End of Another School Year

My boys finished 4th grade and Julian finished his last year of preschool.  Townsend and Emerson both exceeded the average test scores for State testing in both Reading and Math, which I was super proud of them for.  It was really sad to say goodbye to Calvary Lutheran Preschool, Julian had a fantastic 2 years with them.

Julian, with some of his class, performing for the graduation ceremony.  When the teachers passed them their certificates they also told the audience what the child wanted to be when they grew up.  Julian was the only boy that said he wants to be "a Daddy." Everyone thought that was pretty cute:)

Julian with his teacher, Miss Christie

Julian with his other teacher, Miss Kimberly

Townsend with Ms. Marshall on the last day of school

Emerson with Mrs. Portinga on the last day of school...Emerson really didn't want his picture taken!

The twins participated in their very first piano recital.  This is their teacher, Becky Baker, with her daughter.  We only got video of the twins playing, I wish I would have taken a few pictures!

A Visit from Grandma and Grandpa

My parents finished their church mission up in Bremerton, WA the first part of June.  On their way to visit family in Arizona they stopped for a few days to visit us here in Oregon.  It was so wonderful having my parents only 3 hours away the last 2 years and I know I will miss being able to drive up and visit them whenever I want.  They live in Ohio now and we will probably only be able to get together once a year from now on.

The twins were still in school during my parents visit so Julian and I got to show them around a bit.  We went to the Portland Temple visitors center.

Julian playing in the reflection pool outside the temple.

Julian and I outside the temple.

I love this picture of Julian and Grandpa going for a walk.

Another beautiful day in Oregon!  I drove my parents out to the Tillamook cheese factory.

Grandma and Julian at the cheese factory

We took a trip out to Cannon Beach.  Love the view of Haystack Rock in the background.

I hadn't brought Julian's swimsuit so I just rolled up his pants and let him wade around a bit in the water.

He got really wet and was pretty cold so this is how he walked back to the car.  I love that bum!

Thanks for taking the time to visit us Mom and Dad.  We love and miss you very much!!!

Hike to Mirror Lake

Back in May Hyrum took the twins and their friend Grant for a hike up to Mirror Lake.  It was a beautiful day and I believe everyone had a good time.  I was back home with Julian who had been invited to a birthday party that day so we didn't go on the hike.

Townsend, Grant and Emerson

Throwing rocks in the lake

The boys had a snowball fight at the top.  Grant made a "snowball stick."  There were patches of snow left on the mountain.  You can see Mt. Hood in the background.  I'm so glad Hyrum has the desire to take these boys out into nature for them to experience.  I'm not a huge fan of hiking myself so I'm really glad I married an outdoorsman:)

Memorial Day Weekend

This past Memorial Day weekend we got to spend time with two of our most favorite families, the Layton's and the Christensen's.  The Christensen's we have known since 2005 when we moved to Tacoma, WA for Hyrum's residency.  Kari and Aaron were in our ward and we became really good friends.  I don't know how I could have survived residency without such a good friend.  The Layton's we met while living in Germany.  Miles and Missy are super fun to hang out with.  The Layton's were stationed at Ft. Lewis (in Washington) this last year and will soon be moving to Georgia (boo!).  I decided it was now or never to hang out with them and so I organized a camping trip.  I was able to reserve 3 camp sites near Ocean Shores, WA, all right next to each other so we could hang out for a few days.  It just so happens that Kari Christensen and Miles Layton are 2nd cousins (or something like that) so that was fun for them to catch up and chat about their families.

I just love both of these families so much.  My kids had so much fun (13 kids between the 3 families)!  It was a great weekend and only rained Sunday morning but cleared up enough for us to have a great campfire dinner by Sunday evening.  Lot's of fun at the beach, adults only evening campfire chatting once the kids were in bed, yummy food shared around between all the families, 13 kids packed into our tent trailer to watch movies while it poured rain outside, games of 'capture the flag' and playing kickball on the beach...good memories all around.

Kite flying is awesome on the coast...it's ALWAYS windy:)

The boys playing in the sand dunes.  The kids had so much fun playing 'capture the flag' in the dunes.  Plenty of grass and steep dunes to sneak around on:)

Kick ball on the beach!

Paige Layton found this awesomely huge crab on the beach. 

Townsend and Maggie Christensen on their way back to the campsite.  I have pictures of these two together when they were just 2 years old:)  Man, time flies by so quickly!

It wasn't really that warm so Julian was the only one of my kids that wanted to get in the water.  He found this "puddle" and played in it for hours.  It was actually pretty warm water in this puddle.  "Dad, take my picture while I jump!!!"

Emerson and Max Christensen plotting their next move during 'capture the flag'

Our campsite.  It was a great little place for all the kids to gather and watch a few movies on the iPad during the rain

Townsend and Max Christensen roasting weenies over the campfire

Emerson, Emi Layton and Townsend playing 'apples to apples'

Not the best picture but just to give you an idea, this is only 10 of the 13 kids we had with us.  They were all around the same ages so it was lots of fun for everyone!

Some Pre-Summer Fun

The twins are Webelos now in scouts and they were able to attend an afternoon at one of the camps.  I guess it was "medieval" themed because here is Emerson lugging an enormous 'sword' across a field...

...And this is Townsend (red jacket) 'jousting'

Julian enjoying the first corn on the cob of the season!

One day, a few weeks ago, Emerson woke up and said he didn't feel well.  I'm either the worst parent or the best parent ever because after looking at the weather and realizing it was going to be 75 degrees at the beach I let him (and Townsend) stay home from school...and then I took them to the beach:)

The weather was so warm, all the boys got in the water to play

Emerson worked really hard and dug a giant pit

Townsend showing off his hand stand.  The sunburns were worth it!  It's not every day it's sunny and warm at the beach here in Oregon and you have to take advantage of it when it comes:)

Julian's preschool took a field trip to a local berry farm.  Each of the kids got to plant and bring home their own sunflower

Julian's favorite part of the day was feeding the chickens and goats:)

A Wickedly Fun Night

On April 25th I flew to Boise, Idaho to meet up with my sister and niece to see the musical "Wicked."  I have wanted to see this show for so many years but have never gotten the chance.  When Kristen told me she bought Mara tickets for Christmas I sort of invited myself to join them and they were kind enough to let me tag along:)

Dinner at Cafe Rio...always yummy

For some reason the weenie mobile was parked in front of our hotel, so we had to get a photo.

I was so excited to finally get to see this show!

The show was fantastic, great music, great story...loved it.  We got back to the hotel pretty late and ended up going to bed around 11:30PM.  Around 1:30 AM we were woken up by the hotel fire alarm blasting.  Luckily we were only standing around outside in our pajamas for about 10 minutes.  I mostly felt bad for all the little kids I saw in their bare feet and pj's looking tired and confused.

I flew back to Portland on Saturday afternoon.  It was a very quick but a very fun trip.  Thanks Kristen and Mara Porter for letting me hang out;)

Happy Easter

Easter has come and gone but I feel like I should do a quick post about our activities.  The best part about Easter is watching my boys collect eggs on the Easter egg hunt.  Julian was especially excited and would get so happy whenever he found another egg.  We had fun as a family and fun hanging out with friends. 

Decorating our Easter tree with hanging eggs.  I love how colorful it looks when we are done

Another shot of our Easter tree

I'm not a big holiday decorator but I do like my litter Easter bunny family I bought in Germany:)

I also set up a bunny with some German Easter eggs in our window.

On the Saturday before Easter a local mineral museum hosted a Easter egg hunt.  You had to find 4 different colored eggs in and around the museum and then you could trade the eggs in for a "Thunder Egg"  This is Julian showing off his Thunder egg.  It looks like a plain rock on the outside but once you cut it open it has crystals inside.

The museum employee cutting open one of our Thunder eggs.

Emerson making a silly face but you can see the inside of the rock how crystals have formed to make a pretty design.

We hosted the Easter egg hunt this year in our backyard.  Katrina Doxey and her family have been doing Easter egg hunts with these same families for the last 17 years.  This was the group shot for this year.  There were at least 200 eggs hidden around our yard, I think they all had fun finding them.

Emerson gathering eggs

Townsend and Julian comparing their loot

Each of the kids got to find 1 golden egg.  After the hunt was over we made them stand in a circle and all open their golden eggs at the same time.  They were filled with money, from $1 to $20 and you didn't know what you were going to get.  They loved this!!

On Easter Sunday we invited our friends the Holt's over for dinner.  Hannah made this super cute lamb cake:)