Bike riding:
Climbing rocks with Daddy:
This was the "adventurous" path up the rocks:
Hanging around...
Nature's slide:
Family picture
It was a great group of kids to hang out with for the weekend!
Friday, November 6, 2009
Robber's Cave Weekend
This is really overdue, but here are some pictures from our weekend at Robber's Cave with friends from church. I already posted some on Facebook, but still feel the need to document it on our blog:).
Bike riding:
Climbing rocks with Daddy:
This was the "adventurous" path up the rocks:
Hanging around...
Nature's slide:
Family picture
It was a great group of kids to hang out with for the weekend!
Bike riding:
Climbing rocks with Daddy:
This was the "adventurous" path up the rocks:
Hanging around...
Nature's slide:
Family picture
It was a great group of kids to hang out with for the weekend!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Baby News
We are excited to finally share with the rest of our family and friends that Baby #2 is on the way! I'm about 14 weeks along right now, the official due date is April 22, 2010. That also happens to be the day before Carter's birthday, so Carter will be getting an extra special present this year!:)
We've had 2 sonograms so far and everything looks good. The baby is growing right on track. This time around has been a little more challenging for me (and for Ryan since he has to pick up my slack) - I haven't been feeling well for several weeks now. I'm hoping it will pass in the next few days since I'm coming to the end of the first trimester, but we'll see. I'm trying to remind myself that the morning sickness (or afternoon, evening, & midnight sickness) is God's way of assuring me that everything is going well.
Carter is really excited to be a big brother. He already tells us that he's going to teach the baby to walk and talk and ride a bike, etc. It's really cute to talk to him about it.
We'll keep you updated as we continue through the pregnancy. (If you're trying to do the calculations yourself, I'll help you out... it will the 1st or 2nd week of December that we find out if it's a boy or girl:). ) We greatly appreciate your prayers that the baby continues to grow healthy & strong. We are already so blessed with Carter and are thankful that God is giving us another bundle of joy!
We've had 2 sonograms so far and everything looks good. The baby is growing right on track. This time around has been a little more challenging for me (and for Ryan since he has to pick up my slack) - I haven't been feeling well for several weeks now. I'm hoping it will pass in the next few days since I'm coming to the end of the first trimester, but we'll see. I'm trying to remind myself that the morning sickness (or afternoon, evening, & midnight sickness) is God's way of assuring me that everything is going well.
Carter is really excited to be a big brother. He already tells us that he's going to teach the baby to walk and talk and ride a bike, etc. It's really cute to talk to him about it.
We'll keep you updated as we continue through the pregnancy. (If you're trying to do the calculations yourself, I'll help you out... it will the 1st or 2nd week of December that we find out if it's a boy or girl:). ) We greatly appreciate your prayers that the baby continues to grow healthy & strong. We are already so blessed with Carter and are thankful that God is giving us another bundle of joy!
Monday, October 5, 2009
Aggie Games
Once again this year we have been able to enjoy returning to Aggieland for some football games. Due to circumstances beyond our control, Ryan & I haven't actually been down there together yet, but hopefully that will come. Ryan took Carter down for the game against Utah State, and then Carter & I joined Grandma & Grandpa for the game against UAB. Carter loves going to the games - his favorite part is watching the band & Corps of Cadets march in, then watching the band at half-time. He's also becoming addicted to the concession stand food:). Here's a few Aggie pics...
Ryan & Carter all decked out for the game. (I got to spend the day resting on the couch recovering from a sinus infection.)
Another highlight of visiting Aggieland - seeing Uncle Nathan!
Carter was fascinated by Uncle Nathan's "water backpack" and insisted he could carry it for him.
Carter & Grandpa
He really enjoyed all the bounce houses and kids activities this time.
Good times in Aggieland!
Ryan & Carter all decked out for the game. (I got to spend the day resting on the couch recovering from a sinus infection.)
Another highlight of visiting Aggieland - seeing Uncle Nathan!
Carter was fascinated by Uncle Nathan's "water backpack" and insisted he could carry it for him.
Carter & Grandpa
He really enjoyed all the bounce houses and kids activities this time.
Good times in Aggieland!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Boudreau Family "Camping"
Several weekends ago we enjoyed our 3rd annual Boudreau Family "Camping" Weekend. This year we rented a lake house that belongs to some friends. It was beautiful! The weekend ended up being a bit rainy, but we still had a great time. We enjoyed the time outside when it wasn't raining, and also enjoyed family time inside watching the rain.
Despite the rainy weather, the kids enjoyed swimming in the lake when they had the opportunity.
Ryan's favorite activity - kayaking.
We enjoyed several lawn games of Ladderball and Croquet. The adult matches were too competitive to bother taking pictures, but here's a couple of the kids playing around.
The favorite indoor activity of the kids was playing doctor. They spent hours taking turns "fixing" each other.
We even found time without rain for some fishing. Dylan & Dave both caught a fish (it may have actually been the same one...). Carter patiently kept trying, but no luck this time.
Family Picture
Despite the rainy weather, the kids enjoyed swimming in the lake when they had the opportunity.
Ryan's favorite activity - kayaking.
We enjoyed several lawn games of Ladderball and Croquet. The adult matches were too competitive to bother taking pictures, but here's a couple of the kids playing around.
The favorite indoor activity of the kids was playing doctor. They spent hours taking turns "fixing" each other.
We even found time without rain for some fishing. Dylan & Dave both caught a fish (it may have actually been the same one...). Carter patiently kept trying, but no luck this time.
Family Picture
Summer Updates
Yes, we're still here! Obviously I've fallen behind on updating the blog and there's really no good reason for it, so I won't try to make excuses:). Here's some pictures from August - Charlyn & I took the kiddos to Six Flags on possibly one of the hottest days of the summer, but they still had fun!
It didn't take long for them to appreciate the water mist areas.
Carter & Avery make a good team!:)
Waiting to ride the trucks - this was at the end of our stay and they were all beginning to melt down, but at least they put on good smiles for the pic!
Batman!
Clearly this isn't from Six Flags, but I had to include in our August activities. Carter got a sock puppet kit as a party favor and this was his creation. He had a blast making it and named it "Fronk".
More updates to come... :)
It didn't take long for them to appreciate the water mist areas.
Carter & Avery make a good team!:)
Waiting to ride the trucks - this was at the end of our stay and they were all beginning to melt down, but at least they put on good smiles for the pic!
Batman!
Clearly this isn't from Six Flags, but I had to include in our August activities. Carter got a sock puppet kit as a party favor and this was his creation. He had a blast making it and named it "Fronk".
More updates to come... :)
Monday, July 20, 2009
Pictures from Bucharest
I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from the final leg of our overseas trip. Once we finally made it to Bucharest, Romania we enjoyed walking around the town and also seeing some of the countryside. We were able to meet several missionary families with different jobs there in Romania, so it was great to hear about the different work going on there.
Frank & Diane Camarotti - IMB missionaries in Bucharest. They took us under their wing during our time there. We're extremely grateful for all their help.
One street in the "Old Town" part of Bucharest.
Traffic in Bucharest - they are crazy drivers!
The People's Palace in Bucharest - this huge building was built by the last communist dictator. It's the second largest government building in the world (by surface area), the first is the Pentagon.
The Camarottis went the extra mile and drove us up to the town of Sinaia. It's a cute little town right on the edge of the Carpathian mountians (also called the Transylvanian Alps - Dracula's castle was just a couple towns away:) ). This particular town is a popular spot because it it home to the summer house of King Carl, Penes' Castle. The tour inside was amazing!
I love this picture of the castle because you can also see the beautiful mountains behind it. It was breathtaking.
It's not an official vacation without the self-taken picture, right?
We enjoyed many authentic Romanian dishes during our stay. This meal, Ryan is having Mici (mee-chi) which is basically sausage made with special seasoning and then grilled. We had this for our first meal in Romania - Ryan was hooked and ended up eating it for 3 or 4 meals:). I ventured out to try Sarmale, meat wrapped with cabbage leaves, served with a side of cabbage and something that resembled dry grits. It wasn't bad, but I probably wouldn't order it again:).
It was an amazing trip and we were so blessed by all the people we met along our journey.
Frank & Diane Camarotti - IMB missionaries in Bucharest. They took us under their wing during our time there. We're extremely grateful for all their help.
One street in the "Old Town" part of Bucharest.
Traffic in Bucharest - they are crazy drivers!
The People's Palace in Bucharest - this huge building was built by the last communist dictator. It's the second largest government building in the world (by surface area), the first is the Pentagon.
The Camarottis went the extra mile and drove us up to the town of Sinaia. It's a cute little town right on the edge of the Carpathian mountians (also called the Transylvanian Alps - Dracula's castle was just a couple towns away:) ). This particular town is a popular spot because it it home to the summer house of King Carl, Penes' Castle. The tour inside was amazing!
I love this picture of the castle because you can also see the beautiful mountains behind it. It was breathtaking.
It's not an official vacation without the self-taken picture, right?
We enjoyed many authentic Romanian dishes during our stay. This meal, Ryan is having Mici (mee-chi) which is basically sausage made with special seasoning and then grilled. We had this for our first meal in Romania - Ryan was hooked and ended up eating it for 3 or 4 meals:). I ventured out to try Sarmale, meat wrapped with cabbage leaves, served with a side of cabbage and something that resembled dry grits. It wasn't bad, but I probably wouldn't order it again:).
It was an amazing trip and we were so blessed by all the people we met along our journey.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Airport Adventures
I mentioned that we had a little adventure getting from Kiev to Bucharest...that might be an understatement. It was an absolute miracle that we arrived in Bucharest when we initially planned.
I've been trying to figure out how to give a short version of the story, but also give enough detail for everything to make sense - so here goes...
Our flight was scheduled to leave Kiev at 8:40, fly to Warsaw, change planes, then fly on to Bucharest. We got to the airport with plenty of time, checked our bags, got our boarding passes, past through security and passport control with about an hour to spare. Then about 25 minutes before the plane is scheduled to depart, the attendant that checked in our bags, comes to our gate to tell us that our boarding passes have been revoked because they don't have a payment for our flight. First of all - I didn't even know it was possible to get completely checked in, then have your boarding passes revoked, so I guess I learned something that day. There was a bit of a language barrier, but we tried explaining to her that our credit card had been charged, we know we paid for the flight. After some discussion, Ryan goes with her to the desk (meanwhile, the flight is scheduled to take off in 15 minutes). She insists that they haven't received payment so they can't let us on the flight. Our options are to quickly pay for the tickets (again), or to wait until the afternoon flight and probably end up having to pay for those anyway. So we payed $700 to get us both to Warsaw, not even all the way to Bucharest, hoping that we can sort this mess out when we get home. I've been waiting at the gate, watching the clock tick away, thinking we're stuck in Kiev for a while. Ryan finally comes back with the agent, they held the plane for us, we were able to board, and were off to Warsaw ($700 lighter, but at least we're on our way).
Upon arriving in Warsaw, we have to go through passport control again and claim our bags, since we technically didn't have tickets all the way to Bucharest. Once we get through all that, we have about 55 minutes until our next plane departs. So we head up to the airline desk to try to get our tickets to Bucharest. They again check the system and it shows that we have confirmed seats but they have not been paid. Somewhere out there is our $500 we paid for the tickets, but no one seems to know where. Again, for the sake of time and our desire to just get on the flight, we ask how much it will be just to pay for the tickets. She responds "One thousand....six hundred....each". WHAT? If we want on this flight, we need to pay $3200? Time is ticking away, we know have about 45 minutes until departure...
We start weighing our options - personally I was ready to just fly home. I figure it had to be cheaper to change our flights home that buy those tickets to Bucharest.
Here's where I need to give a little background to the story... The church purchased our tickets for the trip through a travel agent. They were responsible for the flights from DFW to L'viv and, for us, from Bucharest back to DFW. We had asked the agent to check the prices of our additional flights, but we decided to get those ourselves. Apparently, they forgot to take the hold off of the flight from Kiev to Bucharest. When we made the reservation ourselves, the airline saw there was a double booking and canceled the reservation we made. We actually found all this out before leaving, talked to the travel agent, and she worked everything out. They supposedly transferred our payment for the tickets to the reservation made by the travel agent. All this was resolved before we left...or so we thought. Apparently there was a breakdown in this transfer, causing all this confusion.
Back to the ticket desk... We had the lady check our old reservation number and she saw that it had been canceled. At this point there are two people looking at it, talking back and forth in Polish. (We now have about 35 minutes 'til departure) We can't understand anything, but we finally hear "Aha...". Breakthrough! They realize what happened and our lady gets on the phone to someone. There's a long discussion and she finally tells us, "OK, we see what happened...we'll honor this ticket you purchased, but you won't get your $700 back that you paid in Kiev. Or...we can refund this ticket you purchased online and you can buy these new ticket to Bucharest..." We personally didn't want to part with over $3000 dollars for tickets we had already paid for, so we went with option A (hoping to still fight for the $700 when we get home). Now we're down to 20 minutes until departure.
She rushes us to the baggage check, exchanges a few words... Then the very important woman with the walkie-talkie says with a thick Polish accent "No, there's no time. You can't make this flight." Defeated again! Our friendly ticket agent takes us back to the desk, disappears for a minute, then runs out telling us to follow her. We run after her to the baggage check again, she tells us they'll let us on the flight, but we won't get a meal. No problem with us! They check our bags, issue the boarding passes and tell us "You must hurry!"
We make a mad dash for security, running under the retractable line-organizing-thingys, weaving in & out of people, asking if we can jump ahead in the security line. (Somewhere in all that mayhem, we lost one of our neck pillows...sorry, Mom, I'll replace it.) We made it through security...5 minutes 'til departure.
Yes, we were those people you see on TV, or maybe in real life, that are not just running, but sprinting to the gate. And just as you would expect in this situation, it's the furthest gate from security, literally. We finally make it to the gate, the let us through, we go down the stairs where they have been holding the entire bus load of people waiting for us. We squeeze in, and off we go to the airplane.
As we're boarding, we notice that the ground crew is waiting for baggage, ours, of course. We finally get settled, the bags get loaded and we're ready for take-off. It's about 10 minutes past the scheduled departure time, and we know it's because they waited for us. Then the pilot comes on and says something to the effect of "I'll give you the bad news first...we've been held up a little, so know we've moved back in the queue for take-off, so it'll be another 30 minutes or so..." Ryan & I were waiting to be mentioned by name and the reason for the delay, but it didn't get to that point.
Nonetheless, we did finally take off and arrived in Bucharest about 15 minutes late. We even ended up getting a sandwich because they had a few extra:).
If you've made it to the end of that story, hopefully I did it justice. Looking back we can laugh about it now, but it ranks as one of (if not the ) most stressful mornings of our lives. Thankfully, God was looking out for us and helped us get to our destination. We've already called the credit card company, and they don't think there will be a problem getting our $700 back either - that's a major praise! We still have to go through official dispute claims, but we're praying that all works out.
Anyway, we made it to Bucharest, had a wonderful time, and now we're heading back home tomorrow!
I've been trying to figure out how to give a short version of the story, but also give enough detail for everything to make sense - so here goes...
Our flight was scheduled to leave Kiev at 8:40, fly to Warsaw, change planes, then fly on to Bucharest. We got to the airport with plenty of time, checked our bags, got our boarding passes, past through security and passport control with about an hour to spare. Then about 25 minutes before the plane is scheduled to depart, the attendant that checked in our bags, comes to our gate to tell us that our boarding passes have been revoked because they don't have a payment for our flight. First of all - I didn't even know it was possible to get completely checked in, then have your boarding passes revoked, so I guess I learned something that day. There was a bit of a language barrier, but we tried explaining to her that our credit card had been charged, we know we paid for the flight. After some discussion, Ryan goes with her to the desk (meanwhile, the flight is scheduled to take off in 15 minutes). She insists that they haven't received payment so they can't let us on the flight. Our options are to quickly pay for the tickets (again), or to wait until the afternoon flight and probably end up having to pay for those anyway. So we payed $700 to get us both to Warsaw, not even all the way to Bucharest, hoping that we can sort this mess out when we get home. I've been waiting at the gate, watching the clock tick away, thinking we're stuck in Kiev for a while. Ryan finally comes back with the agent, they held the plane for us, we were able to board, and were off to Warsaw ($700 lighter, but at least we're on our way).
Upon arriving in Warsaw, we have to go through passport control again and claim our bags, since we technically didn't have tickets all the way to Bucharest. Once we get through all that, we have about 55 minutes until our next plane departs. So we head up to the airline desk to try to get our tickets to Bucharest. They again check the system and it shows that we have confirmed seats but they have not been paid. Somewhere out there is our $500 we paid for the tickets, but no one seems to know where. Again, for the sake of time and our desire to just get on the flight, we ask how much it will be just to pay for the tickets. She responds "One thousand....six hundred....each". WHAT? If we want on this flight, we need to pay $3200? Time is ticking away, we know have about 45 minutes until departure...
We start weighing our options - personally I was ready to just fly home. I figure it had to be cheaper to change our flights home that buy those tickets to Bucharest.
Here's where I need to give a little background to the story... The church purchased our tickets for the trip through a travel agent. They were responsible for the flights from DFW to L'viv and, for us, from Bucharest back to DFW. We had asked the agent to check the prices of our additional flights, but we decided to get those ourselves. Apparently, they forgot to take the hold off of the flight from Kiev to Bucharest. When we made the reservation ourselves, the airline saw there was a double booking and canceled the reservation we made. We actually found all this out before leaving, talked to the travel agent, and she worked everything out. They supposedly transferred our payment for the tickets to the reservation made by the travel agent. All this was resolved before we left...or so we thought. Apparently there was a breakdown in this transfer, causing all this confusion.
Back to the ticket desk... We had the lady check our old reservation number and she saw that it had been canceled. At this point there are two people looking at it, talking back and forth in Polish. (We now have about 35 minutes 'til departure) We can't understand anything, but we finally hear "Aha...". Breakthrough! They realize what happened and our lady gets on the phone to someone. There's a long discussion and she finally tells us, "OK, we see what happened...we'll honor this ticket you purchased, but you won't get your $700 back that you paid in Kiev. Or...we can refund this ticket you purchased online and you can buy these new ticket to Bucharest..." We personally didn't want to part with over $3000 dollars for tickets we had already paid for, so we went with option A (hoping to still fight for the $700 when we get home). Now we're down to 20 minutes until departure.
She rushes us to the baggage check, exchanges a few words... Then the very important woman with the walkie-talkie says with a thick Polish accent "No, there's no time. You can't make this flight." Defeated again! Our friendly ticket agent takes us back to the desk, disappears for a minute, then runs out telling us to follow her. We run after her to the baggage check again, she tells us they'll let us on the flight, but we won't get a meal. No problem with us! They check our bags, issue the boarding passes and tell us "You must hurry!"
We make a mad dash for security, running under the retractable line-organizing-thingys, weaving in & out of people, asking if we can jump ahead in the security line. (Somewhere in all that mayhem, we lost one of our neck pillows...sorry, Mom, I'll replace it.) We made it through security...5 minutes 'til departure.
Yes, we were those people you see on TV, or maybe in real life, that are not just running, but sprinting to the gate. And just as you would expect in this situation, it's the furthest gate from security, literally. We finally make it to the gate, the let us through, we go down the stairs where they have been holding the entire bus load of people waiting for us. We squeeze in, and off we go to the airplane.
As we're boarding, we notice that the ground crew is waiting for baggage, ours, of course. We finally get settled, the bags get loaded and we're ready for take-off. It's about 10 minutes past the scheduled departure time, and we know it's because they waited for us. Then the pilot comes on and says something to the effect of "I'll give you the bad news first...we've been held up a little, so know we've moved back in the queue for take-off, so it'll be another 30 minutes or so..." Ryan & I were waiting to be mentioned by name and the reason for the delay, but it didn't get to that point.
Nonetheless, we did finally take off and arrived in Bucharest about 15 minutes late. We even ended up getting a sandwich because they had a few extra:).
If you've made it to the end of that story, hopefully I did it justice. Looking back we can laugh about it now, but it ranks as one of (if not the ) most stressful mornings of our lives. Thankfully, God was looking out for us and helped us get to our destination. We've already called the credit card company, and they don't think there will be a problem getting our $700 back either - that's a major praise! We still have to go through official dispute claims, but we're praying that all works out.
Anyway, we made it to Bucharest, had a wonderful time, and now we're heading back home tomorrow!
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