The Best Vacation Yet...

We just got back from vacationing in St. George! I'm happy to be home, but a little overwhelmed now that I'm back to reality. We've been gone for 2 weeks, which is the longest vacation I've ever had (not including school breaks). We stayed with Tim's parents, who spoiled the kids, and spoiled me because they cooked, cleaned, babysat, and even took me shopping! Now that I'm home, food doesn't get served to me, I remembered I'm the server! And the house doesn't magically get cleaned nor do the dishes wash themselves at my house either. Bummer. Also, there's the tiny issue of bills I've been evading for the past couple of weeks. Those didn't appear in my name...till I got home. But, we had a great time. Tim and I left the kids for the first time ever and took off to sunny So Cal totally alone! It was strange at first. I felt guilty for leaving the kids, and it was almost intimidating to go somewhere alone with Tim. I realized that we haven't had a vacation together without family or friends since our honeymoon! In almost 6 years, we've never gone somewhere alone together! But that all changed last week. We got to meet my best friend Kimmy and her new hubby Alex at Magic Mountain to ride some awesome roller coasters and then Tim and I went to Disneyland completely alone! It was like a second honeymoon! 4 days away from the kids was hard, but it was refreshing to spend some time with my hubby! Here's some highlights of the past two weeks...

1) Our first day, we went to a HUGE indoor/outdoor waterpark with super fun kid and toddler zones that both Dustin and the baby loved. We unfortunately forgot our camera for that event.

2) But, we went to another outdoor waterpark that we did catch on film. This is the kids at the Mainstreet park that has a little stream and wading area with waterfalls.

3) Tim took me to see Les Mis at the outdoor Tuachan Ampitheater. Totally awesome! It's nestled in Snow Canyon so all you see is huge bright red cliffs around the stage and the show was incredible!

4) We also hiked through Snow Canyon and had a picnic in the shade. The Canyon is so gorgeous and I loved the hot dry heat. Here's Tim with the baby and the canyon in the background.


5) We did two hikes at Zion National Park. This is a must-see-before-you-die park. The hikes are amazing, the views are breathtaking and it's home to the best cheeseburger I've ever had. Here we are along the Virgin River on our way to the Narrows.


6) This is Kim and I waiting in line at Magic Mountain. We did alot of waiting because it was packed! But the roller coasters were totally worth it. Kim and Alex are a super fun couple to hang out with. Love ya Kimmy!

7) After shopping, and going out to eat with my BFF, Tim and I headed down to Disneyland. No lines, great weather, and best of all no kids! Every time I started to feel bad about leaving our kids, we passed parents with screaming kids, and I felt better. It was great to enjoy the park together and do all the stuff that's hard to do with little ones. We went late night swimming at the hotel, went out to eat and actually got to enjoy our food! Anyway, here's a little shot of Tim and I with Wall-e!

We've only been back one day and I'm ready for another vacation!!!!!!

Terrible Two's...

The other day Dustin and I were taking a nap together...or so I thought. Turns out I was asleep while Dustin was "doing laundry". I woke up to find this...
...beside my bed. He had taken every single article of clothing out of the dressers and put them all in a huge pile. Underwear, socks, jeans, pjs, everything! Not only that but, I opened my eyes to find Dustin laying in the pile (*WARNING* this next bit may be for Moms only, stop reading if you have a sensitive gag reflex) saying, "little poop Mom, little poop," with his diaper halfway pulled down and poop all over the clean clothes. (This picture is minus the poopy clothes) SO FUN. Only not. As if that wasn't a big enough mess to clean up, he also hit up the bathroom and pulled everything out of those drawers.
Including an entire box of tampons. Nice. Sometimes I wonder if there will ever be a day that I won't have to clean up poop or find a catastrophic mess after leaving my kids alone for 2 seconds! Oh, and Dustin also took out my makeup and put on mascara. I couldn't be mad for that one though. How can you resist this face!!
I'll look back and laugh one day...right??

Updates...

I know, I know, I have been slacking...big time. But when the rain finally dries up and the sun starts to shine, I put off all the inside house-y things (like spending time on the computer) and focus on going as many places as we possibly can! (I have a tremendous laundry pile and a half-painted bathroom to prove it)
Summer has been great so far. The weather has been perfect with only one day of rain in the past month. Which of course, is one day too many for me. But we have had plenty of great, dry, even borderline hot, weather to have some fun adventures.
Firstly, I joined 6,000 others who felt the need to get up at 6am and run several miles on our country's most celebrated holiday. (Someone told me it's the Eugeneian way!) Yes, I ran the 4th of July Butte to Butte. Besides being lost for a couple of hours at the end, it was actually a pretty fun run. Lot's of hype and music. Thanks to Robin for sticking it out with me! You did great girl!
We spend the rest of the day boating with a few other families which was my favorite part of the day. The clouds cleared, the sun began to shine, we cruised around, wake-boarded, laid out in the sun, ate tons of unhealthy food....perfect. Then we went to another friends house and ate more unhealthy food and spent the whole night blowing up 100 dollars worth of fireworks. The guys obviously enjoyed that part the most and kept saying something about it being their patriotic duty.
Shortly after that, I got introduced to the Twilight world. I know I'm a little late, because this has been over the blog world for quite some time now. But put a chalk line up for me...I'm hooked. I finished the first 3 in a week. I think you all know how obsessed I am. I don't know how I'm going to function in the real world when Breaking Dawn comes out. I'll be there this Friday at midnight to get my reserved copy finally! I don't know how all the rest of you could stand waiting a year between saga's!! I had a hard time waiting 3 weeks!
When I was able to will myself out of Bella-and-Edward-land, we spent a weekend at the coast and went to the Newport Aquarium. So fun! I mean, it's not exactly Sea World, but really amazing for Oregon attraction standards. The kids had fun. Dustin loved the shark tunnel, and the jellyfish exhibit. Worth doing if you haven't done it before.
We've had lots of fun hiking adventures. Sweet Creek Falls has been one of my favorites so far. It's a breathtaking trail by Mapleton with beautiful waterfalls and cliffs. We had 4 Moms and 10 kids that day so it was a big group. The kids had fun catching salamanders and swimming, we had a picnic lunch in the sun by the river, swam some more, and headed back. Thanks to all the brave Moms who went with me!
Kristine introduced us to a great spot to go blueberry picking on a cute little farm south of town which was a really great way to entertain the kids. And the blueberry's were so cheap!! I'm never buying them from Costco again! I'm so glad Kristine has been willing to take us out to these places because it's always been so fun and satisfying. There's something about gathering your own food. It's almost therapeutic.
Finally, we just came back from visiting my sister in Kennewick. We got to watch the hydro-boat races on the Columbia gorge which was really neat to see. And Tim got to visit some old friends (he went to high-school there) which was also fun. The weather was so beautiful. I think 90 is perfect! Thanks seester for hosting a fun weekend!
Thanks again to all my Mom friends who has made this summer so much fun! I would be completely bored without you and I'm making a new rule that none of you are allowed to move away unless I give permission!!!

So there!

Surprise visits and summer fun....finally!

So I'm a little late, but I wanted to give a shout out to my dear Grandma who drove all the way from Calgary, Alberta to surprise me for my birthday. I heard the doorbell ring shortly after my sister had arrived from Kennewick to celebrate my b-day, and lo and behold, my Grandma was standing there with a huge card in front of her face!! I knew it was her right away and was so shocked and excited. I almost wanted to cry because when she had asked me earlier what I wanted for my birthday, I told her I wanted to see her more often! And she drove all that way despite horrible gas prices for just one weekend! My Grandma is an amazing woman and I love her so much!! Here she is surprising me at the door and my big happy family. Also, Tim has tried to beat my dad arm wrestling pretty much our whole marriage to no avail...until the infamous match at Olive Garden. My dad had to cheat to put Tims down. We'll never know who really won, and there's been some serious debate, but I think Tim woulda taken him down!! Go Hubby!!



Also, I wanted to say how incredibly grateful I am that the sun has finally decided to shine, and in celebration we have bought an outdoor slide for the backyard, a little pool for the kids to swim, and have gone on many outdoor adventures. Thanks to Kathy and Chelsea for taking me hiking! We went strawberry picking and I made my first batch of freezer jam! Thankfully I had some guidance from a veteran so it turned out ok! The kids have made me smile so much lately! Things are looking good for the adoption and she has officially been in our care for 6 months! Now the fun begins! We have all sorts of meetings and paperwork to look forward to, but I'm hopeful everything will work out smoothly. The things Dustin has been saying lately crack me up! I find it hard to get mad at him because he sounds so dang cute when he talks. He has a small little lisp that melts my heart. The other day he spilled his milk and looked up at me and said, "oh man, milk evywhre!" So cute. He's at an age where he can communicate enough that I know what he needs, but not so much that everything is a debate. Perfect! Here's some pics that made me smile!

Birthdays...

So I have yet another random blog. I get so jealous of all you people with super cute blogs and themed entries and neat templates! Creative writing was never one of my strong suits. However, today is my birthday and since my husband is downstairs cleaning up the birthday mess, woot woot, I get some blogging time. So this is the first birthday that I actually feel older. All of those things I remember Moms telling me would happen, are starting to happen. In fact, I looked in the mirror yesterday and swore my Moms butt and thighs were staring back at me! It's not like I'm freaked out about getting older, it's just such a strange feeling to be on the other side of the fence. I remember being little and thinking about adults as, "old" or "mature" or in other words, "no fun". I remember when my "fun" aunt got married I was totally devastated because I thought that meant she was "grown up" and wouldn't be any fun anymore. And here I am, married, and a Mom myself. So, in light of my recollection that I am now the old, mature, no fun grown up I didn't want to become, here are a few fun thoughts about me.

• I really dislike washing dishes. I put EVERYTHING in the dishwasher. Even if it says not to. And all those things that say "top rack only" oh yeah, I put them on the bottom.
• I say seriously all the time. Seriously.
• I sometimes think I was meant to be a ballerina. Seriously, (ha, there I go again) I have naturally curved arches and pointed toes that dancers work for years to get and long arms. If I was 15lbs lighter and my dang mother had put me in a ballet class when I was 3, I might be famous.
• I sometimes fantasize about being famous.
• I won state in a speech and debate tournament my junior year for Radio Commentary.
  
• I am pretty sure I got skipped on the whole "natural ability" thing. I don't think I have a special ability to do anything naturally. I don't know that I've ever made an all natural meal, I didn't have a natural birth, and I naturally suck at anything that involves making things from nature.
  
• I am a carb-addict. I eat a piece of plain bread for a snack all the time.
  
• I love musicals and one of my lifelong dreams is to have everyone burst out in song and dance in a random place like a mall or restaurant just like on My Best Friends Wedding.

Well, there you have it. More random thoughts from Jen. We had a fun barbecue with some friends to celebrate and our awesome neighbors came over for the first time for my b-day bash. Good food, good company, what more could a girl ask for!?!

Memorial Weekend on the Coast

Our wonderful friends the Zollinger's invited us to spend Memorial weekend out on the coast in an amazing beach house for a couple of nights and although it meant the fourth weekend in a row that we have been out of town, (hence my lack of blogging) we of course were thrilled to have some play time in friendly Depoe Bay! The fabulous 2-story, 3 bedroom, 3 bath beach house came fully equipped with everything you could possibly need including a 60 inch big screen T.V. The highlights of the trip included...

1. We stuck all of the kids in the jacuzzi tub, turned on the jets, added some bubbles and sat back and laughed at how cute they were. They looked like adults sitting in a hot tub because the water came up to their shoulders.
2. Cari and I got to watch a chick flick on the big screen after all the kids went to sleep. I would recommend P.S. I Love You, it totally made me appreciate my husband more!
3. We of course went and played on the beach. Corbin and Dustin got soaked and had a blast throwing sand and jumping into every vat of water they could find.
4. We tried to build our own bon fire, but failed miserably and commandeered someone else's fire and marshmallow sticks after they left. Hey, at least we're resourceful! We had some pretty darn good s'mores on those sticks!
   
5. Cari made my favorite bean soup with fried tortillas for lunch before we left. The perfect end to a perfect weekend!

So a big thank you to Cari and Jason for a great time. We were so grateful to have some time to hang out with them and let the kids play.
Some other things that I wanted to post were that Liz stared crawling and is officially into everything. Dustin is talking like crazy and my favorite thing he says right now is, "whasup dude." I ran the Rhody Run in Florence 2 weeks ago and got 2nd in the 5k in my age group. Thanks to Brian and Ann for hosting us that weekend also. (We have the best freinds. I mean it. All of you are so awesome and mean the world to us) Tim is an official biker because he bought a jacket and rode the bike the long way to Florence and back again and got to do the "biker wave" to all the bikers in Florence. For those of you who don't know, I guess there's a special wave that only bikers give each other on the road. I hope I'm not violating some sacred biker code by disclosing that. Anyway, all is well and we're safe and sound after our many adventures!

Vacation Baby!!!

For those of you who don't already know, we went on vacation last week to St. George and it was awesome!!! Dustin was so excited to fly on a plane, he could hardly wait to board and kept pointing to the plane saying, "go....plane....fly". But right before we were about to board, apparently a check valve light indicated that we would be delayed for 5 HOURS!!!! So our trip kinda got off on the wrong foot because we were stuck at the Eugene airport with a screaming baby for a long time. But we finally did board, Dustin slept the whole way to Las Vegas and Liz was super happy. (I think she got all her screaming out at the airport) We stayed at Tim's parents house which is really fun because they have a big play room, a swim pool, big screen, all the fun stuff. So the kids were totally entertained even if we were just hanging around the house. The highlight of St. George was taking the kids up to Zion and going on a hike where you can stand underneath a waterfall. So pretty and both the kids loved it! The weather was perfect, not too hot, and the sun hit the rocks at just the right angle. Zion is one of those places where you feel so grateful to Heavenly Father for the beauty he created. A highlight for me was that my mother-in-law also gave me and the kids tons of new clothes which is always exciting because she has really good taste. Then I left my cute little family to go to my best friends wedding in Phoenix. So I hopped on a plane from Vegas and finally got to see my Kimmy!! It was so fun to see her again and it felt like we had never been apart. I was the only one out of the bridal party who was married, so it felt like I was living with roommates for the weekend. I forgot what it was like to borrow your girlfriends clothes, put on makeup everyday, or go out to eat at like 10:00 pm! I'm so used to sippy cups, diapers, boogers, and unwashed hair, I think I forgot that I clean up semi-cute (after tanning, showering, and taking time to put on make-up...it's not like it happens naturally!!!) I missed my family terribly, but it was a breath of fresh air to take a little break. I got to go to Kim's graduation, and although the speakers were kinda well, like graduation speakers, it was super neat to see her in her grad outfit and her little diploma. It made me think of high school graduation, and I was so proud of her. Then we got to hang out with the girls, and had some "girl talk" which is always fun. The day before the wedding, we laid out by the pool and went swimming, had In n' Out Burgers and milkshakes, went wakeboarding at one of the most beautiful lakes I've ever seen, went out to Mexican food for dinner, hung out in the hot tub, painted each other's toenails, and finally went to sleep. Can you imagine a more perfect day!!!! I was able to get up on the wakeboard twice, and did a few face plants that everyone still seemed to be talking about the next day. Kim's wedding of course was amazing. The sealing was beautiful, and the Mesa temple is really unique and pretty. Kim looked gorgeous, her hubby is awesome, and the day went really smoothly. I got to get my hair done with Kim, which we haven't done since high school, and she had the most amazing luncheon ever. Her husband is half Mexican and his Mom put on the best tasting Mexican food I've ever had. The reception was at an amazing golf clubhouse that was really beautiful especially while the sun set. A really perfect day. It was so great to see all her family again. They kind of feel like my family in a way since I spent so much time with them growing up. Then I had to say my goodbye's and hop back on a plane to Vegas where Tim was staying with the kids, and then we all got up to get on a plane to come back home the next day!!! Whew! All in all, amazing trip, but 3 days was definitely long enough to be away from my hubby and kids.

Random Thoughts....

I love bath time!! It's the one time both the kids are totally happy and entertained. I thought the one of Dustin holding Liz is so cute. He just started hugging her as soon as I broke out the camera! This blog is mostly random stuff I guess. I haven't posted a blog in a while and these are some of the things that have happened since we hiked the butte, plus some random Jen thoughts. One of the things I wanted to mention was that we took a trip to Portland to go to IKEA. SO FUN!!! IKEA is one of my absolute favorite stores. We just got up one weekend and said, "Let's drive to IKEA!" So we packed the kids up and got out of Dodge! The kids were really good in the car, and as soon as we got there we all had to find the family bathroom so we could change diapers and all that good stuff. I mention this only because the family bathroom at IKEA is so amazing. For one thing, there's cute decorations all over the place. On the walls, hanging from the ceiling...what store puts decor inside a bathroom!! There's also a play area with chairs and toys, which kept Dustin entertained the whole time I was cleaning Liz up, and a nice step stool so Dustin could wash his hands and get on and off the potty. There's a big chair in the corner, a diaper changing station with free Huggies wipes, and a dispenser that dispenses free diapers. FREE DIAPERS!!! I never thought such a thing could be possible in my lifetime. There's also free bottle warming, and jarred baby food! We had so much fun just browsing around. We left with toy boxes, kitchen utensils, mixing bowls...that store is dangerous!!!

Here's a random thought. I am having the hardest time getting Liz to drink her bottles. It's like she started solid foods and has no desire to drink from a bottle at all. She'll only drink 4 ounces max. I've tried cutting back on solids, I've tried spacing out longer feedings, I've tried skipping solids all together...nothing works. She went from drinking 30 ounces a day to around 16. Anyone have any ideas?

Dustin is at a really fun age right now. His speech has really taken off and he's repeating back everything we say to him. It's a lot of pressure knowing that he picks up on everything I say and do!!! Some of my favorite things he says right now is poo poos, o.k., anku mommy (thank you mommie), ere'dit go (where did it go), and my most favorite thing he does is sticks out his hand and says, "hand?" when he wants me to hold his hand. Love it.

I also wanted to say how grateful I was to go to the temple last weekend with four other couples from the ward. It was so great to see familiar faces and it made the experience more meaningful in a way. The temple has such a wonderful feeling about it. It's impossible to leave the temple in a bad mood, and sharing it with members of our ward family made it that much more enjoyable. I felt so much love for everyone. Dustin watches Cars constantly and Filmore sums up my feelings perfectly with his line, "There's a lot of love out there, y'know." Sigh, I never thought animated movies would pop into my head to describe a temple experience. I guess that's the mommie brain in me.

On a last note, since the weather has been so crazy, I've been desperate to come up with inside things to keep Dustin entertained. And one of my strong suits is not arts and crafts...at all. But, Dustin and I pulled out the glue and finger paint and made a rocket ship together one cold and rainy afternoon. I had to post it because it is so rare that I do anything crafty. Here is Dustin "helping" me.

And here is our beautiful creation.
(I told you I wasn't crafty!)

True Eugenians

I've heard several times that you're not a true Eugenian if you haven't hiked Spencer's Butte. And I am happy to announce that after over 2 years of living in Eugene, we finally hiked the Butte. And not only did we hike it, we carried both our kids on our backs the whole way up and down in true Eugenian style. As you can see, we had Dustin in the backpack, Liz in the front pack, and Tim and I huffed it the whole way up the mountain. The kids were amazingly content riding their taxi's to the top. They were a good workout for us. I was a little surprised that you actually kinda rock climb at one point, which added a level of difficulty with a kid throwing off my center of gravity. But, it was totally worth it to see the view at the top. We all sat and had some snacks and let Dustin climb around. It was such a clear and pretty day, we could see everything. Just beautiful. The way back down, however, was another story. We decided to go the opposite side of the mountain and be adventurous. Within the first 5 minutes, we lost the trail and ended up having to repel down a very steep cliff of mud!!! Yikes. All I can say is that we must have some good guardian angels taking care of us because we all made it down safely in one piece. All in all though, definitely a worthwhile Eugene experience.

This nice little cliff was what we had to go down to get back to the trail! I swear it's even steeper than it looks!