Friday, April 8, 2011

Some highlights from our trip to Oregon

Last Friday the kids and I returned home from a 12-day trip to Oregon. We had a wonderful time, visiting with family. So here are some of our highlights from the trip: My mom recently got three lambs. It's been a long time since she's had sheep, and she's really enjoying them. For about a month the kids looked forward to getting to bottle-feed the lambs when we went to Oregon. And they had so much fun with them! Parker wasn't very into feeding them, but he enjoyed playing with them. It was so cute! The lambs were the perfect size for playing with the kids. They would follow them around everywhere, when they were let out of their pen.


We met up with my dad at the park one day, and the kids had a lot of fun playing on the playground and visiting with Grandpa. The Lord provided just the right weather, too. It had been raining pretty much non-stop the past few days, and the rain stopped while we were at the park (the sun even came out for a few minutes)!



The reason we went to Oregon was for a birthday party and a baby shower. Parker was sick the day of the birthday party and stayed home with Grandma Kathy. But Ellie and I had a great time! It was a birthday party for one of Ellie's cousins (my niece) who was turning 13. Since we live in Washington we don't make it to many of the birthday parties, and it was so much fun to be able to go to this one!


The baby shower was for one of my nieces. In the morning I helped Mom decorate the cake, to match the invitations and party decorations. This is something I have come to really enjoy in the past couple of years - decorating cakes. For a long time my mom has made/decorated cakes for weddings, baby showers, bridal showers, etc. Recently I have started helping her decorate them when I'm around. It is a lot of fun, and I've learned so much from her! The baby shower had a great turn out, and was really a lot of fun! Ellie enjoyed it a lot, and was a big helper.

( Lisa, with the baby blanket I made for her.)

Ellie had not one, but two slumber parties with two of her cousins. This is something she always looks forward to and enjoys! This time she had her cousins over to Grandma's house one night and then she went and stayed the night at their house the next night. After two nights in a row she was pretty tired, but I'm glad she was able to have that special time!

Grandma Kathy had been reading "The Little Red Hen" to the kids and decided that they should grind some wheat and make their own bread. They had such a great time! Grandma Kathy is so patient, and let them help with every step of the process (something I don't always do). They ground the wheat, made the dough, shaped the bread (and some rolls), baked the bread, and ate the bread. It was a great learning experience for the kids, and something they'll remember for a long time! The bread was delicious!



We spent one of days going to the beach with my mom. Most of our day was spent in the car, and the weather at the beach was very cold, rainy and windy, but we had a great time! We ate at Mo's, played on the beach for about 10 minutes, and did some shopping at the outlet mall. The kids watched Tangled in the car on the way to the beach, and slept on the way back. We LOVE the beach, no matter what the weather!


We spent our last night in Oregon with one of Jared's sisters, who lives only about an hour from my mom. The kids had so much fun playing with their cousin (the only cousin who's close to their age!). And I had a great time visiting with my wonderful sister-in-law.

There were lots of other fun things we did in Oregon. Many I don't have pictures of. The kids got their pictures taken (by my sister, who's a great photographer). We had dinners with family members. Lots of great memories were made. I am always so thankful for our time in Oregon. And I'm always SO thankful to be home with my wonderful husband!

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