Kate's Birthday Date

Whenever Mike and I have a "getaway" without the kids we typically go to our favorite hotel on the beach. Earlier this year while camping with the kids Mike and I were reminiscing about how easy and relaxing it use to be when we went camping together before having kids. So with that in mind, we decided to go camping for our getaway for 2 nights and decided to go east instead of west. We ended up in a very small and secluded campsite in the Columbia River Gorge, Ainsworth State Park. We ventured on 2 hikes also. This first hike was to Horsetail Falls that had several waterfalls along the way:


The top of Oneonta Falls:

Top of Triple Falls:


The next day we hiked Eagle Creek (yep, Mike is in this picture, can you see him?):

The whole hike followed the creek. We hiked along this cliff, with the creek down below:

YIKES!

Punchbowl Falls:

Metlako Falls:

Very beautiful hikes, I highly recommend them!
Thank you Grandma and Terri for each watching 2 of our kids. It was a wonderful trip!

Granddad is 95!

Last weekend I flew to Spokane for my Granddad's 95th birthday party. Yes, I got to spend 35 hours with NO KIDS. Ahhh, what freedom! And much thanks to my wonderful husband who perfectly managed the 4 kiddies at home while I was away.
Here's a picture of my parents, Granddad, me, and my brother Adam:

Granddad is my mom's dad, so here's a picture of the 3 of us:

My cousin, Delena, helping Granddad blow out the candles on his cake:

Among other games at the park for his birthday, the kids (old and young) got to try out the water balloon launcher. Here's Kaylyn launching a water balloon:

And Rusty giving it a try:

Granddad is so amazing - he still lives in the same house he built 50 years ago, has a large garden, works in the temple weekly, teaches a class in church on Sundays, and plays the piano in his band at nursing homes and other gigs! He is so gentle and kind and still has a sense of humor. I just love my visits with him!

My "OLD" Friends

I was very happy to have 2 of my oldest friends come visit me this summer! Heather and I were best friends in high school. Here's a picture of us in the spring of 1989 as sophomores in high school. In this picture we were camp counselors for the 6th grade "Outdoor School":

Here is Heather and I the summer of 1988. Yes, we loved Aqua Net hairspray!

And then us now, a couple weeks ago, when Heather came down from Washington to visit me:
Nope, we haven't changed a bit! (Just less hairspray.)

And my college friend, Tiffany, came to visit from Utah.
Here we are (with a friend Adam) just before I left on my mission in Sept. 1994:

And us again in April 1996 at her wedding:

And since we haven't changed a bit in the last 13 years, I don't need to post an updated picture here! Actually, I just didn't get a picture of us together when she came to visit...

Mike and Adam's Big Jump

Mike took Nicholas and Zach camping at Lava Hot Springs (near Pocatello, ID) and met up with some cousins for a few days before our family reunion. The pool's highest platform was 33 feet high. So here is Mike and my brother Adam jumping off the very top.

No, Mike isn't doing the fancy backflip you see at the beginning of the video. But you do see him and Adam climbing the stairs.
Mike jumps off at 32 seconds into the video and Adam then peers over each side a few times to get the full effect of the jump before finally committing at 1:02 into the video.

Poor Toothless Zach (actually, he's kinda rich thanks to the tooth fairy!)

Zach lost his 5th tooth while we were on vacation. And wouldn't you know it - he swallowed it! This is his 4th tooth he's swallowed. They tend to fall out while he's eating, therefore it gets swallowed. He lost one front tooth the beginning of May and the adult tooth has yet to poke through at all. So now he lost the other front one.
And to make matters worse, per the orthodontist's advice, Zach had 2 more teeth pulled a few days after we got home from our vacation. His mouth is too small for all his teeth and so he had some baby teeth pulled, then he'll get a spacer to make his upper jaw wider, then most likely braces later on. So the poor kid is having a tough time eating certain foods with all the gaps in his mouth!

Nicholas' Baptism

Because we would be missing our Stake Baptisms here when Nicholas was suppose to get baptized due to our family reunion, we arranged to join in on the Stake Baptisms at Bear Lake. Even though we didn't know anyone in that stake, the local bishop was very friendly and made us feel welcome. Nicholas was actually baptized in Paris, Idaho. There were 3 other kids getting baptized and they had us go last so that it ended up being just our family in the font room for the baptism.

This was a very special occasion for us and I enjoyed sitting behind Nicholas and Mike as they sat in their white clothes on the front pew with the other kids. The scripture in Mosiah 3:19 kept coming to my mind, "and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." Nicholas truly exemplified those qualities. I think he felt the importance of the covenant he was making with his Father in Heaven as he stood in the water with Mike.

Here's a picture my dad took of most of us in the font room, waiting for Nicholas and Mike to change into dry clothes (this is as close as we got to a whole group picture this year):

Afterwards we tried to get a family picture and here's my mom trying to get the kids to smile while Aunt Brittany kept snapping pictures:

Bear Lake

This year it was my turn to be in charge of the family reunion. Fortunately, it only involved my parents, my siblings, and their kids. However, that still amounted to 38 people, 21 of them being the grandkids! Also fortunately, I found an amazing house at Bear Lake in Utah that had 9 bedrooms and sleeps 40 people. On the bottom floor of this house was a whole playroom with a play structure, sunken trampoline, pool table, ping pong table and huge media room. So everyone was happy and occupied.
The view from the deck:

An enormous kitchen with Luke and Amy making an enormous amount of french toast one morning:

Brooke, Naomi, and Emily on the swings:

Almost 21 grandkids on the trampoline:

My dad on "guard duty":

Just kidding, my dad is just taking his turn with the BB gun!
The granddaughters with their new Chinese pajamas:

We did venture away from the Fun House a couple times and played in the lake once. Here's Brooke and Zach with their cousin Sam:

It was fun that the lake was quite shallow for a long distance.
Jonathan pulling Brooke and Ashlyn in the raft: