Beach

After spending time in Hawaii, the Oregon Coast Beach was not my kind of beach. That was not the case for the kids. They didn't care how cold it was, they wanted to be right in the water. We stopped in Oceanside first. It was really cold and windy so we just walked out on the beach. No swimming suits this time.



You can see Avi saying "cold" in this picture as she is walking out of the water.
The next beach we went to was in Seaside. This time they got in their suits and had a great time.

I am so glad we went to a hotel after this and not my shower!

Oregon Coast

After living in Oregon for 6 years we finally took our first trip to the Oregon Coast this summer. We have been to the other side of the state for football playoffs and watching Utah play,but thats about it. We started our road trip and the kids were great. They are so good when it comes to driving long distances in the car.

The first stop on the trip was the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Right when we walked in the door the kids started playing in the mini loaf van. I could feel someone standing very close to me and I knew it wasn't Lee. I turned around and it was someone from Nyssa. He had just finished pouring the concrete in our driveway the week before so I had seen him alot the past few weeks. Then we drive to the other side of the state and there he is with his wife and grandkids. Small World!

The tour of the cheese factory was nice, but I was there for the icecream.

SHORT SIDE STORY
Branson has had a milk allergy. I took him to an allergist when he was almost 1. We did blood testing because we knew he had some issues,we just didnt know what they were. So, it comes back that he is really allergic to milk and slightly to eggs and wheat. He could have eggs and wheat but not too much. No milk/dairy at all.

We went to get ice cream and Branson really wanted some. Lee decided to let Branson have some of his. I made a disclaimer right then, "If he gets sick on this trip, you are taking care of the diapers." He was fine that day and ended up eating ice cream again in Seaside and he didn't ever get sick. I was so excited. I decided to try him on milk when we got home and he has not had any trouble.

He loved the ice cream and ended up eating alot!

The girls with their yummy ice cream.

Some pictures from our Cheese Factory Stop

Branson playing with his new Mini Loaf Van.

Avi checking out the "milkers" on the cow.

Overlooking the work room. They were on break while we were there so we didn't get to see the process.

Snorkeling

This has taken a lot longer to get back to updating than I thought it was going to. I will continue on with some of our adventures. We were lucky enough to go snorkeling a few times in different places. Todd has an underwater camera so we were able to get some really fun photos. Lee has no problem at all in the water with his snorkel gear on but it always takes me a few minuets to get my breathing down and then I am fine. The picture at the top is from our first day. Lee really wanted to spear a fish so he had the spear and was ready to go. There were lots of fish, but none even close to him when he had the spear. They are smart. If he didn't have the spear the fish would let him get a lot closer to them. I did have one small problem on our first snorkeling trip. It was our second day in Hawaii and we were headed out to the water to get our fins on. I hit my small toe on a lava rock really hard!!!! It hurt so bad. I didn't know how bad it really hurt until after I got out of the water from snorkeling and it was really hurting by then when I got up to the beach by all of our stuff I could see that it was already starting to bruise and was swollen. I knew for sure it was broken. ( Lee thought so too) It was definitely hurt badly but it healed in a couple of weeks so I don't know if it was really broken. It got really bruised and it was so hard walking in the sand. I didn't let it stop me though. I powered through the pain and enjoyed the trip with a really messed up toe.



Here we are getting ready to head into the water at "Snorkel Beach". I don't know if that is what it's really called, but that is what the locals call it. It was amazing there. I know why there were so many people. There were sea turtles and colorful fish everywhere. I don't remember the names of all the fish so Lee with have to help me with that part later. It was beautiful, clear, warm water. Here is a little of what we saw:

HAWAII Day 1

Lee and I were able to take a trip to Hawaii to enjoy the water, sun and visit some friends; Todd, Marilyn, Natalie and Sergio Weatherford. Thanks to grandma's we were able to go alone and leave the kids at home. We left very early in the morning and got to Hawaii at 1:45 in the afternoon. We went to the Big Island, Hawaii. We flew into the Kona airport and stayed in Kailua-Kona. I do have to say I was shocked as we were landing. I saw water and Lava rock, I was thinking were is the beautiful Hawaii from the pictures. It was there I just had to get off the plane first. Natalie and Sergio gathered flowers from around their house and made leis for us. They had them at the airport to put on us right when we saw them. They were beautiful and smelled amazing. They were made with Plumeria.(I think) We took our things to the house and then Lee, Todd and I went for a drive to look around. Todd took us to see the water and the main shopping area of town. We walked through some shops and got ideas of things to bring home for the kids. Lee was in heaven because we went the Farmers Market and there were Filipinos everywhere. He was able to visit with a few of them and we ended up with some free bananas. Filipinos are always surprised when he speaks to them. It is funny to watch them respond. While we were out and about I was telling Todd that when we visited them in Alaska a few years ago we loved Marilyn's cooking. (She is amazing) Two of the things she made for us there were Beef Tri Tip on the BBQ and fresh green beans sauteed with butter and garlic. There was more but those are two of our favorites. We eat both of them alot and they are definitely family favorites. We were lucky, that is what we got for dinner the first night. We were spoiled by Marilyn's cooking! We were pretty tired the first night because of the 4 hour time change, but we were happy to be there.



This is from Todd and Marilyn's porch, wearing the leis the kids made for us.



This is our first visit to the ocean in Hawaii. This is the first time either of us have been to Hawaii. It was in the evening and beautiful. After a long day of travel we were still smiling.

Science Fair

Hailey had another successful year in the Science Fair. She won Grand Prize for 4th grade. She did a project called "Color Changing Milk". She decided to call it
"Tie-Dye Milk" just for fun. We found it online at steve spangler science. I tried to get the link to work and I couldn't. Take the time to look it up. She took the idea and decided to experiment to see which kind of milk would work the best. It was fun to watch her do it. Avi and Malerie wanted to take a turn as well because it looked so fun. You should try it with your kids. They will love it. It is so easy to do because you have everything at home.



Congratulations on Grand Prize 2 years in a row!

My second Half Marathon

Last weekend I ran the Salt Lake half marathon. It was an easy course compared to the first one I did. It was fun to run with 8000 people and have people standing on the streets cheering along the way. It was a way different experience than running in Fruitland. I was able to improve my time, but the biggest test will be to see how much I can improve my time runninng in Fruitland again this fall. I have really enjoyed the training and the race was fun. I can't wait to do it again. Kristin and Misty both ran it as well. It was fun to have people to celebrate the finish with.

Our Little Man

This is a much needed update. I can't believe I haven't even posted about Christmas yet. I will just start with our sweet little guy. Last Saturday Branson found a pair of ski goggles in the dressups. He walked them over to Lee and wanted them on. They would fall off and he would have one of us put them back on again. He wore them for a really long time. The best part is when he was trying to go down the stairs. We have two stairs that go from the dining room to the living room. He decided he wanted to go down them without holding onto the railing like he usually does. Of course he decides to try it the same time that he refuses to take off his goggles. I was just sitting by him and he would fall down and get back up again. He did it over and over, at least a dozen times. I finally went and got the video camera becase it was so funny and then he made it down everytime without falling. I will have to be quicker next time. I do have a few pictures of our handsome little man in his ski goggles, shirt and diaper. He is so sweet.