We Found the Sun... it was in Oregon.

In the end of January the weather was pretty darn nasty here and I kept seeing how beautiful it was at Oregon. Phoebe just happened to be out of school on break so it made for one great spontaneous trip to Oregon. The drive to Oregon was sent mostly in very cold nasty freezing fog.

We were finally thrilled to arrive at Grandma and Grandpas house and see our usual reserved Ferguson Family parking sign.

The first day we mainly relaxed, explored the big backyard of grandma/pas house with the doggies and then surprised Uncle Rob at my favorite Pizza parlor ever, good old Wallery's!

The next day we took a little adventure out to some of our favorite spots& activities which included the carousel, a picnic in the park and my favorite Kondettori for Mounds cake and an extra black out cake for my B-day!

We timed the trip over my birthday so this was the first time I got to see my parents on my birthday in 8 yrs!

After we opened the awesome gifts we all packed up and headed for a mini jot to Seaside Oregon. Cory had never been to the Northern Oregon Cost so we got to do all the fun touristy stuff. We stopped for a tour of Tillamook Cheese Factory, & had yummy cheese (of course), ice cream and also PB fudge!

A couple short miles from the cheese factory is the very small and much less known about Tillamook smoke house where you can buy the most delicious and cheap jerky is almost any flavor you would want.

We stopped off at some of the famous over looks and Cannon beach (Oregon most famous beach) to see the gorgeous day!

My goal for the day was to make it to the beach before the sun set and take a pic! We didn't exactly make it before the sun was hidden, but close. A couple coves away Oregon was having a wild fire in January (unheard of) and so it hid the sun a bit prematurely behind the smoke. I do LOVE these b-day pics sun or not. I think it was one of the most unique b-days I have had in over a decade or more!

After it was finally too dark to play on the beach we headed up to a warm dinner and DELICIOUS Barney's Blackout cake at the condo. We had a slight oversight at forgot to bring candles and since I insist on having something to blow out I blew out a match.

The next day we checked out the free shark exhibit downstairs where Cami kissed up on a great white (hopefully the only time she will ever do that again)!

We stopped off at, what I am sure is, one of world's smallest aquariums to visit the see life. the kids always LOVE seeing the octopuses there especially this time since they also had a baby octopus on display! After the aquarium we played on the beach and then warmed up in the condo's big hot tubs.

On the last day we had to make one last visit to the beach in the cold rain, but the kids didn't mind too much Phoebe was thrilled to collect shells for one of the YW neighbors who asked for them.

The day after our beach trip we headed home, which was a a day too late to miss the storm that was rolling on through. Two thirds of the drive home spent white knuckled, ever since we saw nearly 150 semi trucks lined up for about 1 miles chaining up, we thought, "Oh Crap! what are we about to get into?!?!?" It was nearly as bad as we worried about at one point we saw a double trailer semi spinning and spinning and not moving forward at all and at another point we got cut off by a semi and we were sliding up the mountain.

After we got into Idaho we could put on smiles again for making through the terrifying snowy passes.

Sadly right after Boise we head the Mother of monsoon rains and I could hardly see no less pass the tedious semi's because I was either driving 100% blind in the rain or hydroplaned. It was a LONG trip home due to the really bad weather conditions, but thank goodness we have awesome little passengers who don't mind the long drives! If we knew everything ahead of time I am not 100% we would have risked the drive in January, but I am really glad we got to go.

Ringing in the New Year!

For New Years eve this year we didn't stay up, not even close we were out for the count by 10:30pm so it was no biggy for our family to get up early and head out for a fun breakfast at Denny's. Denny's had a fun Lord of the Rings menu Cory wanted to try so we made the visit, but we were surprised to find out they were out of nearly every breakfast item on the menu; we joked,"Tell us what you do have left, it will be a much shorter list".

Sophie discovered syrup also doubles as a beverage, something I have never thought of before.

After breakfast we ran to Cory's office to grab a giant bookshelf they were tossing. The poor kids had the most awkward ride back home under the case. Our goal was to finally get the partially finished basement cleaned up and organized into a usable room for the new year. We really hadn't don anything with this room since we moved in the home in April, it was our unpacked boxes and misc item graveyard.

After many hours (2 days worth), however, we got the place all sorted away and I LOVE this space now. Cory got free carpet samples from his carpet vendor to the kids had a blast laying all of them out in a random pattern. I have a fun little sewing area, we have bookcases to pit all our books and random other trinkets, and I now am able to go and enjoy biking on our new free exercise bike 3 days a week.

It is fun to have a new usable room on the house and believe me we do use it, it is a big multipurpose & I love having it always clean!

December '13 Tid Bits

So to wind up the fun tidbits we did waaay back in December...

Phoebe has been really into make Cory and I little lunches, they usually consist of rolls, yogurt or cheeses. I also love the bow detail on the silverware to make it that much fancier.

Who can ever get enough of cuties falling asleep in random spots... not me, I love it and will grab my camera almost every time.

In December we had some good snow and I LOVE LOVE LOVE that this year my kiddos can now dress themselves in snow clothes and go play if they would like.

Josh & I discovered his little dud hair is now long enough to make a faux hawk, which he loves and asks for daily now.

Cory and I enjoyed our last Desert Star play for the year. We enjoyed many of the plays we saw last year, but probably won't buy season tickets again next year.

Some thing don't change due to the Christmas season, Sophie still managed multiple time to raid my gum & lippy and apply it LIBERALLY. Josh watched lots of shows about diggers; that particular show happened to be This Old House, which he just discovered he really like...he is such his father's son!

Right before Christmas I threw an impromptu gingerbread man decorating party. for the Fergy Clan. The kiddos had fun, but mainly just wanted to eat the candy and play with each other.

For Christmas the twins got their very own board games and we taught them connect four which Phoebe has really enjoyed and is pictured enjoying yet another victory over her sister.

Whit got a fun big whiteboard for Christmas so Phoebe of course snatched it right up and has had fun drawing all sorts of awesome pics on it.

In Dec I made a mad dash to finish up some of my 1/2 done crafts I had around the house since, Cory threatened me that if I didn't wind some of the undone things p he wouldn't let me start fun new ones. So her is Sophie's mum clock and the new January door wreath I completed.

For Christmas Grandma/pa Potts got the older girls new church dresses and I thought they were pretty cute in them so of course I took pics to document said cuteness.

December also brought many Dermatologist visits for the twiners, curse that bad eczema and complications there of!

December was so busy it came and went before I ever felt I knew what really happened, I am definitely looking forward to some quiet time now!