Summer in Oregon

The kids and I spent several weeks this summer with my family in Oregon, while John finished up his dissertation. Here's a quick view of the things we did there:

Isaac's seventh birthday

Isaac and Jeremiah spinning Grandpa for pin the tail on the dragon. :)

Cuddling on grandpa's chair
Kids playing bubble tag in the back yard

Leora on Independence Day.

Isaac waiting (patiently?) for fireworks to begin.

Kids waiting for their swim lessons to begin.

Leora was THRILLED to be in swim lessons this year!

She is a super-duper floater.

Isaac is a great under-water swimmer...and therefore we didn't get a lot of pictures of him.

Jeremiah is a cute top-of-the-water swimmer.

And, he has a couple "grown-up teeth!"

Disneyland 2010

I thought if I included "2010," maybe we'd go back sometime...

We had a ton of fun going to Disneyland together! We went 2 1/2 years ago, right around Christmastime, and honestly, Isaac had a blast! Jeremiah was terrified of ALL rides he went on (Dumbo, the carousel...that's about it) and Leora was barely a year old and didn't really care.

So, this time, we went on one of the last summer days that the ark closed at 8. It was a great choice. Hardly any lines, and we could do everything we wanted to! Yippee!

Mostly the next few posts will just have pictures. Because my favorite father mentioned that wehaven't posted here recently. And I don't really have the time/current desire to write a ton. Since we're moving currently. We'll be in Wisconsin in 6 days! Which means moving out of our apartment and having everything packed and shipped and cleaned within the next 4 days...

The boys on the teacups.

Leora and John on the teacups.

Isaac hanging out in jail in ToonTown.

Alison, Jeremiah and Leora sitting on a bench on the carousel.

Leora consulting the Disneyland map. :)

Our family! At Disneyland!

Jeremiah and Isaac with Disney souvenirs!

Leora with HER souvenir. We went into the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, and I fgured we'd get her a beautiful princess tiara or purse and gloves...but no. We found the best swords and shields ever!

Good-bye Disneyland!

Jeremiah's Photo Shoot

While we were in Florida, Jeremiah, my camera, and I went on a walk/photo-shoot. And, after manipulating some of the cutest pictures on my computer and some learning curve involvement, here's what we (Jeremiah, my camera, my computer, and I) came up with.

Where the Wild Things Are

The night Jeremiah wore his wolf suit, he found a blue river in the bathroom and laid it out on the floor in the living room. He dragged out a blue boat from his room, made himself a flag, and climbed in, ready to adventure down the river and to the island...where the wild things are! His brother and sister came along, in separate boats, of course, with flags of their own designs. They all sailed through the evening and into bedtime, before they fell over and ran into their beds, where they found bedtime stories and pumpkin cookies waiting for them...and they were still warm.

Since kids don't like hot food. Sorry Maurice, but it's true. They like to taste their food. Not have it burn their mouths.

Halloween!!!

This week leading up to Halloween has been a blast! My mom came out to play with us, which added to the excitement. :) We made Jeremiah a wolf suit like Max, from Where the Wild Things Are, and created bat wings to go with Isaac's ninja costume (um, he decided he wanted to be a "bat-ninja"?--apparently they sneak up to people and pull down others' pants, but we vetoed that action), and decorated Danielle's turtle shell, for her "little bitty ninja turtle" costume. We carved pumpkins and turned them into jack-o-lanterns, for the first time! We've decorated pumpkins and painted them before, but not carved. The kids were ecstatic to look at their jack-o-lanterns at night, all lit up. The boys had a kindergarten Halloween party and costume parade on Friday, and we went trick-or-treating and had carnival games and dinner at our church tonight. We've had a lot of fun!

And now....for pictures!


Three sweet children looking longingly into the flames of their jack-o-lanterns...

Ninja-Bat with his creation.

Max, making a scary face like his SCARY jack-o-lantern. :)

And, a Little Bitty Ninja Turtle with her very happy pumpkin!


More, perhaps better, views of their cute costumes. (Have I mentioned that I LOVE that these kids like to play together??)


At our church's Halloween party, while waiting on Daddy to serve us dinner. (If you really think staying with three kids while the other parent is getting dinner is the better half of the deal, you might want to think again!)


Jeremiah with his Sunbeams teacher! She's so great!

Ooohh! A ScArY math test! Run away! (John has wanted to be a math test for Halloween for years. :) He finally got a chance!)


Supermom! Here to save the day!

Trip to Utah

We went on a road trip to Utah earlier this month. We ended up leaving several hours later than we had intended on somehow. One of our rest stop stops had Jeremiah in heaven with the rocks and sand to play with. And Isaac was thrilled with the viewing scopes. We were stopped (resting?) for a good 15 minutes, and those boys seemed perfectly happy to be there all day long.

While we were in Utah, we celebrated Bill's wedding!, played with cousins and visited with family, and I took the kids to BYU. It was a great weekend!

On the way home, we camped just outside of Zion National Park. It was beautiful. Enjoying my children enjoying nature is right up with teaching them to love books, two of my absolute favorite parts of my life.