Camping

We had our first Oregon camping adventure this weekend and it was a blast. The rest of the family got up to the campground on Thursday but we had to head out on Friday, after Christian got home from work. Of course the kids fell asleep on the drive.

They were pretty hyper once we got to the campsite and stayed up late since they were so rested!  

Lucky for them there was a park right next to us and they could play like crazy.

We stayed up pretty late hanging around the campfire and Anna did not want to get up the next morning! Seriously, she slept in until around 9.

Christian and Dave snuck out of camp really early and went to catch some crawdads in a nearby river. Apparently they are pretty easy to catch. Here is their haul after it was cooked and piled on the plate. They look like mini-lobsters and tasted mild like shrimp.

We spent the rest of the day playing at the campground, enjoying the company and good food. My Mom, Stepdad John, sister Emily and brother-in-law Dave were there, as well as Dave's parents, Mary and Gary. Dave grew up a half an hour down the road and his Grandmother was able to come up and spend the day with us on Saturday. We lucked out because they all brought really yummy food and fun games to play.

We packed up Saturday evening and headed home to the utter horror of our smoky smelling kids who wanted to stay and camp forever. Good thing we have another one planned for next weekend with our ward at church!

Getting Settled

We started our move to Oregon over a month ago and sadly had our camera packed the entire time! We weren't able to take pictures with the family members we stayed with or the beautiful scenery along the way. So here is a quick recap of the trip sans pictures. We packed our Pod with all of our belongings and sent it on its way on July 2nd. As the truck drove away, Jack told us how sad it was that we were sending all of our stuff to the dump! Not even sure how he knows about the dump, but lucky for us the Pod was truly on its way to Oregon. We stayed with family in Salt Lake and Saratoga Springs for the rest of the week, which was wonderful. On Friday afternoon, the kids and I picked up Christian at work, and we started our long drive. We figured the kids would go to sleep since it was evening but they were too excited and stayed awake all the way to Boise, where we stayed the night. By Saturday afternoon we arrived in Vancouver, where my parents live. For the next three weeks we looked for a home to rent and played with family. We drove out to Tillamook, went to the coast, and also went down to visit Em and Dave in Monmouth. Christian started work on July 18th and has really enjoyed it, minus the traffic jams and long commutes when we were still in Vancouver. Finally on Tuesday we were able to move into a little house that we found.

It is a cute little cottage built back in 1930.  It's located in the old historic part of town which is fun, and is also within walking distance of the library and a few parks. I've always wanted to live in an old house with some character, and this house certainly has some. Here is a couple of pictures from rooms we have finished unpacking:

I fell in love with this kitchen. I love the cabinets and the galley style counter tops. It is kind of fun cooking in a kitchen that wasn't built for modern appliances! The fridge is through the doorway on the right which is actually a side entry-way. While unpacking, we found two drawers lined with metal which would have been used for flour and sugar. I think they're wonderful because they are old and I love old things, but we haven't been able to figure out what to put in them since they are a little too old for our flour and sugar.

In our last home, the kids had to use the living room as their playroom. They lucked out when we found this house because we were able to give them a room just for their toys. They love it!  It's the first room we finished. Getting them in there with their toys made it much easier to unpack.

Now that we found the camera and when we finish packing, we will post more pictures soon.

The Oregon Trail

 Our little family is hitting the Oregon Trail for real in a couple of weeks. Christian received a job offer near Portland and so we are packing up and getting ready to move. It is going to be hard to leave friends and family here in Utah but we are looking forward to new adventures and opportunities too.

This game was the best. Christian and I both remember wasting a lot of time playing it in elementary school. The version we played looked a lot like the one above. Really old school graphics and programming. Hopefully we won't have any broken bones or dysentery on the drive.

Jack and Anna

When we posted pictures from our trip to Rexburg we found a bunch of pictures that Jack had taken with the camera. Since we had some new pictures, we figured we"d do a kid-centric post and give an update about the rascals in our house.

Jack has fallen in love with Star Wars. It was amazing how quickly it happened really. He got a light saber for Christmas and wasn't sure what to do with it, so we showed him a clip from Star Wars. It was over at that point. It is all he talks about and all he thinks about. His first question for everyone he sees, including strangers at the store, is if they have seen Star Wars. Some days he wants to be a Jedi and some days he wants to be on the Dark Side. Here is an example of his indecision:

Jedi Face

Darth Face

He and Anna enjoy each other about half the day. The other half they are pestering each other. We hear that is normal. They love bath time and will spend hours in there if we let them. We figured out a fool-proof trick to get them out happily- heated towels! Just pop them in the dryer for a few minutes before the end of the bath and they are excited to get out. No more bath time battles!

Anna is definitely two years old. Sometimes she seems older and I have to remind myself that she is only two. She has some favorite angry phrases that she uses when she's upset. Right now, when I ask her to do something she doesn't' want to do,  she yells, "I WON"T!"  For a while she would just yell "EVER!" which didn't make a lot of sense, until we realized she was quoting a movie. It was hard not to smile with that one cause it was so random. She is a real sweet heart though. She loves to act like a cat or dog and will carry on conversations in meows and woofs. She loves to draw and has colored on lots of things, including on the TV with a pencil.

She is our little bag lady and will fill any bag she can find with random toys so she can carry them around the house. When we lose things, we just look in Anna's bags.

Here are some pictures that Jack took on our camera:

Sibling self portrait

Anna asking, "Who made this mess?!" (not really but I wish she would!)

And finally, the view from the kid's window

Rexburg and the Dunes

Last weekend we drove up to Rexburg to visit Mikie and Li-Sha. The weather was gorgeous and we had a lot of fun playing out at the sand dunes.Christian and Mikie threw a frisbee around and had jumping contests. Li-Sha and I played with the kids in the sand. We were all pretty covered in sand when we left. Luckily our hotel had a pool (which was unheated! seriously who has an unheated indoor pool?!) and we played in that when we got back.

Later that night we went to a park and played. They had a cool wooden carousel in the park which we rode on. The pics of the kids were blurry but we got a good one of Mikie and Li-Sha. Hope we get to see them soon!

Birthday Morning

Jack turned 4 yesterday, and he woke up to some fun birthday morning surprises:

Lots of balloons in his room

 A new Yoda t-shirt

And some rainbow pancakes

Since we celebrated Jack's birthday last month we didn't have a party yesterday, but we tried to make it fun anyway. After his birthday breakfast we spent the day visiting some friends and playing at Kangaroo Zoo. Hopefully Jack enjoyed his birthday, because today he had his 4 year old doctor visit and got two shots. What a lame way to acknowledge a birthday! Next year I think I will space it out so that he doesn't feel like he is being punished for turning a year older.

Moab!

Some pictures from my trip this last weekend to Moab. I went with a group of friends from work, we rode Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and had a blast. First ride was Poison Spider Mesa. The trail climbed to the top of a mesa, around the top, and then back down the other side.

Coming down the other side we took a trail called the Portal Trail. It was not for those with a fear of heights, you were basically on the side of a cliff staring at a 200+ foot drop. There were a couple of sections that were impossible to bike. Evidently some people have tried, and failed, so they posted signs on the sketchy parts.

On Saturday we rode Slickrock, which was a blast, and had a much lower risk of death. Still, there were some crashes...

 and sunburns

Sunday we rode Porcupine Rim, which was my favorite ride. It started with a 3 mile uphill, then turned into 11 miles of rocky downhill. We did ride by a rider that had crashed pretty bad, and we got to see the Life Flight helicopter from Grand Junction land and fly him out. We were all a bit more careful after that.