Quote

"I understand the concept of cooking and cleaning, but I don't see how it applies to me."

-a comment on facebook, taken from a fridge magnet

Fix it Friday

I love the weekly challenges over at iheartfaces but I am pretty new at contributing.  I love practicing so here is my go at Fix it Friday, where you are given a photo and edit it to your liking.

Before:

A Little Catch Up

I have some serious gaps in capturing our life in pictures lately, so I am going to write about a few things to get caught up.  I will use my Summer Bucket List to reference. 

Go on a hike- I wrote about this little adventure already.  We went on a great hike right by home.  The kids loved it and it was beautiful and ended with playing at a cool park on top of the mountain.

Go to the beach Did this for hood to coast, but I think I meant another trip to visit my sister and sight see around Astoria.  I guess this half counts because I did take the kids to stay there while we waited for the race to finish.  I did have a good visit with her, but we did not sight see.
Go on the boat 1 more time (before they drain the lake!) We took the kids out one last time, and had a great time. I love being on the lake at sunset, it is my favorite feeling, other than being in the temple.  Also went for our anniversary(see below)
Take kids swimming I actually got pictures of this when we went to a river during the heat wave.
Go to hot springs This is the last thing on my list.  My birthday is Saturday so we were planning to go then, just so I could finish my list.  Well, after researching a bit and seeing pictures online, I was very turned off by the nudity and hippies. This one is being re-evaluated.
Kids swim lessons (just got them signed up for the last session of the summer, that was close)As I said, this was so worth the time and effort.  The kids loved every second.
Get to a stopping point with playhouse Another half way done one.  Definitely more progress, but we still need to paint, finish deck, and build stairs. Siding and roofing are done and we bought a slide for it last week though.  I am indifferent for this to be totally completed at this point.  It'll happen some day.
Family picnic with my side Oh so fun!  We went to this very secluded PGE park outside of St. Helens on Labor Day.  We relaxed, ate, laughed and took canoe rides.  It was the PERFECT end to summer.  I am still hoping to get some pics from my sister's camera.  I didn't want to leave, it was so serene with beautiful scenery, water, temperatures, and family visiting.
Photograph a wedding I had a great day photographing a beautiful couple.  Oh, if I didn't have so many other things that take priority, I would do this all the time.  I need to add the pictures to my photo blog still, but I had a blast and I think things turned out well.
Celebrate anniversary 9 years!  Wow, we are old timers.  I woke up to flowers and a copy of Mockingjay.  Sweet boy.  For our hot date that night, I surprised Peter by taking him out on the boat.  After a beautiful ride around the lake at sunset, we were dropped off at the lakeside restaurant where we ate great food on the patio on the water.  So romantic.  The cool part was, this was how we spent our first date, to homecoming as little 16 year olds.  I can't believe that was 15 years ago!  I am so thankful for our life together.
Bike ride We did this at our family picnic.  The only thing was that my nephew really wanted to go so I stayed back so he could use my bike.  Oh well, I will still count it because we made a lot of effort to get all of our bikes there(we brought 2 cars) and it was a great success.

Family Reunion activities:
Skating Everyone had a blast.  This party was just for family so there weren't the usual amount of teenagers playing hockey. This led way for all the little kids to play more.  Eden was very fun to watch.  She was so into it as she chased the puck around determined to get a goal.  I had never seen her get into a sport like that before.  Now she does it all the time at soccer. 
Movie night in back yard We moved it inside to our basement, but nonetheless was a great party with a lot of Peter's family.  We set up one tv with Dr. Mario and the rest of us watched a movie on the big tv and ate lots of popcorn. 
OMSI Hmmm...I remember something about an elevator.  We went again last weekend when our visitors were here.
Hood to Coast So proud of Peter.  He really trained hard for the last 6 months or so.  He spent countless early mornings running up a mountain.  He was very dedicated and barely got sore after the race.  He enjoyed getting so fit and now he still works out at 5 every morning.  He and Aaron have added weight lifting to the routine now as well.     
Beach Oh my Tanner.  I still go back to that post and laugh. One thing I didn't write about that happened: When we went to the aquarium, we all walked in and Tanner kept walking along down the boardwalk (about 10 feet).  With all the people there that day, this could have been pretty scary.  A nice lady quickly stopped him and he insisted that she let him continue on.  She was trying to talk him out of it when we came and found him.  I didn't think much of it once it was over, but A few days later, Tanner recalled the story of how we lost him.  Apparently it was more traumatizing than I realized.  He couldn't believe I had let this happen!

Now that we are back to a more structured life, we are busy with school and soccer.  Eden made 6 or 7 goals in her last game!  Dallin was goalie and blocked every ball but one!

This list was so fun that it has inspired me to do something I have been thinking about doing for a long time.  I will post about it soon.

Kindergarten

We have had 2 kids in school for 2 weeks now!  Eden loves everything about Kindergarten.  On the first day of school I walked behind Eden and Dallin as they held hands, and I felt so sad that they are growing up so fast.   But I pushed it out of my mind and switched modes to see how exciting things are for my little girl.  She was so ready, and then some.  There are many kids in her class from church, it is awesome! 

Eden gets to ride the bus home, for the whole 2 blocks.  She loves that.  So do I, because I don't have to pack up the other kids to get her from the corner.  Every day when the bus doors open, I can hear yelling, "Bye Eden!" over and over, and she yells "Bye everyone!" back.  Then she bursts with excitement when she sees me and tells me what she can remember about her day.  She literally skips home because she is so happy.  She likes this grown up stuff.  I am torn with excitement for her and sadness for me. 

 When Eden saw this backpack, it called to her, and there was no other option. She is a big fan. 

I guess I can get used to a few morning hours with only 3 children at home. I am so glad that she is so happy and fully enjoying her life experiences. 

Jam Packed Fun

This last weekend, Stacie and Amber, 2 of Dallin's therapists from California came to visit.  These ladies worked closely with Dallin for pretty much the whole duration of our time there.  They know first hand how far he as come and deserve much of the credit for his success.   They were in our home so much, that they really became part of our family.  Everyone was so excited for them to come, and we sure did keep them busy in that whole day and half that we had with them. 

After they arrived on Friday night, we headed to Sherwood and stopped to eat at this Mexican restaurant that was so delish.  I was stuffed!  Dallin was quiet and well behaved for his friends.  He sat right by Amber and visited with her and Stacie the whole time. 

It was fun catching up.

Then we headed across the street to Safari Sam's.  They have a HUGE playland jungle gym that is big enough for everyone to enjoy.  And we sure did. 

Carter would get pretty nervous when he could see through to the ground, but he braved through it.

 Carter and Lily loved this tunnel and spent half the time crawling back and forth in it.

 

There is one obstacle course that is really hard.  You have to climb straight up if you ever want to get out.  Mr. Dallin couldn't get enough of if and personally took each and every one of us down to Tanner through it.  He encouraged us along the way.  Man it made me feel old.

 I was worn out after this.

Lily had a blast.  I have heard her laugh a lot, but she was making histerically happy sounds the whole time as she crawled through many places.  I loved that this place was so great for every single age, including us big kids.  I didn't get a clear picture of Dallin.  That is because he was so darn fast in there!  No one could keep up with that guy.  Many of us tried and even some other kids tried.  He was definitely the life of the party in there.  When we left, he said he wanted to come back for a whole day some time. 

After the workout, we decided to try their mini golf.  It is all painted in neon colors with black lights, so it is all psychedelic looking.  It was fun trying to photograph the lighting, although it was a challenge.

Tanner had more fun running around the place and exploring, than playing golf.

 Carter had more fun finding lost balls, than playing.

Around this time, I had lost Tanner for the 10th time that night.  I went looking for him only to find the guy at the concessions helping him put a straw in a cup of water.  Can you imagine such a bold little 4 year old ordering a glass of water by himself?

After using up every ounce of our energy, we went home and watched fell asleep to a movie.    We woke up the next morning, ate a huge breakfast, packed a lunch and took off for another day of fun.  First stop was Multnomah Falls.  These ladies had never been to Oregon, so I had to proudly show them our beautiful landmark. 

I wanted to hike some, but wasn't really planning to go to the top. Peter had different plans for us.  He encouraged us on to the point that we thought we might as well finish the whole mile of switchbacks.  We stopped for the kids enough that it wasn't too bad.  But what was really stressing me out was walking along cliff edges with 5 little kids.  Yikes!  Not fun for the Mama bear.

 It was so beautiful though.

 And we finally made it to to the top of the 620 foot fall.  Gorgeous.

 This is the 3rd tallest year round waterfall in the country.

 Just as we got back down to the bottom, it started pouring so we quickly ate with only the tailgate as cover.  This is true Oregon style.

 As is this wasn't enough to wear us out, our next stop was OMSI.  First we saw an Omnimax movie about the ocean.  Our older three kids really liked it, but Carter and Lily could not figure out reality.  Whenever a shark ate a fish, Carter started crying.  Well not not a real cry, but more of a freaked out disappointed cry that was hard not to laugh at.  Lily made me hold her facing me and held on to me for dear life for the first 10 minutes and then relaxed.   We played around in the exhibits for a while and then headed across the water into Portland. 

We HAD to stop at the Queen Bee store so the ladies could look at purses. Stacie found the cutest purse ever with little birds on it.

Then we decided to try the famousVoodoo Doughnuts.  Mmmm...Good things do come in pink boxes!  It is in a scary place in town, and it was pouring as we tried to find a place to park.  Finally a parking lot guy took pity on us with all our little kids and waved the fee for us so we could go get the deliciousness.  We found a line going half way down the block!  So we stood in the pouring rain for about 40 minutes with 5 grouchy littles and really earned our pastries.   We got an assortment with 18 doughnuts, took it home and proceeded to stuff ourselves with samplings of different kinds (and pizza too).  My favorite was the maple bacon, and the Oreo chocolate maple peanut butter one.  The Captain Crunch was was surprisingly good too.

Exhausted again, we watched (I fell asleep again)Toy Story 2 with the kids and went to bed.  So in less than 2 days, we took full advantage of our precious time with these wonderful women.  I love how they adore him and all of our kids.  Aside from Peter and I, these ladies know Dallin more than anyone in the world and know just how special he is.  It was such and honor to have them visit. 

3rd Person

Carter speaks in 3rd person most of the time.  It is so cute.  He will say something like "Carter is poopy!"  But lately he really gets me when he does something naughty, like spill a whole bottle of cough syrup on the floor for example.  He will do something and like that and then get a shocked look on his face and say "Carter did it!"  It is so funny, as if it wasn't him or something.  It is quite endearing and then I have a hard time being upset with him.

All about me...

Dallin brought this form home from school and filled it out all by himself.  It is a little hard to read so I will just type it up.

My favorite subject: reading

My favorite book: The Cat in the Hat

My family: Eden, Tanner, Carter, Lily

When I grow up I want to be: A construction worker

My favorite pet: Roxy(Grandma A's dog)

My favorite food: pizza

My home: It has a basement.

My favorite thing about me: My favorite thing about me is doing good things.

My special things: My playhouse

My birthday is: June 3rd

I am special because: my mommy loves me.

My favorite TV show: Pink Panther

My favorite thing to do is: My favorite thing to do is building the playhouse.

My favorite color: red

I would like to travel to: Six Flags

My favorite sport: Exercising

I love: My family

August Heat

 Back in August we had a heat wave, so we went with our friends to a fun little river with super cold water.  It was very hot, but we stayed nice and cool.  With this many kids to watch, can you blame us for putting so many flotation devices on them? This is a failed attempt at a kid picture.  After a picnic lunch we spent several hours playing. It was fun because there were little shallow pools that people made with the rocks so the kids could safely play.

 Oreo face

 Eden immediately started finding cool rocks. 

 Lily is such a little trooper.  She actually like the water too.

 Peter and Aaron took the big plunge off this old rickety log.  We didn't get a picture of Peter, so I hope Aaron doesn't mind.

I count this as swimming on my to do list (only one more to go).