To Grandmother's house we went

A long weekend enabled us to make a trip to Salem

in January.  Blake and Logan stayed home this time, as Logan had a scout campout and Blake had his usual, albeit valid, excuse...work.  We had a great time with Mom and Dad, Danielle and her girls.  I even got to see my friend, Britta, whom we met at Bush Park.  Into our short weekend we crammed

playing at the park, inspecting the stuffed two-headed calf at Bush Barn, dinner at Wallery's, movies, lots of tramp time, visit from Kevin, lunch at the Wild Pear and more!  So Fun!

 

My kids aren't real dog fans, even when it's a cute little puppy like Bandit!  I wanted a picture of Cam with Bandit and told him to pick the puppy up-after several failed attempts (I know, how hard is it to pick up a puppy???), I picked him up and put him in Cam's arms.  He doesn't look too comfortable though, does he?  Cute doggy!  The kids did enjoy watching him and playing with him a bit.

Camden and Eddy had fun with Olivia and Charlotte.  They spent most of their time on the trampoline.  The weather was pretty good!

I like this picture of Dad showing the boys his treasures.  Camden and Eddy wandered into Grandpa's room, which holds endless fascinations for young boys.  Dad enjoyed showing them all of his stuff.  One of the boys asked to see his coins, so after having them leave the room (to protect the secret hiding spot), Dad brought them out for them to look at.

Two cute boys on an air mattress

Look at that concentration!  We need this every time he practices at the piano

The boys kept begging Johanna to jump with them (or me), she finally complied.

Mom, Johanna and I enjoyed a delicious and fun lunch at the Wild Pear. 

Congratulations to Blake!  He received the job of CFO of Rogue Credit Union recently and came home with these balloons from his first "Leadership Team" meeting

It's Holiday Time!

The tree!  This year, Johanna deigned to join us instead of taking a nap in the car-we all had fun romping over the hillsides to find that perfect tree.

Heavenly Hot Cocoa

Johanna, Mom, Danielle and I made our 2nd annual trip to Ashland for breakfast at Morning Glory and shopping at Paddington Station-only marred upon our learning that Scott had hurt himself that morning hanging Christmas lights-poor Scott!

Before....

After!  No more braces!

 The kids made use of the four inches of snow we had in Medford-we were out of school for a week!

Now this is REAL snow-Star Valley Wyoming snow.  We spent Christmas at the Thurman Ranch and had a great time playing in all that white stuff-snow shoeing, sledding, skiing, snow machining.  Not to mention the good food and relaxing time watching movies, reading books and playing games

Grandma Thurman reads Christmas stories to everyone

 Logan catches the valley view atop a snowman

Poor Camden had to be Mary during the kids reenactment of the Christmas story.  He was a good sport about it.  He actually looks like a Russian Babushka

Christmas Jammies!  I can't believe I actually had time to finish them!

Anyone remember this? 

Uncle Trevin took all the older grandkids on a cross country loop around the fields in front of the cabin.

Thanks Aunt Danielle!  Ticket to Ride was a big hit-we've already played it two or three times!

I got a crème brulee torch for Christmas-it was so fun to use and was DELICIOUS!  It was our dessert New Year's Eve.

Johanna all dolled up for the New Year's stake dance.  She had  a great time.  Logan was at a party too, so it was just we parents and the two younger kids.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Johanna practiced her bow tie skills on Eddy-he looks like Pee Wee Herman!

Halloween-these are the only two that dressed up this year...sad!  Ed was a Western Sherriff and Cam was a robber.  It was a busy day!  Cam and Andrea ran together in the annual 5th grade "mini-marathon"-actually a 5k, Cam and Ed had a Halloween parade and parties at their school.  After school we helped a neighbor with some painting before trick-or treating.  Johanna went to her friend's house and Logan had some friends over for dinner, a bit of trick-or treating, and a movie.  Everyone had a fun time.

Veteran's day and we enjoyed hiking one of the local table rock hills.  It was a foggy day in the valley but clearing at the top-beautiful!  Johanna was shooting a video for school with a group of friends.

Ed still likes to hold hands.....I love it!

This heart of rock was already there-love this pic

Ohhhh this was so good.  I convinced Blake that he wanted this instead of Jell-O cake for his birthday.  Brownie, chocolate, raspberry and vanilla bean mousse topped with raspberry sauce and raspberries!

The kids pointed out that Dad was not 7, but 42 candles would just not be as artistic, and I would probably have burned myself.

a big birthday, a big trip, a big race and a big watermelon! A super busy september.

Last Saturday our whole family completed the Atlas Race.  It was an intense obstacle course of 4+ miles with boot-camp style obstacles including lots of mud, lots of barbed wire, tall walls and a 15 foot jump into cold water.  We are all covered with bruises and one twisted ankle, but it was a fun challenge.  The boys ran their own smaller obstacle course.  I'm still getting the mud out of the clothes we decided not to throw away!

Great-6 more medals to add to the whole pile of Blake's medals in our dress-up box.

Blake grew this!  It was delicious

My sweet 16 year old-she had a great day with lots of wishes from friends and family.  We are still trying to fit in a party! No, no license yet, but we are working on it.

"The Bean" sculpture in Chicago.  Blake had a conference there and let me come along.  I had a marvelous time!  I basically did whatever I wanted!  Mornings started with a run a long Lake Michigan with Blake, then when he went to his conference for the day, I was off!  I loved the Chicago Institute of Art-amazing!  I also visited two cupcake shops-delicious, went shopping on the famed "Magnificent Mile", and rode a  bike along the lake and into the Lincoln Park Zoo.  Evenings found Blake and I enjoying delicious food in fun locales.

 Loved seeing old pianos in the museum

dropped in for a mass at one of the amazing cathedrals downtown-so much beautiful architecture.

 Dinner in Crystal Gardens at the Navy Pier

The Chicago skyline from the zoo area during my bike ride.

Chicago river-Next time it would be fun to take one of the riverboat architecture tours!

Blake and I shared a hot fudge sundae at Ghiradelli's wondering if it would be as good as we remembered from 17 years ago in San Francisco....it was.

Back to school, got the end of summer blues!

Johanna in one of several new Dr. Who shirts-first day of 10th grade

Camden-first day of 5th grade and Ed first day of 2nd grade

Logan first day of 8th grade

We spent our last week of vacation in Salem at Grandma and Grandpa Hoth's house.  It was a great week.  We missed Johanna-who had colorgaurd practice, and Blake, who as a job.

 Had fun at the Children's Museum-especially the outdoor playground

Logan communing with the giant chess set-and preparing to totally stomp me

Big bubbles are so cool

Had fun walking across the river-a big tree fell not far from us-it was so loud-it sounded like thunder.

Ed loved playing with Charlotte-and he loved sharing Charlotte's paleontology set with her

We spent a gorgeous 2 hours at the beach, before some dreary fog rolled in.

Obviously the kids didn't mind the fog at all

Amazing!  No, these munchkin's aren't sand artist prodigies, but it was so cool we had to take a pic