Derek's 10th birthday

The Ely family is now full of double digits, no more single digits in our family. :) Derek is the most amazing boy I've ever met. He is so naturally happy and upbeat. Just being around him helps me to be happy and see the best in everything, I am so greatful that I have the opportunity to be in his life and be touched by his incredible personality.

This is the start to his wonderful day.

Here is Derek and Hannah on their way to start their day.

Derek opening up his presents. Derek was excited and appreciative of every present, his happiness and appreciation are so infectious. I truly love being around him. His appreciation for the little things in life helps to make my life so exciting.

Here is the book, "Happy Birthday to You", a tradition that I have with the kids every year at the end of their special day, we read the book together. Both kids really look forward to this time and even though we read it together every year they both still love the book and the the time together.

This is the restaurant that Derek chose to go to. Again, here is another of the thousands of reasons why it is so easy to love him. He chose the restaurant, "Tio's". He knows that this is his Dad's and Hannah's favorite restaurant. This has also been a restaurant that has long family ties, as we have been going there even before both of the children were born, and we know the owners well. Derek is always so concerned for others and wants to have family unity and tradition. This has been important to him since he was a small child. I love and admire that so much in him. There is so much that I learn from him and cherish about him.

Derek chose to go to his Pack Meeting the night of his birthday. That is Derek, he enjoys doing the right thing, making right choices. It makes him happy to know that he is doing the right thing. He wanted us to have dinner early so that he could make it to his pack meeting and be where he knew he needed to be. Like I said, I have so much to admire about my Small Bear!

This is August 29, 2009. These are Derek's friends that came to celebrate him. From the left, Branston, Cristian, his wonderful, amazing, beautiful, funny, sister, Hannah, Sam, and Karl, and of course, the reason for the celebration, Derek.


Outside of our house. Derek loves super heroes. He sure is my super hero.


Outside of the house with his birthday sign. On our way to the bowling alley.



The whole gang of great friend to Derek.

Having fun and helping others to have fun, he excels in this area and I LOVE that!Derek's birthday cake. He loves Star Wars right now.One last shot of the gang. Everyone looking so cool and most importantly, HAPPY. I overheard a couple of his friends saying to Derek that they did not want the day to end. I loved hearing that.

Our Family Trip to San Francisco August 6-8, 2009

The kids and I were able to use my flight benefits and go spend time together as a family while David was on a business trip in San Francisco these past few days. I love building memories together as a family. Seeing the different parts of the beautiful United States together as a family and sharing these wonderful memories has always been a dream of mine and it's really happening. I love these moments together, exploring new places and discovering new places we haven't seen before. I hope we can expand our adventures to the world. Day 1
Here we are just about to go into China Town.

I love this picture of Derek, he comes up with the best poses! :)

Here is the gang enjoying more of China town with Daddy too. The only thing was that I did not find $35 Rolex, oh well, I'll have to go back to New York

In front of the San Francisco fire truck. This has become an Ely photo tradition. We did this (well, the children did) in Chicago, New York (at Ground Zero) and now in San Fran. I hope we can continue this fun photo pose together in each city we visit. :)

Just another San Francisco hill, but the steep ones are yet to come.

The beginning of our adventure in Pier 39. We flew out this day, Thursday, and started our hike (OK, walk) at about 3:00 and walked back to the hotel a little after 9:00 pm. We got about 6 hours of walking in so we figured roughly about 5 miles. I always joke around that my hiking is in Disney Land, Chicago, New York and now San Francisco. Just wait, the hills are yet to come.

A view of Alcatraz. We didn't make it to the tour of the island this time so we'll have to go back.

Hannah sure is becoming more and more beautiful. I love these last two pictures of her.

This is the double decker carousel that was in the picture just before this one. I'm so glad the kids still love this kind of fun.

Just behind Derek and David is a 57 year old woman (she told us all) doing a tight rope act.

More of Alcatraz

David and Stacy

Hannah and Derek with the huge amounts of seals and walruses

What a hill! See what I mean by hiking. . .

Derek took this great picture!

Hannah and Mom.

At the top of the crazy Lombard street.

We really wanted to be able to ride a Trolley car with the kids. We also wanted the kids to experience walking in San Fran and especially the hills. We were able to ride this one just our family and the drivers. They invited us to ride a special ride just our family, then were kind enough to take our family picture. We loved it!

This was a great shot of the city skyline. . . that is if the nice bystander taking the picture would have got that part of the background in. . . oh well

Day 2 Ok, this picture did not do the angle of this hill justice. Basically if we got on the other side of the truck we could have "flicked" the truck to roll over and over and over down the incredible insanely steep hill. Had to be there.

Yet another insane hill, the king of all insane hills . . . I give you . . . "Lombard Street"!

Wow, what a view. Derek holding up the world and the Golden Gate Bridge in the back ground.

Yes, the water was cold.

What a great day

The day just keeps getting better and better

A sad good bye to San Francisco. We all wanted to stay. Hannah started getting sick on this day. By that night she had a pretty bad fever. She was such a trooper for walking across the bridge with us and still having a good time. We sure do love her.