Oregon

 Silver Falls Oregon. There is a trail that winds around several beautiful waterfalls.

 Some of them you can walk underneath.

 Little Lydia wanting to keep ahead of the rest. It was three miles and she and Elizabeth did an amazing job!

 We finally made it!

 Newport Oregon. 

 We took a boat ride out into the ocean. Wow, none of us had been on the ocean before. Lydia is helping with the crab catch.

 Elizabeth is smiling, but she was nauseous most of the ride.

 I don't have a picture of it, but we saw a blue whale several times pop up. It was incredible! Very exciting to see it come up and breech.

 We caught a crab!

 Izzy got a hang of flying the kite. I guess that's what you do in Oregon.

 Lydia

 Ah, the ocean!

 Kristen and Brian get the prize for going the farthest out and getting the most wet. The water is very cold, but they were jumping waves, having a fabulous time.

 This is up in the forest with all the fog hiding the ocean.

 A light house we almost had time to go into. Bre is super happy to be there.

 I'm not sure that there is anything better than the ocean! It's serenity, it's power, it's beauty...I love it!

 We made up a game where one person would tell the rest of us to either, jump it (the wave), walk it, or run it. So if we thought the wave was too high, we'd run it.  I usually didn't listen to the leader and just ran back. I don't like cold too much.

2013 Oregon trip!

SUMMER Visitors

 We had  Brian's parents and nephew come to stay with us for a few days.   We went to Dierke's Lake and jumped off the cliffs.  It was Izzy's first time and she had perfect form. I jumped for the first time too, but no picture.

 Brian is the one in the air. It was really fun because there was a cheering crowd anytime anyone went. We all tried to get whoever was up to jump. There were several groups of people but we all became fast friends as we cheered and coaxed one another.

 Maggie was our Chinese daughter for three weeks and oh did we love her!  She was smart and funny and wanted to learn as much as she could. She spoke very well so we got to really know her.

 We went to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolored Dreamcoat in Logan. We all loved it!  And of course had to go get Aggie Ice Cream!

Maggie was a great help moving the pipe with the girls something she's never done nor ever will again I don't suppose.

 Then the Cox family finally came to our house only after 5 years of trying to get them here.  But who's counting? We had a blast with them. We went to the water park, Dierke's Lake, and all sorts of wild things. We pretty much wore them out. We did find time to relax with Gavin at the guitar.

 At Dierke's lake we let the kids try the canoe...it was funny to watch.  Coming back most of the kids baled out and enjoyed a nice swim rather than try to steer the canoe.

 For a little while we had a house full...thirteen, staying with us. We went to play laser tag with Abby's family, Maggie and a French girl we had staying with us for a week, and yes that's Chad. He only stopped by for a short time, but we got him to play laser tag.

 Not really important who won.

 Magali, was our French girl.  Lydia and Emma Kate found a friend, especially when she would buy candy for them. She was interesting.  The best thing about her was of course her beautiful language. It was so fun to hear her pronounce all those French words we slaughter, like....Les Miserables. The funniest time was when Magali was trying to have Maggie say 'bakery' in French and Maggie was trying to get Magali to say 'bakery' in Chinese.

 Timmy was also a guest at our house this summer.  What a treat to have him. He is OCD for sure, but we loved having him. He is very very sweet. I had him most of the time since Brian was working. He loved Walmart, DI, jello, missionaries, missionary movies, pictures of missionaries, talking on the phone with missionaries....

 It was a privilege to have him stay with us. He was so sad to leave.

 And just in case you wanted a close up on Lydia's hand here it is. She has healed very well!

 Um kind of yikes!