Jack's 2!

We celebrated Jack's birthday this week. We spent the morning at the pool - it is new and improved, water slides, fountains etc. The kids loved it. I think Alix (our niece) said she went down the slide 35 times, we'll have to go back soon. We went with a train theme for his party and Jack didn't dissapoint with his excitement. He loved the cake and we heard enough Choo Choo's to make me happy. We gave out train whistles and Grandpa took them for a train ride pulled behind the tractor. It was fun to celebrate with cousins. We had a rousing game of Duck Duck Goose, Jack couldn't be happier thinking someone is always chasing him, he ran around the circle laughing the whole time wether he was being chased or not. Ray couldn't resist the fun and had to hop in!!! (:

Little Diddy

I think my camera is officially gone. I hope it shows up sometime because it has all of our Hawaii pics on it but I have doubts we will ever see those. So I haven't posted because I don't have any fun things to look at. However after being seriously reprimanded by Robin I will give you at least a little diddy on our lives. What we did today - got our bike and trailer out of the storage unit, after 4 phone calls to Ray we found the pump and pumped up some seriously flat tires, rode around town with Grandma while pulling the kids, enjoyed the hot sun, took in the breathtaking views of the mountains (it really is beautiful here and you all are invited to come visit unless you are reading this and I don't know you then you will have to stay with someone else), stopped for some bubblegum ice cream, watched Jack eat 12 pieces of gum at once, dropped off the bikes and visited the town fair, played at the park and now we're enjoying the calm of Jack sleeping. I'll start sewing and Kate will watch a movie for the next hour or so. I love days like today.
We just got back from a super fun trip to Canada, we had so much fun visiting everyone and playing. Luckily Jack's percentage of hitting has dropped drastically since we left. He and his cousin Kale liked to battle it out a little too much! They'll be buddies soon enough. I've decided we really need to get a trampoline with how much our kids loved it. We got to stop in MT on the way home and visit Jeff and Erin. The kids loved playing together. They have an amazing place in another beautiful city. Great place to live for sure.
I think our next trip might be to the coast, seems like a good place to go when you have lots of time and no other place to be. Camping, sand, water and kids, sounds messy but fun right?

Camping

We're back from our trip. I liked Marlan and Lorin's guesses - always good for a laugh! We had so much fun and missed our kids terribly at the same time. I have misplaced our camera and so I don't have any pics to share. I tend to misplace it a lot so I'm sure it will show up eventually. After getting back to our kids we were here for a few days and then went camping last weekend. Eric and Trisch's family and Lonnie with her kids all came. It was so beautiful! We had a site right next to a lake. And there was no humididty or ravenous mosquitos like we're used to. The water was so cold but the kids didn't mind. Eric took the kids out in the canoe and Josh caught his first fish. I don't have pictures but if you go here you can see the pics Eric has put up. Our next trip has an undetermined departure date but it should be in the next 2 weeks and starts with an A, ends with an A. Oh and we are getting closer to choosing a city to live in, just can't rush these things. This is a summer to remember for us, the summer we played!

Random Fun

Here are some pics of just some of the fun we've had lately.Here they are playing at one of many parks we've been to. Sorry about hte sideways ones, I'll have to fix that later.
I love the Bite of any city, the day after getting here we went to the Bite of Bend. Funny thing is that we didn't buy any food but the kids had fun on the blow up things. And our neice Makenna performed a dance with her class which Lonnie teaches. You can see Lon here prompting the class along. They were so cute and Lonnie is a great teacher. I hope Kate will get to take a class from her someday. Spending Father's day with four fantastic fathers!Finding the Biggest Dandelion ever! This was in Leavenworth, it's a beautiful town in WA. Bavarian village where you can get all kinds of baked goods - my favorite, or chocolate - the kids favorite! So we walked down to the river and ate chocolate and donuts for dinner. Kate learning the monkey bars for the first time ever, the trick is to find a park where the bars tilt down, gravity works! Enjoying a ride in Josh's Jeep. Feeding Fish at the Fish Hatchery, this was a lot of fun for everyone, the fish would jump to eat the food and splash the kids. And now we're off on another trip in the morning. I had to post these because I know I'll have some great photos to post next week. Hint: it starts with a H, ends with and I and the kids aren't coming with us on this one!

Detroit Dam

On the last leg of our trip we stopped at this Dam. There were tons of people fishing so the kids touched a couple of slimy, wiggly trout. Isn't it beautiful here? It was a long way down on the other side, I was gripping Jack with both arms very tightly as we peered over.

More fun with cousins

We made a trip up to WA for a few days. We stayed with Robin and the gang. There is always something fun going on there. We're already looking forward to the next time we see them. This is on a walk down to a nearby park. Isn't it beautiful there? This is the street we grew up on. They live two houses down from our old one. It is great to visit but sad to see how all the forest has been developed and replaced with huge homes. Kate saw a huge slug and said What is THAT! It made me realize that she has never seen such monsterous things that I grew up seeing all the time. I wished we had some salt but she probably wouldn't like seeing it turn inside out and maybe I shouldn't teach her that cruelty, let her learn it from one of her cousins!

We Made It!

We have had a great couple of weeks, or has it been months, maybe only days?? However long we've been gone it has flown by and been a great time. Our last look and goodbye at our home, I did shed a tear. We have so many pictures I'll try to post even more later. We took 4 days to drive across the country. It was such a great trip too. The kiddos were amazing! They would just hop back in the car after each stop without complaining ready to sit for a few more hours. Each night they fell asleep in the car, then we carried them into the hotel room and they slept great, ready to do it all again the next day. These little fans from the dollar store were played with the entire trip. Don't worry, the fans were made of foam so it didn't hurt their tongues as they did this most of the way. They watched lots of movies and ate lots of treats! We had two trusty drivers driving our truck and they said they had a good time too. They got to try out their Ham Radio too! The highlilght the first day was when Dad wanted some of the Tim horton donut holes we had in our car so they drove up beside us on the highway. I had to throw them at just hte right angle across Ray and through Dad's window. I got it just right when I hit Dad right between the eyes! That made for a good laugh! We owe these two a lot. They just trucked along and were so willing to help us out. The second one is at a reast stop in Nebraska or maybe Wyoming. Here we are crossing into Iowa, the bridge was swung open for a barge coming through. It was a neat thing to see, Kate enjoyed that. I was glad Jack was asleep so I didn't have to worry about him falling or jumping off the bridge. Here are the kids at a stop at Cabela's to stretch our legs. We also stopped in Nauvoo, they have this great little area for kids with all the games pioneer kids played. They loved it here, they played in a little school house , Kate washed and hung doll clothes out to dry and they played lots of different games. We were there first thing in the morning so we were the only ones there.We got to spend one short might with Grandma Great in Salt Lake City. It was so nice to see the way Kate loves her. She ran right into her arms and gave her a big hug. I like seeing Jack sitting at the bar eating just like we did on all our visits from his young age up. It's so comforting to walk into her house at 11:00 at night to a big hug, freshly baked brownies and ice cream. Grandma Great is never short on ice cream. We spent four days in Oregon and then were off on a trip to WA. I'll have to post those pictures later. We stayed with Robin and her gang and realized that our kids love the trampoline! If they weren't eating or sleeping they were jumping!

The Big Day

It's official, Ray's a Dr. We took Kate with us to graduation and opted to have Jack stay at a friends house. I'm glad Kate was there to sit with me although I think she would've preferred staying at a friend's house too. She did like waving to Ray up on the stage and ate her fair share of Swedish Fish! The ceremony was so nice. There were some great speakers and it wasn't too lengthy. I thought they did a great job of recognizing everyone. Ray was hooded for his OD degree and he was presented with his Masters degree along with about 8 others in his class.

Did you know that Sea foam green is the official color of Optometry? I didn't but there is a good reason why that I learned. It is the most visible of all colors in daylight to the human eye. I thought that was neat that there was actually a reason behind what color their hoods and gowns were.

There was a nice banquet after at the Buckeye Hall of Fame Cafe. I've never been there and was so happy to have the chance to go before we left. Kate joined Jack at our friend's house for the end of the night where they went to sleep for the first time at someone else's house - Thanks Robin! It was fun to see everyone in Ray's class and to spend time with friends before everyone heads out. We've been so lucky to have such wonderful friends our whole way through. I don't like to think about leaving yet we're so excited to take the next step. Such a bittersweet time for us. I didn't get a great picture of Ray getting hooded but our friends did so maybe I can post that when I get it. And for those that don't know yet we are moving to Oregon in 2 days . Such a beautiful state with great people!!

Fun Times

Here are some photos from the last week or so. Jack at the park during our Memorial Day breakfast, park with friends, last trip to the zoo, Hayden Falls and Tuttle play area. Tomorrow is Ray's graduation, should be a fun day!

craigslist

We are selling so many things in our house to try to make our move easier. I just have to say that craigslist.org is the way to go. Way better than our garage sale a few weeks ago. We put our headboard up and got an email right away so I called her to set up a time for her to pick it up. I thought I recognized her voice and sure enough she is a friend of ours whose husband goes to school with Ray! What a funny coincidence. Then we put up some toys and I get an email from my close friend wanting them. Of course you can't tell when you respond to an ad who has posted the ad. I thought that was so funny and even told her she could have free delivery since she lives a mile away! Then tonight I was selling some furniture and this guy was interested, I sent him our address to come by and he writes back saying his Dad just bought this house. So he's buying the furniture and we're just leaving it here! This is a big city with a lot of people looking at craigslist - Is this weird or what?