and the RANCH fun continues...

Father's Day in Park City...

Happy Father's day Jeff, Dad, Don and Mike!!  We love you guys!!
Bennett and Mike...
We love daddy!!


We were so lucky to be in beautiful Park City for Father's Day.  We had vovo and Jeff's step dad Don with us as well as the Forsums so it was a great day!  

HOWDY!!

We are just LOVIN' LIFE at the ranch!!  Everyday is filled with a different activity.  Tess loves it here and is provng to be quite a COWGIRL!!  She did not come with us on our trail ride (she spent the day with my parents- vovo and vovo) but we are going to get her some lessons on a horse so she can soon join us.  She does hike with us everyday.  We ran into a man who had adopted 2 boys from Ghana who were 8 years old as well.  It was great meeting them in this tiny hamburger joint in town...we're such locals!!

End of the school year party and play...

Tess as a "STINK BUG" in her end of the year PLAY...She rocked!!
Tess and Greta belting out their song...

We are so proud of our little stink bug!!!


All I can say is WOW!!!  What a year Tess had in school.  When I think about her first day of school, heading off without a word of english...it just blows me away.  That is one of the biggest challenges of adopting older kids-they arrive and have to go right to school with or without a command of the english language...unlike younger kids that get some time at home with the family to adjust more slowly.  No problem for SUPER TESS!  She literally took on every single challenge head on and did not take no for an answer.  When school started, we sat down with her teacher and the principle and set goals for Tess for the school year.  She had surpassed all the goals by November!!  She just continued to thrive and was one of the highest students in her class.  I am just so proud of her and how resilient she was whenever there was a problem or when I made her do extra work with me at home when she did not want to...she was a trooper!  

The end of school was complete with a play called "BUGS". Tess and Greta were Stink Bugs!!  It was so cute.  Here is this little Ethiopian girl standing in the middle of all these American kids and she sang her little heart out!! I just love this sweet little girl! She is a gift from GOD!!!

more baptism photos

showing Kidus a "Tess Cookie"...
...the proud grandparents at the baptism
Mike and Sheila...Tess's GODPARENTS extrordinaire!!!
"Tess cookies" that I had made by the "Cookie Lady" in San Juan Capistrano..

Tess with her Aunts Donna, Jane and Jenifer

Tess showing us her favorite TESS cookie
...with BFF Devon!  Thanks for driving down!! OX
...first of all, sorry about the delay in posting!  We are at the ranch and I need to go to a neighbors house to get online (we should have internet by next week...they need to lay cables since we are in a remote area).  Here are some more photos from Tess's baptism before I begin our ranch posts.  She did so well at the baptism...when Pastor Roger asked her why she wants to be baptized, she said "because I love God and want to be good and live for God".  She has such an eagerness to learn more about Jesus and has constant questions.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we rented a giant "JUMPY" for all the kids to use...that was a success!

...SO...we are now at our ranch in Utah.  After a few rainy days, it is glorious here and we have been taking some great hikes, quad rides, horseback rides and just kicking back in the back yard by the river.  Tess has been doing "sleepovers" at my parents house and just loves being over there. I love how happy my whole family is out here!

Tess's Baptism...

...and Jeff's baptism and Cameron's baptism...We planned Tess's baptism so my parents and her Godparents Mike and Sheila could be there...  no easy task as everyone has lots of trips planned for the summer...but this weekend worked so Pastor Roger came over and we used Our friends pool to baptize Tess.  Jeff decided he would also get baptized and then at the ceremony, Pastor Roger asked if anyone else wanted to be baptized and Cameron raised his hand.  So it ended up being the Jonas family baptism!  It was a beautiful day and a lovely ceremony!  I was so proud of the 3 of them!  God has really blessed our family this year and it was such a great outpouring of love!!