Bryan's Coast Trip: Day 2- May 25

Monday morning it was off to Cape Meares

Complete with tour of the lighthouse

(if you double click you can see that's actually us in the lighthouse)

A bit of a tight squeeze "The Octopus Tree"

Then it was on to the Tilamook Cheese Factory.

You knew you were in dairy country as soon as you stepped out of the car!

I was excited to see the working cheese factory, but sadly we forgot it was a holiday, so we didn't get to see people working there, but we did get some awesome cheese samples

AND yummy ice cream!!!

Then, it was back to Pacific City to hike the sand dunes a few times.

It was a tough trek up and an awesome out of control run down :D

Samantha's in the striped orange shirt on the left with Elise sitting down, then Ethan and Brad just above them.

Very FULL and very fun day!!

Bryan's Coast Trip Day 1- May 24

Our coast trip did not start out so smoothly. On our way Ethan started to not feel good, but luckily we were by a gas station when the inevitable happened so that we could buy supplies to clean up Ethan's initiation of the new van. It is truly "ours" now.

We arrived around supper time and the kids set up in their new digs

Elise and Benji enjoyed a fun run down to the beach

The kids got to work immediately digging a pit for us to build a fire in
For me it was too cold. But, this crew was DETERMINED to get a fire going... and they did!!
The beach house was awesome.. it was right on the beach... as you can see.

3-2-1 Blast-off!! May 16

After taking the "short cut" to Prineville, which ended up taking 2 hours instead of an hour, we finally arrived at the resevoir for the "Star Party." They had a few solar telescopes to look in that were pretty cool, but we had missed a couple of the presentations we had hoped to see, since we were so late :-( We had to wait around awhile for the rocket building event, so the kids played around in the resevoir for awhile.

Then came the rocket building! The program was put on by a guy from NASA, so that was pretty cool.

I love Abby's goofy face in this picture

Building the rocket and LOTS of tape

TADA!

Now it's time to test out the rockets...

This was seriously SO fun! I want to make one of these at home! We stayed for quite a while watching all the kids launch their rockets. So fun!



We didn't stay for the actual "Star Party" since it would have had us out really late. We opted instead to go to the "Tastee Treet". Everytime we have driven through Prineville I have wanted to stop here and grab a bite to eat. It was the cutest diner run by high school kids... just what I expected. So fun!

The food wasn't bad either :-)

Mother's Day Tea- May 9

Abby's kindergarten class put on a "Mother's Day Tea" and it was really cute! The kids had made little stories and art work for their moms. The children sang a few songs, had refreshments and were reallly all just in heaven having their mothers with them. It is so fun to see them so thrilled to have you there and show off just a little :D

For Mother's day I got some cards from the kids, a garden hat, a new outfit, didnt' have to worry about dinner and I got my one wish: to watch a Red Sox game from start to finish without interuption (for the most part). The Sox even put up a win for me against Tampa Bay. A very relaxing mother's day.

Portland Temple Trip- April 24

After our trip to the tulip farm we went to our "Residence Inn" for the night. It was THE coolest hotel EVER!! We can't wait to go back. It had a loft with it's own bathroom and TV upstairs! We all loved it!

Trader Joe's was just down the street, so we got some yummy eats and just chilled out.On Saturday, April 24th we met with the other ward members at the temple. It was SO beautiful. The grounds were absolutely amazing!

Samantha was able to perform baptisms for 10 members of our family and Brad and I were also able to do family work, which made the day even more special.

Thanks to the Primary workers and volunteers, we were able to attend the temple together while they watched the children at the nearby meeting house.
Here are the primary children that were able to make it.

It was a really nice day to be able to attend the temple together and have so many in our ward family there with us.

So much to catch up on...

I've got a LOT to catch up on. This going to bed early to get up early has really been cramping my style. We've also been busy on weekends, so I haven't had chance to do much then either. I've got to get caught up this week! Here we go.....

Bear Crawlin' Up the Butte

Special thanks to mom, Karl, Jessica and Brittany for sponsoring me!!