Belated Thanks to Dani!

Last May, Dani gave me a future gift of tickets to the BYU Oklahoma game that was going to be played in Dallas. At the time, we thought we would probably be moving, but had no idea when. As the summer wore on, though it was in the back of my mind, I really didn't think I'd actually go.

We moved to Portland 3 weeks prior to the game, and with unpacking, and not having plane tickets, I started thinking about selling the tickets on stubhub. I invited a co-worker, Mike, though he was going back and forth about going too because he didn't want to see BYU lose. Another co-worker from Dallas heard about this, and within a few hours, he was on-line getting us tickets! It was a great deal!

On to the pictures! The uploaded in reverse order, so we'll start with the end of the game. The stadium was really cool at night. Especially after beating the #3 team in the country!

Here's that huge videoboard after BYU kicked the extra point to take a 14-13 lead. We were going nuts!

Again, that videoboard was awesome! 60 yards long! It played live as the plays were happening, so a number of times when the play was on the opposite side, I found myself watching the videoboard.
Here we are before the game. I'd say that there was only 10% BYU. But we were loud!

Thanks again Dani for the awesome b-day present! You rock!!!

What Have We Been Up To?

1- Jared started his new job! This is him leaving for his first day of work from our friends' house since we weren't in ours yet. He is really seeming to love working for a small company.

2- We have been enjoying the awesome parks in our new city. The city we live in has two awesome parks with great water features. (The water features have been off for awhile now, but this was in August... I am really behind on my blogging.)
3- We have been loving trips to the coast with Mel, Bridger and Kacy!
4- We had a fun time at the state fair with lots of friends from work. (A post to come on this later...also, I LOVE this picture, I think it is hilarious and adorable).
5- Jared and Mike enjoyed and incredible BYU game in an incredible stadium (I will have him write his own post dedicated to this).
6- A family trip to the coast which involved GREAT fresh seafood, sand, flying our new frog kite, and lots of fun in the sand and water. Claire had a scare when a wave knocked her over and started pulling her out to sea, luckily Jared was standing next to her and grabbed her by the foot - scary!
Jacob was braving the cold water with his Dad.
Well, not really braving, as much as running from.

7- Loving our new house and enjoying lots of family dinners. This night Jacob announced at dinner that he wanted a family picture, so we set up the camera and made the little guy happy. (Disclaimer: please disregard the clutter on my counter, I am a busy lady). Also, I promise that I will post more house pictures, I just need to do a bit more 'finishing' work.

8- Family hikes in Forest Park... it is this great Urban Park that is pretty much a giant forest in the middle of the city. It is beautiful, and we are pretty sure that Claire could stay there all day hiking... she was totally in her element.


9- Another coast trip with Mel, Bridger, and Kacy which I forgot my camera for. That trip turned into an all day trip when our husbands surprised us by skipping out on work early and coming to meet us... lots of sand play, football, frisbee, kite flying, relaxing, and running from waves. We ended the day by eating pizza and watching the sunset.

10- Making new friends, playing games, etc...

Fun with the Fam

(Trying to get a cousin picture... if more than half are cooperating it is a good shot which makes this a good shot.)

On our way cross country we took a nice long break to have a family vacation with my family. We spent a few days in Cody visiting and preparing for our trip to Flathead lake Montana... it was a beautiful beautiful place and lots of fun. We stayed in a great cabin with the whole family for a week and it was the perfect space. The cabin was a great size with a small fenced in front yard and a HUGE backyard with a firepit, two ponds, a waterfall, TONS of cherry trees, a peach tree, apple trees, pear trees, and raspberry bushes; we spent a lot of time picking and eating the really yummy fruit and we were lucky enough to be there right at the peak of the cherry season, they were delicious.

This is the view of the lake from the deck of the cabin.

All the cousins enjoying their bribe from the family pictures (which I still don't have a copy of).
We (well at least Jared, our kids, my parents, and I) enjoyed a trip to Glacier National Park and the beautiful scenery there... see how happy Dad is to be there!

There is so much color there... aqua water, red rocks, green plants... and Claire's red hair.

Claire was TOTALLY in her element here and could have walked around outside in the forest and near the water all day... Jacob wasn't so sure!
More Glacier....
And more...
There were a couple of times that we drove right through a cloud and could look down on it, it was kind of a drizzly rainy day but was still beautiful.
When we weren't at Glacier, picking cherries, or playing with cousins we were most likely on the boat... Claire loves the boat.
Jacob likes it sometimes.
I love to be behind it. We got one great day on a smaller much smoother lake and got in some great skiing. Jared really did well on one ski and went farther than he ever has on one and crossed the wake several times, I think he has it down now... unfortunately all the pictures from that day were on Mom's camera.
We went swimming and grilled burgers by the lake one evening... if you look in the distance I am rescuing my nephew who floated right over the rope for the swimming area. When I got to him and asked if he needed help he replied in a confident little 3 year old voice "nope! I can do it by myself, the waves will bring me back!" (his Dad didn't want to swim out to get him, so as he was panicking that he was getting to far out he kept telling him the waves would bring him back... they didn't)
We had lots of baths in this fun tub. (Showers in this tub were very interesting... the all around shower curtain was very clingy).
We also had lots and lots of glow stick fun... every night (the kids loved playing in the little loft).
More glow stick fun. Thanks Grandma!
And this is my beautiful daughter holding a giant slug... don't be fooled by her face, she did not hate it. You would not believe how impossible it is to clean slug slime off of hands! And why would she be holding a giant slug?????
... because she has cousins like this, who love bugs, snakes, bats, and apparently slugs. Giant slugs! They are trying to teach Claire their love for these things.
We also had a lot of fun with bubbles because Grandma brought lots of bubble guns and other bubble toys. This is my adorable niece Tyler, she is shy, she doesn't love new people, but she is really cute.
Claire loved the bubbles.
Thanks for such a great time Mom and Dad we can't wait for the next trip! :)

Thanks for the Markers Nana

...we LOVE them! Mom got a nice long nap in the car while we played with them. (we loved the rest of your car ride surprises too).

xoxo

Cousin Visit

Since blogger is somewhat cooperating today I can do a blog post. We had a great visit with cousins on our cross country trip. We only had one full day and two nights, but we fit in as much as possible. Jared's sister Camie and her family live in Minneapolis and we enjoyed our time visiting them.

Like I said... we fit in a lot of stuff, and the boy cousins were spent by the end of the day. Good thing they have each other to lean on.

We went to a great lake/pool with a beach that they have nearby... it was a fun place for the kids to play together. Claire and Lydia were looking very cute in their matching suits from Nana.
We had plenty of snack breaks... (Clayton was really enjoying just laying on the sand that day).
We also got to meet sweet baby Wyatt and see their beautiful home.
The cousins all played so hard together and had WAY too much fun sleeping in the same room (not as much sleeping as the parents had planned). We had a great time... Thanks for having us, we hope we can come back soon!

Leaving Cinci

So, I am really not a sentimental person, so leaving Cincinnati wasn't as hard for me as it maybe should have been, but it was still a hard thing. It was sad to see Claire's sad face as she sat in the car not wanting to say goodbye to Nana and Papa, and Nana's sad face as she was trying her best to be a supportive Mom and Nana but didn't want us to go. Papa and Nana were very forlorn the morning we left. We miss them (and Andrew).

Our car was packed to the max for the move with the back to seats folded down and the back chuck full of stuff, the car-top carrier up top and the bike rack on the back. By the time we were to Portland we had logged over 57 hours in the car (some of that was for the sake of fun vacation side trips)... Jacob and Claire were sooooo good, such troopers and only watched 2 movies in the whole 57 hours!
Our moving truck, which was also packed to the max... they packed it up then walked in the house and said "are those couches going?" They got them in, but barely and they were at the very top in the back.
One last picture with Uncle-T cutout!
Claire and Jacob really enjoyed spending our last few days at Nana's castle. They played to their hearts content and Claire found her favorite dress-up outfit ever ever.
We are loving it here in Oregon but we miss you family and friends in Ohio!

We made it

Sorry it has been so long since the last post.  We made it to Oregon, we are in our beautiful new house (finally) and surrounded by boxes.  There is so much to do.  I will have to post later about all of the fun vacationing we did on our way here and all of the people we got to visit.  I will also post the saga of getting into our house!  For now it is back to unpacking boxes!

Something About the Kids

Yesterday Jared pointed out to me that there has not been a post about our kids in awhile...I told him it was because our camera isn't working.  I am going to buy a new camera today, but in the mean time I am posting some pictures from April and some of what Jacob and Claire are up to lately.  

As I type this they are in there room dressing up... Nana gave them great dress ups for their birthday and now they love to dress up... Claire thinks princess dresses are the greatest and Jacob actually really likes to put on his knight and police costumes, he just doesn't like keeping them on for very long.  They have been so good at playing nicely together lately... they still have their fights, but they can really imagine up a great game of make believe that they both enjoy so much together.  A couple of days ago I went down to the basement to find them sitting in two small chairs that they had set up directly in front of a big cardboard box (we have a lot of those in our house right now) talking non-stop to each other about how they were watching TV and a movie.  Also last week they found a box full of packing peanuts and have been having a great time making huge messes playing 'popcorn'; the first day I found at least 12 containers (buckets, cups, tupperware, etc...) full of packing peanuts shoved in various places in the fridge because Jacob was 'freezing popcorn.'  

They say some pretty funny things, here are some of my favorites: tonight, tomorrow, tomorning....lasterday and sometimes it is even to-lasterday, for example..."oh mama, I said the prayer to-lasterday?"  
They also think (especially Claire) that the cream that we put on to protect our skin from the sun is 'sun scream'.  They both think that their tub toys and a hose 'squirk'.  For example "hehehe Jacob squirk me" (with the squirting tub toys).
I have to write this down because I know that someday I will find it funny... the thing that causes the most conflict between them right now is who gets the yogurt cup in the morning.  They split a yogurt every morning and one person gets it in a bowl and one person gets it in the cup that the yogurt comes in... you would not believe how important it is that I remember whose turn it is every day.  Somedays even if I do remember, my children do not and there is a MASSIVE meltdown about the yogurt cup... it is a VERY big issue and they yell at each other and me a lot about it.  Like I said... someday I may think it is funny.  Today was a good day though, we all agreed about whose turn it was to have the yogurt cup.
They are really learning and remembering a lot about the Book of Mormon stories that they read every night.  Their favorites are Ammon watching the sheep and cutting off the arms and Samuel the Lamanite standing on the wall and the people who are 'not very nice' shooting arrows at them.  Jacob has really gotten to the point that he will get excited looking at the pictures and exclaim "they gonna fight!?!?!"  He is such a boy.