We're Back from Oregon!

Okay we are back from Oregon finally! We have actually been home for a little over a week now, but you know how it is... I finally posted some pics of our trip though. I know, it's a lot of pictures, but this is really just a sliver of all the ones we took! We had a blast in Oregon. The girls had so much fun! Their favorite part out of everything, was beach combing! They kept just about every little tiny shell they could find. They even saw a lot of starfish! It was so cool! Here are some pics.

While we were in Newport, Mike bought his very first kite! It was actually pretty fun though. I had never flown a kite that had handles and you could steer! The girls had loads of fun with it as well, especially Sydney! The ocean is a great place to fly a kite!

Here is the Yaquina Head Lighthouse in Newport. It is the oldest lighthouse in Oregon. It was fun to walk to the very top. I lost track of stairs after 83. There were a TON! Good leg workout!

Here we are at the Newport Aquarium. It was a huge highlight from our vacation. The girls loved all the sea life and the hands on stuff there.

Here are a few pics at the Portland Zoo. The weather was so nice while we were in Portland. It was in the 70's, so not too hot and not too cold. The zoo was definitely another highlight. Portland has an awesome zoo.

Here are some pictures of the OMSI (Portland Science Center). Sydney was a little scared of the electronic dinosaurs though, but they both liked how everything was hands on! They even had signs saying, "please touch the bones" and other things. Very funny! They even had a whole prenatal section, with real babies for almost every week of pregnancy. It was a little much for the girls, so we rushed through that room! :) It was a fun afternoon though.

When we got home, they couldn't wait to clean all of their little seashells they found! It was cute.

Oregon Here We Come!

Well, we are finally able to take a little vacation as a family! Horray!! We have tried for 2 years now, but every time we planned somehting, the car would break, or someone would get sick the night before. Mike has a conference in Portland, so me and the kids are going to tag along and play all day while he sits in conferences. Afterwards, we are going to travel to Newport Oregon to do some camping on the coast for a few days. The girls are really looking forward to it. They have both been saving their allowances for months now, and have each earned around $40! We will be gone for a week, so my next post will be at least 1 week away. Have a good week everyone! I know we will!

Day of Pampering!

We all got pampered today! Mike got a new hair cut. I personally like the first one best!!! (ignore the soon-to-be balding spot - don't tell Mike!) Well, I gotta have some fun while cutting hair!! Then me and the girls got Manni's and peddi's! It was fun and cute. A definite plus to having girls vs boys I think! :)

Silverwood

Here we are at Silverwood Theme Park by Coeur D Alene, Idaho. It was sooo much fun! We go every year with my sister, Tara and her daughter, Tamara. It's a tradition that we do for her birthday. This year was the best year ever though. It was the first year EVER that I didn't bring a stroller or wagon for the kids! I figured now that Sydney is 4 and Livia is 7, they would do fine without one, and they did! We were able to get around so much better! Plus, Livia is "officially" just barely 48" so she was able to ride some new rides! She rode Tremors! The really big wooden roller coaster! She rode the Corkscrew roller coaster that goes upside down twice! Plus, she also rode Panic Plunge! You can see that one in the pics!!! She was so brave! Although, she has since said that if we went back she wouldn't ride Tremors or panic plunge again! (poor girl!) :) But she would ride the Corkscrew again! Sydney did really well too. Although I can definitely say that I will NEVER ride a Farris Wheel with her again! She was so squirmy and she kept rocking the cart we were in! ON PURPOSE!!! She is fearless! I thought we were going to die! It was sooo much fun though! We also got to go swimming in the water park and wave pool, went down a humongous water slide!!! And got to see a magic show!!! It was definitely worth the money! Poor Mike had to work though, so we made sure that we had extra fun for him!

























































And of course, they all 3 crashed in the car ride on the way back to Moscow! It was such a blast!

Yard Sale

Last Weekend we went to Priest River to have a big yard sale with my parents and my sister, Tara. I would be lying if I said it was fun. It was definitely a lot of work and I think I only profited 20 dollars after gas was accounted for. The girls had a lot of fun as usual though. They wanted a lemonade and cookies stand. They did good for the first hour, but after that they ditched us and went on the trampoline with water balloons for the rest of the day.

Poor Mike did not have very much fun, he was sick all weekend. When we finally got back to Moscow, we found out that he had a bad case of Strep Throat!!!! He is still recovery from it.

4th of July

Here are some pictures from the 4th. We went to Reeder Bay, up at Priest Lake with my family, since the 4th is also my mom's birthday! My sister's, Heather and Tara were both there, with both of their families; along with us and my parents. So all together we had 12 people, which makes it very fun, but very chaotic. We spent the rest of the weekend at my parent's house in Priest River, BBQing, swimming, and playing. It was loads of fun as usual! I do have to brag at the fact that I have a pretty awesome family. They can be a bit nosy, loud, and bossy at times, but I don't think I could ask for a better family. I can always trust them and lean on them for support. Plus they are a LOT of fun, not as much fun as Mike though. We are ALWAYS playing games, joking around, and just having fun. I always look forward to visiting them. Anyway, here are some pics of the weekend:

Camping at Priest Lake

Sorry I haven't left a post in a while. We have been gone camping for a week in Priest Lake, Idaho. We go every year over the 4th of July week with Mike's family. It's a lot of fun! We go on Kalispell Island, so you can only get to it by boat, which makes it nice, because it doesn't get too crowded like the rest of the lake can. Mike's parents have a boat, so not only do we get to go camping on the island, but we also get to go boating and tubing. Sydney isn't quite old enough to go tubing yet, but Livia was able to go. It was one of her many highlights.

Here is a picture taken from our tent door! It was very relaxing sleeping right by the water!

Here we all are after the annual treasure hunt that the kids do every year! They got lots of goodies!

Here is Livia and Sydney sun-bathing in the tubes!

Here is Livia and Sydney with their cousins Ceceilia and Kiauna

Here is Livia during one of our nature walks

Here is Sydney on the beach

Here is a picture of all the cousins working on a fort that they found partially done. They worked really hard at finishing it. They had lots of fun!

Here is Sydney raking. She loves to clean, so if anyone was ever in need of the broom or rake, all you had to do was ask Sydney and she would know where they were. She spent a lot of her time raking over the week.

Aren't they both so cute!

You can't really tell here, but it is pouring rain in this picture! Thank goodness for beach umbrellas! It actually rained on us 2 nights. And not just rain, but full on thunder and lightening storms! It was pretty cool to watch, but left us in our tents to play card games for a few hours.

Here is one of the times when we were trapped in our tent. It was still pretty fun though!