March/Spring Break 2019

In March, we decided to take our yearly family vacation during spring break.  We decided to go up to one of our favorite places on earth - - the Oregon Coast.  We went there on our honeymoon, and then flew up there with Dallin and Thomas 4 year ago over spring break.  This year, we decided to load all the kids up in the car and go again.  It did not disappoint!!
I took soooo many pictures on this trip.  I promise, even thought this post may seem like picture overload, you are only getting the highlights.

On the way up we stayed with my parents for a day and while we were there we took the boys to see the Bean museum at BYU.

We also took them to see this cool art exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art.

After we left Orem, we headed up to Cascade Locks, OR.  We made several stops along the way, but this was my favorite.  Shoshone Falls.  The water was going crazy, and it was sooo cool to see.

Once we got to Cascade Locks, Jeremy and the boys headed to the hotel pool and I relaxed in our hotel room.  This is our favorite place to stay in the Columbia River Gorge.  This view was from the window in our room.  So pretty!

Another view from our room in a different direction.  I love this place!!

And, I just have to share our view we had at breakfast the next morning.

Such a great place to stay!!

After breakfast we drove across the Bridge of the God's into Washington, just so the little boys could say they had stepped foot in the state.

We then headed onto the Columbia River Gorge Scenic highway.  They had obviously had some snow recently, so it looked a little different from the last time we were there.  This is Horsetail Falls.

We also stopped at the famous Multnomah Falls.  It was cool to see it iced over.  We also took the hike up to the bridge that you can see above the boys in the picture.

It started to warm up after our first two stops, so we decided to take the hike to Bridal Veil Falls.  It is a fun little hike, so we are glad the weather cooperated.

The boys at Bridal Veil Falls.

We made a few more stops in the gorge as well as finding Jeremy's favorite bakery in Portland for lunch and then we headed to the coast.  Our first stop was the Tillamook Cheese factory and then Cape Meares.

Cape Meares is one of my favorite places on the Oregon Coast and I just love this picture of my boys having so much fun there.

We headed down the coast and visited Cape Foulweather, the prettiest spot on the West Coast, if you ask me.

We stayed that night at our favorite place on the Oregon Coast, the Overleaf Lodge. I didn't get any great pictures this time, but this is Drake just outside of our room.  It is an amazing place to stay.

The next day we saw lots of lighthouses. . .

and beautiful coastal views as we worked our way down to California.  We stayed that night just outside of the Redwood National and State Parks.

We spent the entire next day exploring the Redwood Forest.  

None of us had been there before and it was really something awesome to see.

Seriously, pictures do not do it justice!

The next day we drove down the famous Avenue of the Giants.  It was incredible!!

And the following day we took the Pacific Coast highway for quite a ways as we headed toward home.  So beautiful!

We covered a lot of miles on this trip, but luckily my kids are great travelers.  We saw so many cool things.  I am so grateful that I have been able to show my kids so many beautiful and interesting places in our country, and I hope to be able to continue the tradition every year as they are growing up.  

Jan/Feb 2019

It has been awhile since I have updated the blog.  People used to tell me how much harder it got when your kids got older, and I wouldn't actually say that it is harder, but it is definitely busier, so I am not as good at getting the old blog updated like I used to, but I definitely want to keep up with it, for our own family history purposes.

So, I am going to break up the last few months into three posts.  Starting with a few pictures I took of our doings in January and February.

Jack finished up Webelos and earned his arrow of light.  He is very happy to have this cool award hanging in his room.  We are so grateful to his leaders for helping him accomplish this goal.

Drake and Tad participated in the pinewood derby.  Tad is still only seven, but since we thought it was going to be the last pinewood derby (with scouts going away next year), the stake told us to go ahead and let all the boys who would be turning eight this year participate.  Drake took first in speed and Tad took second.  They were pretty happy!

The next day the boys wanted to get out all the pinewood derby cars and awards that Jeremy and the boys have made and won over the years.  12 cars!  Wow!

That is it for January and February, but the next post is a huge one!

Thomas is 13!

It is official.  We have another teenager in the house!

Thomas had his 13th birthday a couple of weeks ago. 

We are so happy with Thomas and what a good kid he is.  He has made the transition to Jr. High so easily.  He has been able to keep track of all of his classes and continue to be an A student.  He also has been able to make and keep friends that are such good kids, which makes my life much less stressful.

We are so grateful that Thomas became part of our family 13 years ago.  Happy birthday Tom!

Jack is Eleven!

My handsome boy Jack is already eleven!!  He turned 11 just after the new year, so he just missed the deadline to be advanced from Primary and become a Deacon.  I am happy though. I  Love having as many of my boys in Primary with me as I can get!

Jack is such a great kid!  Everyone, and I mean everyone, that knows him, likes him.  He is inventive and good with his hands and is almost always cheerful.  We love having him in our family!  Happy Birthday Jack!

Sledding

People don't usually associate Arizona with snow, but I live in the mountains of Arizona and we get snow every winter.  The last few winters have been pretty dry though, and so we were thrilled to get a nice big storm on New Years Eve, not only for the much needed water, but also because we could go sledding!

I am putting these up in no particular order.

Dallin was having so much fun he would not hold still long enough for me to get a decent picture of him, but I am sharing it to prove he was there and also because you can see our house in it. I circled it in the picture.  There is a big tree covering half of it, but you get the idea anyway.

Jeremy giving Drake a good push.

Thomas, Jack, and Tad getting warm by the fire.

Jack, ready to take off.

Tad climbing back up after a trip down.  I love how he doubled up on hats.  He did not want to be cold.

Thomas and Tad getting ready for a trip down the hill.

Thomas climbing back up carrying his sled and Tad's tube.  What a good big brother.  (You can see Tad following along after him.)

It was a fun day!

Christmas Decor 2018

I know, I know, this is waaaaay past due, and I actually took my Christmas decor down the day after Christmas, but it just made me so happy this year, that I took a few quick shots of some of it before it came down.  So this post is mostly for me.

I only took pictures of some of the decor that was different this year.  For a look at the decor in some other places in my house you can click here.  It looked basically the same this year.

Some fun decor in the new built-ins. It was so fun having this space to decorate this year.

A close up shot of my favorite part of it!

My front entry hook shelf was a little simpler this year and I loved it.  I also love the little stockings hung on Drake's and Tad's hooks.  Every time they would get a gift that came in one of those little stockings (from teachers, friends, etc.) they would hang it on their hook.  They had quite a collection by the time Christmas rolled around.

My china hutch got a little touch of holiday cheer this year. and you can see a glimpse of our favorite pocket advent calendar quilt in this shot too.

Some candy canes in the hutch.  I was surprised that my boys obediently left these alone, but as soon as I started putting everything away, they disappeared in a flash.

And finally, I got out these fun Santa mugs and displayed them.  I got them ridiculously cheap (like 25 cents each) on clearance a few years ago.  They were a fun addition this year.

Christmas Time

Just popping in to share a few photos of some of the fun things that we have done during the last month.

We made some cute donut hole snowmen.  I love Drake's face here.  I'm not quite sure what he was thinking.

We have a tradition where we make a new ornament every year, so this year we made these cute washer snowmen.  I love how they turned out.

We did a lot of other fun things too, but I didn't get any pictures.  I needed to be in the moment, more than I needed pictures I guess.

I did get this cute picture of Tad as one of the Candlelight Carolers at the Elementary school Christmas program.  He was one of the kids selected to do the opening number, and he did a great job!

Here he is with his cute cousin singing with his first grade class.  They did such a good job with this song as well.

And this is a picture of Drake singing with the third grade.   He was also selected to be one of the carolers that sang songs between all the numbers as the kids were getting off and on stage.  He was very happy to be selected as part of this group and he did a great job!!  I wish I would have gotten a picture of him doing that, but they all turned out blurry.  It was just too dark where they were sitting.  Darn!

I also went to Jack's choir concert and Christmas spectacular.  They were both so fun!

Dallin and Thomas had a choir concert at the Junior High as well and I enjoyed it so much.  Choir was my thing as a teenager, and I am so enjoying watching my boys in choir.

Thomas also played a piano duet with a friend in Sacrament meeting today and played perfectly!  I am proud of him for being so brave!  It is not easy to play for the first time in front of the whole ward.

We are looking forward to Christmas and we are so thankful for all of our blessings!  Merry Christmas!