The Happiest Campers

I really think we are the happiest campers!  Our family loves to sleep under the trees.  And something magical has happened now!  We don't need a port-a-crib, diapers, or baby stuff any more!  It's so much easier than it's ever been even though there are so many of us!  For this trip we headed into the Esticada Gorge and found a campground.  The camp wasn't officially open yet, so we were the only campers there.  It was so nice! 

The morning was a bit chilly, and as it was Sunday and we were trying to get back for 12:30 church, we had to make a quick turn around.  Heidi turned into ET in my sweatshirt. . .

 And we had a very short explore along this riverbank before heading back home.  It was a great quick trip!

Hardware

Ethan and Aidan just started their orthodontic treatment at OHSU.  Ethan is the first one to have visible hardware.  So far, everybody is cooperating and it's going well!

Aidan's Ordination Weekend

Aidan is 12!  He turned 12 while we were in Utah, so he had to wait a few weeks for his ordination.  Grammy, Grampy, Uncle Theron, and the local Aunt's and Uncle's all attended.  We had a nice little party afterwards with what else, Spaghetti!

While Grammy was here we took Emilee to a paint your own pottery place.  She had a WONDERFUL time designing her own vase, and can't wait to go back!

 The other thing we were dealing with during this time is Chandler's awesome case of poison oak.  After fighting it for a few weeks with heavy steroidal creams, he eventually needed systemic steroids to kick it.  Ethan also picked up this case, and has had another terrible case since then.  Seems that our kiddos are very susceptible to this common plant that is EVERYWHERE around here.  Dang it!

Happy Birthday Chandler!

Chandler's birthday was quick this year!  All he wanted was to invite a bunch of friends over after school for donuts and a play date.  Perfect!  That is right up my ally since I'm dealing with a totaled car and life in general.  It was a great birthday.  Nine looks good on you Chandler!

CRASH!

Driving home on Boones Ferry Road is often a bit tricky because there is no left turn lane.  Well, we were stopped waiting for someone to turn left when a jeep slammed into our poor beloved van!  Heidi and I were the only ones in the car, and while it did shake us up pretty good, we are fortunate that neither of us were injured.  Just a bit of a headache for both of us as our heads hit our seat backs pretty hard.  We were pushed into the car in front of us and so the poor van got it on both ends.  It didn't take the insurance company long to decide it was a total loss.

Amy and Vader came to our rescue!  Vader acted as therapy dog and helped Heidi get out of her post crash funk.  They even shared an ice cream cone on the way home!

 Here is Heidi sleeping with her new bear "Bumper" that the fireman gave her.  Hooray for firemen who have stuffies for scared children.  I was shocked how fast this helped her stop crying.

It didn't take us long to find a replacement van.  We found one right here in Lake Oswego, same model, same mileage, same year and everything!  In fact, it's a bit less worn than ours was.  So, we came out of this accident okay, but it was still enough to give me the jitters for a few days!

the Best Snow on Earth

We had so much fun skiing at Brighton during our Utah Spring break!  We made it up to Brighton three days, and it was so fun to ski the whole mountian with the boys.  Gordon even took Ethan over to Great Western lift and they had a great day shredding it up.  By the end of day two Emilee was ready to go and graduated from Ski School, and skiied with us up on Snake Creek.  

 And look at this!  Heidi didn't want to be left behind!  She did three ski lessons, and then spent time in the daycare.  Her teacher (Roberto) enjoyed teaching her so much, that he even came back on his day off to teach her again.  She did great!

 And here is Grampy's ski art installation.  He enjoyed lining them all up every night in a nice orderly pattern, and we all enjoyed it too!

Sunday in Utah

On Sunday morning, we woke up early and drove up to Temple Square to hear the "Spoken Word" broadcast with the Motab.  We were so disappointed to find out that Heidi (and therefore one of the adults) couldn't go into the broadcast.  We understood why, but it was sad because she really wanted to go!  We really enjoyed the music, and then got a great tour of temple square with Christian Hansen.

This was a fun moment.  The cameras were on these big booms, and before the broadcast started, one came down and "talked" to Em!  It kept getting closer and closer and wiggled and almost touched her nose.  So fun.  We were sitting right up front because Grampy was able to use his charm and my cute kids to snag some great seats.

We headed home for Heidi's nap, and then over to the Webecke's house for fun fun fun!  We had so much fun letting the kids romp around and get to know eachother.  They had so much fun and have decided that they are all "cousins," which is mostly true.  It was a wonderful night and so much fun to spend it with such great friends!