Tim's moving to Prague party!

THIS FIRST PICTURE IS OUR "FAMILY FAVORITE OF THE WEEK"!

We had a big celebration for Tim that began on Saturday afternoon and ended on Sunday afternoon. Tim enjoyed the weekend with family & friends as everyone came to spend time with him and wish him well ( that sounds better than to say good-bye:) Everyone seemed to have fun playing football, frisbee, bocci ball and some game I don't know the name of :) Lots of food and all of it gone, including 42 braughts! The pictures really

tell it better. We love you Tim!

The game with no name :)

The Weeks Family!

The Wylie Minichs!

Aunt Christie & Uncle Mike

The Uretsky cousins!

Big Tim and little Tim ( they are both TJ'S)

Chris & Sophie~ I think this man needs a granddaughter :)

Tommy & Matt

Nikki & Angie

The Timely's!

"FRIENDS"

Sophie

Grandma & Grandpa Ski!

Matt

Well, not everyone is happy about this! LOL

We will all miss you Tim but look forward to reading your blog and hearing of your adventures!

To keep up with Tim, his blog ( Tim's Travels) is with all the others under "family & friends blogs. He leaves this Friday.....

Ed's Surgery

Chris's dad, Ed Minich, will be having surgery in about an hour at noon today to remove a brain tumor. They expect the surgery to last 3-4 hours. He will then be moved to ICU for 24 hours followed by several days in the hospital. Your prayers and thoughts for Ed today and over the next weeks are appreciated. Thanks, everyone! He has a blog that his son Bob Minich will be keeping us updated on.

http://oakiegrandfather.blogspot.com/

Why arnt my parents excited??

Last night we went out to dinner with Tim and on the way home he mentioned how excited his friends parents were about him moving to Europe. He said "they seem more excited than my own parents"! I said " yeah, that's easy for them to be excited, there kids are staying here" !

Well, we REALLY are excited for him and it has me think about this experience he is going to be able to have.

I am concentrating on things like ~ how this is something we ALL wish we could do.

~All the new and interesting people he will meet from around the world. One's with names like " James Lord and "Braumley".

~how technology makes it so easy to keep in touch with him. He will be starting a blog so we can follow along on his journey.

~ that he gets to live in a "flat" not an apartment and does not need a car to get around.

~ the places, cultures, food, history and people he will learn about and experience.

~how he is stepping out of the "box" and trying something so different and where God may lead him with his teaching English. He is a very good teacher by the way :)

~ oh, the photography! I am so jealous. He has a great camera too!

~ the courage and planning it takes to do something like this and how happy we are that he will travel with his friend Luke.

Please be praying for Tim and Luke over these next weeks and months as they adjust and settle in.

So.. to conclude we are most definitely excited but will very much miss him. We may just have to get our passports ready!!!

Family Favorite of the week

Tim's moving to Europe!

It's Official~ our oldest son Tim is moving to Europe in 18 days! He will be living in Prague for the first 5 weeks becoming certified as an English translator. After that, he will apply for a job and is pretty open as to where he will live. We are very happy for him to have this oppurtunity in his life but as you can imagine we will miss him terribly.

He and his friend Luke will be going together and have already enrolled in the class and have a flat that they will share with some other students.

Tim is in a great position in his life right now to do this and we are excited for him as he gets to travel Europe. He will be starting a blog to keep all of us updated but for now please feel free to leave him a message here before he moves. Move date is July 31.

Sunday at Kevin & Nikki's~

Just a Sunday afternoon~

Kevin & Nikki invited Chris and I to their new apartment today to go swimming and have dinner with the 2 of them, Matt and Molly ( Nikki's sister).

It was 108 degrees today so it was either indoors or in water-only choices. We picked water!

The apartment is adorable and they have done such a nice job decorating it. Makes Chris and I want to sell everyhting and downsize to a one bedroom apartment :) Ahhh.... probably not.

They made dinner for us after we swam with ice cream for dessert. Very fun afternoon.

Then home to relax on the back porch ( only 100 degrees now) with ice tea, a magazine and guitar. Just a nice day :)

The 4th of July!

A great day beginning at 6 am with a 10 mile run to the lake and back. A restful afternoon followed by hamburgers & Bocci Ball with Matt, his friends and Kevin & Nikki.

At the last minute we all decided to jump in the van and go to the lake Cities fireworks show. We hadn't been to the fireworks in many years and I must say Lake Cities put on a great show!

We all sat on blankets eating watermelon and watching the fireworks. It was warm but not too hot with just enough of a breeze to stay comfortable. There was "old time" classic American songs being played and lots of people from the community all sitting in the soccer fields. It really felt like you were back in time.

The night ended with desert while we watched "The Patriot"!

BBQ at our house the day after the wedding~

The "gardeners" checking out my garden, which Ed enjoyed one of the tomatoes from :)

Ed, Lois and uncle Bob were all here from Tulsa!

Sophie playing in the sprinkler~ wearing her new swim suit from Auntie Elayne :)


Aunt Carla from Arizona was here!

Uncle Chris and Sophie. I am sure I have a picture exactly like this one of Chris and Jessica, Sophies Mom, our niece.

Emily and Lindsey enjoying watermelon after playing in the pool :) Emily was here with Cindy from Oklahoma and Lindsey with Carla from AZ.


Tim, Elayne, Jessica, Harold, Chris and Sophie. Harold came in for the wedding from Hong Kong and we are really glad he came over Saturday for the BBQ.

Matt and "Grandma" JoAn in from Florida. We loved getting to spend time with JoAn and missed her very much when she headed back to Florida :(

Thanks to EVERYONE that was at the wedding and especially those of you that came in from out of town~ it was great to see all of you and share in Kevin & Nikki's special day!