) kept giving them trash to bring to the back. At one point the flight attendant asked McKenna if she would like to help collect trash from the whole plane. McKenna, (to my shock) nodded her head and follwed Frederica to the front of the plane. Next thing I know McKenna was wearing Frederica's apron and was holding a trash bag and walking down the aisle of the plane. I ran to grab my camera and by the time I got it out she was running towards me. Frederica said she was doing great the first few rows and then realized everyone was watching her and commenting on how cute she was and she bailed. I got a very blurry photo....but its still cute.



When we arrived at our house Daddy surpised the girls with new bikes. And Ariel bike for McKenna and a Princess bike for Brookln.





Then we all went out to TGIFriday's for dinner. We figured it was one of the only places around that would sing to McKenna and bring a fun dessert. Very cute.




McKenna continues to be a DELIGHT in all of our lives. She is a wonderful big sister. Very helpful and always wanting to ensure that everyone knows the rules. :) She is so gracious with her brother and sister always ensuring they have what the want or need...even if it means giving them something she has. McKenna loves to read, to color and to play. Her imagination is really blooming and the songs and stories that come out of her mouth are precious and often very curious!!! She also has quite a passion for winking.

The last year of her life has been incredible. Her experience at Los Altos Brethren Preschool is indescribable. The impact that the school and her teacher, Mrs. Dybas, on our family is priceless. McKenna's knowledge and understanding of who God is and His character is just precious. We pray everyday about letting our light shine for Jesus and McKenna continues to surprise us in the ways she lets her light shine.

Independence Day....on the 1st

Reunion (our "community")put on a big Independence Day celebration last night. Bounce houses, face painting, watermelon, lemonade, live music, pie eating contests and the like for a grip of people to enjoy. We went with the Teague's and several of our neighbors and set up a fun "camp" on the grass next to the lake. Quite scenic. It was supposed to end in a fabulous firework show which got cancelled due to the super interesting Colorado weather. You know the electrical storm with 20-30 mile winds.

But we all had fun nonetheless. Here's some pictures of our evening on the lawn.