Uncle Ben's big day

My kids just adore their Uncle Ben. He has been the fun uncle, always being willing to play and tickle even when the other grown ups were too tired. Last weekend we were happy to watch him be sealed to his beautiful bride Jill in the Portland temple. It was a crazy weekend, full of family, food, and fun activities. We sure did live it up, and we are still recovering.
Lots of family and friends were able to make it up for the occasion, and we had a great time hanging out with everyone. The guys all partied hard on Friday, spending most of the day paint balling. Then they were off to Fire on the Mountain for 359 wings, and then bowling until late. We ladies were of course working hard getting all the finishing touches ready for the big day.
Calvin (also known as Ben) and Jill looked amazing! We packed a large sealing room, and it was special to be there with the whole family. They got super lucky with the weather. It was chilly, but stayed dry long enough to take pictures outside. There was a luncheon and reception in Gresham, and so we spent the rest of the day and night out there. We had a great time socializing, eating, and dancing! Congrats Cal and Jill, we are all so happy for you both!

 

 My two handsome Men!!

Lately

The last few weeks have just flown by. Honestly, where did November go? It seems like yesterday we were putting out our pumpkins. Thanksgiving was really nice this year. My sisters were both able to come to town, so we were able to spend lots of time with my family. This year Chris wanted to be in charge of the turkey, so we tried something new. We spatchcocked it (yes, that is a real term) then used a dry rub on it, and it only took a couple hours to cook. It turned out pretty fabulous. It's a bummer that I didn't really get any pictures. We stayed up late and played lots of games, and we went to the movies. We even braved shopping at Target on Thursday night. Overall, I really wasn't ready for this short holiday week to end.

Friday was our 11th wedding anniversary. It poured rain the entire day! It made me so grateful that our wedding day was dry and mild. We really did get lucky for Oregon. We had a really fun day. We took the kids out in the rain to find the perfect Christmas tree, and watched as daddy chopped it down. It was too wet for pictures, but the kids really enjoyed running around in the mud and warming up with hot chocolate and cookies. Later on, Chris and I made it to a movie and even had Thai for dinner. It was a perfect way to spend the day!

Happy anniversary honey! Here is to another fun year and lots of great memories together!

Halloween is FUN!

Halloween turned out to be a lot of fun this year for us. It is always a busy time of year since it falls just after Grace's birthday, but we managed to get our pumpkins carved just in time. 

After eating dinner, we drove over to Grandma's x2 houses for hugs and treats. Neil was a lion, and it's a good thing I just borrowed a costume for him because he HATES dressing up. He would only stop crying about it for a piece of candy. Finally he got over the wearing it part....but if we tried to put the hood up....it would be a disaster. Needless to say, I didn't get many pictures of him. At one point I got on the floor to catch him under the table with it on. Score!
Grace was excited to be Minnie mouse, and she definitely looked adorable!
Claire decided to be a giant pumpkin. We stuffed her with balloons and she looked great. This pumpkin costume was actually one that I wore as a kid. It was fun to see her in it!

Trick or treating was really fun in our neighborhood. The weather was mild and it even stayed dry for us! We walked until our legs were tired, and we didn't even make it to half of the houses here! Neil LOVED going up to people and asking for treats. He was pretty cute to always say, "thank you". He made it to about 10 houses and then went home with Daddy to pass out candy, which he also really enjoyed. The girls and I came home with full buckets and had a great time. It was fun seeing some of our friends. Overall, Halloween was a success! Now on to getting this sugar taken care of. I hope it doesn't sit here looking at me for too long.

Grace is 5!!!!

   Five is such a great age. Five year olds are sweet and generally are good at following directions. They are past the toddler stage, and are becoming real kids.  I really enjoy five. It is just so hard to believe that my little girl is now five. I know it is so cliche, but seriously, where has the time gone? We moved back to Oregon when I was very pregnant with Grace. It just doesn't seem like that long ago. Now here she is, learning to read, teaching her brother how to dance, playing soccer, and showing off her sweet yet stubborn personality.
   We had a really fun weekend celebrating Grace. First on Saturday, I ambitiously invited 9 of her friends over for a party. It was a little daring only because Chris was running his 1/2 marathon that day (good job honey! We are super proud of you!), and he wasn't going to be home in time to help me. Thankfully, the kids all did really well together and my mom was able to come over and help me out. We played pin the tail on the rabbit, made halloween crafts, ate cake and ice cream, opened presents, played play dough, and just played. The kids had a lot of fun, and we all survived. Afterwards, we took her to Red Robin for her birthday dinner. She wanted them to sing to her and she loved her b-day sundae.
   On Sunday evening we had our family over for more cake and ice cream. Grace was spoiled with more gifts. She had a fabulous time! She is one lucky girl to have to many people around that love her. Overall, we had a very busy but nice weekend together. We love you Grace! Happy Birthday! ...Please don't grow up too fast.

Pumpkins and Sun!

In Oregon, trips to the pumpkin patches don't generally mean t-shirts and 70+ degree sunshine. This year, however, we took full advantage of our extended dry spell to go pick out our pumpkins. We went back to our favorite Lakeview Farms. It was a Wednesday afternoon so we had the place pretty much to ourselves. It was fabulous! A stroll through the fields along with the train and boat ride was a great way to enjoy the sunshine.

Take me out to the ballgame

    Well, I am another year older now. It was quite a bit more depressing this year than last for some reason. Now, it's pretty official that I am just going to get older and older. I know this isn't an earth shattering discovery, it just feels different all of a sudden. I really had no reason to be sad about it because I had a really good weekend.
 
     Sunday was my birthday and Chris made me scalloped potatoes with bacon wrapped chicken cordon blue. We also had salad and cheesecake. Yumm! It turned out really great! We had a relaxing day and got packed for our mini vacation to Seattle.

     That's right, we got to send the kiddos to Grandma's house for 2 days while we enjoyed ourselves in Seattle with some friends of ours who live in SLC. We had a really good time. The weather was perfect for sightseeing. We walked around the space needle, the glass museum, the waterfront, and ate tons of delicious food.

      We went to Ivar's for dinner and had seafood of course. Chris got the bounty of seafood which came complete with a bib, bucket, and tools. I had the salmon with halibut.

      After dinner we caught the Mariners vs. Orioles baseball game at Safeco field. It was my first time at a major league game. The stadium was pretty cool, and our seats were awesome. We even had two chances for a foul ball. Kara actually came away with one of them! The only bummer was the score. Apparently the Mariners are pretty terrible this year. They did manage a small rally in the 9th inning, but it was too little, too late. It was still fun to go see. I would do it again.

     The next day we checked out more along the waterfront, including the famous Pike's Market. We saw some flying fish, cheap flowers, and amazing bakeries. We stopped at the "gum wall", which as you could guess, is a giant wall in a creepy ally full of people's used gum. Interesting. The giant "wheel of Seattle" was fun to ride in. It had amazing views of the city and harbor.

     After that we headed up to the Science Center; which is a lot like OMSI. It was nice to wander around and look at interesting stuff there. They even had an exotic butterfly house. We walked through this super humid room with gorgeous butterflies everywhere! There were tons of them. It was pretty neato.

    The last thing we did was hit up Red Mill Burgers for some tasty grub and the best milkshake ever before heading back home in crazy traffic. We had a great trip, and can't wait to do it again! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Phillips for taking care of our kids!

End of Summer and Beginning of Fall

The last couple weeks of summer were pretty crazy around here! We tried our best to live it up and enjoy the last few casual days of sunshine and no schedules.

I had the chance to take a fun little road trip out to Provo with my lil sister. It was tons of fun! We chatted the entire 12 hour drive and it went by surprisingly fast. We moved all her stuff in and then spent the rest of our time playing. We went to eat at Tucanos Brazilian Grill and spent a long day in the sun at Lagoon. I didn't get any pics, because toting the camera around would get in the way of my roller coaster fun. I love roller coasters! It was so much fun to do whatever I wanted (I didn't have my kids with me), and sleep, and eat whenever. It was great to enjoy the rides for myself and not just watch kiddos. I had a blast! I'm thinking ladies weekend at a 6 flags or something???? You know it would be awesome. Anyway, it was good times visiting my alma mater and remembering all the reasons why I am glad to be done with school. Hahaha...no more apartments with 4 loaves of bread, 4 jars of PB, and 4 gallons of milk. :) Thanks Kee! I had a great time!

  The week after I came home we decided to spend a day at Oak's Park with the reading program passes that the kids had. It was super crazy busy! We almost left early because the lines were getting pretty ridiculous. Plus Neil was having a really hard time. He wanted on every ride, but as soon as it would start he screamed bloody murder. He was not a fan. Even on rides where I was with him, he still cried. Eventually, I think lots of people left, because the lines all got much shorter. At that point it was fun again, and we all had a fun time. Well, except for Neil, who had a great nap in the stroller.

 Now, I guess it is back to a normal schedule and back to soccer and school. I really enjoyed sleeping in on most days. I think it was harder on me than on Claire to wake up this morning. We need to adjust a little. This year, both girls are playing soccer, and so far are having tons of fun. It has been fun to watch Grace interact with her team. This is her first soccer experience. I can't wait until the games start!
Claire went to her first day of second grade today. I can't believe how grown up she is getting. I can remember second grade pretty well and the friends that I made that year. She came home and said that she had a great day and can't wait to go back. I think she will have another great year!
Grace will be starting her second year of preschool next week. She is anxious for that. I am looking forward to it as well. I guess Neil and I will get more bonding time this year.

 

                                                 

Mountain Man Month

August is supposed to be Mountain Man Month around here. That's what Chris told me at the end of July. What does that mean? Well, I'm not exactly sure except for the part where he wants to do outdoorsy stuff every single day...
Last week he got to go backpacking out in the Wallowa's for the second time. He went with a couple of guys from work and they were only able to go for 3 days. They climbed to the peak of  Eagle Cap; which apparently is the 13th highest peak in Oregon. Woot! Woot! They enjoyed beautiful mountain scenery and swims in the lakes. Here are some of his pics:

I love my rugged mountain man!!

From Thailand, with Love

My little sister spent the summer in Thailand this year, which was pretty cool for her. We decided it would be fun to surprise her at the airport with lots of people and handmade signs welcoming her home. Finally the big day arrived. We all loaded up and got to the airport in time to snag a great place to wait. Here is the welcoming committee (besides me).

So we waited and waited. The time for her plane to get in came and went. We thought maybe she missed it, so we waited for several other planes to arrive. She wasn't on any of them. So, then we really started to worry. The airlines couldn't tell us where she was. We had no idea. Then I got on Facebook...and wrote something about my lost sister. She just happened to be sitting in the Seoul airport and logged on to see that. Turns out, we were a day early to pick her up. Lame sauce. Now we had to go home and come back the next day. At least I was able to leave Neil home the second time.

She brought the kids adorable Thai pants and little purses for the girls. They loved them! Thanks Auntie Kee!

A couple of days later we had a fun fire at my parent's house. Neil loved building the fire. He is definitely his father's son. We enjoyed making some s'mores and setting the grass on fire. We really did. It was crazy cool to see the little ember fall and immediately ignite the dry grass below it. We all just watched for a minute before extinguishing it with a pre-filled bucket of water.  Good times with the fam!

Seaside

A few weeks ago we took advantage of a clear, warm day at the coast. We headed to Seaside to enjoy some family time. Since we like bikes, we thought it would be fun to rent a Surrey and ride around for an hour. What we didn't count on was the fact that none of our 3 kids would be able to reach the pedals...meaning Chris and I got in a really great workout!! It was pretty exhausting. We turned in the bike about 10 minutes early because we just couldn't go any further.

Now we were all sweaty, but we hit the main drag anyway. We got elephant ears, ice cream, and made a visit to a gigantic candy shop. Then we hit the sand to enjoy our loot.

We played in the sand for quite some time and enjoyed the sun. The sand actually burned our feet without flip flops on. It was great weather. Hot enough for swimsuits. Eventually, we moved down closer to the surf and ran through the water. Neil loved it! When he finally started turning blue, we had to pick him up kicking and screaming and carry him all the way back to the van. He really liked the water. Love, love summer days in Oregon!