Seaside, Oregon

Memorial Day weekend turned out GREAT! Our original plan was to go to Lake Ozzette with the Jensen's for the weekend and do the hike, see the petroglyphs and camp. When we found out that the Hood Canal Bridge was closed and that we would have to lengthen our drive by an hour or two at least, we decided it was not worth it despite our disappointment. I scrambled last minute to make a quick change of plans - not an easy feat considering it was Memorial Day weekend and EVERYTHING is booked for that weekend!!!

After hours of trying I finally found a little house in Seaside Oregon. It was a perfect weekend. A great little house only 1 1/2 blocks from the beach, AMAZING weather and great company. We had so much fun it was hard to come home!!

Aaron and my bedroom

The girls bedroom

Skim board lessons. Paul is really good at it.

The girls were sharing an ipod to listen to music and were trying to run down the beach connected at the ears. What dorks!

Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach

We spent all day Sunday at Hug Point Beach. It is our favorite beach in the area and the weather was so nice there was no reason to leave. We spent all day just playing in the water, relaxing and getting sun burns. Who could ask for a better day.

Jess go super cold boogie boarding and spent the next hour wrapped up in this black beach blanket. I had to sunscreen her face because I thought for sure she was going to burn it. Oops - forgot the bottoms of her feet!

The girls thought is was so funny how short I was with my feet buried in the sand.

Ecola State Park Lookout

Indian Beach

Jeff Made Me Do It!

He thought Scott would get a laugh out of this since he is ALWAYS turning things phallic. Um.... I knew there was a reason I didn't like horseradish! Don't tell me God doesn't have a sense of humor.

Grease!

Today was the day Jess and I finally got to go to our play GREASE. We both love the movie and the music, and Jess has never seen it on stage. It is playing at the 5th Ave Theater right now staring Taylor Hicks at the Teen Angel. It was way fun!

At the Cheesecake Factory for lunch

We were as about as far back as you could get in the Theater. There was only one row of seats behind us. We were so far back that we didn't even get any lights. But, we were there, and it was cool, so who cares! We had a lot of fun together today!

Braces Off!

Jessi got her braces off today!!! Wow, what a freakin ordeal that was, but they are finally off. We didn't have a very good experience with the place we went, and it just seemed to be one thing after another, but she is finally done. She just has to wear her retainers for around 6 months, and then she has to just wear them at night. Hopefully now her jaw can start to heal since her bite wont be manipulated any more. It's amazing how much different her teeth look. She looks great.

Oh ya.....

I forgot to mention that Jeff gave me a super awesome mother's day gift all on his own. When I got home from my morning run he had done the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen for me. He said it was all he could afford, but it meant more to me than any trinket he could have bought me. I loved it.

Thanks Jeff!

Mother's Day

I had a great Mother's Day. Woke up and did a good 9 mile run (only 4 more miles to go!), and it acutally felt great. I think I'm getting in the swing of training.

After showering and a quick bowl of cereal, everyone took me to go see Star Trek. Awesome movie!!! Absolutely loved it, and will see it again if it gets put into Jeff's theater, and will buy it when it comes out on DVD. Can't wait to see it again actually. Not very often that a super good movie comes out. After the movie we went to Chipotle for lunch. Yum!

I got a lilac bush for my front yard and the book "Flowers for Algernon". I have been wanting to read this book for a long time, but haven't found it at the thrift stores or half-price books where I do most of my book shopping. I was excited to get it, and it will definitely be next on my to read list.

In the evening we took off with "Spite and Malice", our favorite card game, popcorn, M&M's and juice and went over to momma Smout's to be with her the rest of the day. We had a great game, which I won! Yea!

It was a great day. I hope all the rest of you mother's had a great day too!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Alison posted this video on FB the other day and I thought it was hilarious so I wanted to share. Enjoy!!

Calling All Cooks!!

Jeff is graduating from College next Spring, and if all goes well he will be spreading his wings and moving out. That means he will be doing all his own cooking.

For Christmas this year I thought it would be super fun to collaborate with everyone to come up with a family cook book. This would be an awesome Christmas gift for all of us, but especially Jeff as he is trying to figure out the whole cooking thing. And, Jess will only be 1 1/2 years behind him.

So, I am getting started now. Tons of work to do, and I am starting WAY too late in the year! I would love as many of your favorite recipes as you can get down. Julie, I know you have your separate cooking blog, and I will pull things from there, but if you could let me know what your favorites are I can at least start with those.

I'm looking for main dishes for breakfast and dinner, snacks, drinks, desserts, holiday food, just anything that your family loves to make and eat.

The other thing I would love to put in here to make it more personal are cooking-eating-family dinner quotes, stories and memories. Especially if a recipe comes from an old family tradition or family member. I want to know where the recipe came from and any tidbit that goes along with it.

Just email me with all your stuff. One or two recipes at a time would be awesome, don't feel like you have to sit down and give me fifty. It would actually be easier for me to digest in smaller portions :o). Also, PLEASE let Kristina know what I am doing too, since she doesn't have a blog, and I don't have an email, phone number or anything for her. I want her to be a part of this as well!!!!

Thanks guys. This should be fun, and I know Jeff will love it. And, cross your fingers that I get this done by Christmas!

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

I think all of us have become fond of our Sunday Drives. It's hard to come up with some really fun stuff to do that doesn't cost a bunch of money, and the trails just aren't good enough to hike on yet. Besides, with Aaron and I building up our 1/2 marathon miles, hiking is just too much right now on top of that.

Today we headed to Lake Samamish. We had a pleasant surprise when we got there and found a huge VW car show. There were some really fun stuff. We just kept thinking the Jensen's needed to be there because they have a bug AND a van.

Here's some of our favorites:

Herbie!!!

The Darma Van. Cool!

The Camper VW.

On the way home we wanted to stop by Krispy Kreams to get doughnuts for dessert tonight and go to Big Burger for fries. Right next to the Burger place was...... Weldon Barber. What are the odds of that?! We just had to get a picture for Weldon.