Mini Vacation Day #2

  After leaving Lincoln City, Oregon, we headed up to Tillamook.
We visited the cheese factory..............we love Tillamook cheese and ice cream!
What luck; it was customer appreciation day so we got free mini cones with a choice of two of their newest flavors. After touring the factory and tasting several flavors of cheeses we treated ourselves to
ice cream cones.

 It's cheese, Gromit!!

 Aeva had The "Tillamook Mudslide"

 Chris got the Marionberrry Pie..............always a good choice.

 Myles made me laugh because of all the flavors he could choose.........it was vanilla.

It made me smile because it was kind of like having Ben on our trip with us :)

 Rhaevyn and I actually got the same flavor........................Caramel Heath Crunch.

 And Elsa had Oregon Strawberry.

 

 Now that our bellies were full of yummy ice cream it was time for our next destination......Seaside.
The rain was something else on our way there, but it stopped long enough for us to have a nice stroll along the beach.

The kids had a blast running from the tide and collecting seashells.

 

 By the time we were off the beach Elsa realized she had lost most of the shells she had found.
Poor thing did not realize she was dropping them one by one as she walked.
We almost made it on the news except they panned the camera in the opposite direction.
The storm we had was left over from a Typhoon.

 

By the time got back to our hotel from the beach the rain was really coming down. We hunkered down in our room and ate burritos that I had packed (with the fixings). Then the kids had some swim time. After showers it was time for hot cocoa and popcorn.  The hotel we stayed at had free movie rentals. The kids had their own room again with a tv and dvd player. So they got to watch their movie, and Chris got to watch the movie he picked out while I promptly fell asleep.

Day 1 of Our Mini Vacation

 The kids completed their first 12 weeks of school, so we took one week off
to let them have a brief break, and at the end of that week we took them to the
Oregon Coast for a few days.
Our fist day we drove to Newport, Oregon.
There we went to a lighthouse museum and to Cobble Beach.
It is so named because of the plethera of cobbles...............
lava that went into the ocean, got tumbled about and now cover the shoreline of this beach.
They are black round stones. It makes it very hard to walk along the beach.
There were tons of flies, and we learned that there was a better beach with another lighthouse to see
a bit farther south. Well we know for next time the place to go.

I took this pictures because I love the color perwinkle.

Who knew they were  actual little creatures?

 

 Caught some sea lions sun bathing.

 

 Myles found a caterpillar and couldn't pass him up.

 

After trying to quickly consume our picnic lunch while swatting away flies,

we drove down to the Newport Aquarium. Chris really wanted to see this place. We had a great time getting up close to the exhibits.

 

 

 

 

 This sea anemone was really neat. The kids and Chris enjoyed letting it give their
fingers a hug.

 The shark tunnel was very cool. Myles loved all the sharks he was able to spot.

 After spending the day in Newport we drove up to Lincoln City.
On our way there was stopped at The Sea Hag and had dinner.
They had the best clam chowder bowl.
The kids spent time in the pool and then had hot chocolate and popcorn
in their own room with their own tv watching Lego cartoons.

 

 

  All in all we had a pretty good day with beautiful weather.
We were ready to get some sleep and head out to Tillamook and Seaside the next day.

Baby

So, here is the most recent picture of our little one.
You can see she has her hand on her forehead.
And during the ultrasound when the doctor came in to have a look, she said "Wow, this baby has a lot of hair!" Then she pointed it out on the screen..............it was amazing!

Aaaarrrrgggghhhh! It's Pirate Day

Ahoy, me Hearties!
 Well, it was pirate day...............yesterday.

 

 After Batting down the hatches ( the kids got their school work done early), the wee lad and lassies got themselves attired in pirate paraphernalia.

We headed on over to Krispy Kreme donuts where they each got a special Krispy Kreme pirate eye patch, and a box of a dozen glazed donuts. 
Shiver me timbers!

Here they are showing off their booty............

Bibs Done :)

I started on the bibs last night and found that I had enough left over to try and make burp cloths. I also found one bib that I had cut out about two years ago. So, I took that and used some of the soft pink material I had from the baby blanket I made and got two more bibs from that.
I finshed up the bibs and cloths this morning in between my drop off and pick up time for Rhaevyn.
So happy to have them done, and I think they turned out nice. Love all the material the kids picked out.
It makes the bibs and cloths extra special.

Hello, hello

 We've been busy as usual............
I just had my 5th funeral as RS president. I should be a pro at doing funeral luncheons by the time I am released. The day after the funeral I gave a talk in church. I told the bishopric I should have some sort of "get of giving a talk" card.....................being RS President, doing a funeral luncheon, and being pregnant.
I'm busy trying to get all my ducks in a row with activities and more with my calling before the baby comes.
 Two weeks ago we had to replace some piping inside and out. Our water pressure had been slowly going down over the past couple of months. It got to where we could only run one thing at a time. No one could take a shower if the dishwasher was running or laundry was being done. We fixed half the problem, which was the pipe and shut off valve in the house. Then Chris had to fix the pipe out by the sidewalk. I'm happy to be able to now run the dishes, laundry, and the shower at the same time, but spending the money to fix it was no fun. Oh the joys of being a homeowner.
Three weeks ago we decided to start getting the house ready for fall...........
cleaning and putting away the table and chairs outside, washing windows, cleaning up the front porch area, and then sweeping that back patio. As I was cleaning out the vent areas in the back, this critter came scurrying out. I thought it was two spiders at first because the front coloring was darker than the back.
He was positively huge! And after that the littles decided cleaning wasn't so fun and wanted to go in.
We've had lots of spiders lately. I'm not sure if that is because the weather has still been so warm.
I for one am ready for that crisp and cool fall weather.

 Here is little Miss Elsa. She's modeling her new headband she picked out.
She is never without a headband. Her other one had gotten broke, so I let her pick out
a new one. I love watching her make a decision. She gathers four items and then says.......
"Oh, I just can't decide!" We had that problem yesterday while trying to pick out new underwear at the store.
And while we are on the subject of Miss Elsa.............
I cannot wait to see how she will be with her new baby sister. As of right now she is practically glued to my belly. She talks constantly to her baby sister, and I love it! When I come home from being gone anywhere she asks if "baby" was good for me while I was out. She gives lots of hugs and kisses to "baby" and then will lean her ear to my belly and say "uh huh, uh huh, mmm hmmm", and then tell me what it is baby is saying.
All the kids love feeling the baby move and kick. I love the smiles and giggles that ensue after they have their hand or cheek (which was pressed against my tummy) kicked.

 I found Miss Rhaevyn a pair of clip on earings.
I can't seem to talk anyone into getting their ears pierced around here.
She loves wearing clip on earnings, and she was thrilled that I found these..........now she has two pairs to choose from, and she's got Aeva wanting to borrow them.
Rhaevyn has started seminary, and she is loving it. I will say that 5:30 am comes around awfully fast and early. She has also joined the Youth Choir for Youth Conference. They will be traveling around to 5 different stakes to sing and get the youth excited about Youth Conference this next year. They will also be having an orchestra, and she's thinking about joining that. I love watching the person/YW she is becoming. She's had quite the metamorphasis lately in breaking out and doing new things like the choir.
Her violin teacher is moving. She has one week of lessons left. So, we are trying to find her a new teacher.
I'm bummed because we had such a good deal worked out with her teacher to pay for her lessons.

Oh well, Chris keeps telling me the Lord will provide, and I need to have faith that that will happen because...  

With God All Things Are Possible   (Matthew 19:26)

 Yesterday the children and I went on an errand to find a car seat and materail for bibs.
We didn't find a carseat, but we were successful in getting burp clothes and finding materail for bibs.
I let them pick out the material.................my only criteria was that the colors could not clash.
It was so fum watching them. They were so thrilled and excited! Myles was ecstatic when he finally found one that did not clash with the one he really liked. See if you can guess who picked out what.

 
Well, that is about all for now. The kids are looking forward to next week.
They've accomplished 12 weeks of school so far and are eagerly awaiting their week off.