HIP HIP HOORAY !!!!!!!!!

HIP HIP HOORAY!
It's the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!

I thought I would list a few things about what the first day of school means for me:

1. The first year with BOTH of my kids in school FULL TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. The ability to clean the house and not have it messed up within 10min.

3. The ability to go shopping without CONSTANT complaining

4. Having time just for me ..... I mean more than 1 day in a row .....it's been a long 10 year wait.... my mind can't even grasp what to do with that much time! But I'm happy for the challenge.... ;)


I keep joking with Todd ...." Ohh ... bon bons and People Magazine here I come!!!!" He only kinda laughs!

Now don't get me wrong...there is a very big part of me that feels soo weird that a part of my children's life is now over. I will no longer have kiddos at home with me (except for sick days and holidays).... and I just know that with them at school full time .... life will seem like it is FLYING by. I mean Jake is 10! I only get him at home another 8 years ..... WOW.... I can't even think about it.

Anyway Happy First Day of school to all of you!

Football......

This year Jacob decided after many years of soccer, to try something new....FOOTBALL!! After trying VERY hard to talk him out of it, he persisted in his need to play.....I have to say that the amount of training these little guys go through in the beginning is ROUGH...but after watching the first football game and seeing how much fun the kids have.... I think Jacob made a good decision for himself.....I hope we still feel that way at the end of the season! You will all need to come watch a game with us this season!

PS Jacob is number 21 - if you're trying to pick him out in the pictures!

Oneota Gorge....

Growing up as a child my family always went hiking around Oregon...on the beach, in the gorge ect.... So I was very excited this year when my kids had finally grown to a size suitable for hiking! I planned to ease them into it easy...my mom had heard of hike called Oneota gorge that was supposed to be about a mile and a half long and.... bonus... you get to walk in a "very cute little creek most of the way"Yeah!!! The perfect start to hiking for the kids and I! So we picked a hot day and met in the gorge with Jake and Mackenzie's cousins and set off on our hike. The first picture above was the start of our day.....beautiful... we were so excited to get started on our "Creek Hike at Oneota gorge".....

So we started our walk and it was straight up a hill with no creek in sight..we thought "Hmmmm.....it must be at the top of this hill" so we kept walking and walking... when we finally got to the top of the hill we didn't find a creek to walk in.... but we DID find a super cool cave and AWESOME water fall! This made up for the lack of creek walking up to this point..... so we decided that the creek walk must be just a little bit further up the trail......

Again up another VERY steep hill....this kids were doing OK....but not loving it..they were hungry, tired, hot and wondering where in the heck was the "cute little creek"....Mom and I just kept saying "I'm sure it just up ahead".....we actually had no idea!

Well...we finally found a nice place for the kids to play in the water and eat some lunch...it was only 3.5 miles up a steep mountain!!!!!! Needless to say we were on the WRONG trail! Poor kids had a really tough start to there hiking adventures.... but honestly they did sooo good! (about 7 miles total) The trip down the mountain was much easier than the trip up and hey...on our way down we saw the trail head to Oneota Gorge......maybe next time :)

PS - Jacob had a 3 hour football practice AFTER that hike.....he was dying....not the smartest move on my part ;)

Tag Your It....

My friend Kara - who now lives in Spokane, "tagged" Mackenzie.....
So here you go 7 random facts about my wee one.....

1. Mackenzie is a great sleeper - she started sleeping 10-12 hours a night by about 10 weeks of age.......I think this fact alone saved my sanity during her "colicky" phase. However, what was really strange is that the girl NEVER fell asleep in the car....it was sooo weird, I remember one night driving home from my mom's house in Wilsonville (about 45" from my house) at 10pm when Mackenzie was about 8 months old and she stayed awake the entire ride home!!! I was amazed when I looked in the review mirror and she was just looking around...she's so funny!
2. Her screams reach such a high pitch that I'm sure she is communicating with all the animals in the neighborhood!
3. She is very outgoing and makes friends everywhere we go...which can be a blessing and a curse. I love that she is friends with everyone....but I'm so worried she's going to walk off with some stranger thinking that this is just some "new friend".......She is soooo tired of my "stranger danger" speech!
4. She is reading very well for her age...it's fun to have her read me a story!
5. Mackenzie is in gymnastics and loving it....she can do flips on the trampoline already!
6. She will eat Green beans out of the can and she likes to lick cream cheese off of her bagels..eeewwwww!
7. She is my "craft" girl..always coming up with new crafts to do for the day...pictures to create, albums to make, cards to draw and send....busy,busy, busy!!!

And there you have it .... 7 random facts about Mackenzie...

Now Iwill Tag .......Lilly Roms, Noah Johnson and Katie Digby .....

oooooohhhhh a video!!!!!!

Yeah!

I successfully added a video to the blog!!! These guys crack me up...I giggle every time I watch this ... Jake just had to talk about "myth busters" and the exploding toilet .... and Mackenzie kills me with her ..." it's weird, yeah.... it's really weird" They are sooo funny!

The Road Trip.........

For spring break this year we thought it would be fun to try and catch some sun in Palm Springs...the funny thing is that we actually thought it might be fun to drive there! What in the heck were we thinking???? That is the LONGEST drive EVER...and soooooo BORING!!!! Needless to say the kids did great (with a little help from our friends the DVD player)

The above picture is at lunch on our second day of the trip at IN-N-OUT BURGER...this place is absolutely CRAZY! Todd raves about this place every time he travels to California... so when we saw one we HAD to stop. It was a mad house!!!! There was a line out BOTH doors and around the corner...at first I thought...there is NO WAY my husband will wait patiently in this line for a burger....but oooohoho..was I wrong! Todd wouldn't leave...He was going to eat an IN-N-OUT burger even if he had to wait for 1 hour in line! I had NO idea that he could muster this type of patience! Needless to say the line moved pretty quick and we got our totally Awesome burgers in about 1/2 hour! I do agree with Todd....they are good...but in my mind nothing really beats Red Robyn! ;)

On the 2nd day of our trip we made it to Santa Monica (right next to LA) and stayed the night! By this time we met up with Todd's parents and played on the Santa Monica Pier all night! This was the first time that Mackenzie was tall enough to ride ALL of the rides...so OF COURSE we had to ride them ALL!!

The next day we were surprised by Todd's dad with a Limo tour of Hollywood....we felt like Hollywood royalty! This was one stop we made at a grave yard where many famous actors were buried...at first thought it was kinda weird ...I know....but it actually turned out pretty cool! Jake and Linda our at Marilyn Monroe's grave site... she gets fresh roses every week for eternity (or until the $ runs out) from Joe DiMaggio's estate!!!

Part of the happy clan in front of the ever famous Hollywood sign.....

Easter....

Hello?! ... Is anyone out there?! I'm finally back from my "blog vacation" and think I'm back on track! I thought I would do some catch up from the spring....starting with Easter!

The annual Easter Egg dying

We had Easter at mom and dad's again this year...unfortunately it was raining so the "Bunnies" hid their eggs in the house...How thoughtful....

The Bunny gang.....