A Visit to Washington

I am super lucky to have a good friend just 3 hours away.  When Hyrum was in residency at Fort Lewis in Washington I was pretty much a single mom.  If it wasn't for Kari Christensen I think I would have gone crazy.  She was always so willing to go to the zoo, hang out at the house and let the kids be crazy or just talk over some lunch.  She gave me some much needed adult conversation when all I had at home were two crazy 18 month old boys.  I'm sure we will be heading up to Washington often to play with our friends, the Christensens.

Bonus:  My parents are on a mission in Washington right now, just 45 minutes from Kari's house so it was fun to see them too.  I love that my boys get to have Grandparents close by for a few years.

 Maggie having fun at the pool.

 The boys trying to splash Maggie

 Kids playing on a sculpture at the zoo.

 The shark tank is always a hit:)

 Emerson in the shark jaws!

 Maggie, Emerson, Max, Tessa and Townsend (and that's just half of Kari's kids!)

 Kari pushing little Eli and baby Jonah on the swing (the rest of her great kiddos.  Yeah, I know, she doesn't look like she has had 5 kids!)

 My parents apartment complex has a swimming pool...very cool!

Julian helped Grandma make chocolate chip cookies.

Life in Oregon

Moving to Oregon in July was such a great idea!  The sun has been shining since we got here and we have only seen rain on two occasions, both at night.  I hear from people that I need to enjoy this weather while I can because, come October, it's a whole different story.  I'll take what I can get.  We have had a lot of fun the last few months exploring our new surroundings.  Here are a few of the things we have been up to:

A day trip to Canon Beach.  This beach is just about an hour from our house.  It's not really a, "jump in the water and swim" kind of beach, it's more of a, "play in the sand and waves" sort of beach.  Too cold, much too cold.

Julian and I in front of the famous Haystack Rock

Berry Pickin'!!!!!  So far this summer we have picked about 20 lbs. of blueberries, love it!

Our city, Hillsboro, had a summer celebration and Julian joined in and painted some of the mural.

Hyrum started his new job.  This is what greets me when I walk into his clinic...it makes me smile:)

My niece, Ellen, cut my hair.  It only took Hyrum a few days to notice I chopped 8 inches from my hair!

Hiking on Sauvie Island.  Can you tell this trail was NOT very stroller friendly?  Hyrum pushed him for 3 1/2 miles through brush like this, what a trooper!

At the end of the hike we came to this gorgeous beach, so I guess it was worth it in the end:)

One day I took Julian for a ride on the metro.  It wasn't exactly like the trains he was used to in Germany but he was still pretty happy with the ride.

The metro took us right to the Portland Children's Museum where he had lots of fun with the shopping area and, of course, the train table:)

We are having a good time exploring our new surroundings.  It is so hard to make friends and so I have been doing all this exploring on my own but one of these days I'm sure I'll have a friend I can call on to do fun things with...one of these days.

Scout Camp

This summer the boys had the chance to attend Cub Scout day camp for the first time.  They had so much fun and can't wait until next summer for another camp.  Lucky for us the camp is located just about a mile away so it was easy to walk to each morning.  They were at camp from 8:00 to 3:00 each day for a week.  The twins got to meet a lot of the boys in their church classes as well as boys they would get to know in their new school.  There was a medieval theme for day camp this year so all the troops had names like the "Archers" and the "Blacksmiths."  They got to play fun medieval games like fighting dragons or storming the castle.  Overall it was a fabulous experience and they loved each day.

 Townsend getting ready to shoot a BB gun for the first time!

 Emerson takes aim with his BB gun

 The boys sitting with their group, troop 520 or "The Merry Men"

 Townsend painting his coat of arms

Emerson takes aim with his bow and arrow.  He got a bullseye for archery and BB gun!

The Long Drive

I flew from Portland to Salt Lake  on July 1st.  I got to hang out with Oma for another few days and then the boys and I packed up our Hyundai Elantra and hit the road.  It turns out, three kids in the back seat of a car tend to fight a lot and get on each others nerves during long road trips and I was wishing I had my van to drive.  But, I was determined to have fun on my long trip to Oregon so our first stop was Lewiston Utah for some 4th of July fun with my friend Kari Christensen and her family.

Lewiston 4th of July parade with Maggie Christensen.  They sure throw a lot of salt water taffy at this parade, the boys each got a full bag!

How cool is this for a swimming pool idea?  Blow up the river raft, add water and let sit in the hot Utah sun for a few hours...the kids all loved it!

We can't visit with Kari's parents without a trip to the baby cows.  Kari's dad owns a dairy farm and the cows are always a big hit.

We also can't miss the chance to go to the Lewiston ice cream shop "home of the Fat Boy" ice cream sandwich:)

Julian was just in heaven riding around on the ATV with Kari's brother in law Jensen.

What's the 4th of July without sparklers?

I love this one of Emerson...what a crazy kid.

We left Lewiston on the 5th of July and headed to Driggs, Idaho.  We visited Driggs for two reasons.  One, to see my sister Kristen and her family and the other was to see Hyrum's fathers gravestone.  I loved that my kids got to have so much fun with their Porter cousins for a few days.  We went swimming and jumped on the trampoline and played games...I think the boys really had fun!

Playing with Porter cousins on the trampoline

A visit to Opa.  I'm so happy the twins are old enough to remember Opa a little bit.  The cemetery in Driggs, where Opa is buried, has quite a few Durtschi family members in it.  We played a game called "find your name"  All my boys have Durtschi ancestor names for their middle names and we were able to find all 3 names in this cemetery.

We left Driggs, Idaho on July 8th and headed for Boise, Idaho.  We stayed a few nights with some good friends we knew during Med School days, Krystal and Dan Knorpp.  They had chickens to play with, a sandbox to dig in, art supplies to create crazy things and of course, fun kids to play with:)

Townsend playing with one of the chickens.

Emerson and Sophie using their creativity

All the crazy little monkeys playing at an indoor jungle gym

The boys helped Marly turn the sand box into a wading pool.

We had so much fun visiting with family and friends on our way up to Oregon.  We left Boise on July 10th for one final 6 hours in the car to make it to Portland.  We made it safe and sound.  Hyrum had worked really hard to get the house all set up for me and the boys so when we got home all the beds were made and ready to fall into.  Boy, I sure needed a good rest after a crazy week of traveling!

Back in the USA

We have had a crazy summer this year.  We flew from Germany to Salt Lake City, Utah on June 16th.  Hyrum and I drove to Mesa, Arizona (leaving the boys with Oma) on June 20th for my sister's wedding.  We drove back up to Utah on June 24th and stayed with Oma for a few nights.  We then drove to Portland Oregon on June 26th (leaving our boys once again with Oma).  Hyrum and I spent a few days at our new home painting some rooms and getting a shed built in our yard.  Our household goods arrived in Portland on June 30th.  I helped Hyrum unpack and set the house up for a few days and then I flew to Salt Lake City on July 1st.  After spending a few more days with Oma the boys and I  packed up our car and started our drive up to Portland.

Like I said, it was a crazy summer.  Lots of traveling and lots of visiting with friends and family.

Emerson and Townsend at the planetarium in Salt Lake City

Boys playing in the fountain on Temple Square

Paige and our friend Sarah at Paige's bachelorette party

Zach and Paige coming out of the Mesa Arizona Temple.  Could they look any happier?  One cool bit of info: My mom's parents (my grandparents) and my Mom and Dad were all sealed in the Mesa Temple.  Out of all the 8 children my parents had Paige is the only one that decided to keep the tradition and get sealed in the Mesa Temple.  Pretty cool:)

All seven sisters together.  We are all so different and we all have a bit of crazy in us but we love each other very much.  By the way, Paige is wearing really high heels...she isn't THAT much taller than the rest of us!

I took this photo from the car while Hyrum and I drove up to Portland.  Welcome to the Northwest.  Cloudy with a chance of rain, but green and beautiful none the less.

Painting the bonus room.  This picture isn't really great but the room was really yellow and we changed it to a more sage color.

Hyrum with his nephews, Sam and Cooper, working hard on the shed.

Moving day.  All our goods arrived safe and sound.  We had 13 of those huge wooden crates filled with stuff.  Needless to say we had a lot of unpacking to do!