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Monday, July 19, 2010

What I love about summer!

1. Hiking!! (Especially when the fam comes to visit and we get to show them beautiful Oregon!) We hiked Spencer’s Butte and the incredible Silver Creek Falls with its “Trail of 10 Falls”. We only made it to 7 of them (the girls were getting a bit restless!), but it was still absolutely beautiful.

The whole clan at the top of the Butte!
Uncle Isaac packing Sage (it was a nice break!)

Kind of hard to see, but we're behind the first waterfall



My buff, daring...and freezing brothers after braving the river!




2. Spending time with our family! Okay, really it’s even more hiking, but what can we say…we love it! (Not to mention, we have a two year old that when asked what she wants to do every day her answer is inevitably “go to the park” or “go on my hike and find a waterfall”!) This past weekend we had quite an adventure and took the “road less-traveled” to the Kentucky Falls. Literally we drove on a dirt road laden with gigantic potholes (poor Focus, guess we should have driven the Explorer!). It took us nearly two hours (even though it was only about 60 miles from our house) and at times we wondered if we would ever see civilization again (we quite literally drove to the middle of the Oregon Coast forest range!), but it was SOOO worth it! It was breathtakingly beautiful, totally private and all-in-all a perfect Saturday. And we even all got a nap in when we got home. :)




Waterfalls just never get old. They were Beautiful!







3. Even more family time!! We built a giant fort in our living room and it was awesome! The girls loved it and Nate even got to watch the World Cup Championship from inside! :) Gotta love lazy Sundays!
Hanging out in the fort!




4. The pool! Girls are totally contained and entertained, I get to soak up the sun and sip lemonade and it doesn’t cost a dime. Can’t get better than that! :)

My bathing beauties!



5. Barbeques! I should have a picture for this, seeing as how it is nearly a daily occurrence, but I don’t. Darn. And too bad, Nate looks really good by the barbeque! :) Literally Nate has BBQ’d something almost every night he has been home. Not only is it delicious, but I’m off the hook for cooking and there is minimal clean-up. LOVE IT!!

Gotta love summer!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Just a couple of funnies...

Kids say the funniest things! Kenna is frequently making us laugh with the things she says. Here are a few of my recent favorites…

At dinner – Nate: “Makenna, how is your dinner?”, Kenna: “It’s malicious!” Hmmm

Totally out of the blue - Kenna: “I want to tell you a story about monsters”, Me: “Really? What is…”, Kenna: “The monster says RAAAAAR!” With hand gestures and everything! She cracks me up.

After tripping in the grocery store parking lot - Kenna: "My little knee! My little knee is hurting!" Kind of a surprise...usually she only refers to herself as being so big! :)

I love that girl!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Finally!

I won my very first Boggle game today! It only took 5 years. Nate even opened a bottle of Martinelli's for me! Wohoo!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Family Pictures

We finally got some family pictures taken that actually include all four of us! I love getting pictures taken of the girls and it's always so hard to choose the best ones. We also got pictures taken with all the grandkids on my side of the family! With us in Oregon and my other sister in Idaho, it's pretty tough to get everyone together for pics, but we finally did it. Kenna and Sage are the only grandkids on Nate's side of the family, but on mine there are nine (8 within 2 1/2 years!). It's like a nursery when we all get together! My parents house or cabin gets pretty trashed when everyone is there, but the kiddos LOVE it. It is so fun to see how much they all love each other. So without further ado, here they are!


Makenna
Sage Our Family!
The Girls
(it's not easy getting two little ones to smile!)
My Parents with all 9 Grandkids!!
All the Girls
The quite outnumbered Boys
The trick to getting 6 kids to sit still for a photo-shoot...tootsie pops & kooshie balls! :)

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Playgroup

This summer a friend and I started a Mom & Tot playgroup in our ward.  It has been a great way to get out and get to know other moms, while letting Makenna make new friends!  We get together every Wednesday and I'm loving it.  I am so grateful for so many wonderful women who have become such great friends.  They make living away from family SO much easier!