Another School Year

School has started...this means "the magic day". Life gets back to normal with real schedules and structure.

Liz: Junior High???? As I have stated to her you could not pay me to redo junior high. However, I do have to say she is loving it. She is in a cooking class, gym, band, and normal core classes. Friends...oh ya lots of them! After school activities are: Casper youth Orchestra (trombone), and drumming circle. She is still debating on joining a school sport. If not she wants to join the drama club. It is wonderful see how well this is going for her. Lots of prayers that it stays positive.

Mikaela: 3rd grade all she can say is "I get to learn cursive". Her teacher is awesome and as the Anthony girls have a reputation at Oregon Trail to uphold she is off to a good start. It is sad to say that she has quit the gymnastics competitive team. She says she does not like it. So with that said no more 5 hours at the gym. She is continuing her tubbling class one night a week. This is her handsprings and more flexible tricks that she enjoys. Now we are trying Karate as our new task. So far it is going well. School is great but I think she is a little lost without her sister there. They have gone different directions but yet I see them growing closer together. Lots more hugs and laughter in the past week.

Mom: I will finish my last weeks starting in Oct. and be completely done in Dec. as my husband says..."the free bandwagon is over" I think he is trying to tell I actually have to grow up and get a job. :( For now I am subbing and taking on daycare kids for a provider that had to leave town.

Dad: Hate his job ...need I say more. He is doing great and all though it has taken all summer he does have 2 sides of the house painted. Next weekend we are off to a trip to Buffalo/Sheridan with Christy and Jeff (great friends of ours) for some golfing and shopping...Ithink you can figure out who is golfing and who is shopping.

Lots of love to all!

End of the season Rafting

Okay...it is off to our last rafting trip down the river for the season. This was also our first adventure with Xenia. I think it would be safe to say that she enjoyed it. Thanks to the Spaulding family for another wonderful summer of trips down the river! Cant wait till next year.

I am going to share some photos but as I am setting up Xenia with her own blog so she can share her experiences with her American friends, her family, and our family I am sure she will want to tell you about her times and share her photos on that blog.

The kids: Xenia, Liz, Nathan, Mikey, Jarrod, Mikaela, Jenna

The Adults: Jim, Ken, Tammy, Theresa

Xenia Arrives

After longs travels for Xenia consisting of a cancelled flight in Germany causing a 24 hour delay in her arrival she made it safely to Casper on Friday at 11pm. This left worried parents in Germany and an excited host family in Casper. The remaining travels went well.

We arrived at the house and got Xenia settled, after everyone relaxed on the couch before heading off to bed we had a black out leaving us with no electricity for several hours. This meant our new student had to experience brushing teeth and bed preparation on her first night by using a flash light. I guess if you are from another country you could have thought when we mean bed time and lights out we mean business:)

Saturday went well...as we all adjusted and Xenia got unpacked. We even took her American shopping at the "mall". Some small comments from Xenia are "americans are so friendly" "do you really know everyone in this town?" What she has yet to learn is that no not everyone knows everyone in this town just me (well it seems that way, anyway).

So we are off to a good start.

To church we headed on Sunday....Xenia adjusted well and went to the High School Sunday school where everyone greated her with open arms. Her eyes were very large when we entered a church of 300 members. Again it was stated how friendly Americans were (I love it!) She did join us for service at the second hour. Her later comments "I love the music" "not really sure about the speaker". We are going to try Wednesday night at church this week and she said she would like to return to church on Sunday. This is great as we have only offered it to her for the experience and she has the choice to go or not. After church we headed to the river for our summer floating.

Again Welcome Xenia and her family to the Anthony House!!!

Cant Travel???....

The Anthony family has always wanted to travel abroad....Germany, Italy, ect. With Theresa in school for the past 3 years this has not been able to occur. Except of course to areas around us or within the states. So our feeling is if you cant travel abroad you bring it to you. Now that you are all wondering what I am babbling about, I will tell you that we have found yet another adventure.

As of next week we will be hosting an exchange student from Germany for 9 months. The only thing we have to give up is the extra bedroom in the house, which is usually occuppied anyway. As we miss Kendra and hope that she is doing well we are all very excited to have the new addition to the house.

As stated before, Xania will arrive next week and start high school. The girls are very excited as to what we can offer her as well as what she can offer us.

I will send arrival announcements and pictures when she arrives. Please make her feel welcome as we feel we have such a loving family and friends that everyone will be a part of her United States experience.

Pray for us during this time as we feel this is where God has guided us once again!

Natural Bridge pics

Ayres Natural BridgeNo pets are allowed in the park because of health and safety issues. Located smack dab in between Douglas and Glenrock is Ayres Natural Bridge. This massive 150 acre solid rock arch is a perfect peaceful place for picnicking and free camping.
The Oregon Trail passed through this area, and it was a haven for white settlers passing through Wyoming. Legend has it that an Indian was struck by lightning and killed while atop the bridge. After that, Native Americans would not ever go near the bridge or its surroundings. The Natural Bridge was often visited by emigrants. It was, perhaps, Wyoming's first tourist attraction. An 1843 pioneer described it as, "...a natural bridge of solid rock, over a rapid torrent, the arch being regular as tho' shaped by art...." The stream, originally known as Bridge Creek, is now called LaPrele Creek and flows through a beautiful public park surrounding the Bridge.
Contact: (307) 358-3532; open April through October
Ayres Natural Bridge Park is located 11 miles west of Douglas, WY on I-25, Exit 151 (Natural Bridge Exit), then 5 miles south on County Road 13. It is one of the few natural bridges that still has water running under it. It is in a very nice little county park with some camping.

The Gang (Chelsea, Bri, Liz, Mikaela, Danielle)

Theresa and Tearney up a tree:)

Playin around

The Falls and Natural Bridge

On Friday we headed up the mountain to the falls...this is our little water fall we have right here in Wyoming. We made this trip with some special friends Tearney and Bri. The falls did not take long so Tearney and I decided to make a day and go on a road trip. This was to the Natural Bridge about 1/2 hour East of Casper. Here we took some more beautiful pictures and enjoyed the weather.

The Gang

Chelsea

Danielle

Bri and Mikaela

Liz (such a teenager:)

Next outing....

Theresa was feeling generous this day and took 5 girls age ranging from 9-5 years (Brianna is the darker haired young lady who is good friends with Mikaela, the littlest is Riley and the rest of the blonds are related to me:) to the movies. After the movies we went to Washington park for some more gross motor play.

Visitors...

Danielle and Chelsea (Theresa and Kens nieces) came for a visit for 5 days. We had many adventures as well as many rocky roads to cross. As all the girls are close in age there were many challenges that had to be overcome. Both girls were wonderful to have and are going so very quickly.

Our first trip or outing was the Castle park, Liz came and played chase with the girls on the playground.

Brett is doing great and sees the girls 2-3 times a week. He is staying clean and doing well for himself! I am very proud of him and these two girls and the road they have all had to travel.