Happy Birthday Tucker!!

Tucker celebrated his 6th birthday on July 18th. He had a fun-filled day. Just one of the perks for having a summer birthday. We went berry picking in the morning. We went out to lunch to Sweet Tomatoes (his favorite restaurant) and then went and watched Space Chimps (Tucker's pick). Later in the afternoon he had his friend, Conner over for a couple of hours. We tried to make the day fun because he got to go to a swim meet that evening. We did get a Dairy Queen ice cream cake to celebrate, which made mom happy too because she didn't have to make a birthday cake! Almost a week later he got to have a birthday party with some friends. I found a great deal at Air Trix (a cheaper version of Pump It Up). The air conditioning was broken but there was lots of ice water and the party room was cool. The heat didn't slow all those boys down and the party was all that Tucker hoped it would be. Grandma Eyvon, Aunt Betsy, and cousin Ella were in town and so they got to join in the fun. Talia played with Ella and the boys but was also my party helper. Tucker requested ice cream treats for the party which were a hit with the broken AC. Tucker really celebrated his birthday all month long because he got to open some birthday presents early at Twin Lakes when were with family. Happy Birthday Tucker! We feel very blessed to have him in our family. He is a very kind hearted boy and we love very much!

Talia's Swim Meet

Talia participated in her 2nd swim meet on July 18th. She joined the Tigard Swim Club a couple months ago and is really enjoying practicing three times a week for 45 minutes. She has shown great improvement in the last month and cut off over 5 seconds on each of her swims compared to her first swim meet. She has only gone to the smaller swim meets to get used to the whole experience. This fall she will start going to bigger meets. Each swimmer gets a ribbon for each race they participate in which is really fun for the participants. We are very pleased with Talia and all her hard work!

Family Reunion at Twin Lakes!!!

We just spent the last week at Twin Lakes, WA. We drove to my parents house on the 4th of July and spent the day with them. We had a great BBQ with my parents and sister. After dinner the kids got a few rides on Grandpa's 4-wheeler and as soon as it was dark enough the fireworks began. Tucker is a little pyro and we had bought the extra long sparklers and he used the sparklers to light some fireworks. Talia was cold so she wrapped up in a blanket and was content to just watch. Tucker couldn't get enough fireworks and after we were all done he wanted to help grandpa burn the fireworks in the burn barrel.

The next day we drove to Twin Lakes, WA. We had borrowed our friend's motor home so that we wouldn't have to camp for a week. In the past we have been able to stay in a cabin but there weren't any available so we decided to spend a lot of money on gas and take the motor home. The kids loved traveling in the motor home and didn't even mind when the motor home got a flat tire. They were able to stay in it while the tire was replaced.

Both sides of our family were there the whole week. Trent's entire family was there and 5 of my 6 sibling were there so it was a big family reunion. Sometimes it seems like we don't get enough time with each family because we have to share our time but it is so fun to be able to both families.

Talia and Tucker went fishing with their Grandpa and were very excited to catch some fish. Talia has been wake boarding for 2 years now and she learned how to water-ski at Twin lakes this year. She got up on the 2nd try and skied around the entire lake. She now likes to both wake board and water ski. Tucker did a lot of knee boarding and learned to cross the wake on the knee board. He also tried wake boarding. He wasn't able to get up but we are just grateful he had the courage to try. Talia and Tucker spent a lot of time swimming in addition to boating.

There were a lot of cousins for the kids to play with and Talia and Tucker were busy playing the whole week. They got to participate in a treasure hunt and the treasure was candy. YUM! Grandma had a few fun craft projects and they enjoyed decorating a water bottle and make a key ring for their scriptures or backpack. There was also a fun silly string fight with Grandpa Dave. The kids had a great time surprising Grandpa with several bottles of silly string.

Trent's sisters, Jodi brought her triplet girls (9 months old) and Rebecca brought her 2 little girls under the age of 2 so there were lots of little girls around. Talia and I loved holding all of the babies and Jodi's girls are so sweet and adorable. My brother and sister also have little girls under the age of 2 so we got lots of toddler times and they were fun but kept everyone busy.

I went on a 14 mile bike ride around both lakes with my brother, sister and sister-in-law. There were several hills and it took about 2 hours. It was very tiring but very fun. I brought a couple of books and was able to get in some good reading time was was very relaxing. Trent spent the week on the boat, in the water, taking naps and reading a book he brought.

There was a wind storm near the end of the week and caused a tree to fall which hit a power line which meant no power. Everyone else lost power but we had the generator on the motor home for the first day but it stopped working when the gas got too low on the main tank. No power would have been fine but no power meant no water which was not fun. Some of our family went home early due to the power outage.

We had an eventful ride home with another tire blow out. We got to wait for 1 1/2 hours while two more tires were replaced. Luckily we were at a boat launch so the kids could exert some energy and go swimming. We had a wonderful time and it was so much fun to spend all that time with our family. We are so grateful for them and for all of their love and support.

We have Moved!!

I am a little late in sharing this but the past month has been a little crazy with moving and then going on 2 vacations the week after and then 2 weeks later. Hopefully we can feel more settled here in the next few weeks. We finally sold our house on Wills Place and were able to move into our house we had been renting for a year and a half. Our new house is 2400 square feet so we have a lot more space but we have lost our big backyard. The kids are adjusting well and have made some good friends in the neighborhood. Our old house and new house are only about a mile away from each other and we are still in Tigard but we are now in a new stake and school district. We have been to our new ward a couple of times and it seems to be a wonderful ward with a very large primary. Our new address is 11889 SW Wilton Avenue, Tigard, OR 97223. Keep in Touch!

Weekend at Shasta Lake

We drove to Shasta Lake and camped for a long weekend June 18th - June 22nd. We met my brother, Ross and his family there. About 6 hours into our drive Trent realized that he had forgotten something very important - the boat keys. When he first told me I thought that he was kidding. He was ready to turn around and drive back the 6 hours we had just gone. We called Ross and Jana and they gave us the great idea to have the keys overnighted. My wonderful friend Holly went to our house and dug through a couple of boxes to find the keys for us. (We had just moved the week before and I need to write a blog about that.) She had the keys overnighted and they arrived the next day about 4:30 p.m. The weather was nice except for one day. We had thunder and lightning that day and spent the day playing games and the kids watched a movie in the tent.

The campground was great except for one major problem. We were about 25 yards from train tracks and trains used those tracks quite frequently and they would pass us at a very fast and loud speed. To top it off they always had to blow their whistle to tell us they were coming. They passed by the campground throughout the day and at least 5 times every night. It wasn't so bad during the day but getting woke up several times a night got a little old.


The first night we were there Trent and I were woken up by Tucker walking around in the tent. He was half asleep and we knew why he was awake - he needed to go to the bathroom. He went and stood at the door of the tent and then he came back into the main room of the tent (our tent has 2 rooms.) Then we heard the awful sound of someone peeing in our tent. We asked him to stop but it was too late. At least he peed in the corner and only on one blanket and not on any beds. It was lots of fun to clean up the mess at 1:00 in the morning. Tucker seemed to have some issues with going to the bathroom on this trip because two mornings later he woke and came and stood at the door of the tent. We were all eating breakfast and he proceeded to pee all over the entry mat and the shoes on the mat. He told us he couldn't wait but after he got to clean the mess up all by himself he learned to pee in more proper places.

I am going to stop complaining about the trip because overall it was lots of fun and I would do it all over again but at a different campground. There were deer all over the camp and they were very comfortable with people. The kids thought it was great to see all the deer. They ate 3 or 4 of the peaches we left out one day.

We spent a lot of time on the boat and at the beach and Talia and Tucker loved playing with their cousins Parker (3 years old) and Lily (20 months old). Talia was a great little babysitter and kept an eye on everyone. Talia did a lot of wake boarding and Tucker realized how much he like knee boarding on this trip. In the past we would have to encourage him or reward him to go but on this trip he wanted to go knee boarding a couple of times each day we were there. Parker and Talia enjoyed a few wild tube rides and Parker loved the speed and the bumps. Lily went on one tube ride and slept through the whole thing. There was also a swimming pool at the campground and the kids went swimming in the pool a couple of times.

Sunday morning we found a ward nearby and went to church and then ate lunch at the park nearby and headed home. Aunt Brooke had lent us her Fablehaven book on CD and that made our road trip much more enjoyable. We listened to the whole thing and everyone loved it. Thanks Brooke!