Hi
Bloggerland! I've finally found a quick moment to sit and update the blog (well, let's be honest this is going to take a quick hour-there are a million pictures to sort through).
Brent's parents came to visit us over Easter weekend and they brought two crazy fun girls with them...Brent's sister Liz and our niece Laurel. We spent a couple of days at our place and a few days at a beach front house that Brent's dad rented for everyone (thanks!). I will just post a quick run-down of our activities through picture.
-Polar Bear Plunge:
Crazy girl Liz talked Laurel and I into going swimming in the ocean. Now, I LOVE to swim...in the summer when the water is a slightly warmer degree of cold and the air is at least 70. I can stand about an hour of the cold water. But we're talking about early April, cold, cold, cold water, cloudy, and I doubt that the air temperature was even 60. The second I touched the water I was in shock. I managed to play in waist-deep waves for about 5 minutes. But my crazy girls did some all-out body surfing for 20 minutes! (And seriously, you thought I was crazy?)
Just don't mind my 21 week pregnant belly-if you're not shy, I'm not
Liz-getting used to the water (brain freeze to the max!)
Joshua got in on the action too-he loves the water
The whole experience was just too cold for Toby. He was wading when a wave washed him down. Then he was done.
-Mo's Famous Clam Chowder
Yum!...enough said.
-Bird Guy
We found this guy on the docks next to Mo's that had day old bread and dough nuts for feeding the seagulls. He was kind enough to let the kids participate...and boy were they ever happy about that!
There are some serious action shots of Toby here...
Great shot of Laurel feeding a gull
-Photo shoots
Just a couple of nice pictures of my crazy girls at the beach:
-Tide pools and lighthouses at
Yaquina head and
Yaquina Bay
It was Laurel's first time at the ocean, so we had to show her all of the
oceany sights:
A great picture of Brent's dad. I love how he always wears those cool hats.
Explorer Liz and Explorer Toby
Laurel and Liz checking out those sticky anemones.
Check out the starfish eating the crab carcass...cool.
Yaquina Head Lighthouse...the view from the
tidepools.
Sea Life
"The Belly"
Jane and Liz with a sea sponge...it was a day of good finds at the tide pools.
A fun picture with Grandpa
Inside the lighthouse tour
This is the
Yaquina Bay lighthouse...not as spectacular as
Yaquina Head, but still pretty neat.
-Drift Creek Falls/Bridge Hike
This is a hike that Brent's been dying to take us on for months. It was cold, rainy and muddy, be we are glad that we endured. Whew! I'm almost done:
A line of raincoat colors (it was getting dark, so the pics were getting a little blurry)
Trillium...the Oregon State Flower.
Hmmm...that might make for a fun middle name.
I seem to be forgetting to do a lot of things lately. It must be the combination of being very busy AND being pregnant...because I was never THIS forgetful with my other pregnancies.
Here are a few things I have forgotten to do in the last couple of weeks:
-I forgot to post pictures from Easter and our trip to the coast with Brent's family.
-I forgot to get a babysitter for a concert that we've had on our calendar for months.
-I forgot to have an Enrichment board meeting this month (until someone reminded me).
-Heck...I pretty much forgot about Enrichment, period. (Enrichment is a monthly gathering for the women in our church)
-I...I mean, the tooth fairy forgot to bring Joshua some moolah for a couple of weeks in a row after loosing THREE teeth on the top! Oh the insanity! (The tooth fairy finally came through and even added a little interest for being so late.)
-I forgot to post pictures of how dang cute Joshua is without his teeth!
There. Now I feel a little better. And...this is a picture from Easter weekend out at the coast (Joshua with his banana slug friend). Haha! Now I'm on top of things.
...did I get myself into being in charge of the whole entire school jog-a-thon? I am not experienced enough in the ways of PTSO to do this! I should have eased my way in here or there by counting box tops or stuffing envelopes. Going to one single meeting even. Why did I have to bite off the whole enchilada at once?
Now you know...if I'm missing in action...I'm probably soliciting donations or addressing envelopes or counting money or sorting out the prizes. All in good spirits.
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For those of you who don't Facebook, I thought I should let you in on a little discovery:
Our ultrasound said that we're expecting a girl! That's not the joke though...
My ultrasound was on April Fools Day, so I figured any outcome I told people might be considered a joke. So I took the liberty of telling everyone on Facebook that we were expecting twin boys! Some of the responses I got were just classic! I was able to set most everyone straight by the next day...but boy will that be one April Fools Day I will never forget!
We had a lot of fun celebrating Joshua's 7th birthday. It was the day after we got back from Utah, so we didn't do anything elaborate. I took the boys to see a movie of Joshua's choice (Monsters vs. Aliens). We had dinner at home and Joshua requested a carrot cake.
We opened some gifts. Brent happened to get his Garmain Hiking GPS unit in the mail that day, so he let Joshua open it. Brent is now getting the boys hooked on Geo Caching, which the boys call 'treasure hunting.'
Joshua didn't ask for anything for his birthday this year. He just asked us to surprise him...so Brent and I picked out some cool science toys from the Clarke Planetarium while we were in Utah (magnet sets and a cool Hoberman ball were hits). Joshua did pick out a toy for Grandma Georgina to buy him...it was a Snap Circuit FM Radio that you build yourself. Thanks Grandma! Joshua plays with it all the time and he says it's his favorite gift.
We also had a dinner a few days later with the aunties and uncles who live in Oregon...and that was so fun! My boys adore all of their aunties and uncles. Thanks so much to Lara and Annika for the thoughtful birthday gifts too...which the boys haven't stopped playing with since Sunday!
...That leads to your door.
Over spring break we took a make-up trip to Utah (we had to make up for being snowed in over Chirstmas). It was SO great seeing family and we even got to see a handful of friends!!
We got to see this sister fresh off or her LDS mission to Ohio...and it was SO good to see her!
Brent and I took turns taking jogs in the nice Draper trails in the lovely warm sunshine! Brent snapped some pictures of the new Draper Temple!
We had a great time catching up with my mom's husband's kids on Saturday. On Sunday we attended a lovely bash at Brent's parent's house in Draper. We got to see all of his siblings except Amy in Iowa :-(.
We checked out the Gilgal Garden in Salt Lake City (this could be a post in and of itself). Have any of you ever been to that crazy place?
We got to go out to lunch with one of Brent's favorite cousins Weston and his wife Ashley. It was nice to meet them and catch up. Wes posed a great picture for us, but I won't put it up so I don't embarrass Ash. :-)
Some of our close friends from high school had a little gathering at the Coverston's house. We got to meet some babies that we had yet to greet. It was good seeing some good old BF's. We are truly grateful for their unconditional friendship. Too bad that I was so busy catching up, I forgot to take any pictures :-(.
We hung out all day with my mom and her Marvin in downtown Salt Lake City. We went out to eat at the Lion House, the boys enjoyed Temple Square (a novelty to them), and we went to Gateway and the Clark Planetarium.
On our last day we got to hang out with the Jefferies all day long. Grandma Jane had a minor surgery in the morning, but in the afternoon we played games, watched a movie, hung out with cousins, aunties Liz and Emily, uncle Jonny (it was too rainy to go paragliding...bummer).
Probably the funniest part of the whole trip was when little cousin Ella (2 years old) started tackling Joshua. I mean, Joshua is probably 3 or 4 times her weight. But she was relentless and would not give up. Joshua was so gentle and just laughing about being pulled on the floor over and over. I like that little girl. A lot. She's got gumption. Toby really liked playing with her too. It was one of the first girls that he actually told me he likes :-). We hope you guys come and visit soon!
The whole cutie pants gang...Toby, Ella, Joshua, Sammy, Kate, Liz, Emily and Jonny.
Grandma Jane and her surgery bandage.
And if you are wondering what the strange markings are on Toby's face...it turns out he got into some of Grandma's makeup...
Exhibit A:
Toby found some "make-o"
Exhibit B:
He's cute, but he's guilty
And finally, we had to leave. It was a cold, blowing and snowy trip through northern Utah and southern Idaho...but once we got to Oregon we had decent enough weather to make a few rest stops.
We had a REALLY rainy St. Patty's (surprise, surprise!), but Brent was bound and determined that we were going to go hiking since it was his day off. So we hiked down at the Canemah Bluff in Oregon City.
We ended the day with a lovely rain-free sunset at a Willamette River park while picnicking on yummy Thai food!
Can you believe? Little Joshua turns 7 today?? Time has gone by so quickly!
Happy Birthday my Friend!
Just don't mind my 21 week pregnant belly-if you're not shy, I'm not
Liz-getting used to the water (brain freeze to the max!)
Joshua got in on the action too-he loves the water
The whole experience was just too cold for Toby. He was wading when a wave washed him down. Then he was done.
There are some serious action shots of Toby here...
Great shot of Laurel feeding a gull
Explorer Liz and Explorer Toby
Laurel and Liz checking out those sticky anemones.
Check out the starfish eating the crab carcass...cool.
Yaquina Head Lighthouse...the view from the tidepools.
Sea Life
"The Belly"
Jane and Liz with a sea sponge...it was a day of good finds at the tide pools.
A fun picture with Grandpa
Inside the lighthouse tour
This is the Yaquina Bay lighthouse...not as spectacular as Yaquina Head, but still pretty neat.
A line of raincoat colors (it was getting dark, so the pics were getting a little blurry)
Trillium...the Oregon State Flower. Hmmm...that might make for a fun middle name.
