First 3 weeks in Paradise

To some people living on the Oregon coast may not be ideal but we love it!  Yes we know the winters will be rainy, rainy, rainy  And cloudy.  And windy.  And dark.  I'm sure we'll get sick of it by February but no matter where you live there is always something.  But to have the kind of summer we've had here so far it's so worth it.  May seem weird but we love wearing sweaters each day.  Sometimes we take them off & sometimes we don't.  We can be outside all day long & not sweat at all-amazing! :)  Anyway we know we're in the right spot for us & not just because of the weather.  It just feels right & peaceful being here.  You can't trade that for anything else.

My parents came over the 4th of July & helped tremendously with the kids & helping us unpack & set up our house.  We are all beyond excited to live close to Darlin' & Pa! I don't know why (you'd think I'd be used to it by now) but every time we're together I'm impressed with how great they are with our kids.

Dallen loves dogs-obsessed may be a more appropriate word.  He wouldn't leave this dogs tail alone at the church breakfast on the 4th.

Hyrum loves his bike.  Our yard is amazing for bike riding.  So is the neighborhood-it's flat all around our house so we've been logging lots of time on the bikes.  Hyrum told me that's his favorite thing to do outside.  

Playing in the waves. Justy has always been pretty sensitive to the cold so I've been surprised that he lasts the longest out of all the kids.  He just loves to wander around by himself wading in the water & digging in the sand.  I don't think the beach will ever get old!

Pa took the older kids on a walk to watch some guys play golf.  Hyrum said 'Well I guess I better learn to play golf since that's the only sport around here.' There are a lot of golf courses but I sure hope that's not the only sport they play around here!

Setting off our own fireworks on the beach

 

Pa had a birthday the week after they were visiting with us so we celebrated by having a huge Costco chocolate cake & a pinata (or otherwise known as a piranha as Justy called it)

Gearhart had it's own parade which consisted of a fire truck & then the entire town walking along dressed up in festive clothes & riding bikes or pulling kids in wagons.  It was so fun!  And it all ended at the fire station for free hot dogs & drinks for everyone.

Justy becomes the strongest man in the world when he dons his snow boots! Ta da!

Here are more pictures of some of our other adventures.  We've gone to quite a few parks, rode the trolley in Astoria, gotten fish & chips a couple times, gone to Cannon Beach twice, Seaside Beach, our own Gearhart beach a lot, Long Beach, a hike, visited a ship wreck, & gone to Portland a couple times.

I have to say I think Emma is just the prettiest little girl in the world! (She wasn't exactly happy with me in this picture but I thought she looked so pretty!)

I love this picture of Hunter-he loves drawing in the sand

Jelly fish!

First whole sand dollar found

Goonie rock :)

My good friend Libby & her husband Kevin & their three boys came to visit!  It was so much fun to catch up & I'm glad we'll be closer. The kids had a lot of fun together.  Emma was the only girl among 7 boys!  Someday she may really like that :)

My beach baby

 

 

Dallen fell asleep eating lunch at 11am!  He really does need to learn how to sleep in a little longer than 5:30! -stinker :)

We have deer in our front yard!  Guess it's a good thing we don't have a garden.

One of our trips to Portland we went berry picking.  We made some scrumptious raspberry/marionberry jam.  So good.

We love Oregon!!!

Exodus

About 3 weeks ago we started our exodus from Springfield MO to Gearhart OR.  We used a pod to move & it took 2 weeks for our stuff to get to OR.  With all that time to kill we decided to go to TX first to say goodbye to all of our family there.  I'm so glad we did!  It's always fun to be together.

Dallas

Jeremy's brother Joel & his kids Cole & Kylie live in Dallas so we hung out at their place for a couple of days.  We went downtown to a great park, rode a trolley, ate lunch from a food truck & got gelato.  I think that may top even Andy's frozen custard for me. Yum!  As you can see from the pictures Emma became quite attached to Cole.

San Antonio

Next up was San Antonio to visit the Turners.  On the way we stopped & had a picnic with Marisa (my friend & roommie from BYU).  It was so fun to see her!  We laughed about how weird it was that it seemed so normal to see each other again after about 7 years! Time flies. 

Love cousin time!  I took about 15 pictures of all the kids together & they were all really funny.  It was hard to pick one.

Had to get one of the "older" boys.  Pretty soon Dallen & Thomas will be in that category.

They took us to the Guadalupe River which was a blast!  I think if we lived there we would go every day to stay cool.  The water was so nice & it was beautiful.  Dallen was so relaxed he even took a nap in my lap for about an hour at 9:30 in the morning!

Jeremy (I think) found a walking stick-all the kids loved it

 

The last stop was in Houston to see Jennie & her family, Nana, Poppie & Steven.  Sadly we missed Alyson this time!  Nana & Poppie have recently sold their home in Austin & have moved close to Jennie.  We love their neighborhood!  They live two houses down from the pool & I love their tradition of swimming after dinner.  It was so much fun for the kids & we practically had the place to ourselves.

I adore this picture of Hunter & Michael.  Such happy, silly boys!

All the kids at the aquarium (shhhh actually it was just an amazing pet store with lots of tropical fish but the kids wanted to go to the aquarium so that's what we called it.  Is that bad?!)

On the road again

So we logged 50+ hours on the road in the two weeks we were traveling.  Phew!  The kids were amazing as usual.  We had to drive both cars so Jeremy had Emma & Justy in his little car & I had the other 3 boys in the van.  We bought walkie talkies so we could communicate easier than on our phones.  That was fun.  We only drove 6 hours a day which made it bearable.  That was a good thing too because Jeremy popped a tire on Monday.  And then on Wednesday we stayed in Moriarty New Mexico for about 4 extra hours to get a radiator tube replaced.  We got to know the town quite well I think.  We went to two parks, had a picnic, went to the one grocery store in town & visited the public library for story & craft time.  Actually we were so grateful both times we were right next to a car shop that could help us out.  Everyone was so nice!

We stopped to visit one of my mission companions Amanda & her cute family.  So fun to catch up!  I was thinking about this we were only companions for 6 weeks & besides attending her wedding reception I haven't seen her since the mission.  I haven't really spent much time with this girl but she was one of my favorites & I love her!

We visited my Grandma Turner in Utah (always wonderful to see her).  She took us out to eat & bought the kids chocolate chip cookies.  Dallen started to eat his in the car & he fell asleep with only half the cookie eaten & with chocolate all over his face & legs.  It was so funny!  He was one tired kid this whole trip.

Hotels are always an adventure.  It's fun to figure out how we're all going to sleep :)  Especially when Priceline hooks us up with room with only 1 king sized bed.  That's always tricky!  Hunter chose to sleep on a chair in the closet on one of those nights.