Some trip pics

Starting the road trip, Grandpa and Dallin with Sentemental Journey ( 1944 B-17), ice-cream at Shaniko, OR, the kids w/their Hermiston cousins, Sara getting riding lessons w/Grandpa.

Finally home!

It's been a very good summer. Lots of sun and water. The kids and I just returned from a 2 1/2 week trip to Oregon to visit friends and family. It was fun and tiring. I'm glad to be home! We drove for two days (nine hours each day)and then spend Monday night through Sunday night with my parents and sister and her family in eastern Oregon. One of the highlights of the trip was watching my dad get to ride in a 1944 B-17. I'll post pictures this weekend. Then we drove to Portland where we stayed with our friends, Chris and Michelle. Lauren got to spend lots of time with her best friend, Anna and Dallin spent 3 mornings on the velodrome and then earned a silver medal in the OBRA state championship critirium.

I wanted to post a picture but haven't taken the trip photos off of my camera...so here is a favorite from earlier this summer.

The weekend

We had a nice weekend. On Friday night we went to the hotel where my brother and his family are staying and went swimming. It's fun watching the cousins get to play together. They are on a Disney vacation and having a great time! Then on Saturday the five of us went to the beach and played and had lunch. We got to see some amazing skim boarders! It was a nice relaxing day. Yestersday was church. The primary chorister (kids' chorister) had asked someone to sub for her while she was on vacation, but the sub wasn't there so they asked me to do it. It went pretty well for last minute. I'm doing it again next week and that will be better because I've got time to prepare! After church, Dan and Timani (my brother and sis-in-law) and the kids came over. We had lunch and visited and had dinner and visited some more. It was nice catching up. They were going to try to get to Disneyland at 7 am and get to the Nemo Submarine Voyage. I hope they got up and over there!!!

Beach Day

Yikes! It's been a month since I've posted. Busy summer! We've been going to the beach, reading, walking, running, playing, cleaning, biking, swimming. It's so nice to have a pool. I was telling the kids that we've been to the pool more this year than all of our trips to the pool in the last 10 years combined! When Daren and his family were here they bought four boogie boards and left them for us to use (thanks Daren!). So when we go to Beach Day with our ward (every Tuesday) we take them and Dallin and Lauren have been learning to use them. When surfing or boogie boarding, always use a rash guard. We learned that after the first day. Lauren was OK, but Dallin had a rash all over his chest. Sara loves to play in the waves and dig and build in the sand. On our last trip to the beach a bunch of the kids found sand crabs and put them in a gigantic bucket with sand and water. All of the moms line their umbrellas up all in a row and we sit and talk and watch the kids play. Once in a while a mom will go out in the water. I'll get wet up to my knees!

Here are a couple of Disneyland pics. I realized while I was looking through them that I didn't get any pictures of Lauren and I together. Bummer! Probably the only time we'll ever be a Disneyland just the two of us and I don't have any pictures of us! Bad scrapbooker! Bad scrapbooker!

Original pottery

Isn't this a great little pot? I love the bamboo and the color. OK, it's not a great photo: it was taken indoors in the evening and it's blurry. Sorry about that! I'm still working on my photography skills :) Dallin made this in his art class. He's done some pretty great stuff in that class. He did a pencil drawing of some trees that I'm going to frame and hang somewhere in the living room or hall.

Lauren is sitting by me as I type this and telling me that she's kind of sad for the end of the year. She's really loving school now that they don't have math, social studies or science! Crazy girl! She does love her teacher, though. Ms. Schwartz is awesome! I went as a chaperone with the 5th grade to Disneyland on Monday. I'll try to post some pictures of that later tonight. We are off to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner (I know, it's kind of a late dinner). It's a fundraiser for the girls' school.

I went to Crate & Barrel and spent the rest of the gift card that David and the kids got me for my birthday (I can't believe it's lasted since January). I bought a new tablecloth, some silk peonies and river rocks. My friend Michelle had given me the vase several years ago. I totally copied the centerpiece from a Crate & Barrel display. It's exactly the same. But I really loved it and wanted it on my table! The flowers look real. David, Dion, Dallin and Sara thought they were real. Dion even asked way I didn't have water in the vase! I also put curtains up last week. It amazing how much more cozy the house seems! I love it!