Whittaker Woman

We Strive High!

The Whittaker's don't play, when we teach our kids to do something we teach them well.
Sohaila is learning the piano, but instead of the traditional way we are stepping out of the box.

I spent an  hour listening to this.

Spell Check?

Carlos and I had a good laugh when we took this picture at a festival we went to.  Oh what a few letters missing or added can do to a sign.

A day with Nani and Shamu

We went to Sea World today with Nani. Sohaila was so brave compared to the last time we came. Seanna, well she has some steps to take before I would label her as brave. Here are some pics from the day...

To re-live...

Today I want to re-live this day.

Pumpkins, fresh crisp air, Fall.

Nannan, fresh apple cider, and again...  Fall.
I want some weather that is different than 100*. 

What I woke up to.

Ok, so I have a blog friend who posted on my blog and let me know that her family has started a blog. I went to it and bawled like a baby. You see she is adopting and works for an agency that helps families with the financial burden of adoption. So on her blog she posted a video of another family adopting 3 little boys from Ethiopia. If you cried with Losiah's video you will cry her to!

He's growing!

For Sandalites Only

Like I said in my post before I am all out of info and just need some time off of personal blogging. Anyways I ended up searching for my next photo to post and I found these. Does anyone look familiar?

One of my favorites.

I need sometime to reflect and not reveal. So I decided to look back in my iphoto.
I found this picture. It's us coming out of customs and waving to the girls on the other side of the gate. What an amazing moment. One i will never forget.

Porceline God

I have this terrible mental issue of not being able to vomit. I can be so sick and at the toilet bowl and nothing I mean nothing comes out. I heave, and heave but it is dry as dry can be. My body does those convulsions but nothing. Why I tell myself. It would be so much easier just to let it out. Oh the wish to be able to vomit.

AHHH!

All I can say is that I want to be right here right now!

Nani, got beat!

Well ok she did not get beat but I got your attention. She actually just fell out of a stool with heals on and hit the ground. She did a good job huh? I told her it looks like she got a face lift with out the bonus of the actual lift.  I hope you feel better soon Nan. H

A little Chick Fil A Fun!

Carlos' brother had an engagement party down in San Diego today, so we headed down to "the end of the world" as Sohaila proclaimed today. My friend Rachel was in town and we stopped by to visit.

Rachel decided to come back to the IE with us and we got to drive in the cow mobile. Then she did the forbidden. She asked if we could drive through In and Out. What!?! How could the cow mobile drive through In and Out? We did it and the employee's were laughing at us and doing the chicken dance. It was fun!

 

My First Kiss!!!

Mark the date... I was on the couch, looking in his eyes and I asked for a kiss. Then all the sudden he opened his mouth and planted one on me. I was in shock. Are you kidding me. This is not true. I've longed for this day. So I tried it again, and he kissed me the second time. And a third. Then he got pissed and moved on. But all I could think about was... I was just  kissed for the first time by Losiah.

The Dome #4

This was year 4 for me. It was physically not hard because I've trained, it was emotionally hard because of the guy who died two weeks ago on it. Its amazing how your mind plays games. I just kept pushing it out of my mind and it was a great time. Here was the run down of the trip.

Left IE Tuesday afternoon in time to get some good tri-tip grub at Dog House in Fresno. Spent the night at Carlos' parents house. J and Hale-Yeah stopped by in the morning to say hi. Then we headed to Yosemite.
Of coarse we had to take the traditional picture!  Then we went to go and check in. 3 hours later we got this,

We were really nice but after 3 hours of checking in and getting assigned three wrong rooms they decided to give us some love. I laughed at the subject line that says "Guest Service Recovery". It was good HR.
After we ate we drove up to Glacer Point, its a look out that gives an amazing view of where we would be hiking to.

You cant see the valley floor here but that is where we start. We go along the base of the mountain on the left, we hike stairs up the side of the first waterfall, cross the river on top of it then do switchback stairs up the second waterfall. Then we hike through that valley, then up around the mountain on the left to the back side of half dome. Its amazing how much you can travel in 6 hours up hill.
Neal wasn't sold on this hike yet. He has that personality that is really fun to tell the worst case scenario
to and see his reaction. We played with his mind a lot in preparation to this hike.

Summer found this amazing verse about keeping our feet from slipping. It was so perfect.
4am 
5am

10am
11am

Hanging off.
1pm
4pm
Going down kills your body. I could barley walk. My knees felt like a knife was stabbing them with each step. Sounds fun huh. And that my friends is why I go back each year. H