It all begins again...

I'm one of those moms who loves, loves, loves to play with her kids in the summertime.  Not a second is wasted!  However, when it's time for school to start up, I rejoice!  I love getting my home back in order, catching up with projects and things that have been put on hold, and getting to bed at a good hour.  The kids are happy as well to get back into learning...(although they'll deny it..) and see all their school friends again.

This year was a bit different.  

My sweet Alyssa started COLLEGE!  Holy cow, where did that time go?  Parker is attending a special high school developed for kids who are super smart in the sciences.  Basically they take college courses all through their high school years, and graduate with their HS diploma and an Associate Degree at the same time.  He is really happy and fits in really well.  Connor is the king of the Jr. High being on Student Council and  in 9th grade and all.  Ash and Tay have great teachers and are happy in 5th and 3rd grade.

This is Alyssa's new bedroom.  She'll have some decorating to do, but we bought her this cute quilt and a matching nightstand.

I was quite emotional for me to drop her off at Snow College.  I have all the confidence in the world in her ability to thrive, but it's sure hard to let your daughter "leave the nest".

Parker now gets to wear "street clothes".  No more uniforms for him! 

1st day of School!! 

(Parker actually started the week before, but agreed to be in the pic..::)

Visit to the Northwest

At the beginning of August we took a fun family vacation to the Great Northwest. 

 I have a brother near Portland, and another brother near Seattle, so we decided to go visit!  They all showed us a spectacular time and were the greatest of hosts and hostesses!  

It's a long drive to Portland.  We got off around 5pm on Friday, and stayed in a hotel that night in Ontario, Oregon, then continued on our journey.  Most of the drive took us along the Columbia River, which was very beautiful!

Yeah!  We're at our Cousin's house!

Saturday night we went on a little hike on this beautiful nature trail.

I just had to put this in...isn't he just the cutest guy ever???

On Sunday we toured the Portland Temple Visitor's Center.  

So beautiful!!

Monday morning we drove out to this beautiful island and picked berries.  I'm pretty sure there are berry patches in Heaven!!!

We toured Portland.....

....in a very unusual way!  :)

 

After visiting with Aaron and Melissa, we headed up the 101 and stayed at a condo in a little coastal town called Gearhart.  The coast was really foggy, but it was super fun collecting sand dollars, and playing in the sand dunes.

The water was freezing, but my die-hard boys played in it anyway.

When the cold ocean got to be too much, we came and swam in the condo pool.  Hotel pools are one of the most look forward to parts of our vacations...go figure!

This is a view off of our deck.  Such a cute town with the ocean just at the end of our street.

On to Gig Harbor!  We were welcomed with lots of open arms!

My little princess Sutton!  I love this little thing!  

Sean has some friends that own this beautiful home with a pool over looking the Puget Sound.  We felt very spoiled to swim in this super warm pool, eat snacks and watch the beautiful sunset over the water.

Our little TWINS!  Ashlyn and Avery are great friends, definitely two peas in a pod!  I felt like I was seeing double the whole time!  We took a ferry across the Sound to Seattle for a day.

Pikes Market was super fun, crowded and lots of crazy people, but fun!

We enjoyed playing at a park near the Space Needle.  

On Friday we spent the day at a beautiful state park.  (Can't remember the name...)  The kids are looking at a live starfish.

Sean and I.  I can certainly understand why he has chosen to plant his family in Washington, it was spectacularly beautiful!

We celebrated Connor's birthday in Washington. 14yrs old!!!

 His real birthday was the following day which was just going to be a travel day, so we bought doughnuts, lit a candle, sang and presented him with an awesome present (besides his new cell phone)...a trip to Denver with me!  He has never been on an airplane, so I found some cheap flights and we'll head out to visit Allyson over Fall Break!  Yeah!!

The town of Gig Harbor is as quaint and as beautiful as you can imagine. 

On the way home Taylor was sad he hadn't found a birthday present for Connor, so I took his little hand, and we went to the nearest grocery store vowing to find something cool!  And we did it, Taylor found a Pez of the little alien guy on Toy Story...Connor loved it!!  Whew!!

Exhausted but happy.  We had a fantastic vacation to the Northwest!!