Jason & Laura's Wedding

My brother Jason had been engaged to a sweet girl in Paraguay (where he served his mission) named Laura for a few months. We found out that her Visa was approved when we were in Washington and that she would be flying into Salt Lake two weeks from then and that they would get married the very next day! They were hoping to have the Visa approved by the end of July but it took longer than they had planned so they were pretty anxious to get married. We headed up to Salt Lake on Friday and met her for the first time in person (we had all skyped with her) right before they went into the temple. The sealing was great… they were both so happy and make a really cute couple!

The view from our hotel room:Jason wanted us to be able to get to know her better so we all went to Lagoon together the next day. (Not the traditional honeymoon!) We had SO much fun! Since we were bringing four kids I was worried that they wouldn’t want to stay in the strollers all day and that we wouldn’t be able to go on very many rides but I was wrong! The lines were really short so we were able to ride plenty and the kids did fantastic! Conner and Kynzee loved the little kid rides and wanted to go on ride after ride. Conner still tells me that he wants to go back to Lagoon! I felt like a little kid again… getting excited about the rides and about eating dip N’ dots and funnel cakes… mmm.Jason and Laura are so cute together. I’m so glad that Jason found someone that makes him so happy! We love her and are looking forward to getting to know her better. They are having their reception next weekend so more pictures of the happy couple to come!

Washington!

After our time in Oregon came to an end we headed to Washington to hang out for another week. Although it felt like we were away forever we had fun spending lots of time with family. The kids went swimming on numerous occasions… We took all the kids to the splash park and after going down the water slide once Conner was hooked. He had a huge grin on his face the whole way down and when it was over he said “Water slide, it so fun!” We kept going down over and over again for the ENTIRE time that we were there! After each ride he would get out and say “All done! Go again!” and would immediately get back in line. Luckily I thought it was really fun too! When I said “weee” all the way down it wasn’t just for Conner’s benefit…

We went out to see Grandpa’s cows and I think all of the kids were in heaven… besides Jayden, he didn’t really care…
Conner’s favorite thing was to bump their water containers and watch all of the flies scatter… yuck! The kids played in the cotton seed but Conner wasn’t too interested because he was obsessed with the “tractor” parked nearby.
After visiting the dairy we met up with Grandpa who gave all of the kids a ride on his tractor. Conner has been loving tractors lately so he was a big fan.
One day a few of us adults escaped without children and went cliff jumping at Goose. I wasn’t entirely convinced that I would jump but I ended up surprising myself. We had SO much fun!

On a daily basis the older kids would ask to hold Jayden. Josh especially loved cuddling with him… it was SO sweet!

At the park...Conner was too young to tag along with the older boys but Claire was nice enough to be his buddy. They played outside together and I once found them playing dollhouse...

Oregon Coast!

Nathan’s Grandma rents a big beach house right on the Oregon coast every other year (although this was our second year in a row... lucky us!) and the whole family gets together for a week of fun. We had a blast this year! I made the mistake of telling Conner about the beach two weeks before we actually went and he talked nonstop about the “big waters” … aka the ocean, the “big sandbox”… aka the beach, and the “fun tub”… aka the hot tub. Every morning and after every nap he would ask “we go beach today?” Every time either Nathan or I would leave the house without Conner he would cry and say “Conner go beach too!” The two weeks finally passed and we loaded our car up... did I mention we need a bigger car... and took off! It was a 12 hour drive to the coast so we decided to break our trip up and stay half way in a hotel. We took Jayden swimming for the first time and he looked very studly in his swimming trunks…

Whenever we go anywhere in town Jayden usually ends up screaming because he hates his car seat so we were really worried about the drive but both kids were little angels and did so good! We did lots of fun stuff so be warned… there are loads of pictures! As usual the beach house had a deck with a spectacular view of the beach! We spent a lot of time down at the beach… chasing waves, building sand castles, and enjoying the view! Last year Conner was fearless... on numerous occasions we had to grab him so he wouldn't be swept out to sea. This year he was a little more cautious of the water. Maybe it was because Nathan watched too many shows with him during "Shark Week"... which happened to be the week before we left... and told him that there were sharks in the water at the beach...

The kids loved the hot tub and requested to swim daily.

One of the bedrooms had a tub almost as big as the hot tub! We started putting kids in to see how many would fit… we didn’t even have enough to fill it! We also hit the outlet malls and shopped until we dropped… or until we no longer could carry all of our bags… We all got matching sweatshirts and had a photo shoot! Of course we did our customary “smore roast” down on the beach.
We went to the aquarium again this year and Conner thought that it was great! Last year he mostly enjoyed running around like crazy... this year he still enjoyed running around... I don't know when that will change... but he at least would stop to look in each tank for longer than two seconds. At each tank he kept asking “where the sharks?”
As the only baby in the house, Jayden got lots of attention. The kids kept asking to hold him, loved making him laugh, and enjoyed “petting” his head.

After the week was over… it went way too fast!… we all headed to Washington for another five days. (Once again the kids were perfect little angels during the drive…well 90% of the time anyways!) Nathan had training in Spokane so we were able to stay at his parents’ house because they only live a couple of hours away. I'm all blogged out but next up: an update about our adventures in Othello!