Japanese Flat Sophia

The family that made the flat Sophia paperdoll kimono glued inside this really nice hard cover book. on the otherside are pictures of several of cherry blossoms all over in that region.

Flat Sophia comes home!

In January of this year Sophia and her second grade class read through the Flat Stanley book and then made Flat people of themselves and began there own travels. Miss Flat Sophia was a big hit!!
Her travels began by being mailed to Grandma French's house in Gearhart on the Oregon Coast. She has literally traveled the world. As she was mailed from each destination to the next, each person that had her mailed a letter or post card from themselves back to the school to share with the class. Some people went WAY above and beyond the call and mailed small packages and/or souveniers from where they were. My cousins in-laws are missionaries in Japan and they actually made a copy of flat sophia and dressed her in a kimono. (I will scan that and put up on the blog here soon.) The above is the orginal paper doll, attached to that was her "passport". The passport was the portion of the paperwork that people were to write where she went to and what they did or saw. When they were done they were to choose themselves where to send her next. She was to be returned to the school by May. We did not recieve it back and were unsure where she landed last or if she was lost in someones desk drawer for the summer. ....but low and behold on the first day of school... her 3rd grade teacher told her that she was recieved in the summer mail at the school. We were elated! her passport was filled out completely, every line full of wonderful stories. I thought it had a WONDERFUL ending. It came home from a family an extended family member serving in Afghanistan and the very last line read " Sophia's pretty tired now carrying all the weight from gear in the 130 degree weather and is ready to get back home and tell all her stories ...Ooh-Rah!!" IF I could scan the passport so that it could be read I would. Below I will list where she went and highlight fun one liners of each place that they wrote about:

1/2/10 Gearhart, Oregon- had a strawberry and creme frappacino with G-ma at starbuck.

1/7/10 Issaquah, Washington- A visit with aunt and "crazy" uncle ..may you travel far!

1/18/10 Omura, Nagasaki Japan-Made japenese dolls from "washi" a fancy japanese paper

1/29/10 Adelaide, South Australia-have been in a drought for 5 years but still a very beautiful place.

2/3/10 Jacksboro, Tennessee- 30 mnitues from the university of tennesee ...where Payton Manning was star quaterback!

2/11/10 Lake Orion, Michigan- Very cold on the lake. and over a foot. We ice skate on the lake.

2/16/10 Truth or Consequences, New Mexico- Sophia went to a polka party and country western dance

2/21/10 Chatsworth, California- Sophia visited the the dutch community in Solvang in the central coast of California

2/28/10 Sparks, Nevada -Sophia went to jumpman and jumped and jumped and jumped

3/3/10 Beaverton, Oregon- Uncle Jake STOLE Sophia's blanket!

4/14/10 Lakeville, Minnesota- Sophia played with a kindegardener and went to a dasiy troop meeting.

4/25/10 Swatara, Minnesota-visited the hobby farm to see baby chicks, beef cattle and 2 wild turkeys!

5/4/10 United Kingdon, England- Home of stonehenge, windsor castle, buckingham palace and the Queen of England!

6/15/10 Garmsir, Afghanistan-Sophia got to patrol with the Marines today. Walked through field and streams up to her shoulders.

Sophia clearly had a busy 6 months of travel....but saw and learned much! Definitely a treasure she will keep for her life!

Thanks to all the extended family upon family for taking to the top! You all did great!

Oh my! Junior High!

Maddie 11 first day of Junior High fall 2010:


Maddie 5 first day of kindergarden fall 2004:

So I know she is not leaving for college...and it is not like she is off to the big High School. But a big step for the Williams family this year...moving on up to Junior High. Hard to believe how fast these last 6 years have flown since we moved to Spokane. So much has happened! We may tease her that she still sneaks into our bedroom at 3 am and sleeps on the floor...but she has grown into quite the confident and independent young lady. She had no nerves at all about heading to a new bigger school today. It has been so delightful so far to watch her grow into the young lady she has. She loves unconditionally, has a hard work ethic in school an keeps her commitments to friends, family and her love of soccer. I pray that as she grows into and through the coming years of highschool and college that God would reveal Himself to her more and more and that He would take these wonderful beginnings of her personality and multiply them more than we or she could ever dream.

The Owens pick up

My sister and her husband showed up when we got home from silverwood for the quick visit and pickup of Gracie. had a good visit and even caught Christy on film getting whooped by maddie at tetherball! Silly girls!

Train Robbery

on our train ride around silverwood they stop at little show on the road...the set is a silver mine and two actors hold the train up on a robbery( all money given to them is given to charity) . The kids had a good laugh.

at the end of the robbery they play out "fighting over the money" and one throws the money in a well and the other jumps in....then one throws dynamite in the well and we all count to 3 to set it off and then low and behold we get showered with a blast of water...and luck williams family......our car was front and center to the whole thing!

I love this picture of Sophia and Dan.

when they got off tremors roller coaster...we all had a good laugh at this sign

Silverood 2010

This was the 2nd year we went to Silverwood. Becoming an annual trip with our friends Jim and Linda and their two boys, Jeff and Ty. This year we invited cosuin Grace to come along....another good year! Dan was urging Grace and the other kids to do the aftershock. Sophia was the only one of our kids last year that did. This year Spencer and Sophia were on board with Grace. So Jim, Linda, Dan and the 3 kids took off.... Maddie and I went to wait at the end of the ride for them and then about 15 later Jim, Linda, and a crying Sophia and Spencer came walking back to us....apparently the height requirement was changed this year by the manufacturer of the ride. Sophia was having a really hard time since she had a successful run last year! but once the ride took off and they could see Grace and HEAR Dan whoohooing....they turned to all laughs and smiles!

After Grace got off the ride she yelled " who's ready for round two!"

Maddie loving Tremors Roller coaster!!

Spencer and Dan paired for Tremors...apparently spencer just kept yelling " what the heck??" the entire ride. Behind them were Jim and Jeff and then Maddie and Grace and then holding the caboose were Linda and Sophia.

This is a shot of the Aftershock from our train ride around the perimeter.

This was right before they attmepted to get on aftershock with Grace.

First ride of the day....Ferris wheel....I am not sure they will do this one again...only because they thought it to be slow and lame.

"Do something stupid ...stupid!" Cue

Getting ready to leave....trying to get some pictures....they did hold it together for one good one...the rest????? all silly.....which is good...it tells a good story of lots of latughter and fun! We are so grateful for having family in places that we need to travel to for soccer!

Corvette cruise in

When we arrived in Iassaquah my aunt and uncle had mentioned to us that they occasionally go to the weekly cruise in down at the diner down the road... then they checked to see what cars where going to be there and when they said "corvette" I about died! Spencer's eyes bugged out! For some reason over the last several weeks Spencer has been obsessed with trying to figure out what a corvette is....asking any every quesion of me while driving through town....so this was a much needed answer! He had the ability to see the corvette from 1954-2010....i am pretty sure he will be able to indentify one without a hitch now! This was Dan's fav.

Grace and Maddie stuck together and ended up liking burnt orange one.

Sophia was all about the yellow

Spencer really liked the 2010 that has the see through hood to see the engine.

XXX ROOTBEER DRIVE IN

Food, BIG food oh my! we left stuffed full of diner food! After the checking out all the cars we went in for some lunch. hmmmm next time ...maybe just have a SMALL float.

umm this float was shared by Dan and I ....not just me and Jasper!

This is the XXX burger that wa being served up just before we left to some unfortunate soul. yikes....where is man vs. food????