Some good times and some bad times

As many of you have heard, Nathan's grandma on his fathers side passed away almost 2 weeks ago unexpectedly. We were so blessed to have had them visit us just a few days before hand. The kids loved talking their ear off and playing with their dog Cassie. They live in Ogden and were on their way to Oregon to visit Nathan's parents when grandma quit breathing in Pendleton Oregon. We drove down for the viewing/funeral last Friday. It was great to see all the family you don't get to see very often. Nathan's aunts, uncles and cousins are so awesome. The viewing went fine until Ella said she had to go potty, we made it to the bathroom but not to the toilet so she peed all over her underwear and sandals. Of course I didn't have any back up clothes so she went without panties for the rest of the night. I had to make sure she sat like a lady, that was a chore. During the funeral while Nathan's uncle was speaking, Ella is next to me "whispering" (do kids know who to whisper?? NO!) about how she wants her panties back!!! AHHHHH. How embarrassing. Ethan is asking why Grandma is in a box?? and if he can look in there. Skip to the next day, we get up to Grandma Oni cooking Emma a lb of bacon for her birthday. Emma ate 9 of the 13 pieces!

Every time we go to Grandma Oni's house the kids have to take a bubble bath in her jet tub. Super fun, but I do think Emma is getting a bit big to go in with the little kids.

Before driving to Ogden for the actual burial we made a quick stop to visit Nathan's great grandma who passed away earlier this year.

We arrived at the cemetery for the burial and one of the first things Ethan says is " If any zombies come up from the graves I will kill them!" (too many video games I think) The ceremony was very nice and short, Nathan's cousin played the bag pipes. We all got together afterward for dinner, it was fun to talk to all the cousin and family.

After another greasy breakfast we left for Boise, going out of town if nice but we were glad to be home.

Emma's Rock Band Birthday Party

We had lots of fun watching the kids play! Thanks for everyone that came and made Emma's day special.

Ivy Wild Park

We haven't had a family picture in a while, I think it turned out pretty good.

Ethan was catching butterflies like crazy.

Before and After Pictures of our Kitchen

We decided that if we were going to stay in our house for a couple more years we needed to update the kitchen and bathrooms. So here are the before and after pics of the kitchen and a couple pics of the kids bathroom. Our bathroom has a long way to go so we will do more pictures when it is completed. So to start off we got new counter tops, paint, blinds, faucet and ditched the curtains. We are also currently replacing all the doors in our house (including the closet doors) with new white 6 paneled doors and painting all of our trim white. Should be a busy month. The way I placed the pictures are the before then the after picture.

Oregon Coast trip 2010

Every time we drive to Oregon we never stop to see the Falls so this time we did. We climbed up the mountain and onto the bridge at Multnomah Falls. Pretty!

4th of July we had a BBQ at Nathan's parents house with his brother Billy and his son Cody. It was fun to see family we don't get to see very often. For some reason I didn't take pictures of anyone besides my kids. . .

Here we are on the way to the coast. This picture is like 5 minutes before we hit the deer. Ethan woke up and told dad . . next time be more careful!

Here is the bridge next to the Beverly Beach campground.

Tuesday we went to the Aquarium in Newport. We have been here before but these kinds of animals never get old to look at.

Off to Nye Beach. The first couple days was super nice (well, as nice as the ORegon Coast gets) so we let the kids get in the water a little bit. The last couple days it was super foggy and really cold. We went to Ripely's Believe it or Not and walked down on the Historic Bay front in Newport.

We also visited the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. Nathan, Ethan and Emma went to the top. Ella was too short so we stayed behind in the freezing wind.

Gotta roast hot dogs when you go camping. Oh, and eat tons of cheese puffs!

We found some cute little shops down by the Aquarium. It had a pirate theme so there were Pirate and ocean life statues all over. We got to watch a guy do some glass blowing and Nathan bought a huge knife at a sword shop.

Sea lions hanging out on the dock in Newport. You can hear them barking from down the street. Pretty funny to watch them sunbath.

Thursday afternoon after packing up from camping we decided to head north and stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and have cheese samples and ice cream. After the Cheese Factory we were set to head back to Lebanon. The GPS took us the scenic route and guess what we found??? A Ferry! In the middle of nowhere. We were shocked and a little confused! It was $2.00 to ride it across the river. Pretty weird huh?

We ended up leaving for home on Saturday, we left Emma and Ethan so now we just have Ella for the rest of the summer.