Why I Blog

 (This was the first picture I ever posted on the blog in 2008)

When I first started blogging I did it because I lived so far away from my family and friends and I thought that they might be interested in getting a little glimpse of what we were up to every now and then.  At the time Dallin and Thomas were preschoolers and Jack was a tiny baby.  I had a lot more time then (even though I thought I was insanely busy), so it was also kind of fun for me.  After several years of blogging, I have accepted the fact that the reason that I started blogging is not the reason I have continued.  My parents are not great about checking it, but my sister, one of my sisters-in-law, a few of my friends and some cousins mention that they read it on occasion.  I guess it keeps some of them in the loop, and I am happy that they are interested in knowing what is going on with us from time to time.  But - - the real reason I have continued to blog, even when almost everyone I know has abandoned their blogs, is because I love the record of our lives that I have inadvertently created.



Every once in awhile I will go back and read through some old posts and I am so glad that I have taken the time to get on here and write and share pictures when I can.  I love looking at those pictures of my kids when they were so little and reliving old memories.




So, for those of you who actually do check my blog, you have surely noticed that there are lots of spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors in my writing and my pictures are never edited.  Sometimes when I take the time to go back and read a post I am pretty embarrassed by some of the mistakes I have made in my writing, but at the end of the day, I can assure you that you will continue to see them.  I am lucky to get a post up and I don't have time for picture editing, or proofreading.  If I tried to make every post perfect before I published it, this blog could not continue, and I personally need it to continue so that seven years from now I can look back at the posts from this year and appreciate how little my kids looked and all the memories we made.

These boys are the light of my life and they are growing up way too fast - so I had better document these times the best I can.  With all of the challenges and frustrations that come along with raising a bunch of boys, I still  cannot imagine another period of my life being better than these years of raising my family.

Pinewood Derby and House Progress

We had our pack pinewood derby a couple of weeks ago.  We can never seem to make our cars very fast.  I think that some dads are just way way way more into it than Jeremy is.  However, Jeremy has always been good at woodworking and he is pretty creative, so the boys always do well in show.  This year Dallin took first in show and Thomas took second.  That was nice since last year Thomas took first in show and Dallin's first year he took second in show.  This was Dallin's last year of pinewood derby.  All three of his cars are red and they will look really good together in his room in the new house.  I would take a nice shot of all three of them together, but that will have to wait until he has that new room because right now his first two are buried deep in storage.

Dallin with his champion red Mustang.  (I know, I totally get mother of the year award for getting my boys'  awards sewn on their shirts in such a timely manner.)

Thomas with his 2nd place red angry bird.  Both of the boys cars were really cute!!

Thomas has one more year and next year Jack will be making a pinewood derby too.  With five boys we still have a lot of pinewood derby cars to look forward to.  We are down five, just ten to go!!

Now, onto a house update.  We haven't made a lot of progress, since we went to Oregon on spring break and then Jeremy spent the next week down with the flu.  But finally today he finished getting the fill dirt in the foundation and getting it compacted.  I was shocked at how much time this took, and I was even more shocked at how expensive fill dirt is.  Yikes!!

 
This is a shot from the other side of the house.  We obviously haven't prepared the porches or garage yet, as they will be poured later.

But - - the portions for the actual house are all nice and level and compacted - - - - just in time for the plumber to come in and dig them all up!  :)

Spring Break Trip - Day 5

Our final day in Oregon started in Cascade Locks.

This was our view from our hotel room in Cascade Locks.  It had a nice view of the Columbia River and The Bridge of the Gods.

We drove back through the gorge and stopped at Horsetail Falls.  This picture was taken by a nice German man that we met there.

I snapped this picture because I loved all the pretty work along the roads on the Historic Columbia River Highway.

We stopped again at Multnomah Falls.  It was way less crazy first thing in the morning.  I was glad we stopped again because I could get a good picture of the beautiful lodge there.  You can see the falls in the background.

I, of course, took advantage of the calmer atmosphere and snapped a few more shots.

I believe these were called Wahkeena Falls.  They were another easy stop right on the road.

One last look at the Gorge as we were driving out.

After spending part of the day in the Gorge we drove to the Portland Airport and checked in.  We had lunch there, which I only mention because I had my first Banh Mi sandwich, and it was delicious. ( I am wishing I was at the Portland Airport right now so I could have another one.)  I will have to find a way to recreate that sandwich here at home.  Jeremy is pretty good with Asian food, so we will probably be able to figure it out together.

We flew to Phoenix and picked up our little boys at Emma's house.  They had a great time there with Emma, Ben and their cousins - - thanks guys!!  We headed back to Taylor and we are glad to all be together again.

I asked Dallin and Thomas what their favorite part of the trip was.  Dallin said he loved all of it, but he loved the ocean most of all.  Thomas said he couldn't pick a favorite it was all perfect.  I said "Wow, there is nothing you would change?"  He said "Stay longer."  They both keep asking when we are going to take a trip to Oregon again.  It was a successful trip for sure!!

Spring Break Trip - Day 4

Our fourth day in Oregon started in Tillamook.

This was the view from our hotel room in Tillamook.  Not as impressive as our room in Yachats, but still pretty.

We drove out to Cape Meares for some more spectacular views and our final looks at the ocean on this trip.

More spectacular views. I love all these pictures, but they are nothing like seeing it in real life.

A good look at the Cape Meares fresnel lens.  We learned on one of our lighthouse tours that each lighthouse has its own signature signal.  You can tell from the lens that Cape Meares flashes red and white.

Another view of the ocean from the trail walking down to the base of the lighthouse.

The Cape Meares lighthouse is the shortest in Oregon.  It is built on a cliff, so it didn't need to be very tall.  It was fun to see this lighthouse.  We visited four lighthouses on this trip and they were all so interesting.

 More ocean views as we hiked around Cape Meares.

We hiked up to see the Octupus tree.

A look at the forest side of Cape Meares.

We then drove a couple of hours inland to visit the Columbia River Gorge.  Jeremy and I did not visit it while we were on our honeymoon, and always regretted it, so we made sure that we carved out time to include it in this trip.  It did not disappoint.

These are a couple of nice views of the gorge from the Portland Women's Forum Scenic Viewpoint.

A pretty view from the Vista House.

This was from our stop at Latourell Falls.  There are sooooo many waterfalls as your drive through the gorge.  My boys were trying to keep count of all that they saw, but the numbers got too high and the waterfalls were coming too fast.

We took the hike to see Bridal Veil Falls.  They were so pretty.  Totally worth the hike.  It was nice that our boys were big enough to hike themselves and I didn't have to pack a little one.  It made for some fun hiking.

Dallin pretty much ran the entire time on the hikes.  My little soccer player is in great shape.

I took this picture because I love how everywhere you look everything is covered in moss.  This is so different from the water deprived life we live in Arizona.

The famous Multnomah Falls.  They are the tallest in Oregon and they are incredible.

No hiking is required to see these, and so this stop was a little crazy with people everywhere.  But still a definite must see.

We stopped in Cascade Locks to see the Bonneville Dam and fish ladder.

 We also took some time to drive out to Hood River and drive across the bridge into Washington. We drove down the river a ways and had dinner over there and then drove across the Bridge of the Gods back into Cascade Locks.  We saw so much on day four. The weather was nice and we had a great time.

Spring Break Trip - Day 3

Our third day in Oregon we spent a little time out on the water.

This is a view of the Yaquina Bay Bridge from the boat.  We only got to go out on the ocean for a few minutes because the weather was so bad on this day, so we spent most of our time in the bay and on the river.

Thomas got to help throw some crab pots out in the bay.  It was raining pretty hard at this point.

Luckily the rain had stopped by the time we got back from the ocean and it was time to pull them in.

We pulled in a pretty good haul.   The boys were pretty intent on getting pictures of the crabs at this point.

I was happy that Thomas was brave enough to hold this little crab that had lost its claws.  He has come a long way from our trip to San Diego a few years ago when he wouldn't even hold a starfish.

Dallin learned how to safely hold the bigger crabs that still have their claws.

A view of the shore from the river.

Thomas hanging out in the cabin of the boat.  He got a little wet and cold while he was helping to put the crab pots out.

These are some cute little harbor seals we saw on our cruise.    They were a lot more quiet and shy than all of the loud sea lions that were all over the place in the bay at Newport.  I'm not sure why I didn't get any pictures of them.  There were thousands, and they were LOUD and stinky!!  The boys thought it was great!

More pretty views from the  boat.

After the cruise we headed up the coast.  We stopped at Cape Foulweather again for a few more photo ops.

These views are only available from the gift shop and it was closed the first time we stopped.

Another view from the gift shop.

We drove up to Tillamook and took a tour of the cheese factory.  The tour was just okay.  It is a good stop if you are passing through, but I wouldn't really recommend it as a destination.  I didn't get any pictures of the boys at the factory.  Probably because I didn't see any great photo ops inside and it was raining pretty hard outside, so we didn't really want to stop for pictures.  This was by far our rainiest day, but luckily we spent most of that rainy time in the car and in the factory.

All-in-all, another good day in Oregon.