Our trip to the Oregon Coast

As Summer approached, we asked the kids what they wanted to do this summer.  They decided that they would like to go see the Oregon Coast!  Samuel has been studying about Oregon this year and most of the kids in his class had seen the ocean, so he wanted to see it.  Aaron was able to get half of a week off in June, so we loaded up and took off.

 Ivy was nice enough to let us come and stay Wednesday night at her house!  She made the kids sing for their supper.  Actually she didn't, but they did sing a song for her, "Fifty Nifty United States."  That is their favorite song right now.

Devil's Punch Bowl

Our first stop was the Devil's Punch Bowl.  We parked up top and ate lunch.  I'm not sure who ate more of Samuel's lunch, the very plump tame squirrels, or Samuel. I think there were upwards of 10 squirrels just waiting for us to drop food, or throw it to them in our case!

 Devil's Punch Bowl at low tide

 Ellen was a little bit nervous about sitting on the fence to get her picture taken.

 Calista. It was fun to hear everyone's excitement when they first saw the ocean!

 Samuel

 Heidi and Jacque

 After lunch we finally made it down to the beach.  The Devil's Punch Bowl

 is just around the rocks to the left.  We stayed at the beach for a good 3 hours.  By the end of our time, everyone had shed their jackets/sweatshirts.

 Finding seashells

 Aaron helped the kids get started on a sand castle.  Then the girls started on their own.  Although I think it morphed into make swimming pools.  It's easier to dig in the sand than to actually form something.

 Treasures

At one point Calista wrote in the sand and then quickly erased it, thinking it was bad.  I acted excited and said it was actually a really fun thing to do, and then a new type of creative playing began.

 Jacque wrote Sarah's name for her!

 We couldn't leave Heidi out!

Tillamook

After the ocean, we headed to Tillamook for the evening.  We got to stay in a Shiloh Inn hotel.  I hadn't noticed that we hadn't stayed at a hotel with all the kids before.  We were able to get two adjoining rooms - one with two queens and another with a king and hide-a-bed couch.  We brought a playpen for Heidi so it was perfect!

 

We don't have TV at home, so watching TV was another exciting part of the vacation!

 

 The hotel had a swimming pool!

Tillamook Air Museum

Our next adventure was the Tillamook Air Museum.  I think it took us a good 2 hours to get through it.  Aaron and Samuel probably could've stayed longer, but the girls were through.

 Tillamook Cheese Factory

And you can't go to Tillamook and NOT see the Tillamook Cheese Factory!  It was interesting to see the process.  There were tons of people there.  I was afraid that it was going to take us forever to get through it, but it is a self guided tour and we made it quick.  The kids weren't as interested in the process as they were the taste testing and Tillamook ice cream later.

 Squeaky cheese was the favorite.  We ended up buying a package of squeaky cheese and a small block of Cheddar Garlic Pepper cheese, or something like that.  That is Aaron's new favorite!

Small Town Folks

After leaving Tillamook we headed home.  That took us through Beaverton and Portland.  We were headed through at 2:00pm so we figured we'd be missing traffic.  I don't think that is possible though. It still took us 2 hours and 10 minutes to go 38 miles!  Boy were we thankful for AC and that we got to leave the mess and go home to our quiet non-crowded Eastern Oregon!

Multnomah Falls

We made one last quick stop at Multnomah Falls.  We walked up to the bridge but didn't make it up to the top.  A nice lady saw me taking pictures of the kids and offered to take our family picture!

 Jacque

 Calista

 Ellen insisted on making a funny face.

 Sarah

 Samuel

Heidi

These are just some random pictures of Heidi over the last few months.  Heidi is almost 10 months old now.  She's just beginning to crawl the normal way.  She's been slithering around army style for the past couple of months and can go anywhere she wants!  She loves her oatmeal and rice, but if you put anything else in with it, she won't eat it.  She's learned how to slide a finger in her mouth and "pop" food out that she doesn't like.  She LOVES to be tickled and have her tummy "guzzled." She is a very happy girl.  She knows that she's being left out when she's left on the floor and everyone else is up to the table.She can say da-da all day long and not get tired.  I have heard an occasional ma-ma.  If she gets tired of being ignored, she knows how to get your attention by letting out a very high squeal.  She might even be hitting a High D!  Maybe I should have named her Low D instead :

)

 We just got back from Heidi's first campout.  She did pretty well!

 Ellen loves to pose with Heidi.

 Just some cute pictures I took of her after church one Sunday.

 Her looks are changing

 Pictures outside.  She loves the outdoors, but not too sure about grass.

 Enjoying her first sucker!  Luckily we had wipes on hand for the cleanup!

Clogging

Last February, we started a clogging class as a family.  Ellen got too distracted by the big mirrors in the dance room, so she and Sarah started going to a friend's house during clogging practice.  Then work started picking up and Aaron couldn't continue so it was just the kids and I clogging.  But then my knee started having problems, so now it is just Samuel, Jacque and Calista.  They are getting pretty good at their songs.  If we would practice more, we would definitely improve faster (but we have just accepted a challenge to practice our new song twice a day, so I guess we'll be improving faster now).  We've learned a dance for "Stuck like glue" and we're learning "Cajun Moon."  They've done one performance at a Nursing Home and one parade.  There have been others that we couldn't make for one reason or another, but here's a couple pictures from their parade performance. 

 Our instructor, Calista, another lady, and Samuel (facing the camera)

You can kind of see Jacque in this picture.  She's the shortest one and is facing away from the camera.

I can't tell how well Jacque likes clogging but Calista is really loving it and Samuel likes it pretty well.  I told them I'd like them to try it for a year before they give up.  Hopefully they'll make it that long!

Field Day!

The Second to last day of school is always Field Day.  My kids look forward to this day all year long.  We don't do organized sports yet, but the kids all love to run.  After looking at these pictures, it's no wonder they love this day so much.  Jacque and Samuel ran and won each of the races that they competed in, and Calista got 4th and 3rd!  It's fun being able to go and watch them have fun!  They don't hand out any ribbons or anything, which Samuel was a little disappointed about, but I had him think about what all the other kids in his class would feel like.  Yes, some day they'll have to deal with those feelings, but I'm glad we're not that competitive in grade school yet.

They each competed against their own classmates, since we're a small school there is only one class per grade level.

 Samuel winning the 50 m

 Samuel winning the 100m

 Jacque winning the 100m

 Calista placed 4th in the 100m

 Samuel winning the 200m

 Jacque winning the 200m

 Calista getting 3rd place in the 400m

 Samuel winning the 400m.  He wasn't going to run this one, but I talked him into it.  Later I found out that he didn't want to run it so that his friend Riley could run and win it.  Oops!  He was trying to be a good friend and I ruined it.

Jacque winning the 400m

Ellen Turned 5!!

Ellen is officially 5! That means that she gets to go to school in the fall and she can hardly wait!  She already reads better than any of my other kids did at her age!!  We've started having her help read scriptures and its fun to see some words getting easier to sound out or have become sight words.

Aaron went on a walk with Aaron the other day and Aaron found out that Ellen has a dramatic side to her.  As they were walking along she would suddenly exclaim, "Wow Dad!!  Isn't that just beautiful" as she was looking at a run down house.  When Aaron looked, he had to ask what she was looking at.  She said, "That rose!"  Isn't it beautiful!!"  And there at the base of the house was a beautiful rose bush!  Aaron hadn't even seen it.  That happened several times on their walk.  Ellen knows how to find beautiful things!

 Playdough

 Books!  Winnie the Pooh and other Disney books!

 I love these little dolls. They are magic clip dolls.  They are the perfect size for little hands and so easy to change the dresses.  Even Sarah can do it by herself!

I made Ellen this play dress.  She got to wear it for her Preschool/Valentine's party and looked/felt like a TRUE princess!  You can't really tell, but I had braided her hair into a crown.  This picture was taken at the end of the day so you can't tell how pretty it was, but just take my word for it!   :)

Calista turned 7!!!

Things have been crazy the past 6 months, but here's a little start to catching up!

Calista turned 7 years old last January!!  I love these early morning pictures!  Some day they might regret having our early morning wake up tradition, but that day is not now!  They love it when we come in singing to them.  

Calista had a great 1st grade year and so excited that the teacher said she could go on to 2nd.  For some reason she seemed very nervous about whether or not she would be allowed to go on.  Calista loves reading, math, recess, jump roping, hot lunch and her new friends!  She also loves coloring, writing letters,  chap stick and fingernail polish.

Calista is starting a new book series entitled, "Ivy and Bean."  They are really cute books.  They kind of remind me of Junie B. Jones, but the girls are older.  Aaron sat down and read two or three one night, so they aren't very long, but he enjoyed them.

Calista is a wonderful helper with Heidi.  If Heidi is crying, she is the first to volunteer to help and she does a great job walking her around, getting her interested in other things, or feeding her.  It's fun to see her mothering skills develop.

 Chap stick and fingernail polish

 Colored pens!

 Aaron crocheted this bag for Calista!  That is something I haven't learned to do.  She was so excited.  She decided to have this be her Sunday bag.  Aaron was a little embarrassed to have her bring it to church, but she is very proud of it.

 I made Calista this blanket.  I've made blankets for Samuel, Jacque and Ellen, so it was Calista's turn!

Her WONDERFUL castle cake.  Poor cake kept falling over, but she really DID think it was wonderful!