tillamook

Tillamook was not far from the beach house we were staying in,

so we took a half day and went to see the air museum and cheese factory there.

 

It was basically this huge hangar building with a bunch of old style airplanes. Some were huge, others were little. There were some really cool ones, and some that we didn't want the small children

looking at :)

 

 

 

The little boys loved all the planes, and it was like pure torture for Aiden holding still

for me to take a couple of pictures with planes.

 

 

Until they found these planes they could climb in and play with the controls. Then it was

suddenly cool to pose for pictures. Too bad you can't hardly see them!

 

After the air museum we went to the Tillamook cheese factory.

It wasn't what I expected, and it was a good thing it was free, because it was a little disappointing.

We got to watch them cut and package cheese, and then we went down some stairs and had a few samples.

 

Afterward we bought ice cream and ate it there. Which was the best part and

of course it was the only part of the tour that cost money :)

 

 



the beach

We hung out on the beach on day 2, the day after we

arrived at the beach house.

 

 

It was cold, but so so fun!

 

The little boys had so much fun running away from the waves that kept coming in.

Aiden thought the sneaker waves were the best, and thought it was hilarious

when one would almost get him.

 

 

Capri hated the beach, and wanted nothing to do with the sand, or the waves, or the cold.

Kyle was nice enough to hold her for a few minutes while I got some pictures.

 

 

I'd put her down for a second, but she'd just cry and cry.

 So she ended up being held most of the time.

 

 

Daddy did get a couple of smiles out of her though, by going into the water

 and letting the waves wash over his shoes.

 

 

Here are the little boys running from the waves again!

 

 

I love that Aiden was old enough to really appreciate the ocean and

the beach. He loved it.

 

Sweetest moment between these two cousins.

 



 

Playing jump rope with seaweed.

 

 

I got her to walk on her own for a few minutes,

these few may be the only pictures I have of her on the beach.

 

 

My mom taught her to draw in the sand with a stick,

and that kept her preoccupied for a while, so she forgot about

how much she hates sand and water and cold and walking.

 

 

It meant that we moved a lot slower, but I didn't have to carry her for this

stretch, so it all evened out.

 

 

Try not to love her. I dare you.

 

 

That's my mom out there on the dangerous part of the rocks,

way past the fence, and the sign that said "DANGER: do not go beyond this point".

Risking life and limb, just for a picture.

 

 

Now these guys, they live life on the edge. Just beyond the edge, actually.



traveling to Oregon

 Long, long ago, we went on a family trip. Well, really it was just the end of February.
 But still. It feels like forever ago.

 

We had plans to fly out to Oregon Monday the 25th, but we headed up North the Friday before to hang with family, etc. Kenny had tickets to some fly fishers extravaganza, which was on Friday night, so the rest of us went to hang out at Kimbrey and Daniel's house.

The kids and I hung out at Kimbrey and Daniel's house for a while Saturday, then headed to Lehi to hang out with Kenny's family, who happened to all be up at Brittney's for the weekend.

 

Sunday was a crazy day. Capri woke up with a fever, so Aiden and I went to church while she and Kenny stayed at the house. Through the day Capri's fever got higher and higher, and tylenol just wasn't really cutting it. We went to bed that night, ready to get up early in the morning to head to the airport. At about 11:00 Capri woke up crying, and she was so hot. I panicked, and we headed to the ER. She was so sick already, and her fever was only going up. I was afraid that she would be so much more sick by morning, and that it would interfere with our travel plans. We had given her tylenol before heading to the ER, and by the time we got there her fever had come down quite a bit. I started feeling stupid that our first ER trip was for something so stupid. When we got back into a "room" they took her temp. and even though it had come down quite a bit, it was still 102. So they tested her for strep, and looked in her ears. The doctor was a huge jerk, and probably judged us for coming in for something non-emergent. Long story short, (haha! I know, it's already long) they treated her for an ear infection, and gave her some ibuprofen to bring her fever down. Once it was down, we went back to Kimbrey and Daniel's and tried to sleep before we had to get up again!

 

It was just a good way to get us nice and worn out for a long day of traveling.

 

I can't really complain though, at least we didn't have to drive to Oregon, like half of the family!

The kids were loving watching the planes out the window.

 

 



 

I was as excited for Aiden's first flight as I was nervous for Capri's first flight.

Capri screamed from pretty much the time we stepped onto the plane until she fell asleep as we were taking off. Thank goodness for the late night, otherwise she probably wouldn't have been sleepy enough.

 



 

Aiden loved most of the flight, he liked watching out the window, and playing games on the Kindle. He had also brought along his homework, since he was missing an entire week of school. He got his first "wings" and was so proud to wear them. He did great until the plane started to descend, and he started to feel pressure in his ears. He couldn't get his ears to pop, and started to scream and and became even more of a problem than Capri was!

 

 

We flew into Portland, got into our rental mini van, and drove two hours to the coast, and to our beautiful little beach house in Pacific City.

 The beach house was perfect. It was right on the beach, and had these huge windows that looked out at the ocean. Such a long, but great day.

Aiden boy

Aiden. My boy. My very best buddy.

Oh, I love him more than my little heart can take sometimes.

 

 

He is so precious to me.

I am so proud of his every accomplishment. He is such a smart boy.

At his last parent teacher conference, his teacher just raved about how amazing he is.

He is the best reader in his class, reading on a third grade level.

He is also an all around good kid, and has been included in the "Principle's 500 Club"

twice. It basically means that he's been recognized for being a good kid.

 

 

Aiden loves to study about things that strike his interest. He loves learning about and is

obsessed with almost all natural disasters. Most specifically, tornadoes, volcanoes and earthquakes.

He likes to study how they work, and random facts about them. He writes endlessly about them, things that he's learned, and things that he wonders about them.

He collects pictures of tornadoes from the internet, and glues them into his "Tornado book".

 

 

He's also been very into hamsters, snakes, and birds. He checks out books from the library

and reads them to find out more about them. And then he walks around spouting off information

that he's learned about them. He worked hard to earn the money for a hamster a while ago,

and when he finally got him, he named him Sonic. He was thrilled with Sonic and loved to

sit and watch him, and show him off to his friends.

One day he and his friends were over, and they went upstairs to see his hamster. He came back down

a few minutes later. "Mom, I have some bad news. Sonic's dead!"

Then all three of them started telling me about how they poked him with their fingers to try to wake him up. So I sent them in to wash their hands. I went into the bathroom to check on them, and Aiden was sobbing. It broke my heart into a thousand pieces to see him mourning something that he loved so much. He was so sad most of the day, and his sweet friends tried so hard to cheer him up.

That night we had a funeral and buried Sonic. Aiden gave a little eulogy, which broke my heart again.

 

He is so sweet. He is so tender hearted. I love him endlessly.

 

About a week ago, he got a new hamster buddy. He already loves him, and I'm preparing

for another broken heart, because hamsters just don't live very long.

my Capri

 

I've been wanting to do an update post on Capri for a while.

This girl is simply amazing.

She's changed so much, just in the last six moths, and continues to do so daily.

There are no words to describe how much I love this girl.

 

About six months ago, we were getting very concerned about her,

because she was two years and four months old, but wasn't really speaking at all.

She said about four words (momma, daddy, uh oh, no) consistently, but used her

own little jibber jabber language the rest of the time.

One of her nursery leaders had some concerns about her as well, and she had information

about getting her signed up for early intervention, to find out how to help her.

Within weeks of signing her up, she slowly started talking more, one word at a time.

I think she just wasn't ready. We hadn't even started meeting with her Learning Counselor

yet, but figured it couldn't hurt! They encouraged us to keep a "word journal" to keep

track of her progress. We wrote down the four words she knew, and then as she started saying

other words, we added them to the list and encouraged her to keep practicing.

One day we were in Moab, and she seemed like she was saying cake. When there was cake around.

I wasn't really convinced that she was intentionally saying cake, until we were on our way home

 and we stopped at KFC. They had some display cakes sitting on the counter, and she started saying cake. That was the beginning of her word avalanche!

Around the same time I was getting her buckled in her car seat, and she had a toy camera

that she was playing with. She held it up to her face and said "cheese!"

I was so excited, I counted it.

 

I love love love her little personality. I'm convinced there has never been another child like her.

She doesn't like loud noises. For a while she hated pigs (and pictures of pigs, or even the mention of pigs) because she didn't like the sound they made. She's still not super fond of them, but she will make a very soft snorting sound when she sees a pig. Since she was tiny, if she heard any sounds that were "displeasing" to her little ears, she'd block her ears with her hands.

I was so impressed that at such a young age, she had figured out how to plug her ears.

 One thing that she is very good at, is problem solving.

She figures things out fast.

She's in love with her binkies. We may never get her to quit the "bink".

She adores puppies and kitties, and she has several stuffed puppies that she loves to snuggle and rub on her face. For a while she wouldn't go to sleep unless she had a puppy and/or kitty with her,

but more recently she loves to snuggle and play with them during the day,

 but they sleep on the floor now.

One of my favorite things right now, is when someone sneezes, she very dramatically

copies them with a loud "ouchooo ouchooo OUCHOOO!!!"

It makes me laugh every single time.

My favorite part of the day is when we pass the picture of Jesus on the stairs, and

she says "Jesus! Hey, Jesus!" I melt every time.

She loves backpacks and purses. She has her own Hello Kitty back pack, and loves it, but there is nothing better to her than Aiden's backpack. Because she sometimes finds candy in his.

We were at the store one day, and she found a little silver purse in the .99 cent bin. She carried it all over the store, and I figured that since it was so cheap, I'd get it for her. But when they rang it up, it was really $6.00. I took it and went to put it back, but she instantly was heartbroken and sobbed until I gave in and bought it for her. I'm in big trouble.

I love her snuggles. I love her kisses. I love how her tiny mouth scrunches up when she's trying hard.

I love her tiny little bottom and her big round belly.

I love her more than words can say.



sledding in Moab

I worked the night after Christmas, and then the very

next day we headed down to Moab and stayed will New Years.

 

Moab got so much snow this winter, which was crazy, because it never

was like that when I lived there.

But it was convenient for getting our fill of snow activities, and then

we could just leave the snow there when we went home.

 



 

Aiden had a blast sledding. He was more daring than I thought

he'd be, and he seemed to prefer going down the hills backwards.

 

 

 

 

 

When Capri woke up from her nap, she joined us. She had more fun than I

thought she would, but it didn't last long. The first time her little hands

fell into the snow and got cold and wet, she was done and didn't want to touch it anymore.

 

 

 

She did enjoy being towed up the hill!

 

 

We talked Aiden into going down the dam hill (it wasn't really hard to convince him)

My mom built him a "jump" out of snow at the bottom of the hill.

 

 

And he went right through it! It was hilarious. He accused my

mom of setting off a snow bomb on him.

 

This was seriously the best part of his day. He talked about it all day long.