Gareth's Surprises

Gareth turns 33.

A suprise Birthday party for him & his friend Eric. This is everyone hiding!

Gareth & Eric suprised!

The boys.

Eric, Gareth & another cake!

Another suprise for Gareth was his team & church staff re-decorated his office for his birthday. Unfortunately I have no photos, but he was blown away by all their love & hard work.

...and another suprise to Gareth was finding out he had Valley fever, a fungus that grows in your lungs & gives you fatigue. Now that he is on the right drugs he is on the mend.

Toby

At six months - Toby is crawling!

Ahhhhh!

Lots of goodbyes

Daisy saying goodbye to Granny & Grandpa Curnock's garden - at one with the flowers!

Lizzy saying goodbye to tea and wine on tap at the Curnocks

Daisy saying goodbye to Caleb, her best friend.

And back in the US our friends Kyle and Karen Wallace moved to North Carolina to lead a church there. Here's our girls with Quinn and Xander, our godson, for one last sleepover - we'll miss them.

Daisy's friend Jaxson moved back to Canada with his family. Lizzy was also close to his mum, Trina - we'll miss them, too.

The lovely Mallons are also moving on - Paddy and Mary, the kids' adopted grandparents here, moved back to the UK in May - and Nigel and Sue are off in July. Here are their kids for one last sleepover! At the risk of repeating ourselves, we'll miss them too.

Relatives galore!

Granny & Grandpa Robinson feeding ducks at Cassiobury Park

Great Granny Ruffe

Great Uncle John

Great Grandpa Dredge

(honestly, we tried SO hard to get Lucy to smile!)

Great Granny Curnock

UK Beach holiday

On the way to Northumberland we stopped off in a beautiful town just off from Scotch Corner for lunch with the Harveys.

Day 1 on the beach. Cold, windy and wet but great fun!

Lucy is definitely an Arizona girl; she wasn't sure what to make of this strange place where people got cold. Thankfully aunty Esther lent her a coat to wear.

It got sunny by day 2, and the kids loved playing in the back garden of the cottages, here with uncle Paul.

Uncle Mike warming up before braving the sea to win a bet; and training Daisy whilst he's at it. Check out Daisy's hat-and-glasses combo - she's been saying recently she wants to be a clothes designer when she grows up and we think she'll fit right in.

Paul went in with Mike - look carefully and Esther is still enjoying a swim whilst the boys try to pull each other's shorts down...

Daisy's birthday. Everyone gathered early in the morning for her to open her presents... lots of bleary eyes!

She loved the microphone she got. Here she is doing an open air concert.

Grandpa Curnock sharing his wisdom with his granchildren on burying people in sand...

Granny Curnock taking her turn with Toby. He wasn't sure what to make of it all.