Cobble Beach

On our 1st trip to the coast we went to Cobble Beach.

Where the sand is supposed to be there were all these rocks. It was really cool but even harder to walk on than sand.

Madalynn loved playing with the rocks while the older kids looked at the tide pools.

James, Olivia, and Will heading to another part of the tide pools.

The kids loved the tide pools looking at all the sea life. This is also where Will got the rock in his foot. We are so excited to go back and see it again.

Hello or Hawoow

Madalynn is so funny about the phone, she calls it a Hawoow(her hello) and loves to walk around the house with play phones or our cell phones (which are locked) and talk to it. The funniest thing is that I let her talk to Grandma Hanson and Aunt Heather and when I took it away she was so mad that she couldn't have it anymore she starts saying Hawoow in a whining voice so it drags out the woow. This phone was at a museum we went to and we couldn't get her to leave we had to drag her away crying.

Cape Disappointment

First off not sure why it is called Cape Disappointment, we took the kids up to Astoria and went across this cool bridge and then we were in Washington and we ended up at this cove at Cape Disappointment it was very cool, we did not anticipate it being warm enough to go in the water but by the end of the day James, Olivia, and Will were soaked head to foot. Luckily we brought a change of clothes for everyone. The kids got to play in the sand and Madalynn even let them bury her in sand up to her waist. We had a blast and have decided to make it a yearly tradition to go to the beach the week before school starts.

SHE IS WALKING!!!!!

If you can't tell we are VERY excited about this! We have been concerned about her not walking but knew we just needed to keep working on it. And now she is starting to walk, she walks a lot at home and some outside she just needs to get more confidence in her ability to walk.

She does the best if she is walking from one person to the other.

She was walking across the whole upstairs and was happy to get our clapping!

She can even get back up after falling down on her own, we are so excited for her.

Olivia's Crush!

Okay, so I know he was on So You Think You Can Dance last year but Olivia watched it faithfully with Aunt Heather, Grandma, and I and was always rooting for Neil. So this year she has watched some with me but it didn't have the pull of last year because there was no Neil! She was so excited when the season finale this year had Neil on it for a few minutes. Then today I was looking for something to watch on TV while I straightened up and I came across last years season, so I set the Tivo to record the rest of what they had playing and Olivia has been in heaven today watching them! She keeps insisting she doesn't have a crush but we all know she really does! She is very shy about it but she has loved seeing Neil dance again and all the other dances she remembers and liked.

Beautiful Oregon Coast

James got a week off of work for our move but had to do training right away so we didn't get it until this past week. We decided to take the kids to the coast for a vacation. It was so fun to have time as a family to see fun things and enjoy being together. We started off with the Tillamook Cheese Factory, then we went on to Lincoln City and stayed in the worst motel we have ever stayed in. Though it does not compare to the motel I heard my sisters-in-law went to, this hotel was clean but scuzzy, but we had paid for it thru priceline so we stayed there. Here is a sign that hung on the wall of the room:


There was a sliding glass door but no screen so we had to be on constant patrol of Madalynn to not let her by the door or she obviously would have gotten hurt. And I felt weird having my motel door open so we did not do that.


This was the next day on our way to Newport, OR it was so fun to stop and see things along the way. And yes the kids are wearing coats even though it is the beginning of August it was cold the whole time we were there and we only saw the sun on Sat. just before heading home. This picture was at Depoe Bay.

This was at the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse there was a cobble beach there and we climbed down to the water and let the kids explore. I will post more pictures of the cobble beach tomorrow.

This was from down on the cobble beach I liked the lighthouse in the background. James, Olivia, and Will climbed up the lighthouse, Madalynn was not able to go so I stayed with her and she and I played outside. The only mishap we had on out trip was the last day of our trip we went back to the cobble beach to see the tide pools and Will fell on the rocks and scrapped his knee, then a few minutes later he told us his foot was bleeding we looked and saw that he had cut his heel. We headed to the car and the rangers gave us medical stuff to put on it. We then realized he had a rock in his foot, so James carried him to the car I held him and with tweezers James tried to get it out he screamed and fought so hard people thought we were hurting him. We then let him calm down while we drove to the cove by the lighthouse and I took the girls down to the beach. James got in the back with Will and was calming him down and then was able to get it out with more screaming and fighting than before. I came back to get the stroller for Madalynn and found out there was an older couple parked next to our car and they had stayed there the whole time Will was screaming " No Daddy don't do it, it will hurt really bad!" I am sure they thought they were watching out for this child whose father was beating him. But they left when James came out with a bleeding foot and saw everything was ok. It ended up being a rock about half the size of a penny all the way in his foot. It was a wonderful time and we enjoyed every minute of it.

My Wonderful Husband

This morning the kids woke me up and James wasn't home from work yet so I called him and said did you have to work late? He said he had just gone to the store to get some food to make breakfast. So when he got home he took the kids and fed them breakfast and let me stay in bed. Then he came upstairs to go to bed and the kids brought a target bag into me and it had Breaking Dawn inside of it. I was so excited to go buy it today but it was even nicer to have my husband bring it home to me. He said there was a line of women waiting for Target to open so they could buy the book and he just rested in the car for a 1/2 hour until the store opened. It made me smile to think of James waiting in line with all these womwn to buy the book, but of course he never would feel comfortable with that. :) It makes me happy to know he would go to all that trouble when he has been up all night working and still has to work tonight. Thank you, James!