There's No Place Like Home (Oregon '11)

I am a couple weeks late in posting this mainly because it is always soooo long, with that warning out of the way...in the beginning of August we finally made our annual homage to Oregon sweet Oregon. The trip out the kids were really great which always makes the trip much nicer. 

As we were about 2 hrs from Grandpa/ma Potts' we passes town we just had to stop and take a picture at.  So here is our "Rowena" in the town of Rowena Oregon.

The first full day at G&G Potts' we had our big family and friends BBQ with lots of yummy food & swimming too. At the BBQ we got to see Uncle Robert and Aunt Lucy, Josh (whom Josh is named after) and many others. Phoebe was elated that Robert brought his little doggy which she acidently dropped on his head right after this picture (the dog recovered, but was a little shaken).  To entertain the kiddos this year my parents got  a bubble machine to play with this year and it ran for hours daily.

It was nice just to beable to relax many of the days, read the paper, and look out for the deer that coss my parents fireld everyday. After seeing the these deer so close Phoebe has really started a Bambi Phase, watching the movie and playing with her stuffed deer, something that rarely ever got played with.  

The kids loved discovering all the fun play spots in G&G's house like the laundry shoot and this little window by the front door that is only 1 ft wide or less. Perfect for their miniature tushes.

On Saturday we went and enjoyed dinner at Robert & Lucy's new home, which the kids loved because it had a big back yard where they played with toys & (my favorite part of the doll house besides Phoebe's crazed look is that one of her "sleeping" dollies is a Seth Lord from Star Wars) bikes. They also got to pet  Robert's python, Monte.

On Sunday, we went to visit my Grandma Hogan in her new home closer to my parents. The kids LOVED running around her home and playing with all her fun kick-knacks, like that frog that croaks as you walk by it.  Unfortunately that frog followed us home and croaks whenever I walk into the kids bathroom, too bad the batteries "mysteriously" went missing out f it recently.

Because my grandma is 93 and prefers the heat on to about a million degrees while it is already 85+ outside we all were dying of heat exhaustion, so Uncle Robert when and go the kids ice cream cones to cool off and eat out back, this turned into quite the sticky ordeal.

Monday was spent at our new favorite beach, Taft Beach in Oregon.  It is overly crowded and parking is always available & it is a cove so no big waves for the kids to be swept away in.  This year the beach was PERFECT, I don't know if I have ever been to an Oregon beach on a nicer day in my whole life.  The temp was in the 70s with very little wind & the water in the shallows was even warm enough to walk in without stinging.  Everyone LOVED the beach, I think it was their favorite activity of the whole trip.

We showed the kiddos how to build sand castle which were much easier with pre-molded buckets. 

Phoebe loved that the seaweed was red and constantly picked it up to show us, along with all the pretty shells in the sand. We also tried to teach Phoebs how to skip rocks in the water. She was pretty unsuccessful, but still loved just throwing rocks in the water.

Cami is our resident mess maker and took NO time at all to dig in & cover herself in water and sand. Phoebe dug her toes in the sand about 15 dozen times as well but eventually quit playing in the sand after she got some in her eye.

Sophie loved the beach and even dipped hr dainty little toes in the cold water for the first time with no complaints about the cooler temperature.

My brother, Robert, got bored after several hours at the beach and thought it was a good idea to take a piece of old charcoal and paint tiger stripes on Cami, obviously I was away at the time playing with Josh under he pier, which he loved weaving in and out of the polls, otherwise I would not have condoned it, because it quickly was then wiped all over the clothes.

I had to include this picture because this woman was not too far from us and she was carrying around her little dog in her bra the whole afternoon. I would have never thought of a bra being so multi-functional.

Tuesday was a day and relaxation and pampering for me. The kids discovered & locked themselves in the dog kennels. Is it still abuse to get one for our house to use if they like it???

In the afternoon I got a pedicure with my mom and in the evening we were treated to a wonderful dinner at Caruso's which sits right on the lake, very pretty.

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While we were out my Aunt Barbara & Uncle Joe randomly stopped in; by randomly I mean they live in Florida and I hardly EVER see them. I am glad that they made their annual homage home the same time we did this year.

On Wednesday, we introduced Phoebe to a an annual tradition of ours, blueberry picking. You can see how full she got her bucket before it was too "heavy". I stayed home and watch the wee ones, but I was told that for the couple hours that everyone picked blueberries, Phoebe entertained them with her incessant talking. Grandpa even said if Phoebe could have talked those blueberries in her bucket it would have been filled many times over.

After berry picking, we went down to meet some friends of ours at Riverfront park. There we played on the playground, water park and carousel. My kids were a bit to pansy to really play in the water we many just chased them back down after they tried running away over and over again. My kids, however, LOVED the carousel and all cried for more after our 2 rides were done.

Wednesday night we had a few last minute visitors and  went swimming in the dark until 10 pm to fulfill most of our swimming needs. 

On Thursday we sadly packed up and headed home. 

The trip was pretty easy despite missing one of our exits and taking a 15 mile detour into Washington. We even manage to sqeeze in seeing one more family member on the way home, so I would call this trip another great one; I wish we only didn't have to wait another whole year to do it again.

3 Months Already

In the beginning of August (the 4th) our lil' Sophie Marie turned 3 months old. In the last month she has begun to sleep through the night 95% of the time, which is one of the reasons we love her so much. Sophie also took a trip to Cory's cousin the optometrist and he confirmed what we believed already that she can see, however, he recommend that we should still take her to an ophthalmologist for further tests to see how well. Sophie will track people slowly with her head and has begun to be the BIGGEST social smiler in the world!!! Really, many have told us they have never seen such a smiley baby before. Along with all her smiles her over all personality is very patient and and she fusses very little through out the day.

Sophie's Blessing

Yesterday we had the opportunity to bless our little Sophie Marie in church. Like all my others she did very well and didn't cry, which is always nice, so you can actually hear the blessing and not just her cries. We were lucky to have most of the family join us for the blessing and the yummy food following.

Since this was our first non-winter blessing we knew we couldn't serve our normal soup and rolls meal so instead it was a ton-o- yummy salads and sandwiches. Sophie, who is just a couple days younger than 3 mos and, is our most smiley baby & is the most amiable even when the rest of her siblings are running around screaming throwing fits.

Here is our very cute Sophie Marie at the end of a very long day right before bed, still smiling away.

Beaching it up with the Fergy Clan

On Saturday we met Fergy clan for a day fun beach fun at WILLARD BAY STATE PARK. We had never been here before, but I can tell you we will be going back! It was a lot of fun and much easier to watch all of our kiddos on a smaller beach. The water was warmer which was nice because as you can tell by the pics it wasn't a sunny day. The kids played and played almost non stop while Sophie concerted on her two favorite activities, eating & sleeping.

We only had once incident with josh as he was walking in the water he fell and couldn't get back up so we had to run in to get him face up again, after that it took him a while to warm back up to the idea of getting back in the water, but he eventually did.

We left a couple hours before the rest f the clan since we still had a ton of chores still left to do before Sophie's blessing the next day.  Right as we were leaving Dennis and the nieces were building a sand castle while Charisse was burying the kids to make them mermaid tails. We never saw the finished product, but I am sure they were both masterpieces. As for me I once again learned the hard way that even if it isn't sunny you can still get burnt, I am currently a lobster.

A Year Full of Fergy Froggy Fun

In the past year I have really gotten into buying some fun group deals like Groupn and several other sites.  It has enabled us to get to do many more things at much cheaper prices, so when I saw cheap Living Planet Aquarium Memberships I bought them.  In the end I got 2 adult and one child annual memberships for $18 bucks!  The kids love the aquarium but we rarely went because it was too over priced for how small it was.  No we will get to enjoy a full year of Fergy froggy fun.  Phoebe is so excited about the aquarium that we have been able to use it as incentives, such as get 10 good minding stickers and you will get to go on a special date alone to the aquarium with mommy or daddy.

For our first visit to the aquarium we went with Aunt Julie, Uncle Dennis & Afton on a the holiday Monday, which was a mistake, it was sooo busy, but it did make it possible so both Daddy and uncle Dennis could join us.

The aquarium is so small it only took us about an hours to make it all the way through so we got back right in time for naps.  After naps we went for a blessing dress photo shoot for Sophie, who wasn't as cooperative as I would have liked, & then to Grandma&pa Fergy's for a bbq.  There we had yummy food, which I didn't have to cook, always a plus. We also got to swing, play on the slide & chase a TON-o-bubbles. 

It was a pretty nice day full family fun & we even got grandma a bubble blower so next time her and uncle Davey don't have to nearly go faint from blowing bubble for nearly 45 minutes for my kids.