Work Party, Aug 3, 2010

Kip's work reserved Rood Bridge Park in Hillsboro--complete with bounce-houses, balloon artists and food. We arrived later than we wanted to but had a great time and got to see some old friends. the kids enjoyed playing and eating.

 

Becca loves her Dad.

 

Anna loves her Mom.

 

 

Not the Florida Beach

On Sunday afternoon, the 30th of May, after attending church in Tillamook, we took the kids out to the beach. Anna thought she wanted to swim, but it was a very cold weekend and we tried to discourage her. We finally agreed to let her pull up her leggings and go wading. After playing in the sand for a while, she, William and Kip headed for the water. One step into the waves and she came running back to me on my log. It was COLD. I think she was expecting something more like what we found in Florida. Kip made a deal with the kids to see who could stay in the water the longest. William won and got really wet. Anna wasn't far behind. When they were sufficiently frozen, we trekked back to the beach house and gave them both a warm bath.

William's 7th Birthday

For William's 7th Birthday we rented a house in Pacific City and spent the weekend at the Oregon Coast. Grammy and Grandad came from Utah to enjoy the birthday with us. We drove to the coast Friday afternoon, the 28th of May, and after dropping off our stuff at the house, headed up the road to Roseanna's Cafe in Oceanside. The food was good, but the drive back on windy roads made me sick. I ended up falling victim to the flu for the weekend.


Saturday morning William begged to open his presents. We brought them all out and let him go to it. He got some fun stuff and really was thrilled.


Then, Kip and Grandad took the kids on a walk through the trees behind the beach houses. They loved playing in the trees and climbing them. I stayed home and felt miserable.


Later, the healthy members of the group all went to the pizza place in town. They had a fun lunch.


That evening I felt a little better, so I baked William's birthday cake and made his favorite dinner (stroganoff with the Real Simple recipe that is really very good). We ate almost all the food and cake and William had a really good birthday.

Springtime Family Pics

 

We took advantage of the sunshine after stake conference today to take some pictures of the kids outside. The girls were wearing their blue dresses from Aunt Wendy in Pakistan and they looked very cute. They tried to be cooperative for the pics, and a few of them turned out really nice.

 

We had to bribe Anna to wear this dress. She had a hard time with it because there is not any pink on it at all. With the promise of candy, she was won over. Come to think of it, I haven't carried through with that promise yet. We kept putting it off because she needed to eat healthy food first.

 

I was really glad she broke down and wore the blue dress. The girls looked super cute and they always get a lot of compliments when they wear matching outfits at church. Even if Becca's shoes are on the wrong feet and her hair is uncontrollable.

 

William took this picture. He does a good job with his pictures but he never thinks to warn people that he's about to take a picture of them. He just shoots when he wants, so we're not all ready.

Beaches

We spent a lot of time at the beach in Ft Lauderdale. The water was around 80 degrees and the air usually a little warmer. It was wonderful! We loved to float on our backs on the rolling waves. It was never very choppy where we were, so it was very pleasant just to lie back and let the water lift you up and drop you down. The kids learned to like their floaty rings - although Becca took until the last day to like Mr Turtle - and would float out with us. We loved to see the fishes and collect pretty little seashells and bits of broken coral. And lots of lots of sand ended up in our swimsuits.





This is where we washed off back at the house. It was a great thing to have!

Christmas in Utah - Children's Museums

We visited the Gateway Children's Museum with Kip's family on the 29th and the Treehouse in Ogden on the 2nd. The kids really liked both places.

Becca in the ball area.


We built an arch-just like at OMSI but smaller and easier to do.


We found this little Leopard crawling around.


Princess Anna found a knight loyal and true.

Grandma and Tasha's Visit - Zoo Lights

We waited until Friday night, the 28th of December, to visit the Zoo Lights because it wasn't supposed to rain as much then. It was very cold, but it didn't rain during the first part of our tour. We appreciated that.

We all enjoyed a ride on the zoo train.

And the lights really were very pretty.

Grandma was helpful and pushed Anna in our friend's stroller when their little boy didn't want to be in it.

And here's the family on the way out next to the "Bremen Town Musicians". Anna may be crying in this picture...

We really enjoyed having Grandma and Aunt Tasha with us. We hope they can come again!

Grandma and Tasha's Visit - the Children's Museum

The second day of their visit (December 27th), we took Tasha and Grandma to the Chrildren's Museum. Anna wasn't very thrilled with her penguin costume.

Kip, on the other hand, really got into the raccoon puppets.

Using our height and number advantage, we managed to build a complete foam block archway - which promptly fell down. But we heard from some other museum attendees that no one else had been able to do it at all, so we felt better.

And Grandma and William had fun building earthquake-proof block structures together.

Grandma and Tasha's Visit - at home

We were all excited to have Grandma and Aunt Tasha visit after Christmas. Anna was thrilled to get yet another pink dress AND a pink dress-up princess dress!

William was thrilled to show Grandma how much he loves playing the Game Cube games she sent him.

Everyone enjoyed playing Hullabaloo together.

And Kristin may someday forgive Grandma for taking her picture while super prego. Luckily, it only shows her from the front!

Christmas

We had a very merry Christmas. Here are the photo highlights.


William and Anna start the process of destruction.


William at work.


Anna with a few of her favorite new things.


Daddy showing the kids how to use their pull-poppers.