Spring Break Part 2

After having the first half of our Spring Break to ourselves, we welcomed my brother and his family to Oregon and spent the second half of our Spring Break playing at every opportunity.

Thursday was spent at the coast.

We toured the Tillamook Cheese Factory, bought cheese curds and enjoyed delicious ice cream cones outside under blue skies.

From Tillamook we headed to Cape Lookout Point.  Because the point juts a mile or so into the ocean, the migrating whales have to go around the point so the lookout becomes a great place to do whale watching.  I think everyone that was with us saw whales....T and I saw nine!

Somehow I forgot to tell my guests that the lookout was a HIKE....not cool considering the 2 1/2 miles (each way) and the mud.  Oh man, there was mud!
I am lucky they were still talking to me by the end.

Once we completed the hike we went to Oceanside for a quick visit to the ocean.

Friday was spent closer to home.

Rich and Mike were able to take our three teenagers to the temple to do baptisms for the dead.

I spent the hour hanging out with this cute crew on the temple grounds and in the visitors center.

A trip to Portland is not complete without hitting the food carts downtown.

We walked the block of food options and managed to feed all 10 of us...at 8 different food carts.
I think getting the food took an hour :)

After lunch we hit Powell's bookstore.

Then we headed south to the country and the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival.

SATURDAY we must have been photographed out cause I don't have much to show for our day.

We reined our activities in even further and we went to a petting zoo being hosted by a local market here in Wilsonville.

(got to love these "selfie" shots by my boys)

K and her cousin rode their bikes to and from the farmer's market, with a stop along the way for K to show Aussie where she goes to school.

We fed the kiddos some lunch and then hit a local favorite (Koi Fusion) for the adult's lunch.

We went to Jurgen's Park thinking we would stay an hour or so...but 2 1/2 hours later the four youngest cousins were still running around having SO much fun together.  It was hard to break it up!

So glad that the weather cooperated for us!

We left all the kids at our house and the adults went and enjoyed a dinner out together at a fun, casual pizza stop, with a little Cabela's browsing to follow.

SUNDAY was kept to a minimal....church, making fudge, family dinner and then up to the Temple visitor's center to watch "Meet the Mormons".

It was no fun to have to say goodbye to our family but, alas, our spring break was over and I had two little boys in bed by 7 p.m. Sunday night.  They had played hard all week and it was time to get some rest before school started bright and early Monday morning.

Thanks again Mike and Brandy for coming and spending your vacation with us.

We loved every minute.

Hope you started planning the next trip on your flight home!

Spring Break Part 1

Last week was our Spring Break.

The first half of the week we were just at home with ourselves and we kind of laid low and relaxed.

Day #1....I came into the room and saw this and knew we needed a plan for the week.

I gave a piece of paper to each of the kids and they each picked...

a PLACE they wanted to go

something they wanted to DO

something they wanted to MAKE

and a MEAL that they wanted to eat

T's list

GO to the basketball hoop at the school

DO a kickball game

MAKE welsh cakes

and EAT hash browns and grape juice for breakfast

J's list

GO to Hammerle Park

DO a read-a-thon

MAKE homemade root beer

and EAT pizza roll ups for dinner

C's list

GO nowhere (as in, stay home - always his preference)

DO a H.O.R.S.E tournament

MAKE chocolate covered potato chips

and EAT french bread pizza for dinner

(f.y.i.  I MADE that shot....twice)

K's list

GO to the library

DO a bike ride

MAKE banana bread

and EAT hamburgers for dinner

In the end it was the perfect balance of having things to do while still being able to relax and keep things simple.

my love note

Earlier this week I found this rock and note on my bedside table, completely out of the blue....

I love this J of mine!

from the US to the UK

This is a late post but I believe in "better late than never".

For Christmas 20014 our family gave to Rich's brother Rob and his family.

Rob's family lives in London and there are some things that we we take for granted that they cannot buy in London so we decided to give them a box of American delicacies.

We packed up the box and then sent their family a video of what was coming.  

As a joke we pretended that all the purchases were made and then donated to the food bank in their name...it was reported back that our cousins watched the video and declared "lucky" as they believed all of their favorite American treats were being given to someone other than themselves.

Uncle Rob came to the states in March and took the goodies back with him at that point so it was a bit of a belated receipt of the gifts but I believe that they were enjoyed nonetheless.