Friday, September 23, 2016

August 2016

My Mom turned 70 this year.  So we decided to have a nice adult only birthday dinner for her.  We had it at Jennifer's house and it was such a nice evening.  We had lasagna and then got bread sticks and salad from Olive Garden.  Jennifer had it decorated so nice and it was fun to just be able to talk without kids interrupting us.  Afterwards we all went around and each told a couple of stories about our Mom.  There was laughter and tears of course and we are all so grateful that we were able to celebrate this birthday with her.  It's been 5 years since her stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis and 5 years ago we weren't given any hope that she would still be with us.  So we have seen a huge miracle and are so grateful.  My mom just had her check up with her oncologist and he told her he doesn't want to see her for 6 months and then added 'I never say that to a stage 4 lung cancer patient, it's unheard of.'  Miracle!



Our Primary presidency challenged our primary this year to read the scriptures every day.  Our theme has been all about the color Red (Read Every Day)  If they would read at least 5 times per week, then we had them put a link on a paper chain we made.  When the chain went all the way around the primary room, we told them we would throw a party.  So we had a water themed party.  It was fun and all the kids had a great time.  Siena and Aria talked about it for days afterwards.




We had our annual family dinner up American Fork Canyon when Christy and family came to town.  Look at how cute our JLOs are.  Aria is obsessed with smores and I'm pretty sure she ate 4 of them that night.




We continued to go to Classic all summer long.  I was finally able to convince Siena to go on the big waterslides with me.  She LOVED it and after that it was non-stop asking when we can go again.  We took Shane with us one evening and he convinced Aria and Jaron to go.  Jaron didn't really like it that much but Aria thought it was fun.  Next summer they will be excited to go back again.  Hopefully I can convince them to go by themselves.  These 2 girls LOVE their cousin Abbey...they can't get enough of her and Abbey is always so good to play with them and include them whenever she is around.






Just some random fun family time at home.  The kids are always asking me to take their pictures doing crazy things.  And there's never a shortage of fun when dad comes to play.



I took the kids to Tracy Aviary for the first time.  We had so much fun.  It wasn't crowded at all and it was fun to just walk around looking at all the different birds.  For sure the bird show was the highlight of the day and the kids were in awe of all the birds that would fly right over their heads.  After the bird show we went and found a table to eat lunch and we ended up getting a little encore bird show right in front of us as they flew the vulture back and forth right by our table.





Scripture reading really has it's ups and downs but the other night Jaron announced he wanted to read a scripture.  So we said ok.  He opened up his Book of Mormon, turned a few pages and then while looking down and pretending he was reading said 'the nephites fought the lamanites and then they threw them in jail.'  It was so funny and so cute.  At least he knows a little bit of what is in the Book of Mormon.



For Christmas Shane gave me concert tickets to see Josh Groban.  And well yes, the concert was in August.  Seriously, I forget how much I love his voice.  It was such a good concert and I loved hearing him sing again.  The first time I saw him in concert he had just come out with his 2nd CD and I went by myself and scalped a ticket at the door.  He just came out with a Broadway CD and it was soo good!



Jaron's has been asking for a while when he gets a big boy bed.  I thought he had given up asking and hadn't asked for a while and then we went to his 3 year old check up and the doctor asked if he was in a crib or a bed...that was it, Jaron kept asking and asking again (thank you doctor!) So I finally relented.  We had a bed already for him so I just had to get him sheets and a bedspread.  He kept saying he wanted a baseball bed.  So I found a cute sports themed bedspread.  He was more than thrilled when we got it all set up.  Unlike my girls, who didn't do this for over a year, when he wakes up in the morning he just walks downstairs.  It still kind of shocks me when I hear his little footsteps coming down the stairs.  The first morning he woke up early but after that he has been fine.  He is such a good sleeper and this has not affected his naps or sleep time.

One day he randomly said to me...
Jaron: Mom, when I was sleeping, I fell out of my bed.
Me:  You did?!?  Did you cry? What did you do?  (I had no idea, no crying, no big thuds, nothing)
Jaron:  I just got up and got back into bed.
He said it so casually like it was no big deal.  I still crack up thinking about the conversation.




Everyone started back at school the last week in August and we still had 2 weeks before preschool started.  So we took advantage of places that had no crowds and went to the Herriman reservoir, which I had been wanting to check out but had never dared brave the crowds I heard about.  We met Brigitte, Lori, Michelle and Whitney there.  It was fun to hang out for the morning playing in the sand and water and really they had more fun playing on the play ground there.




When we were in Seattle we got everyone a new shirt and when Shane saw this shirt he knew we had to get it for Aria.  Her very own horse shirt.  Aria is a serious horse lover.  I can't even count the number of horse toys, stuffed animals and other horse related things we have in this house.  She asks to wear this shirt multiple times a week and is disappointed when it's sitting in the dirty clothes to be washed.  The first day she wore it she insisted we go show it to the horses down the street.  She just knew they would be so excited to see her horse shirt.  Sure enough they came walking right over to us and afterwards she turned to me and said 'the horses were trying to eat my shirt because they saw the horse on my shirt.' haha...she sure is cute.



We had a play date over at the Pace's and rode bikes over at the church.  They had a lot of fun.  Jaron got his first bee sting and although was very sad, he is not allergic!  Tagg gave Jaron his birthday present with a bunch of hot wheel cars and Jaron loves them.  This is how he sat to watch an afternoon show later that day.  He still, a month later, puts them in their little plastic holders that the cars came in before going to bed each night.




A while ago Konstantina came and let the girls choose a new pair of frames for their glasses.  She is friends with someone who sells them and was nice enough to get them a pair.  We finally got a new prescription for Aria so we had hers done up with the correct lenses and here they both are with their new glasses.  Siena's is still just plastic, fake lenses.  She doesn't wear them as much anymore like she did last year but still puts them on here and there.

Monday, September 19, 2016

Shane and Sheri do Seattle...and Portland

Shane and I went on an extended weekend trip up to Seattle in August.  We used part of the credit we got from Delta from our Paris trip last year.  I've never been to Seattle and Shane has a good friend from high school, Paul, that lives up there.  So we decided to go.

Thursday Paul and his son picked us up from the airport and we went straight to downtown Seattle.  We started at the space needle (although we didn't go up it) and walked around and then rode the monorail over towards Pike's Market.  We ate lunch and walked around there for an hour.  It was fun to see them doing the famous fish throwing you hear about and fun to see all the shops and what people sell.  They had the most gorgeous flower bouquets and for soo soo cheap.  I wanted some so bad but didn't want to carry them around the rest of the day.  We of course also had to go see the famous gum wall...gross but so interesting to see...and no I didn't stick any gum there.






After that we went and did an underground tour of Seattle which has such a fascinating story/history to it.  They have all these shops that used to be above ground and now are underground and not used, so it was fun to see all that.  Afterwards we walked along the water's edge and over to a sculpture garden.





On our way back to Paul's house we stopped the famous troll and then stopped at Ballard locks and watched the boats transition from the fresh water to the ocean water.  I have never seen anything like this before so it was pretty fascinating to watch.  Afterwards we ate a yummy dinner at a local burger joint and headed to Paul's house.




Friday we decided to get out of town and Paul and his son drove us out to Mt. Rainier.  We went on a hike called Naches Loop trail.  It was seriously one of the prettiest hikes I have ever been on.  The wildflowers were in bloom and the pictures don't even do that justice how many colors and how many flowers there were.  Then we hiked past 2 lakes and then you come to the top and get the most perfect view of Mt Rainier.  It also helped that we had the most perfect weather on this trip.  People in Seattle thought it was a heat wave but it was such mild, but warm weather with perfect blue skies.












That evening we went back to the house and had a BBQ dinner and then went to Kirkland Summerfest where a Beatles band was playing.  We got some yummy gelato and had a good night.

Saturday morning Shane and I got a rental car and drove down to Portland.  We passed Mt St Helens and then of course saw Mt Hood when we got close to Portland.  (My kids were obsessed when I told them we saw some volcano's.  They kept asking if we touched the lava and if it was hot, etc....I tried to explain that I didn't see any lava but not sure they were listening.)

We went and saw Multmonah Falls.  It was so fun.  We hiked to the top of the falls.  The bridge in the picture is the beginning of the hike.  Not an easy hike when we had already been walking everywhere and hiking the last 2 days but still worth it.  After we saw the top of the falls we kept going up for a little while longer and saw another smaller falls which was fun to just explore around and a lot less crowded.









That night we went into downtown Portland and walked around, ate dinner and then of course went and tried some Voodoo donuts.  They were good and super fresh, and surprisingly super cheap, but not sure I would wait in a long line again for it.



Sunday we went to church and then drove back up towards Seattle and then out to the coast to a place called Ocean Shores.  Cute little beach town.  We had lucked out all weekend with perfect weather but the coast didn't hold up for us.  It was super overcast/rainy and really cold.  But....we had a hotel right on the water and I could hear the waves from my room so really what else could I ask for.  We walked out to the beach for a while, and watched a seal and some dolphins swimming a little ways out.  Then went and ate dinner and then just relaxed listening to the waves while watching the olympics.  The next morning we did a little shopping and then slowly made our way back to Seattle where we flew home that night.



The kids stayed at my parents the whole time and my mom is a rockstar to watch them for us the whole time.  I never worried about them once and knew they would have so fun spending the weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's.  And sure enough they came home telling me all the fun things they did, the shows they got to watch, and the stores grandma took them shopping to.  Thanks mom...and dad!