Spring Break Northwest Style!

Spring Break was loads of fun! We went with our friends, the Denfelds, to Astoria, Oregon. We stayed in their family's little vacation home there and spend several days traveling around the area. The weather was gorgeous as you can see by the pictures and lent itself well to a week at the coast. We really did have a ton of fun though and can't wait to go back to see what it's all like during the summer.

The many hidden and unknown talents of Denny Denfeld. This is what a few years in the bishopric will do to you!
The kids loved roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. Who needs a sunny fire pit when you have a really great fireplace?!

A giant room with movies, pillows and lots of board games - what more could 8 kids ask for?

Denny and Steve actually got our of the car to enjoy this view - the rest of us opted to stay inside!

The view from the Astoria Column - it was amazing!and frigid!
The Astoria Column

They had this really great park - even the adults couldn't help playing on it! Bailey is thinking she'll take the photos (we took a bunch from every angle by the way!) to the town council meeting her class is attending next month and find out why they spent millions of dollars on a skate park "for teenagers who tear things up anyway and don't deserve it" instead of something awesome like this for all the thousands and thousands of little kids here in Battle Ground. I have to say - I'm with her on this one!


Apparently Astoria is a hot spot for movie makers. This is the hotel from Kindergarten Cop and farther down you 'll see the Goonies house. I can't remember all the others but there were a ton of things filmed here!
Fort Steven's Battery - an old abandoned military post to protect the entrance to the Columbia River.



This was a tower thing we could climb out on the beach. Out to the right you could see where the Pacific Ocean and the Columbia River come together. It was pretty cool.

(Kaden seems to be enjoying the arctic wind blasting through his jacket!)
Pacific Ocean on the left of the rock barrier - Columbia River on the left of the rocks - going right through the middle right side of the picture.
We stopped off at the beach to have a look at the wreck of the Peter Iredale. It is a British ship that wrecked here in 1906 and was just left on the beach. This area has had over 2000 shipwrecks and is known as the Graveyard of the Pacific.

(Steve kept making us all jump...)



(here's that Goonies house)

And a group of crazy little goons!


Steve had a great time too!

Kaden and Anna - we have big plans for these two!


Thanks to the "Feffelds" for a really great time and loads of memories!

Knock - knock jokes

"Knock knock"

"Who's there?"

"Don't know!"

Kaden told his first joke yesterday and I have to say - I couldn't stop laughing!

Happy St Patrick's Day

Hope you all had a very happy and green St. Patrick's Day!

WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE!

OK - so it's been 3 months. No excuses really other than there just always seems to be something else to do. So, here's a quick recap.

Last week we had New Beginnings in YW. I don't usually put a ton of stuff about that up here since our YW have their own blog and the rest of you probably don't care too much but--I am quite proud of this one so you get to see!

We took the all the girls down to Portland and took their pictures at the temple. They were edited, printed and put on these boards. They turned out AWESOME! We used the pictures as the decorations and backdrop along with wooden value words and flower cookies.


This year we tried something different. We had all the current YW pair up and decorate rooms - one room for each of the 8 values and another introducing this years Mutual Theme. The incoming Beehives traveled from room to room learning about each value while the parents stayed in the gym and got all the technical info about Mutual, Personal Progress and camp. The girls did such an awesome job on their rooms - I don't have those pictures yet - and the newbies made out like bandits! (every room had some cute little craft or treat that they'd created to go along with their value.) It was a really great night. Melinda had this great idea for necklaces which we made and gave to all the girls as well. (Melinda, I stole you picture!)

Anyway, it was a really great night! Our girls are SO incredibly spoiled but they're awesome and I am SOOOO thankful to have this calling.

Bailey started public school in January. A lot of factors played into that decision but it felt like the right one and so we went with it. We saw this outfit on ebay and she absolutely LOVED it so it was her "back to school" prize. We also had our first "Great to be Eight" night. I can't believe Bailey will be turning 8 in April!! This is Bailey with her little baptism binder they gave her.

Since Bailey has gone to school Emily and Kaden get to spend a lot of time together. They are SO funny. Emily calls him "My love" and Kaden often calls for her first when he is hurt or going to bed or anything at all. She stands on a chair and and he stands up in his crib and he lays his head on her chest while she rubs his head and sings him songs at night. It's so cute! Here are some random pictures of the two goofies.


The American Girls Club is doing Kirsten (pioneers) this semester. Bailey is having so much fun with this group and is learning so much. This is her Kirsten dress that she got for Christmas. We had a friend (sewing genius friend!) make it for her and it turned out perfect! Emily is excited that she gets to start the new semester in June. They will be learning Addy - The Civil War Era.


Christmas Day we went up to my parent's house. Everyone was able to be there this year so it was crowded but fun. I managed to get this picture of the guys and their new video games - like fathers like sons huh?!!

Got this picture too - nice contrast to the last one I think! It seems I might have had some influence after all!
We had a great Christmas -
And it was even a white one!! Even though I was really sick of snow by then, I have to admit it was really cool to have an actual white Christmas. Not only were there about 2 feet on the ground but it started snowing those really huge, soft movie snowflakes right as we were getting the day started. Loads of fun!

The Christmas pajama picture

Some random shots of the kids and our neighborhood after the "Blizzard of '08". Steve had to go out and save our trampoline from all the weight piling up on it!




You can't really see it in this picture because it kept snowing and covered up the giant dirty lake in the road but our water pipe broke and made a giant mess. Luckily we have a friend in the ward who knew how to fix it pretty quick! I think there were 2 other houses in our little cluster that had the same thing happen. We later learned that the builder had used the wrong kind of pipes!


During this "blizzard" it would alternate between snowing and "icing". It was so strange. I tried to get a picture of it off the top of the fence but it didn't turn out very well. You could see all the layers - an inch of ice, 6 of snow, another inch of ice and so on. Bailey was having a great time trying to see how big of pieces she could pull up.


This is what happens when you mix one thirsty boy, some determination and a mom who didn't respond fast enough!

I wasn't going to post this picture because it looks as if I make Kaden sleep in a crib with no sheets but it was just so cute! I don't know how he got all the sheets ripped off of the mattress but I promise he has some in there somewhere!

Over Thanksgiving we went to a fun Christmas fair thing. Kaden really loved riding the little train -
Emily was the only kid who got to ride up front with the driver on the carriage rides -

And Bailey is loving anything that involves horses! She also felt pretty special that she got to ride ahead of Steve and I in the carriage with Nani and Matt's family.

Some random Thanksgiving shots...



And there you go.

AGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!! (breathe) AGGGGGGGGGG!!!!

I like the snow and all but if it doesn't stop soon I'm going to LOSE MY MIND!!!!! It all started last Sunday (not the one we had yesterday but the one OVER A WEEK AGO!) It has not stopped since. No church for two weeks in a row, no school or work for all of last week, no Christmas parties, no caroling, no YW activities or presidency meetings, no Christmas shopping, date nights, play dates - even the trash pick up has been cancelled until after Christmas! We are all going crazy. So crazy in fact that Steve left in the van this morning to go run around town and the neighbor next door was driving around and around the block this morning just so he could feel like he got out of his house. No chains or anything and 8" of snow on the roads. I'm honestly praying. Everyone in the neighborhood is out and about in their rain boots (why would anyone in Washington even own snow pants or boots?) and 3 layers of jeans and sweaters walking in circles and staring at the sky! Soon you'll find us all on the porches rocking back and forth while banging our heads on the side of the house. I know, this is nothing to what people in North Dakota or Michigan or somewhere deal with all the time but here you just don't expect to see snow for more than a day or two each year and even then it's an inch or two and it melts by lunch time. The novelty has worn off. And on top of that, it's SO cold that the snow won't stick together so we can't even make a snowman!!!!!!!!! Anyone within walking distance of my house - and you all know who you are - is in danger of having me land on your doorstep just for a change of scenery (or maybe I'll just send the rest of the family and I'll stay behind and hopefully get something cleaned up around here!) - especially since they just changed the weather forecast to extend this insanity at least through Christmas. So there you go. Just had to get that off my chest and now I feel better. I'll post pictures later.