February: Concerts, Cool Bug Art, Rock Museum, Julian's Birthday, Snow Hike, Seaside, OR

 February was a hodge hodge of events. Julian quit going to high school around February 4th because that was the start of 2nd Semester and since he is leaving for Japan his counselor told him he didn't need to show up for just a few weeks of 2nd Semester.  So we have been hanging out, eating lots of lunches out just to have an excuse to leave the house! He goes to bed around 5 AM and I wake him up about 1 PM. He is trying to adjust his body for Japanese sleep times. We had a few fun adventures while he was out of school and I'm glad I had these weeks with him before he left:)

Went to a concert downtown Portland in this beautiful church.

A walk along the water from with Liam and Melissa Ashby

Hyrum pulled out our old slide projector and we watched slides from his mission in Austria, it was really fun to see him as a young guy.

We went to OMSI and saw a really cool art installation made out of bugs and other creatures in nature. I loved it!

So many colors and sizes and shapes:)

I think Julian and Jacob thought it was interesting. I'm glad we could get these boys to hang out before Julian leaves.

The twins came home for the weekend to celebrate Julian's birthday. We had a  fun time at the Rice Museum seeing all the cool rock collections.

This rock reminded me of a certain President of the US (whom I despise!)

Korean dinner in Portland

Concert at the Schnitz with all the boys

Birthday dinner request: Salmon and Sweet Potatoes

This boy is now 16!!

Finally got his own phone, he was very excited about this

We lost power for about 5 hours...Hyrum made a delicious feast using our propane fueled hot plate!

We went to the DMV the day after his birthday so he could get his Drivers License!

A group of friends made plans to go snow shoeing up near Mt. Hood. Too bad the snow didn't get the message!  Not enough snow for snow shoeing but we still did the 7 mile hike around Trillium Lake and that was still lots of fun.

I hate hills!!

Being silly

It was a fantastically, amazingly beautiful day! Mt. Hood did not disappoint!!

Julian drove us out to Seaside, OR for the day. You can't resist a sunny day on the coast!

We took a nice walk along the beach...

Then spent some time playing "fascination" Julian won a game!

My Trip to Virginia

 Zach DeShetler just got home in January from a 6 month deployment to Africa. I went to Virginia to watch the boys so that Paige and Zach could take a little vacation, just the 2 of them, to reconnect and have a break after such a long deployment. I absolutely LOVE taking care of these boys and was super happy to help out. Unfortunately there was a LOT of puking. About every 2 days another boy started throwing up. I think I handled it quite well and we ended up still having a fun time together but man...why do kids always puke at night? You get absolutely NO sleep because they are throwing up every 30 minutes or so. Poor kids, I felt so bad for them but luckily each boy only threw up for about 10 hours and I'm VERY glad all 4 didn't throw up at the same time! Paige and Zach totally owe me a trip to Guam to visit when they move this summer 😆

Alistair with his cool glasses on, ready for a walk!

Having some fun after school

Chalk art zoo

Donuts for breakfast

Super fun train museum

"Dogman" in the movie theater

Graham reading a story to his brothers. It is rare all 4 of them are quietly sitting together, I had to get proof!

The last night I was there Paige, Zach and Remy and I played a game all together after the little boys went to bed. Paige and I both hate games that take an hour to explain all the rules but we relented because Remy is so cute and we can't resist his request for us to play:)

I got together with Christine Watkins (my brothers ex-wife) for some lunch at a Buffalo themed restaurant in Virginia before I flew home

The beef on weck was super yummy. It was fun to get a little taste of home as well as catch up with Christine and see how she is doing.