Alston's Rock

Fall in Virginia

2010-12-18T08:48:00.008-05:00

Thanksgiving was quiet. Just the 4 of us. It was good though.
We went to a corn maze with the church youth and went on a hayride. It was a beautiful fall day, just really cold.

Madison ran for Student Council Secretary at her new school and won. She is the SCA secretary for Mt. View Elementary school for the 2010-2011 school year. You go girl!
Nate and Will on Halloween.
Madison and Sophie on Halloween.

Madison hits the stage in Willy Wonka!

2010-10-07T16:34:00.006-04:00

Our little DIVA!
Veruca Salt before the show. Wasn't she cute?!.

I got a few photos and Andrew recorded the show. When Andrew tried to put it on the computer he accidentally deleted it. So if we ever find another copy we will put it on the computer.
Madison after the big show. I am not being biased when I say that she stole the show!

Our two oldest go off to school and mission!

2010-10-07T10:44:00.012-04:00

Andrew with his friends the night before he left. They are wearing things that Andrew left for them.
Andrew's last Sunday at home.
Drew and Andrew at the airport.
My two oldest kids, I am so proud!
He is ready to go!
My lovely college girl. Once again, I took my camera with me on a trip and this is the only time I got it out. We went to Telluride to see Drew before we went to Provo. We were riding the gondola and I took some pictures. I didn't take ANY more the whole trip except for one with my phone of Lauren on her bed after we made it.

Family Photos!

2010-10-07T10:23:00.007-04:00

Group hug! This was our last day together as a family. Drew left that afternoon and was gone for 2 weeks. I left to take Lauren to BYU before Drew got home. August was a crazy month at our house, but a good and blessed one.
My awesomely goofy boys!
And these are the two people that started it all. What a great thing!
My goofy children!
Our beautiful children!
Our beautiful family!

Andrew goes to the DC Temple

2010-10-07T10:07:00.006-04:00

We had a great day as a family in DC. We went out to eat after at our favorite restaurant, Cheesecake Factory. It was a rather crazy weekend. I drove to DC with the kids Friday night. We got to the hotel at about 11pm. Drew flew in from Mexico and arrived in DC at about 5am Saturday morning. We got to the temple at about 12 and out at 4 then to eat and home at 11pm. We went to church where Drew taught Gospel Doctirne and then he flew out to Colorado that afternoon. We took some family photos because that was the last day our family would be together for 2 years!
Wendi and Andrew in front of the temple.
Drew and Andrew in front of the temple.

Andrew turns 19!

2010-10-07T10:02:00.004-04:00

Just a small family party.
Our boy is 19!

Lauren turns 18!!!!

2010-07-07T17:19:00.006-04:00

Madison made a special birthday cake for Lauren!
Lauren is modeling her ribbons.
Lauren had a few friends over to help eat cake!
Lauren always gets an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.
Lauren and I spent the day together on her birthday. I had a really good day, I think she did too.

Lauren Graduates!

2010-06-06T17:13:00.007-04:00

Lauren is on her way to graduation. It is really June 5th, the camera date is messed up. She is an outstanding young women. We are very proud of her.

Our beautiful smart graduate.
The family after graduation.

Andrew's Mission Call!

2010-06-06T16:53:00.004-04:00

THE CALL!!
Waiting to open his call. It was delivered at 11 am and he waited until Drew arrived home to open it. Drew got home at 10 pm. It took a bit to get skype hooked up so family in Utah could watch too. It was quite intense.
Andrew reads his mission call. Nicaragua Managua North Mission. He is to report to the Provo MTC on October 20, 2010. He is very excited. His mission is a newly created one.

This and That!

2010-04-29T09:34:00.009-04:00

This is Andrew at school-tough life.
Lauren goes to Prom.
Maddie got to ride an elephant with her Aunt Jody.
Our own Easter bunny!
We also went to Philadelphia. It was was a neat place.
Madison turned 9.
Nate turned 12.
We got A LOT of snow this winter!

Washington DC and New York at Christmas!

2010-04-29T07:17:00.012-04:00

We all went to DC on Christmas Eve eve. Nate was able to do baptisms for the dead for the first time. It was a great day!

Time Square at night is a cool place, even if it is raining.

This is as close Lauren and I got to the Statue of Liberty. We saw Wicked when Drew and the other kids went out to the Statue. We thought it was a good alternative. It was great!

This is in front of "ground zero". It is a really big hole.
This is the Balto Statue on Central Park. Maddie had read the story at school so we had to visit the statue.
This was a fun family trip. It is fun to be at places that you have only seen on TV.

Everyone is finally in school!

2009-09-15T00:29:00.007-04:00

Drew was home this past weekend and wanted to take the kids to a college football game. We went to UVA vs. TCU. It started rather slow, but the 4th quarter was good. By then more then half of the UVA fans had left. They missed some good football. We had a lot of fun, although I missed Andrew. It sure is wierd having him gone. He is liking it though. Life is good in Hawaii.
Little Miss Maddie is in the third grade. She loves school and loves to see her friends every day. She tried out for the 3rd and 4th grade Chorale. We haven't heard back yet. She could go to school 7 days week and be happy!
Nate started 6th grade and is at the Middle School for his second year. So far, so good!
Lauren actually started school first, back in August. Her senior year has begun. College planning is underway. If any of you are interested, she loves all things "Liverpool" or "Fernando Torres". She is a European Soccer Nut. She knows more about that game then most Americans know about American Football. So if you ever want to talk soccer, call her!
Andrew left for BYU-Hawaii on Saturday. He played 2 rounds of golf at Turtle Bay today. I think he is going to like college.

End of Summer Pool Party!

2009-08-27T12:26:00.005-04:00

Grace, Celeste, Sophia and Maddie jump for joy! It is summer and time to play in the pool before they go back to school. It was a good day!
Maddie, Celeste and Sophia are striking a pose!
Nate and his best buddy, Will. They are all fish.
Maddie and Nate wanted to have a pool party before they headed back to school. After a postponement, due to bad weather, we finally got to have it on Tuesday. We had 6 little girls and 3 boys. The kids had fun!

Our boy turns 18!!

2009-08-10T10:43:00.011-04:00

Andrew with his ice cream cake. I usually order one with golf stuff on top, but he changed his party day at the last minute so I had to get what they had. He got one with a red rose on it. At least it matched his shirt!
Andrew opening gifts. He was a happy boy that day.
Andrew and some friends hanging out on his birthday.
We got a thumb's up from Andrew on his birthday. He liked his gifts.
These kids spent many a night on this couch watching movies and having fun. Charlie and Dallas left for their missions today, so this photo is in honor of them. We will miss you! Good luck!!

Maddie's Big Performance

2009-08-09T22:39:00.003-04:00

Madison was in a performance of 101 Dalmations. It was really cute. They also had a pre-performance at a street festival. Maddie loves to perform.

Maddie played the part of Patch. Her big line was, "Horace and Jasper were goin' to bonk us on the heads and...and...do us in!!! She stole the show.
Maddie loves being on stage.
The reception line after the show.

Andrew's High School Graduation!

2009-06-16T12:13:00.006-04:00

Drew with Andrew before graduation. It was a good day.
Andrew is in the tunnel, waiting to come out. He was the first one to come out.
Andrew has his diploma in his hand. He was the 4th graduate to walk across the stage.
After graduation-Andrew with his proud parents!! Way to go!!

Coming Soon - High School Graduation 2009!!

2009-06-06T22:07:00.001-04:00

101_0216.jpg

2009-06-01T20:14:00.005-04:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

101_0207.jpg

2009-06-01T20:14:00.003-04:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

101_0205.jpg

2009-06-01T20:14:00.001-04:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

101_0267.jpg

2009-06-01T19:48:00.001-04:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

Prom Night for Andrew and Lauren

2009-04-29T20:16:00.009-04:00

You know it is all about the hair. Lauren found a style she liked and I did my best to copy it. It turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself. She was happy, and that is all that mattered. She did look very pretty.
The kids met up with their friends for pre-prom photos. All of the other kids went to a different prom.
Lauren and her daddy.
The girls are showing off their pretty flowers.
Andrew and Elle made quite a pretty couple. They have a lot of fun together.

Andrew and his two "best" girls!

Spring Break-2009!

2009-04-29T19:20:00.013-04:00

Our first stop was to Elizabeth City, NC. Dad's parents, grandparents, and some aunts and uncles are buried there. The Turner plot is in the old Episcopal Cemetary. It is an Historic Landmark. I took photos of all the Turner graves. It was blowing freezing air, Maddie was COLD. We stayed in a nice three-bedroom house a block from the beach. It is owned by a friend of Drew's who used to live in Virginia. It is in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, which used to be Kitty Hawk, NC. It is all part of the Outer Banks. Nate and Maddie wanted to be buried in the sand. They thought it was great! Nate and Maddie had a lot of fun at the beach. It was the first time that Maddie had ever been to the ocean and the first time that Nate could remember. We took Nate and Madison to the Wright Brothers Monument. It was right across the street from the house where we stayed. It was really nice, great views of the ocean.
It was so funny to watch Nate try to get up after rolling all the way down this sand dune. Jockey Ridge is the largest natural dune on the East Coast. It is too bad we didn't have boogie boards to ride down on. Next time, we will.

Madison's Big Week!!

2009-02-14T18:24:00.008-05:00

Maddie had a fun birthday. She opened gifts before school and after school. She was able to go to Achievement Days for the first time on her birthday. It's great to be 8!!!
Maddie's "flower power" cake.
For Maddie's 8th birthday party, she invited 8 friends, and they ALL came. They ate pizza and watched Madagascar II. She had a lot of fun.
Madison's baptism was very nice. Her Grandpa Wes and Grandpa Alston wrote her talks and Lauren and Andrew read them. After she was baptized she kept saying, "I feel so happy, I feel so happy." It was really sweet.
Maddie on her big day.
Our family after the baptism.

Andrew's Photo Session

2009-02-14T17:42:00.004-05:00

These are a few of my favorite pictures of Andrew. He has other favs, so the one you receive in his grad announcement may be different. I think he is pretty handsome.

This is Andrew's photographer, Elle.

COMING SOON!!! MADISON'S BIG WEEK!!!

2009-02-06T13:44:00.003-05:00

We Finally Have a Real Snow Day!!

2009-02-03T12:13:00.008-05:00

We finally got some real snow. We took the kids to the hill in front of SVU to sled down. It is a very big hill. There was more snow at our house but SVU had the better hill. The snow was almost gone by the time we got there. But they still had fun. Nate and Maddie were running around the yard and posing before we went sledding.
Lauren was cheesing it up for the camera.
Nate on the sled. He went quite fast. He wanted to go down face first and I said no, so when I wasn't looking, he did it anyway. He was quite the daredevil.
Maddie liked to sled down the hill by herself.
Madison is making snow angels.

Andrew Goes To Inauguation Day!!!

2009-01-21T10:48:00.008-05:00

Andrew had the opportunity to go the inauguration ceremony in Washington DC. Regardless of how some might feel about the change over, this was a very historic day. Andrew will be able to say "I was there" when the first black President was inaugurated. He had a great day. It was fun to see him on TV too.

Andrew's view of the inauguration ceremony.
Andrew was cold!!
Andrew and his friend from Colorado, Steven Tobler, were standing by the MSNBC tent and got their cute little mugs on TV. I saw them 4 different times. I recorded it and then froze the photo on the TV to take this photo. He is not too shy!

Christmas Day Fun!

2009-01-02T12:22:00.006-05:00

Santa found us once again, here in Virginia. As you can see, Daddy was very tired that morning and spent most of it just like this. We spent a nice restful day together. We had our turkey dinner and just played games and watched new videos. It was a nice day.

We Finally Cruised!!

2008-12-17T13:41:00.006-05:00

We had so much fun. The first day in the Bahamas it rained. The last 2 days were great. Drew and I like to just hang out on the beach and read and that is exactly what we did. We volunteered to get bumped on our way home so we even came home with 2 round trip tickets to somewhere. Drew liked it so much, he wants to go on another cruise. Our kids will probably not want it to be in the near future. As soon as we got home, we left again. Drew's nephew, Jared, passed away right before we left and we went to Canada for his funeral. It was nice to see all of Drew's family. They hadn't all been together since 2000. Anyway, our kids were home alone for about 9 days. We got stranded in Chicago on the way home and had to stay an extra night, but we finally made it home. The last 2 weeks have been an adventure. We went from 80 degrees in Nassau to 30 degrees BELOW in Canada. It feels great to be HOME!!!

Our house "dressed" for Christmas

2008-12-05T09:15:00.000-05:00

This is our little farm house all dressed up for Christmas. I love everything about this time of year. It does make me miss being able to share it with all of our family. I remember how far away we are from everyone. At least we still have Drew's brothers family only 8 hours away. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Buena Vista Christmas Parade

2008-12-05T08:58:00.000-05:00

Lauren and her friend, Jessi, were Santa's helpers in the parade and walked behind the shepards and passed out candy. Isn't that what a parade is all about? Getting as much candy as possible. It was a fun night for the kids.
Nate was a shepard in the parade. He got to walk behind the float. It was raining this year, but not too cold. The kids stayed nice and dry under their bathrobes.
The 2 Buena Vista Wards put a float together for the annual Christmas parade in Buena Vista. Maddie got to sit on the float and be an angel and sing carols. She was in heaven. She loves to perform.

Nate's 11th Birthday

2008-12-05T08:41:00.000-05:00

Nate and Drew-they are buddies!

Nathan celebrated his 11th birthday yesterday. I was thinking that 2009 is going to be a big year for our kids. Andrew will graduate from High School and start college. Lauren will start her final year of High School. Nate will turn 12 and recieve the Priesthood. Maddie will turn 8 and be baptized. Anyway, Nate had a good day. How many kids get to be in a Christmas parade on their birthday?

Gettysburg and Antietam

2008-12-03T12:26:00.000-05:00

We took Lauren, Nate and Maddie to Antietam and Gettysburg a few weeks ago. They are really neat places to visit. Lauren is taking American History right now and will be learning about the Civil War soon. It is neat to be at places that you are learning about. This is the Burnside Bridge at Antietam. We went to Antietam first and took a bunch of pictures and then the battery to the camera died so we didn't get any photos of Gettysburg. They have a brand new visitors center there that is awesome, for lack of a better word. Gettysburg is a must see.

This is the Dunker Church at Antietam. There are some famous Civil War photos with this little building in the background.
This is a monument at Antietam. The single bloodiest day of the Civil War took place here.

Fall is fun!

2008-12-03T11:34:00.000-05:00

Nate and Maddie had fun playing in the leaves we raked on our back patio.