Oregon Coast

May 2011

We love the Oregon Coast!!  This was our big family vacation for the summer.  We headed out right after school ended.  We'd found a great deal at a hotel in Newport.  We had so much fun walking around the harbor and seeing sea lions up close.  We toured the UnderSea Gardens, Ripley's Believe it Or Not Museum, and the Wax Museum.  We swam in the ocean,  spent hours exploring tide pools, and toured two cool lighthouses.   Carter's birthday was that week and his gift was a deep-sea fishing trip.  While he was gone fishing, the kids and I searched out fossils at Beverly Beach and swam in the ocean till we were frozen, then came back and warmed up in the hotel hot tub.  He did great fishing, by the way, and came home with lots of delicious fish.  I made a slideshow of all the fun pictures...

Here's to AWESOME Teachers!

It's here at last - the last day of school!  As I went around to each of my kids' classrooms I made sure to get a picture of each child with their teacher.  We've been so blessed with a fabulous set of teachers.  It is such a relief to send my babies off to school every day to teachers I know care about them, treat them kindly, and are so good at teaching them.  I am so grateful!  Obviously this is just the elementary school kids.  Jayden has terrific teachers, too, at middle school, but he'd die of embarrassment if I followed him around to get pictures with his teachers.  Sooo uncool.

Mrs. Stallones

Mr. McConnel

Mrs. Draney

                                                                                                                   

Shaylie's Kindergarten Graduation

What an exciting time!  Our cute little Shaylie is graduating from Kindergarten.

They do an adorable program, showing off some of their smart skills and singing some fun songs.  Here is Shaylie saying her lines.

"Three little jellybeans, down in my belly bean.  Giving me a tummy-ache, what am I gonna take?"

We love you, Shaylie!  Congratulations!!

Wagons HO!

Every year the fourth graders get to participate in a program called Wagons Ho to wrap up their whole year of studying Idaho history.  There is a group that travels around to different schools to present the program.  The day our school was scheduled for this, it stormed like crazy and they cancelled.  It was disappointing, since we'd heard how neat it was.  Then we got word that the fabulous fourth grade team of teachers from our school had decided that our kids couldn't miss this experience, and they were going to create their own Wagons Ho.  We held a little parent meeting so they could organize parent volunteers and donations.  The teachers worked SOOO hard and created an amazing experience for the kids.   I was in charge of traveling around with a small group of kids to each station.  Makenna absolutely loved it.  What a fun day!

Kenna was kindly holding down the icecream maker while her friend cranked the handle.

Mixing up biscuits...  The kids actually made their own delicious dutch oven stew and biscuits.  Yummy!

Branding a piece of cardboard

Using real leather tools to stamp and decorate a piece of leather

Scrubbing laundry on a washboard (what a cute little pioneer!)

Wringing it out afterward

Gettin' down pioneer style

Roping the wind

Makenna was a very good sport when she was given this tiny little guy as a partner for the sack race

The day ended with a tug-o-war and several casualties and tears.  We decided that kids today aren't as tough as they used to be.

Race is On!

A friend in our ward works for Project Filter, who is a sponsor of the Meridian Speedway.  Every year he has invited us to attend Project Filter Night.  What a great time!  I like knowing my kids will grow up with plenty of good 'ol redneck memories!

I just thought this was funny.  Obviously she's never seen Dukes of Hazzard.

Off to see the Loughneys

Every year in early Spring Carter starts to get concerned because I haven't seen my sweet sister in so long, and he arranges a family trip to Reno.  While we're there, the fish just happen to be spawning in Pyramid Lake and so Carter goes fishing with his Uncle Glade and cousin, Scott.  It works out well for all of us.  I need to track down some pictures of them out there fishing on ladders in the lake, it's really something.    Here we are visiting the giant new Sheels store in Sparks.

We also had a nice picnic at the Marina.  It was just a short weekend trip, but we loved getting to see Amy, Todd, and their crew.  We love you guys!

Soccer 2011

Kyler and Shaylie were the only two kids who chose to play soccer this year.  They both had a terrific time and  showed great improvement.    I have a lot of respect for sports photographers.  I'm afraid I don't have a knack for it - I must have taken a thousand shots of the kids playing all the sports that come along, and I usually snap it just after the awesome goal, shot, kick, slide.  You name it, I miss it.  So these are the best I could come up with to remember their soccer season.  I was lucky to capture the child in focus and the ball in the same frame.

Kyler was fun to watch because he always has a smile on his face.  No matter what is happening in the game, he is just out there having a good time.  

For a girl who loves all things glamorous and fancy, Shaylie turned out to be quite the little scrapper.  She was always right there in the middle of the action.  Who knew??

Easter 2011

You can't help but love Easter...Springtime, chocolate, flowers, jellybeans...

We kicked it off with a fun Easter egg hunt with all the local cousins.

Next, since the weather was so nice we colored our Easter eggs out on the deck.

The sun was a bit blinding, as you can tell.  Jayden and Carter couldn't be there.  I love the pictures of Easter morning, sleepy kids in jammies shuffling around to find our breakfast.