Seaside, OR trip--Beach

We always love to go to the beach while we are in WA. Maybe it has something to do with we don't have a beach in UT? I love the beach. Although this time when we went, it was really windy which made it feel much colder than it was. It wasn't really hot anyways, like maybe mid 70's but then the wind made it much colder.

Almost all of my sisters went with the exception of my sister Becky who we couldn't get a hold of. My brothers didn't go, they both had other things going, Scott was in Vegas and Kelly had a service project he already committed to.

The girls loved the sand, making thing out of it and just picking it up and watching it fall out of their hands. Samantha picked up a handful of sand and ate it. I washed it off and told her "yucky!" Later she did it again, and then right after she was told no, she did it again. Maybe she needed a little sand in her digestive system, chickens eat things to help them digest things better, maybe my Sammy is like a little chicken.

Uncle Larry built some parts of a sand castle. That didn't last long, both Amber and Samantha knocked them down.

You can see how hard the wind is blowing with how the girls hair is going so crazy.

Samantha liked crawling everywhere. She thought it was great!

Uncle Larry also gave Amber a ride on their boogy board, but only on the sand.

Little funnies

Amber was fighting to go take her nap yesterday. She told me as I was taking her to bed, "I don't want to sleep in this bunk, I don't want to sleep in this bunk. I don't want to sleep in your bed or my bed. I don't want to sleep in any bed!" She was cracking me up, I was thinking she sounded like Dr. Seuss in Green Eggs and Ham. As I was laughing then she just repeated it again and said, "I don't want to sleep in the top bunky, I don't want to sleep in the bottom bunky. I don't want to sleep in your bed or my bed. I don't want to sleep in any bed!" A few days before that when I put her down for her nap she was fighting me saying, "I don't want to sleep in the top bunk, I do want to sleep in the top bunk, I don't want a pillow, I do want a pillow." She just kept changing her mind and then as soon as I would accept that she didn't want to do something then she would want it. As I was leaving the room she got real grumpy, folder her arms and said, "and I am not going to go to sleep!" I said, "okay, goodnight." She said, "goodnight."

Lindsey got this old doll with a really fancy old style dress on. She has a fancy hat and fancy jewely. She got it from Grandma Hayes. The doll lost her necklace. It had like a ring of little pearl looking beads around a colored pearl in the middle. Then attached to that was a little suede strap to make it look like a necklace.
Lindsey asked me, "Mom, can you fix her necklace, it fell off." I was looking at the doll and what was left of her necklace, trying to see if it was pinned on or glued or just what. As I was pulling Lindsey told me not to break her broach. I told her it was part of her necklace. Lindsey argued that it was a broach and then a necklace. I told her it was all part of the necklace. I told her a broach is like a fancy pin that is on like a safety pin that goes on your jacket or collar or something like that. Then Lindsey looks at the doll, and says, "Why would anyone wear a pokey broach on ther chest like that?" I looked at Lindsey and said, "IT IS NOT A BROACH!" Lindsey was laughing and then I realized she was teasing me.

Emily was sleeping in the big bed. At my parents house, they have a bedroom that has a set of bunk beds and then a full size bed. When Robert isn't here then I have one of the girls sleep in the bed and then I sleep with that girl. Emily is the worse to sleep with since she has such long legs and arms, she seems to never give me enough room to sleep. This night, Emily was all sprawled out. I came to bed, tried to move her and kind of woke her up to tell her to move. She says, "I don't think it is going to work. (mumble mumble) I really don't think it will work out. The stars are all stuck together. Yeah it won't work. The stars are stuck together." As I was listening I was trying to figure out what she was saying... then I asked her to repeat herself. I heard pretty much the same thing, something about it not working and the stars being stuck together. I asked her about it the next morning, she kind of laughed and said, I had a really weird dream last night but can't remember it. I am guessing the stars where stuck together somewhere in there. She frequently will talk in her sleep. One time she was just shooting out random numbers, "13, 4, 78, 6, 12, 41, 9, ...."

Vacation Notes

I really should be sleeping, since I am still so tired from our trip and events and late nights of visiting. Come to think of it, I am ALWAYS tired, even when I am not on vacation.

I have posted a few things of what we have been doing here but thought I would give more details on some of the other things. It seems like our trip goes so fast and after we are back home I forget all the fun things that we did. I thought this would be great to remind myself and the girls of the things we did this trip.

One thing I failed to mention was on 4th of July, Lauren was still afraid of the loud noises and also afraid some of the fireworks might land on her so she stayed in the house and looked out the window. At one point she tried laying on a blanket on the ground with her Uncle Kelly, then she tried sitting in her Aunt Tracy's truck and finally went inside. I think she had more fun following the dogs around in the house especially the two that climbed into the tub to hide from the noises.

One of the reasons we decided to come up here to WA during this time was that two of my dad's brothers from California would be here too. My Uncle Buzz (along with wife Aunt Nancy) and my Uncle Wayne (and wife Aunt Phyllis). My dad's family is so fun to get together with. They crack me up. It reminds me much of how I feel when my family gets together... Lots of laughing and joking around! Aunt Nancy is normally the group chef, or is it cook. She was telling us she was one of them... she was saying one of them makes the meals and cleans up, and then the other just makes the meals. She was stating that she is the one that only makes the meals and DOES NOT clean up. She is a GREAT meal maker no matter what she calls herself cook or chef!

The funniest thing was when we got up here, Robert brought his running shoes and clothes so he could run up here to get ready for his WA Ragnar Relay Race he is doing the 24th or July. On Friday I think it was, he went running, came back showered and realized he didn't bring any underwear except for the ones he wore here. LOL Previously we realized he didn't bring church clothes or shoes, but he got his black church socks. We missed church that first Sunday we were here. It was somewhat nice since the kids were tired from the trip up and then being up later for the 4th fireworks. When Rob would go running, I would wash his underwear. He also ended up doing hay for my mom twice in the same weekend.

I took Robert to the airport on Sunday, dropped him off. I was able to go see my friend Jennifer and her ADORABLE twins (boy/girl). They are just the cutest! Her kids are about a month and a week older than Samantha I think. Her little boy Carter kept grabbing my finger and wanting me to take a walk with him. Her daughter Ellie, wasn't as friendly toward me, but did warm up a bit. I sure wish I was closer, I think our kids would be great friends and I would love to do more with her and her little family!

My brother Kelly's son, Thomas was at his other Grandma and Papa's and wasn't here when we first got here. He ended up coming on Wednesday I think. My girls were pretty excited especially Emily who is the same age and Amber too. Amber loves boys that age. She still tells me at night, "Tomorrow I am going to Jacob's house." She still loves her little Jacob that was on our street at our old house. Now Amber will say, "Where did Thomas go?" when she can't find him or after he has gone back home.

The girls are having VIP sleep over at Grandma and Grandpa Hayes'. They are packing up to move to UT, and I think it works great to have that one on one time with the girls and the girls of course love it. One girl at a time goes and stays with them overnight and then I switch the next day. Lauren was the first to go over. Samantha and Amber will not be having a turn.

My parents and my Aunt Nancy, Uncle Buzz, his son Gene, and then their grandaughter Drelan went to see Mt. St. Helens. I debated on going, the girls really like to go but I didn't want to take the little ones. Then I thought if I didn't go then we could go over to the Hayes' and hang out there a little bit. We ended up going over there and having dinner and dropping off Lauren for the first VIP sleep over. They also went to Lewis and Clark State Park I think, or close by. There is an old growth forest there with a walking path through it. Emily went with them for that.

We have been burning the midnight oil by playing Mexican Train (domino game) I think it is called. I had played it before along time ago with our friends Nathan and Adrian at their cabin but it has been literally years. I think Emily was just a baby at the time or maybe she wasn't even born yet. That is how long it has been. But I really like the game. We start the train with the double 12 and play all the way through to the double blank. Several nights we will end at like 1:30 am. It is normally no big deal for others, but my little Samantha has been getting up about 7 am every morning if not earlier. Amber a few times has woken up at 6:30 am too. Although the other day I took almost a 3 hour nap. I may have been able to keep sleeping, but I noticed it was almost 2 pm and we were going to go riding at 2.

The girls rode horses again today. My mom, her niece, and me went for a ride this evening when it cooled off a bit and then let the kids ride in the field. Lindsey stayed the night at Grandma and Grandpa Hayes' so she missed out on riding.

Samantha is getting really close to walking. She can do it, but just isn't brave enough to let go to do it on her own. I can trick her into it sometimes and she takes a few steps and then realizes what she is doing and down she goes to sit down on the floor.

I can't think of anything else to report on that I haven't already done. Oh yes, except for my neice Renee had her baby. That will have to be a post all in itself. I have some pictures to post on that one for sure.

I guess that will be it for tonight, and now I feel like I can go to bed!

Baby Conrad Nathan

My neice was due the 11th of July with her first little baby. That is one reason I wanted to stay to make sure I got to meet her little one. She went to the hospital on a Monday night (after walking 20 blocks and jumping on the trampoline earlier that day trying to speed things up since she was 2 days overdue) and ended up having to do a c-section last minute on Tuesday. Everything turned out okay, baby just didn't want to get into position or move down really.

7lbs 11 oz, 19 1/2 in, born on 7/14/09

She named her baby Conrad Nathan. Her father's name was Nathan, he has passed on already. What a beautiful baby he is!

My sister who is the baby's Grandma, was saying that he didn't even really cry. They tried to get him to cry a few times and even with his bath, he was just alert and looking around.

My neice will have her hands full as all new moms do as they try to figure out what to do and when to do it all. I know she will be a wonderful mom and fit right into the whole motherhood part of her life now.

Here is Conrad with his new Uncle Jordan. Conrad has so many to love him, and I know he will be so loved too!

My girls as probably all girls were checking him out and loving to watch his little baby expressions.

Emily's House

Emily one day wanted to make a house or something. I don't know that she said she wanted to do a house, but she was looking for some material for something. I told her where I had some left over material from the bibs I made for my neice Renee's baby. I was out and about doing something, can't remember if that is when I went to visit my friend or was out getting groceries for dinner stuff or maybe was leaving to go riding? I came back to find this...

bottom floor

Top floor

looking into top

top again

bottom again

Emily loves to do things like this. She got some wood from my dad and then painted it with water colors. She started out with 2 shoe boxes, made holes and used paper clips and paper towels and cotton balls, staples. She used the scraps of material I had left over.

My Uncle Buzz told her she should put a "For Sale" sign on it with her Grandpa's name and number on there. (Grandpa is in realistate) Emily quickly said it wasn't for sale! He told her that she could get a lot for it since it had a swing in the room. She still didn't want to sell it.

Later she made a 3rd floor and also found another shoe box and made a backyard to play out on. I guess this is something else we will have to find room for when we drive back home.

Smores

At my parents house, well in the whole county and maybe even surrounding counties there is a burn ban. We wanted to do smores so we ended up doing them in the BBQ with some briquettes. That seemed to work great. We had carmel/vanilla marshmellows and chocolate/vanilla marshmellows and of course just the plain ones too. I think the normal ones are the best, although I did kind of like the carmel ones a little bit.

Emily and Lauren trying to roast their marshmellow with out burning it.

Amber only wanted to eat the chocolate. She could careless about the other parts of it, she wanted the chocolate.

Sam had a bit of chocolate and graham crackers. I don't think she got a marshmellow. She was still happy.

We still have makings for more Smores, maybe we will do them again while we are here! If someone doesn't eat all the chocolate first!!

Lake Trip

The girls and I all went to the lake today (Saturday) with most of my family. Samantha stayed home with my parents and I took the others with me. One of my sister's friend has some water toys that he took to the lake for us to play around on. He has a jet ski and also a sea doo (not sure if that is how it is spelled).

My sisters where teasing me saying that I had to ride them since everyone has to ride them when they go... last time my other sister had to do it... and now it was my turn. (Little did they know if I got on one I might not get off!)

My sister gave me a ride and a riding lesson all in one. Then I was off on my own. Pretty fun! The bad thing is then my girls wanted a ride, so then I didn't get to go back out by MYSELF! Okay so I could have, I just felt like I was already hogging them too much and I didn't want to go AGAIN after giving 6 rides for my girls!

Here the girls are (minus Lindsey) hanging out. They all got pretty wet from the water splashing them on the shore so they were trying to dry out. Emily was getting a headache from the sun and squinting, so my brother gave her his sunglasses. They look kind of cute on her.



This is just for a photo shot... we didn't really ride like this. I was just coming in with Emily and then my sister suggested we all get on to get a family picture... of course minus Robert now.


Here are some of the cousins that went with us in there little boat. Amber was calling it "her" yellow boat. She wanted to be in it, but only on dry land. She tried it once on the water and it was too scary for her. She just wanted to pretend she was floating in the water when it was really on the grass.

Here we are switching riders. My sister and her friend are there in the water helping make the switch. (And Amber's little yellow boat out there too.)

It was funny because each girl as I started out with them, they were saying, "don't go fast okay!" We would start out slow at an idle and then a little faster and by the end of the ride we were cruising at sometimes 30 mph, which was about as fast as they liked. Although I didn't get much over 40 when I rode by myself the first time. My brother said that like 50-55 was fast. I was thinking the skin on my face was going to fall off at 40, I can't imagine 55 mph!

Emily didn't want to go at first. I had given Lindsey and Lauren their rides and Emily wasn't interested until after the second time I took the twins out. I got back with Lauren and then Emily decided she would go. I took her out on an extra long turn like for 2 turns. We were cruising and I normally slowed way down when we went over waves or big bumps. I missed one or under estimated it. We smacked down hard from the wave and Emily was grabbing a hold of me really tight and said, "Mom don't do that ever again!" I thought she might be done, but she was okay and wanted to continue the ride. I explained to her that I misjudged it, and it wasn't my intent to smack that hard.

Amber only got to sit on the sea doo, she didn't have a life jacket and I am not sure I would have even taken her out... maybe just a small idle ride around the no wake area.

With all the fun I had, and the girls... I am thinking I should start a lake fund now. If I quit soda and use all my soda funds I might have enough to get some fun lake toys like these.

Fossil digging

Emily has developed a love for rocks. My dad one time mailed her some rocks to add to her collection and they got lost in the mail... the envelope opened and its contents where empty except for the letter he sent.

My dad was talking to a friend of his in WA about Emily and her love for rocks... he is an "amiture" is what he calls himself but he has fossils or rocks (I can't remember which, or maybe it is both) on display in national museums. He said there was a place nearby that you can dig your own fossils. Emily was so excited about it and was wanting to go do it. Finally it was all planned out and they were off to dig some fossils.

Unfortunately, he hadn't been there in a little while and everything was all grown up so he couldn't find the place he was looking for. It was suppose to be like a mile hike to the location, but they didn't ever find the right place.

This rockhound, he brought Emily a box of all different kinds of rocks, with labels of what they are and where they came from. She thought that was pretty cool. Then when they couldn't find the fossil place, he went home and brought a big rock that had over 100 fossils in it he figured. He also brought a egg carton of lots of other little fossils he had already dug up for Emily to keep. She was SO excited.

These ones are from what is called the "Lincoln Creek Formation" and then the big rock he brought was from the Astoria Formation. I don't know much about it all, but I am guessing that since Emily is pretty interested in it, I maybe learning more about it too.


These were said to be like 13-17 million years old. The joke then was that they are a little older than Emily's grandpa (my dad).

Here Emily is digging away at the rock getting things out of it.

You can see the seashells sticking out of the rock all over.

Here is one that she found.

My dad built her a little wooden box with dividers for her to put all her rocks in. I think he is possibly planning on making more boxes for her too since she now has too many to fit in the first box.

How I will get all this home, I am not real sure.

Thomas is here!

When we got here to my parents house... the girls noticed there was something missing. It was their cousin Thomas. He was at his Grandma and Papa's over the 4th of July weekend and finally on Wed. he came back home. So we got to see him on Wed. and he even stayed the night with us at Grandma's house.

Emily was super glad he finally got there since she was tired of playing with Lindsey and Lauren. They went swimming. (Emily only swam if Thomas was there, other wise she found something else to do.)

Amber LOVES Thomas. She kept asking where he was and was really happy to see him. Even after he came back home and would leave Grandma and Grandpa's house she would say, "where's Thomas?" She really thought Thomas was special and loved to spend time with him. I think Thomas thinks its great too, and thinks Amber is cute always bugging him like that. Thomas is a pretty special guy! I wish we had a Thomas in our family!!

First real horse ride

Last time we were here at Pony Poop Farm, the girls I think might have gotten one little horse ride. Last summer, Emily was so close to being able to ride by herself on a real ride on the trails with the other horses.

On the 4th, we took the horses down to another field so they wouldn't be so close while we did fireworks. (And by the way, legal fireworks here are WAY better then they are in UT where we live.) The horses pretty much freak out with all the crackling, booming, and sparking of things. Robert and I lead two of the horses with the twins on them, and Emily saddled up Rainy the little pony and rode her down. It was a short ride, but at least a ride.

A bit after the 4th, we decided to go get the horses to go for a ride. My dad watched my kids while Emily, Grandma (my mom), and I went down to ride the horses back up to the house. Emily was on a big horse, she did great. We got the horses up to the house and then all the girls rode around by themselves (except Lindsey was a little more nervous then the other girls). Emily was excited to have taken her REAL first horse ride.

This is Emily on a friend's horse. Her name is Tooty. My mom said like Tutti Fruity. I heard Emily giggling while riding Toto one time and then said, "I know why they call her Tooty, she toots alot!" Maybe it isn't so much like tutti fruity.

I can't help but to LOVE Lindsey and her enthusiasm with everything she does. She always keeps me smiling. I was taking her picture and this is what she did. Lindsey is on my mom's horse, Odyssey. (Notice Lindsey's outfit also, socks, shoes, headband, jersey...)

Amber and Lindsey are on Ace here, my sister's horse. Amber had so much fun, she wouldn't get off. We just kept switching riders. I started out with her at first on Ace, and then I got off and let their cousin Destiny ride with her, then Lindsey and then I had to PEEL Amber off.

During our time the kids were riding the horses in the field, the horses stood in front of a gate and were very focused down the forest path. Shortly we saw why. The pony, Rainy had somehow gotten out and ran up to the house. We put her to work also, but we didn't saddle her up. She was a bareback rider only, and with no bridal so we had to just lead her around.

In the above picture, Destiny is leading her around while the other girls are riding. Destiny is a super good rider, and is only 5 years old. She games on her horse and wins prizes and ribbons frequently. She is not the least bit afraid of the horse or afraid to get out there and do something with them.

Later she told me, "It isn't much fun just leading Rainy around out there, it is pretty boring." I was thinking, yeah, that is how I felt leading you around today on that pony!

Here Lauren is on Ace.

The weather turned a bit rainy and cold again. I am hoping to get the girls to ride again soon. I think Emily will be going on another horse ride up the road into the trails up there, on a longer ride. I think she is pretty excited about that!

What we are doing today...

We got here to my parents house early on Friday morning. (I prefer to call it late on Thursday night since I hadn't gone to bed yet, I refer to it as the same day as the day I woke up, being Thursday not Friday even though it was 3:30 WA time and 4:30 UT time.) I had the graveyard shift, driving from about 10 pm until our arrival at 3:30 am. Robert slept peacefully as I drove, and for the most part the girls slept during that time too. Wouldn't you know it too, by the time we get to bed around 4 am, then Samantha wakes up at 6 am. Nice 2 hours of sleep for me. I was SOOO tired the first day, and haven't really caught up on it since really.



Samantha doesn't mind my mom's new puppy Sophie to clean up her food after she is done eating. I don't think the dog minds much either. Samantha squeals over the dog, it is hilliarious!!



This is what Amber did after she road horses, and while the bigger girls were still riding.

Samantha and her cousin Parker who is 6 months younger, but doesn't seem to be much smaller really. They had a good time pulling at each other, and grabbing noses and pulling hair.

Imagine that, Sophie is helping Samantha with her messy spaghetti dinner. Who would have guessed?

Amber and cousin Destiny are going shopping with Samantha...

Lauren and cousin Destiny are busy with Barbies. We have Barbie and friends at home, but they play them here... oh well.

Since we have arrived, the weather has been quite hot (for up here) and muggy. Although on Monday it cooled down and rained most the day. We are planning a beach trip while we are hear, and Emily and her Grandpa are planning a hiking trip to a place where they can dig up seashell fossils. Cool! We are having fun for sure up here! Wish Rob could have stayed to play. Someone has to work so we can have this vacation! :-)

Driving and Thinking on a Sunday

On Sunday night, I took Robert to the airport to go back home so he could go to work while we (the girls and I) continued our vacation in WA with my family.

As I drove back to my parents house... trying not to fall asleep, I was about home when I drove through a little town just south of where my parents live. Shortly after high school one of my friends and I rented a little double wide trailer. It was fun at first, but went down hill from there as time went on. We nearly ruined our friendship through the choice we both made and the way we treated each other.

As I drove through the town, I thought I would drive by the house and see if it was still there. I couldn't quite remember the way to get there but I did remember the address so I was able to figure it all out.

I passed the house, I remembered my friend, Summer's dog that pooped in my room on a magazine and I picked up the magazine and put it in her room. (perhaps that was a possible reason for some of the fights we got into) That same dog that got outside and was lost for week if I remember right. I pictured her cat (that died years later) with the broken leg that never healed right and she looked like her foot was on backwards. I remembered when we moved in, it was pouring down rain, I had my sister's 4 or 5 kids with me, and Summer and I were unloading dressers and beds and couches out of the truck in the rain while the next door neighbors (guys) sat on their porch and watched us the whole time. I always wondered why they didn't even offer to help, although me being who I am with the "I don't need help, I can do it all" attitude, I probably would have told them no I didn't need any help. I did remember the laughing and goofing off we did all the dreams we made while living there, and all the processed food we ate. I liked the independence I felt while living out on my own. I noticed the big tree in the back yard and thought about the primroses I once planted around it. I remembered the small garden I made with strawberries, cucumbers, sunflowers, and pumpkins. I started my love of gardening there. (We never had a garden growing up because we were on a well that didn't have much water, sometimes struggling to water the horses.) I saw the back porch and remembered sitting there reading my scriptures one day sad and angry, and getting an answer I hadn't even asked yet, but knew what I needed to do. To this day, I have never found that scripture again. I pictured the fushias hanging from the front porch, the azelea's in their pots on the steps and the huge sunflowers in pots in front of the front porch. They were flowers that my dad just showed up with one day and left for us. I remembered mowing the lawn, perhaps the first time I ever had mowed a lawn. I had to smile when I thought of the snow we got overnight one winter, I had to get to work and I couldn't back my RX7 out of the drive way, so I drove through the yard of the neighbors and made it out since it was down a little hill. I remembered having our first Christmas tree there... buying curtains and wallpaper and all the fun stuff for the bathrooms and what not. I loved to go grocery shopping with Summer, usually near the middle of the night as we would goof off and be silly and do our shopping which normally consisted of junk food or mac and cheese and top ramen noodles. We sometimes bought stuff to make tacos. Thinking of all this seemed like such a lifetime ago!

As I was driving away I was reflecting on the harsh life lessons that I went through in that little trailer. I learned while living there what it really meant to be a friend and how it was up to me to make my life "happily ever after" and it was also there when I realized that IS what I wanted, I wanted to have a life that ended happily ever after. I learned my parents were wiser than I thought, and they knew what they were talking about. I learned that my family loved me no matter what, and nothing I did would ever change that! I discovered the importance of having the church in my life and how I really wanted that to always be there.

I always hoped that through the experience that I would be a happier person and that I would remember the pain enough not to make those same mistakes again. I hoped I would learn the value of both friends and family. I think because I lived there, I had a stronger desire to have an eternal family and to live the life according to Jesus Christ's teachings. I knew that those two things would make me the happiest. And then at that moment...while I was thinking all that through, I realized that I got what I wanted so long ago when I was little. I got that temple marriage, I got my little family, I got my wonderful husband. I am grateful for what I have now. I am grateful for my family both my family I was born into, the family that I have made with Robert, and the family I was married into.

Sometimes in life our poor choices bring us misery and pain, and it makes it hard for us to see those things we dream of, or we see them but they seem too far out of reach or they seem too good to be true. I don't think they ever are too good to be true, I think you just have to keep trying and believing you can have those things you dream of. I remember the despair I was in once, thinking those dreams I had would never come true.

I continued up the hill to my parents' house with a smile on my face as I was counting all the blessing I have in my life. Dreams do come true!