Busy Beginning to May

 The first week in may was a super busy week.  We started the week out on Monday with a track meet in Scappoose and then Tyler's mission call opening.  Tuesday I met my Mom and Dad for lunch at Panera in Jantzen beach.  Wednesday was a Mother/daughter activity at the church for activity days.  Whitney and I had fun attending that together.  It is always great to spend a little one on one time with my kids.  We ate some fun finger foods and did a craft together.  They also had a speaker that spoke to us.

 Thursday Kirk and Tyler went to help our friends load their truck , since they were moving to Utah the next day.  Saturday was the district track meet.  It was held in Clatskanie and Evan had to be at the middle school fairly early to catch the bus to the meet.  Evan was only competing in one event and so we found out approximately what time that event would be and Kirk and I went over a little later.  I think we got there about 11:30, but they were running behind because their timing apparatus wasn't working right.  We ended up having to sit through quite a few events before Evan's event.  It was a super hot day and I forgot to put on any sunscreen.  I knew while I was sitting there with the sun beating on me that I was going to be burned, but there was nothing I could do about it. 

 Once Evan ran we signed him out and headed to Longview for some lunch and grocery shopping.  We stopped at Burger King for a late lunch and then went to Winco to do our big grocery shopping.    It was a fun day out with Evan.  It was nice to have track over for the season because it made life a little more hectic.  I was glad that he participated and that he enjoyed it.

Tyler's Mission Call

 We had been waiting anxiously for about a week for Tyler's mission call.  We were expecting it any day because the Bishop had told us that it had been assigned.  Tyler would go check the mailbox each day usually several times and would always come back disappointed.  It finally arrived on May 2nd.  I had gone over to help my friend Jenn pack up her kitchen after work and it came after I got home. 

 He had to wait to open it until the evening.  Kirk wasn't home when it arrived and Evan had a track meet in Scappoose that afternoon.  My parents were in Vancouver babysitting my sitter's kids while she was in Hawaii, so they were able to come over that evening for the letter opening.  We were anxious for the track meet to be over so we could get home and find out where he was going.  I made Tyler go to the track meet with me because I was afraid he would open it while I was gone. 

 I think we finally got home around 7pm or so and Tyler was able to open it.  He had Kirk's brother on speaker phone and Shannon's was live videoing it for other family members through a family facebook group.  When he finally opened it he pulled the booklet out that has all the instructions and info in it, but not the letter that says where he is going.  It caused some confusion for a bit until I reached back in the envelope and found the letter for him.  He was assigned to go to the Missouri, Independence mission and that he was to report to the MTC on August 3rd.    We were so excited to find out that he was going to a mission with lots of church history sites in it.  He was also very relieved to find out that he was staying in the country.  It was also nice to find out when he would be leaving, so we could make our summer plans.

It was a fun evening.  My nephew Jaron was so excited about the whole thing.  His excitement was pretty contagious.  We are so happy that Tyler is going on a mission and look forward to hearing about all his amazing experiences. 

I will have to say it was a little overwhelming to read through the booklet and learn about all the prep work that needs to be done prior to his leaving in 3 months.

Track Season

 Evan decided to doing track this year.  The season started the end of March and ended on May 7th, so it was only about 6 weeks long.  He had two home meets and one meet in Scappoose that I was able to go.  Track meets can get kind of long and you spend a lot of time sitting and waiting for your child's event to take place.    I think Evan really enjoyed it.  He seems to like running, but does better with the longer distances.  He usually did the 100m hurdles, the 800m, the 1500m, and the long jump.

 He usually came in at the middle of the pack.  He wasn't the fastest, but wasn't the slowest either.  I think he did well considering that it was his first year.  Many of the kids had been doing it since 6th grade.  I was able to go to two of his regular meets and the district meet.  He made it to districts in one event; the 1500 meter run.  I think that was his favorite run because it is the longest distance run that they do at the middle school level.   I was proud of him for going out of his comfort zone and trying something new.

End of April Happenings

 At the end of April Lauren went to the zoo with her friend's family.  She had a great time.  One April 25th Lauren and I went to VisionWorks and picked up our brand new glasses.  Lauren looks cute in hers, but has had a bit of a hard time getting used to them.  Two days after getting her glasses she went to outdoor school with all the 6th graders in her school.  She didn't want to go because she is a home body, but we made her go.  She was gone for 2 nights.  The first evening she was gone we got a call from her begging us to come pick her up.  I probably would have caved and gone and got her, but Kirk was adamant that she stay.  Kirk spoke to her teacher on the phone and he agreed she should stay.  We got another call the second night from her wanting us to pick her up, but we told her no.  While she was gone another one of the chickens dies, which didn't help the situation.  She survived and I was excited to pick her up from school on Friday afternoon.

 Whitney's class put together some goody bags for girls at her school that were going to run a 5k with their 4-h striders club.  The photo above is a picture of the class with the bags and the guy that runs the club.  She got a few shirt which she was excited about.

Lauren and Ella at the zoo.

Evan also had another home track meet.  I was able to go to this one and it was fun to finally see him in action.  I will do a separate post for his track season.

Mid April

 Just wanted to write about a few of the happenings from the middle of April. 

*Shannon took the ACT one Saturday morning.
*Evan had his first home track meet.  I wasn't able to go because I had to help out at the title math night for work, but Kirk went to support him.
*Shannon and I helped at Title math night.  I got comp time for helping and Shannon went to help because it was a girl in our ward's senior project.  Whitney went with us to participate.  I manned the math card game station.  It was math games you can do with face cards.
*April 15th was a teacher work day, so we didn't have school.  Lauren and I had eye appointments.  Lauren had been having headaches lately.  When I took her to the pediatrician for a well exam they did a basic eye test and discovered she had poor vision in one eye and perfect vision in the other.  We both picked out glasses, but they wouldn't be ready for a week or so.
*After the eye appointment we took Whitney to Claire's at the Streets of Tanasbourne to get her ears pierced.  She was so excited to get them pierced.

 *We also bought a new trampoline.  Ours was pretty thrashed and needing some new parts.  The new parts pretty much would cost the same as a brand new one, so we decided to get a new one.  Kirk and Evan put it together after it arrived.

Beginning of April

 These are just some photos that were taken around our place in early April.  We had some great weather this spring, which was nice.  The apple trees all bloomed early and we enjoyed the sunshine. 

 In early April Tyler started working at Burgerville.  He doesn't really enjoy the job, but provides him with some money.  He also finally met with the stake president and finally got all mission papers submitted.  Now just waiting to get the call in the mail. 

 At the end of March Evan started track with the middle school track team.  He seems to enjoy running.  He prefers the longer distance runs.  His first meet was on April 6th.  It was in Tillamook, so I wasn't able to go, but one of my friends did an she sent me a photo of him.  It is at the end of this post. 

New Chick's

The day before the Gee's came we got some new chicks.  We had a hard time finding a place to get chicks this year.  Kirk called several feed and seed places and finally found some at the Aloha feed and seed.  They were actually giving them away for free, since they had an abundance of chicks  We got four of them.  Lauren and Whitney named them Binden, Eggs, Birch and Smokey.  Annalisa loved the chicks when she was here.

The top two pictures were from when they were just a couple of days ago.  The bottom two pictures were from when they were a little older.

Easter

The Gees were at our house for Easter this year, which was fun.  In the morning the kids got up and found their baskets.  We had church at 1, but only went to the first 2 hours, so we would have time to run home and change before heading to the Phelon's for dinner. 

At the Phelon's we had an Easter egg hunt for the kids and then we ate dinner.  It was a fun evening, but was pretty chaotic and loud with all the kids running around there house.  We didn't stay too late since our kids had to get up early for school the next day.  When we got home Lauren and Kirk went to shut up the chickens and they couldn't find Pepper.  It was already dark out and Kirk said Lauren was bawling.  He went around to the side of the chicken house and there she was. Some how she had gotten out of the pen.

The Gees Come To Town!

My sister and her family came to town for the tail end of our spring break.  They arrived Friday evening just in time for dinner.  We spent most of the day getting ready for their arrival.  We had spaghetti for dinner that night.  The next morning we got up and headed out to catch the ferry that goes across the river. 

It is a fun little ride and the perfect length.  It is only about 15minutes long.  We got off the ferry and drove to the Cathlamet cemetery to visit Kirk's grandparents graves.  Then we began the drive to the coast on the Washington side of the river.  We decided to take them to see Cape Disappointment.  It is a beautiful spot with lots to see.

On the way to Cape Disappointment we stopped at a little old church near the Astoria bridge.  It has a nice viewpoint with some information and artifacts from the native americans that lived in the area.

Once at the Cape we stopped at some view points to look at the beautiful coast.  We also visited one of the lighthouses on the Cape.  The one with the short hike to it.  The other lighthouse has a pretty long hike to get to it. 

We also ate a picnic lunch at Cape Disappointment and found some shells and whole sand dollars.  After we were done there we drove back to the bridge and went to Astoria.  We visited the Astor Column and Karl and his boys climbed to the top of it. 

If you look close you can see them at the rail right in front of the door.  After we were done at the column we headed back towards home.  This time we drove on the Oregon side of the river.  We decided to stop in Longview for some dinner at Taco Bell.  Unfortunately the service was terrible and it took us forever to get dinner.  We were glad to finally get home and enjoy the rest of the evening visiting with our guests.