Visit to Vancouver

July 29-August 2

DH, M&M, Luke and Blondie stayed one more night at Bear Lake and then the next day headed off to visit DH's mom in Vancouver. They were able to have some fun visiting her as well as DH's grandma who lives in Portland. The younger kids were bummed that they couldn't go to visit them as well but this was the only time that we could make anything work out this summer with our crazy school schedule. They drove up on Wednesday and came back home late Sunday night. They were also there for M&M's 17th birthday. They went out to dinner with her and saw the movie Ant Man which they all enjoyed.

N family reunion - part 3

Saturday, August 23

I don't remember a lot of what happened on Saturday.  I think that T & C and their family left on Saturday so a lot of the day was just spent allowing them to pack and helping keep the kids occupied.  Later that day the rest of us that were still around took our kids to the park to play.  We had to leave Sunday morning for home since M&M was starting school on Monday.

One difference for this trip was that M&M was able to drive some.  She got in some good experience driving on the interstate.  I will say this though:  It is a weird experience sitting in the back of car while one of your kids is driving!

N family reunion - part 2

Friday, August 22

We only stayed at the rental for two nights so Friday morning we spent packing up our stuff and headed back to Mom N's house.  On our way out of the Mt. Hood recreational area we went on another short hike to a waterfall and then we stopped at Grandma N's (Grandma-Great) for a short visit.

The kids - doesn't MJ look happy?

Family picture at the waterfall. 

It's always fun to play in water!

It is crazy how some of these trees grow!

N family reunion

August 20 - August 21

M&M had her last day of marching band camp on Tuesday and we took off early Wednesday morning to drive up to Washington for a reunion with the N family.  DH has a brother that is living overseas with his family and this was the only time that we were going to be able to see them for the next little while.  We were able to schedule in a whirlwind visit in between M&M's band camp and M&M and Luke starting school.  It also worked out nicely that the elementary kids were off of school for the first track break during this time (they went to school for 3 weeks and then were off for 3 weeks).

Unfortunately we had some car trouble on the way up - just outside of Ogden.  So we had to limp back to town and made our way to a Toyota dealership and after spending a couple of hours there, they attributed the problem to a bent tire rim.  They rotated the tire rim to one of the back wheels and then sent us on our way hoping that we made it without incident...  We were a little skeptical, but went on our way hoping and praying that we had no more problems.  Well, thankfully we made it safe and sound to the rental we were staying at in Mt. Hood - although it was several hours later than we were hoping for...

The next morning we ate breakfast and then packed up some lunches and headed out to go on a hike.  The weather was beautiful and it was a nice, fun hike for us all.

Cousins!

Can we make it?  Yes we can!  (Gotta love those switchbacks!)

Goofball MJ!

My walking stick carrying, tree hugging MJ!

She said, "Look, I'm hugging a tree!"  Then afterwards she said, "Ouch, that kind of hurt!"

Made it to the lake!

Mt. Hood

Lunch time!

Look at me Mom!

Again, goofy MJ (I wish this picture hadn't turned out blurry!)

Luke getting in on the fun!

After the hike we headed back to the rental for some family fun!

Getting in some baby loving!  Cute, tiny baby S!

Hot tub time!

Big kids' turn!

MJ and her cousin R playing with another cousin's dolls - there's nothing better than getting to play with someone else's toys!

Christmas cookies!

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

I always like decorating Christmas sugar cookies with the kids but with everything else going on it is hard to make sure it gets done each year.  This time around we were lucky enough to have Grandma N with us for the Christmas holidays and we she was able to help us out in decorating our cookies (on Christmas Eve no less - but hey we got them done in time to leave some for Santa that night).  Some of the kids (including DH) really got into making some masterpieces this year!

MJ decorated that candy cane cookie in front of her!  After she was finished with her decorating, she was content to sit there and just lick the frosting off of her cookie.  Then she would add more frosting to the same cookie and repeat the process!

I need the kids to help me remember who decorated which cookies.  I know that DH did the candy cane in this picture.