Wild and Crazy Summer!

I can't believe that school is starting! Where did the summer go? I have to admit that it was a fun-filled summer at the Behnke house and we didn't let any moss grow under our feet. I attended a four day writer's workshop the week after school was out. Kara and Jan (Rodden) Conway flew in to help me make the move to a new classroom. We managed an afternoon of fun in the sun, but worked hard most of the time. We even got most of the boxes from last winter's (February & March) remodel moved back into the house. I attended a one day workshop in Tacoma, and Kara had a phone interview from Boise that day. Next summer Kara and I plan to do a workshop together!
The next stop found the Behnke Bunch in New York City. It was our first trip with Will. We enjoyed all the familiar tourist sites, visited several museums, saw some plays and took the ferry to Ellis Island (where we discovered the ship's manifest for Lance's grandmother and family who emigrated from Germany). We had pizza at Grimaldi's with Blake's friend Larson and his wife, ate dinner in little Italy, and enjoyed a visit to Magnolia's Bakery. You gotta love the food and the sites in NYC!
Lance and I actually spent a week at home before Blake came home from Provo for a busy three weeks before heading off to law school. We went to KS where Lance attended his 40th high school reunion and we enjoyed good times with family. Blake hadn't been to KS for quite a few years. Lance went from KS to Houston and Blake and I returned to Seattle. Sara and Will joined us for almost a week. We celebrated their 1st and our 28th anniversary at Daniel's Broiler where Sara and Will's reception was held last year. I enjoyed a trip with Sara and Will to visit his grandfather and Ann in Shelton and his Aunt Liz and Steve in Pouslbo.
Then we had a busy few days getting Blake ready to head to GW (George Washington) Law School in DC. Blake was very organized and even managed to get all his stuff in the five bags we checked! We had fun getting around his part of DC - locating IKEA, Costco, and the nearest Safeway to his new apt. We enjoyed putting things away in his kitchen even though Blake is still learning his own way around the cabinets and wondering where the heck did we put his dishes and utensils! The joys of meddling parents! All too soon (much to Blake's relief),we had to leave him in his new environment and head back to Seattle. These two Washingtons are too far apart!
When we got home on the 18th it was time to buckle down and get ready for the opening of school. The students come this Tuesday, Aug. 31. Lance headed back to Houston today for his first trip there in a month.
Lance and I did see a good movie on Saturday, Get Low. It stars Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, and Bill Murray (they are all getting older)! I hope you get to see it when it comes to your theater.
Have a great September. I hope to see more of you on the blog!
Love,
Ramona & Lance

The Long Awaited Post

Here is our opportunity to revive the blog. I'll be sending emails inviting everyone to view and or post on the blog once a month.

We've had a busy month with Nana and Papa Johanson visiting at the beginning of July. We spent the 4th of July watching fireworks at the George Bush Library. Nathan is really fun to watch fireworks with. He says ooh, aahh, and , my favorite, Ohh Yeah.

Grandma and Grandpa and Great Grandma West arrived on the 21st. We all went to a 24th of July Primary activity where Becca taught the kids Square Dancing. We also took a trip to the temple yesterday and Grandpa and the boys and I went to a Brazos Valley Bombers Baseball game.

We also have some exciting news. Becca is pregnant with our 4th, which we will be expecting at the beginning of February.

Reunion Pictures from Ramona and Blake

I missed Becca's call for pics, but here's a link to the reunion photos taken by Blake and me.

http://gallery.me.com/bookwoman98#100318

Just cut and paste the address and it should take you to the reunion album. Options at the bottom allow you to view the pictures in a grid, mosaic, carousel, or slideshow format. Also, note that there are three pages to the album.

I hope this works. It would have been better if I had met Becca's deadline, but things are a bit crazy here.

Mona

Scifres Reunion

Click here to view these pictures larger

Post Reunion

Does anyone use this anymore. I'm thinking no since no one has posted about our reunion. Well, regardless our family had a wonderful time and enjoyed seeing everyone there. I know we are sold on AmericInn. Hopefully our kids weren't too disruptive.

Everything was great, thank you Karl and Kathy for all your hard work in putting things together for us. One quick note about our availability for the next reunion. I was mistaken, our kids will no longer be on a year 'round schedule. This year, for example, they start around Aug. 13th. That gives us a bigger time window to use.

I'm grateful that my 3 children were able to meet and spend time with their cousins and other family. To this day I cherish the memories I have when I was younger of time spent with family. It was a great anchor for me and motivated me to be a better person. (Picture of kids was taken at Epcot this past June.)

Update on the Texas Johansons

Hi everyone! I hope all is well for everyone! Congratulations Sara on your engagement! We wish that we could come for your wedding, but being in grad school we do not have the time off. We hope you have a beautiful day and we will be thinking of you!
We have had a lot of fun things happening this past month, but I don't really have time to write them all down again so please visit our blog at http://beccamikey2002.blogspot.com for lots of fun pictures and an update on us.
WE love you all!
Love,
Becca, Michael, Aaron, Nathan and Rachelle

It's official!!

As I'm sure most of you already know, I'm getting married this summer! But it became official this Saturday when Will asked me to marry him. We went up to Kaysville to spend conference weekend with his family. After the afternoon session on Saturday we went for a walk - he took me to a beautiful area near his house that is part of the Utah botanical gardens. We sat and talked for quite awhile and then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I said yes! (suprise suprise) He's pretty sneaky - I guess he showed my mom the ring on Friday night while she was visiting - I had no idea. He's an amazing man and I'm excited for all of you to meet him. Save the date - we're getting married in the Seattle temple on August 8th! This is a picture of the two of us in his parent's backyard. I know I'm squinting - we were facing the sun. Oh well.