5th Annual Girls Weekend Bend, OR

This year our trip was in Bend, OR. Sarah and I flew into Portland where Stephanie lives and started our trip there. First stop was the Portland Temple. We have talked about going to the temple together for a few years now and finally made it happen this trip. We had a long drive the first night to Bend so we were a bit short on time and so we did Inititories and then sat in the BEAUTIFUL Celestial room. It was a neat experience and really nice to be there with the girls. This picture below is inside the middle of the temple in a courtyard area. It was beautiful.

 This one is outside the temple. The weather was beautiful, but totally deceiving! On our way up to Bend it SNOWED!! It was crazy, it made Stephanie a bit nervous driving in the dark. It was snowing pretty hard for a while. We still managed to make good time.

 This is the house we rented. It was just outside Bend in Sunriver, which we didn't explore too much but the one night we were there looking for a grocery store it looked really fun. It would have been fun if the weather were nicer to have gone around on some of the trails they had there.

 Our top priority on our girls weekends is always pedicures!! We had a good time there, the people were super nice. We all went a little out of the box and got different colors than we would normally do. I don't know how we managed to only get a picture of mine and Steph's because I liked Sarah's the best!

 A big attraction in Bend is the candy shop.... Goodys.  We stopped at about 4 of them I think while we were there. It was SO GOOD!! This is at the actual factory. We did a short little tour and watched some of the candy makers do their magic.

 These were cute :)

Sarah is really good at

 capturing the moment!

                                                                                     

Beautiful Sarah

                                                                                                                                                                                                     They had really good home made ice cream. They had different flavors all the time, I think I had Cookies n' Cream and Butter Finger. It was the creamiest ice cream!! We also got LOTS of candy! My favorite was the salted caramels. MMMM!! They also did fresh made caramel corn. We may have gotten a bunch of that as well. :) Each of us grabbed some for our kiddos at home too and had them wrap them all cute for them. I got the kids some lego shaped candy that actually snapped together. Easton loved them. It was definitely one of my favorite places on the trip!

 Of course what is a girls weekend with our SHOPPING!!?? There was lots of that in Bend. This was at the Factory Outlets. Nike had a HUGE sale!

 We also hit up the Maurices store and Sarah's favorite, the Black White store. I think she would love it if I mentioned that she is only in workout clothing because while Sarah and I were at a home store she went to the local Cross Fit and worked out with them. She is a very dedicated Cross Fit PRO!! She did change shortly after these photos were taken and looked beautiful. :)

 We ate at some yummy places... the best was actually this amazing donut shop, but we didn't get pictures, probably to keep from having evidence of the awful pigs we were!!! OH WE ATE BADLY this trip!! The top picture was at a Mongolian place and the lower is at the Pine Tavern, there were two huge Pine Tress right in the center of the restaurant. It was yummy and our waitress was great, she hooked us up with a box of the yummy sweet rolls they had there.

 Sunday we visited the local ward in Bend. It was neat in Relief Society reciting the YW motto with the Young Women who were in visiting RS. I got all emotional (what else is new??) standing there saying it next to my two dear girls who I learned that theme with. The spirit really touched me. I am very thankful for these two girls in my life and the memories we have shared and the strength I get from them.

 Sunday afternoon walk. It felt so good to get outside!!

 So our last day on our way back to Portland we stopped at this Lava Forest National Park. We were able to walk up around the rim of the volcano and look out at this amazing view of all this hardened lava from hundreds of years ago.

 Alvin, Simon and Theodore were all there. :)

                      Beautiful Views!!!

 

Sarah... takingpictures I don't know about!!

This is it... our last stop and last photo before saying "Good Bye" til next year!!! Next year we are hoping to be in Hawaii all together, with our Husbands for Don and I's sealing in the Laie Hawaii Temple.... if that doesn't work out for everyone we have talked about going to Victoria British Columbia with our hubbies as well......Until next year!!!

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Fruitland Trips

Recently I had a chance to stop in Fruitland, ID on a drive home from seeing my sisters. It was a fun unannounced visit. We went to Kiwi Loco with our kids, it's a self serve frozen yogurt place. YUM!

 

 We took this picture by Sarah's front door just before I left. She was heading to a funeral, that's why she looks so cute! It was a really fun one night visit.

A few weeks later Don and I had a chance to go back to Fruitland to see Sarah and introduce Todd, her husband to Don. They really hit it off! I was really glad. It feels so good to have such a close friend and to have my husband enjoy being around her and her husband too. We really had  a good time. We stayed a few days and nights. We brought Easton along with us and he just LOVED playing with her kids.

 It was really cute watching them try and bounce each other. Looks like Ashton got the best of Easton on this one!

 We also had the kids to a little Cross Fit challenge. It was pretty stinking cute watching them do these pushups! I was really impressed with their enthusiasm. I don't think they knew we were just trying to tire them out before bed!

 Don was out unwinding on Todds basket ball court, he was pretty impressed with it.

 Ashton and Easton had a BALL watching movies down in Sarahs theater. It's a fun little set up. They mostly watched Star Wars I think and then came up stairs to act it out with their light swords. They really had a good time together. Easton misses his friend! 

One last picture before we hit the road

WAY TOO LONG!!!

Ok! Ok! I know it's been almost 6 months since I blogged!!! I don't know what that is all about! I was reading through my friend Sarah's blog and it got me wanting to get back to it again, mostly because she had blogged about me and a few trips I have had with her this year, so I figured I better get them onto my blog too! So I will go from here and try to get some updating type posts for the next several, I feel like I need to even catch myself up! Life just goes by way to fast when there are 8 of us! But, life is good!! Enjoy the updates. :)

Happy New Year!!!

I can't believe what an amazing 2011 I have had. My family is so blessed! I have been reflecting over the past few days with Don on how great our life is, what we have to be greatful for, and how amazing our life together is. We are so happy! Our kids have adjusted well to the blending families and that is a huge blessing. Sometimes it feels like there are forces working against us, but so often we feel the spirit in our home and the confirmation in our hearts that we are doing what is right and what is best for our children. We have had some amazing experiences as a family this year.
When I think about this past year I think our about our beautiful wedding that took place in our home in February. It's been almost a year. It was the most perfect day, the perfect ceremony and I have no regrets. I am anxious this year to go with my wonderful husband to the temple and be sealed for all time. I think about our honeymoon and how fun it was to be together in Hawaii, it was so beautiful and such an amazing way to start our life. I think about my past life as a single mom and how far I am from that life now, but how much I learned from it and how thankful I am that my Heavenly Father was there with me every step of the way. I think about how blessed  my children are to have a step dad who holds the preisthood worthily and has blessed them many times with that authority. I think about the numerous blessings Don has given me over the past year and even while we were dating, how much it bonds us and strengthens our relationship. I think about the temple and how blessed we are to have one so close and how much strength we get from going as often as we can. I love Don more than anything in this world and can't believe that I have finally arrived at my "happily ever after". And its not just a fairytale, its my life.
I am so thankful for the past year and what we have learned together as a couple and for the goals we have set for this next year and years to come. I am so thankful for each one of our six kids and the lessons they help me to learn. I am thankful to be a stay at home mom and what a gift that is in my life and our kids lives! I am thankful for a good and loving and hardworking, fun husband who supports, loves and uplifts me. I am thankful for 2011 and look forward to 2012.
LIFE IS GOOD!!!

Sunday Morning...First in December

 Sunday was a good day. We all looked so Christmasy (is that a word?) so we took some photos before church. All the boys had on their Christmas ties and McCall her little dress. We set the camera on a garbage can to get it to where we could get one all together with the timer, so not our best photo, but it works.

 Had to get the wiggles out!

The kiddos.

It was a really great day. We came home after church and had a mini Thanksgiving dinner again since we weren't all together for it. Then we watched the First Presidency Devotional as a family and after that we had pumpkin pie, hot chocolate with egg nog and played Apples to Apples. It was a good night!

Family time... Scuds Resturant and CD'A lights.

So our friends Brett and Emily Lyman opened a resturant in CD'A Idaho a few weeks ago. It's Gourmet Grub, as he puts it. He is a really great cook! And these burgers are HUGE! He stuffs them with all sorts of stuff. It was super fun, we had been waiting for a night when our whole family was home so we could take them, so last weekend it finally worked out. We had a good time.

Our crew... Parker is a ham!

Brett in the back making our burgers.

 You should have seen the stuff oooozzzz out of this burger when Landon bit into it!

 Parker ate the entire Scruds Burger..which is huge and all his fries... when you do that you get to put your name on the wall. The rest of us split ours. :)

 Daddy and his girls

 Mommy and some of her boys

McCall and Cameron are just a few months apart, McCall is older, but shorter.

I can't believe how tall he is getting! The other day I was in a little argument with him and I was suddenly shocked that we were eye to eye! He's only 12!

 After dinner we went to the CD'A resort and looked at all the lights. It's so beautiful. It was a good way to kick off the season as a family. It was freezing!

 Easton LOVED the lights. He would have stayed out there all night!

 All the kids

The lights are just amazing. It was a good night.

The kids were exhausted!

Thanksgiving at our house

Thanksgiving this year we only had one of our kids... So we invited people from our ward over for an early dinner, then we went to Don's sisters house for some games and MORE desserts. It was a great day!

  This is Katoba Mushala, she's from somewhere in Africa. Her husband just finished his masters at Gonzaga and she is working on hers and she also teaches zumba at the church a few nights a week. She is so great! Little Hope was cheweing on a turkey bone....so funny!

 Cortney had to work Thanksgiving and the day after and before, so Jeff took the kids and went to Seattle w\ to see Jeremy and his family, so she came to my house. It was nice having her here.

 My mom and her husband Bill came too, she brought pies! Yum!

Easton was so excited for Thanksgiving, even though I am not sure he understood what it was, he just knew friends were coming over and he was really excited to wear his church clothes.

             We also had Matt and Alicia Crossette and their new baby girl and their daughter Hannah.

 Table one...which we didn't end up using, our good friends the Lymans were supposed to come, but their little boy got sick and they had to stay home. We missed them!

 Table two.

And of course.... Midnight Black Friday Shopping!!! We started up at Shopko and worked our way crazy until about 7am. It was freeeezing waiting in line, but we only had to do that once and we got what we had gone for. It was a FUN night with my man.