Oh what do you do in the summertime?

I have always loved this song, I used to lay (or is it lie) by the side of a little ditch that ran along the side of our house and sing this song (I really liked to sing). My favorite part is "Do you lazily dream on the banks (get it?) as the clouds go by", there was just something about that song that touched my soul I guess. I think it just talks about my childhood. I loved to watch the clouds and make out shapes of animals and anything we could come up with. I liked to swing in the trees, I spent 3/4 of my childhood in a tree I think. Amazingly enough I never broke a bone even though I fell from 3/4 of the trees in our yard :) I loved "sleeping out" we (me and my siblings) would take all the sleeping bags and probably all of my Mom's blankets outside and sleep as often as we could. My favorite time to sleep out was on the 23rd of July, because our town of Fairview would wake us up early with fireworks (the ones that just boom) and then shortly after that some of the older gentlemen in our town would come by on a flat bed trailer playing songs on the piano and guitars. Our neighbor Mr. Nordstrom could play his guitar and a harmonica at the same time (truly amazing, I thought he was like a magician). I also, believe it or not, marched in some parades. Not sure how much I liked that. One year I dressed up like an Indian and wrapped up my doll in a papoose, I still have that costume. I am very nastalgic.

My main reason for this post was I have been thinking about what we have been doing since school let out about two weeks ago.

Hope got her drivers licence, YAY!!
Jackie got her permit, YAY!!
My sister came to visit, YAY!!
Hope and Jackie went to girls camp, YAY!!
Tayler just left for scout camp, YAY!!

We have done all these things and I am wondering will my children later on sit down at a computer and think back on these times with fondness? I hope so.

Girls Camp

Hope and Jackie came home from girl's camp on Friday. I just realized I have been doing this blog for one year now, wow time flies.These are their cabins, they were really close together. Very clean, the girls loved this camp better than last years. I still smile when they tell me how "rough" things are, actually this year they only complained about the hike, so maybe they realize how nice they have it.

This gazebo was very pretty, and the lake was a fishing pond. It was really pretty.
This is the cafeteria, open 24/7, another smile or two over that. These girls are really spoiled!!

The hike they went on was close to Multnomah falls, I can't remember the name of these falls, some indian name. I guess it was pretty steep, so they were all sore. What a beautiful hike though.


The fourth years cooked pizza in this brick oven. I guess this was part of their certification :) I just think it is funny, I remember cooking hotdogs with yucky bisquick stuff smeared on it so that we could certify :) I think I would like to cook pizza instead.

Vacation

As some of you know my sister and her daughter decided to come and see us, so we planned some fun things to do. On Thursday we were going to go pick strawberries, but they were closed. George thought that was a weird idea of fun things to do, but I think it is cool to go and see the huge fields of strawberries and get to pick your own.

This is the devils punchbowl. It is kind of cool to see. While we were here we watched a group of about 30 surfers, trying to get up on their boards, and it was interesting to see a guy head out in a kayak, I might dare try a kayak but the surfing didn't look fun to me at all.
Next we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, it is always a fun place to go. This Japanese crab (below) can get as big as 13 feet!! They were huge.The puffin bird never fails to entertain. This little guy was within touching distance and all he did was look at us. This cage is one that you walk through a door and the birds can fly over and around you, so basically you are in their cage. The tanks have such a huge variety of fish that it is really fascinating. The blue and white ring things and the pointy things are blown glass.
These star fish and anemones are in touch tanks, we all took turns touching all the sea creatures. Very cool.
The ultimate tank was the shark tank, it is a long tunnel and the sharks swim over and around and under us. It is amazing to see all the varieties and really hard to get a good snap shot of them. Jackie took a video but she was moving around so much that it makes a person dizzy, but she did get some cool sharks.
The picture above shows the tunnel, and you can see the sharks swimming around. Below is a picture of the one of the mural at Newport Bay, the buildings have all these amazing paintings on them. It is fun to see.

We spent the whole day walking around and enjoying the day, oh I forgot before we went to the Bay we stopped at a place called the Edge and they are the company that did a lot of blown glass in the fish tanks at the aquarium. The cool thing is they worked right in front of us, we watched them work on some long twisty things for an arrangement for a wedding and they also make a horse for the kids. If you are at the Oregon coast in the winter months you can go to Lincoln beach and look for glass floats that lots of glass blowing companies "hide" on the beach, I have been meaning to do it for years and I just never have. Maybe this year :)

Celery

I found out something very exciting!! If you are like me and you like celery in your foods but you rarely buy it unless you can use it all up in two days because you soooo hate to see that limp yucky celery in your vegetable draw, all you have to do is wrap you celery in...... are you ready...... ALUMINUM FOIL!!! Can you believe it!! I have been doing this for a while now and a stalk of celery can last for months!! You buy it, wrap it, and when you need one, pull one off wash it and use it. I experimented with green onions, and it seems to work very well also! I thought that was very exciting. What can I say I am easily amused :)

Guess What?

We have another driver! Jackie got her permit on Monday and has started to drive! Now i have two teenage drivers in my house, which makes me feel old:(

The gray hairs are just popping out all over my head. With every fast start and stop, and every crazy swerve I can just feel my hair change colors :) I hope I can make it through all four of them!!

Fathers Day weekend

Saturday we went on Hike number 4. Two more to go, and I have to say we are all so sore I really am not looking forward to the next one. I really love to hike though so we will make it through and then we will not have a limit to our activities. :) We went to Cannon beach (our favorite beach) and headed south. The tide was too high to go as far south as we wanted to go so we had to do more of our hike north of haystack rock. Emma was doing a lot of beach combing, she found three sand dollars and some sea glass. No matter how often we go to the beach we love finding all the goodies just waiting there for us :)
Tayler and Rocky just checking things out.
George, Tayler, Lora hiking away. Emma must be beach combing in this picture and photos are courtesy of Hope.

Haystack rock.
This eagle was fascinating, not scared of humans at all. I have never seen an eagle this close before, only in pictures, so I thought this was pretty cool.
I wonder if he thought Rocky looked tasty :) Or if he found us annoying, just looking at him. Maybe he thought we were as fascinating as we thought he was?
This is where we wanted to hike, but the tide was too high. I really don't understand the tide charts, I will have to work on that. It was still a really pretty day and hike.

We ended the hike by eating at our favorite restaurant. Emma and I had a bowl of clam chowder and George had a captains platter with lots of salmon, clams, halibut and prawns. Tayler had some fettuccine and Hope had a pulled pork sandwich. Jackie had spent the night at a friends house so she missed out on the hike and the "Father's day" dinner. It is so hard to get our family together for activities any more. Everyone is going ten different directions it seems, so we better enjoy the times we have.

Today we of course went to church and since we don't go until 2 that is pretty much our day. George did whatever he wanted since it is Father's day and all :) A nap and food :) The Young Women put some boutonnieres together for the fathers, they looked very nice.

Happy Father's Day George, I love you and I am so glad we have each other. You are definitely my better half. I loved in sacrament meeting how Brother Heyen said in the Lords eyes marriage is 1+1=1. You are my number 1.

Hike #3

Tayler has to go on five 10 mile hikes and one 20 miler. We just did hike number 3! We went to silver falls and hiked the 8.7 mile loop and then we of course hiked more to make the 10 miles. It was very chilly and the path was mucky, luckily the whole place is beautiful so it makes it worth it.

I think we might have over done it for Tayler though, poor kid was exhausted. Three days at outdoor school, he got home at around 2 and then at 4 he went to a couple of friends birthday party (twins) and got home around 9. We got up this morning and headed over to Silver falls, hiked the hike and on the way home Tayler totally crashed. Next week shouldn't be so bad. We are trying to get as many hikes done as we can before it gets to hot (if it ever warms up) and before things get too crazy and we don't have time. There are some fun hikes around. I hope Tayler is having as much fun as I am.

He said he liked our hike last week the best, we went to Champoeg state park and hiked along the Willamette river, it was pretty cool to see the giant posts in the water with a sign showing where the water level had been in 96 or 97 during a huge flood. When we were on the dock looking up at the sign, it was probably 15 or 20 feet over our heads!! Pretty amazing.

Outdoor school

Tayler will be coming home today. He has been away to outdoor school. He and all of his classmates went on a bus to some forest, and they live in a cabin for three days and two nights and learn about the forests and the animals and how to enjoy nature. It has rained the whole time he has been gone, so I am expecting a wet, stinky, dirty boy to get off the bus this afternoon. I sure hope he has had a good time. I have missed him. Home just doesn't feel the same when someone is away.

Japanese Garden

Yesterday my girls Hope, and Jackie went to the Japanese garden with their friends Karen and Noelia while the rest of us went on a 10 mile hike for Tayler's merit badge. Their original plan was to go to the zoo, but it was way to crowded they said.These are all of the beautiful pictures of the place. It looks pretty awsome, and i would hate to be the one who had to take care of all of these plants.