Visitors

At the beginning of September my parents came and brought my second oldest niece Kamryn. They took her sister Kylie to Cincinnati, so it was her turn. We tried to keep busy while they were here, I know this is late and a lot of pictures, but I promise it is only a few compared to what I took.

We went to the Tillamook cheese factory and got yummy cheese and fresh ice cream in an even fresher waffle cone. Then we went to the beach and got seafood at Moe's and played in the sand.

Dad was our kite engineer, it was a little too windy for the kite, so he added some weight to help us get it up in the air. It looked only a little bit cheap.
Jacob liked flying in though.
Grandma helped Kamryn and Claire build a sand castle.

And ran from waves with kiddos.
The beach here is not warm, but it is beautiful.
Claire and Jacob were getting cold, so they spent the last 20 minutes like this.
We also went downtown to the PSU farmers market so my Dad could try Pine State biscuits (yum) and I also got the best huge soft gingersnaps ever.

The same day we went to the Saturday market on the waterfront for lunch.
And people watching. It is the best entertainment.
We also went to the rose test gardens.


Since it was a three day weekend we headed to Bend on Sunday night. Saturday Jared got up early and did some mountain biking while we enjoyed to hotel pool. Then we went to see Bend how my parents remembered it.
And to feed the ducks.
We also went up to the mountain in Bend for a summer sled dog ride. That girl standing there is a several time Iditarod racer who is legally blind. Those dogs were so loud and so excited.
While we were in Bend we got some good BBQ to eat and stopped at the family fun center for some fun.

Mom and I also found some time to take Kamryn shopping and we all went peach, pear, and apple picking and did a lot of fruit eating as well.

Thanks for coming family... can't wait for your next trip!

Beware ye land lubbers

Over a year ago (probably closer to 2 years ago) I got a pirate murder mystery online. We have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to do it and since September 19th is National Talk Like a Pirate Day we thought that doing it on that weekend would be best. Our friends were really great sports and did such a great job with their characters. My only regret is that we couldn't invite more people.

Meet some of the cast. One-eyed Wanda

Our Commodore and Governor.
Two of our pirate crew (I don't remember their character names at the moment)
We ate out of pie tins, drank out of jars. Back in the corner by the flag their is a treasure chest full of jewels and chocolate coins next to a barrel of homemade rootbeer.
We enjoyed giant turkey legs, rice and beans, tropical fruits, goldfish, bread pudding, and the rootbeer.
The Cap'n enjoying his turkey.
The poor Commodore was getting picked on... lots of tiny fruit swords in his lovely hair.
The Governor and his daughter.
Those bold enough to wear fishnets.
The whole cast.
We had a great time and several of us even solved the murder. Can't wait to order the next one.

Another first

Claire started dance class, so far she loves it.

First Day of Preschool

Kiddos had their first day of preschool on Monday. They are going three days a week now, they love it. I love it. It is amazing how much I can get done by myself in 2.5 hours.

Here is Jacob and teacher Tina.

Claire and Teacher Sherry.
At the school.
Their new backpacks (they love them).
I can't believe how much they are growing up and how fast they are growing up. One year until kindergarten... yikes!

Jacob's Testimony

It was fast and testimony meeting last Sunday, and Dani bore her testimony. I had kiddos try to pay attention (which they did for probably 25 seconds). We were told after church last Sunday that Jacob insisted to the Primary leaders that he had a talk, so they let him go up. He proceeded to give the following talk:

"I want to bear my testimony, but I left it at home." Getting close to the microphone, he concluded, loudly, with "I know the church is true."

Dani asked Jacob about it after church, with a smile, and Jacob said, very seriously, "It's not funny. I know the church is true!"

cousins

We don't get many chances to be with our cousins from the Streeter side... kiddos had a great time with their cousins. Here are some cute cousins warming up on the sidewalk.

Cousins are fun for swimming at the froggy pond with.
Cousins are fun for riding bikes with.

Cousins are fun for playing duck duck goose and freeze tag with.

This cute guy sure thought it was fun.

Cousins are fun for watching pretty sunsets with.

Cousins are fun for having baths with after all the other fun things.
We had lots of fun with our cousins... more pictures from our Cody trip to come.

Walters Reunion 2010

As always the Walters' Family Reunion did not disappoint. This year we stayed in two amazing and huge houses that shared one beautiful property near Bear Lake. We enjoyed so much time visiting, playing games, eating, four wheeling, boating, riding wave runners, hiking, eating more, swimming, building sand castles, watching movies, more eating, playing ultimate frisbee, etc...

We hiked to a beautiful little lake called Bloomington Lake with quite a few family members. It was a beautiful hike and a beautiful little lake with glaciers feeding right into it.
Four of the biggest tallest guys in the family went cliff jumping and then hopped on a log to swim across the lake, the log was pretty much submersed.
Jacob hung out with Papa to watch a lot of the action.
There was an awesome rope swing there that I had a lot of fun on. Lydia was so brave and surprised us all by walking right up and swinging right out without any hesitation, I barely had time to snap a picture.
Matt, and Jared, and one of Jared's cousins hiked out to jump off the cliffs too. If you can zoom in and look really close there is a tiny Jared in mid air.
We spent a day at the beach playing in the sand, boats, and wave runners. These handsome architects constructed this castle.
Andrew and Keith had to pause to admire the beauty. There were a couple impressive sand castles built by our family.
Jacob who is usually very nervous was very brave about the wave runners and really had a great time on his rides. Jared and I also sneaked away for a ride on the boat and I got to ski on some choppy water and we both got to try some wake surfing.
Claire liked the beach too much for those other things. She spent most of her time filling the mote of uncle Matt's sand castle and decorating it with sea shells.
I had to document Bethany's sweet husband Jake helping her in and out of the boat.
Jacob also really liked swimming in the water at the beach. He was a trooper considering he had spent the entire day before trying to recover from a wicked stomach flu and then the night after the beach relapsing with the stomach flu.
Claire got it that night too, so we spent the night in watching "All Dogs Go to Heaven" and "Ratitouille" because that was what was on the tv. Most everyone else went to the "Pickleview Playhouse" for a show that was apparently really hilarious. Unfortunately the stomach flu did not stop with our kids, rumor has it that over 40 of the 70ish people ended up with that nasty bug. It was a strong one, but we all really managed to have a lot of fun around it. Can't wait for 2012!

Big Accomplishment

So, when we found out that we had to patch Jacob's eye I thought I was in for the fight of my life, but it has been really easy. Jacob picks his choice of patch every morning and we put it on and take it off three hours later... he wears his glasses with no problem too. I can tell that it is harder for him to see when he is watching TV, reading, or drawing with a patch on though. Whenever Jacob has a successful day of patching (which has been every day except an unfortunate day of the stomach flu) he gets to put that patch on his poster. Each patch is a colorful scale of a 50 scaled dragon. Just a few days before his checkup appointment he finished his dragon. He was very excited to show his poster to his eye doctor.

Our check-up was today and we are going to just keep on with more of the same for 2 months. We are working on a snake poster now!