Summer 2013 According to My IPhone

I LOVE having my camera on my phone.  I can catch the best moments while I'm out and about every day.  It was so hard to choose which pictures to use, but this is a pretty good representation of May through August.  I will go back and fill in with some larger posts about some highlights (baby ducks, anyone?).

We love irrigation day!  The kids look forward to it all summer.

Ally had her choir concert in May.  Don't they all look so thrilled to be there?  She did fabulous and got to sing a special part with some other girls.

Holden loves to give us "scruffies".

Ally sang the National Anthem with two friends on the last day of school!  Proud Mommy moment!

This is what the back of my car looked like for most of the summer...

And I was a taxi.  I finally understand those signs people used to put in their cars that said "Mom's Taxi".  Yup.  That's me now.

We love to go for walks around town as a family.  The sky was especially pretty this night so I snapped a picture of our house.

We made a trip to the cabin for Father's Day.  We went on an awesome (LONG) four wheeler ride to make Josh happy.  It was beautiful!

Logan got braces!  However, because of his missing teeth, they left a big hole!  Our dentist is awesome and decided to make him temporary false teeth AT NO CHARGE!  Best. Dentist. Ever. (Randall Capener)  Anyway, they aren't very sturdy so we made frequent trips to the dentist to fix them.

Is this not the cutest picture?  Can you tell he loves T-ball?  He's wearing an Orioles hat with his Giant's shirt.  Of course picture day was the only day we couldn't find his hat!  He loved it though and asked his coach if they could do an Orioles cheer instead of a Giants cheer.

Another walk around town, headed to practice baseball.  Holden was spoiled this day.

Ally started voice lessons in January.  This is her passing off one of her songs.

Walking to church with my family is one of my favorite things.

A beautiful rainbow over our Willard mountains.

More irrigation fun!  So many fun things about this picture!

My childhood tricycle finally bit the dust. :-(  It lasted for 31 years and lots of rides!

And last but not least was Girl's Camp!  I went with Ally and had a wonderful time.  It was Stake Camp and our ward was assigned Mexico.  We were the largest ward and had the reputation as the "party" ward, I think.  We knew how to have fun!  Our campsite had colored lights, a piñata, tons of colorful decorations and an always open chips and salsa table. Fun times!!!

Whew....that was a lot!  So glad I'm getting caught up on this blog.  Sorry I've been so busy, it kind of took a back seat for a while.  Now that the kids are back in school, maybe I can get caught up.

Maybe...

 

School House Rock Live, Jr

We all know that Ally has found a real love and talent for performing in plays.  So when it came time for the school play, she decided to try out.  She ended up getting call backs and ended up as one of the Homeroom Kids in the play Schoolhouse Rock.  The director didn't like the script that came with the music so he wrote his own script to give more kids parts.

Ally ended up with the part of "Kathy", the new girl that moves from California.  It's her first day at Spilled Milk Middle School and she gets to meet her class mates and have a chance to come out of her shell.

She had so much fun walking (or calling me and begging for rides) to the High School after school with her friends.  They also got to perform for the whole school on the High School's stage.

This was her solo song "The Great American Melting Pot".  Her friend Abby was Lady Liberty.

Interjections!

This is when the football player scores points for the opposite team.  The girl in yellow is rooting for the other team!  Then they shout some interjections. ;-)

Another picture of her solo song, singing with Abby.

Ally with her picture.  Good job, Ally!

Portland and Multnomah Falls

We got to drive over the cool bridge in Astoria over to the Washington side of the bay.  We went to a total of six states on our whirlwind of a trip.

It was several miles across the bay.  A little scary if you think about it!

Next we headed into Portland and got to meet up with my nephews Dustin and Danny, and Dustin's kids Coral and Anson for lunch.  It was so nice to see them!  We met at a mall so we decided to pick up a new pair of shoes for Logan.  His had a definite...strong...odor.

Then we stopped at Multnomah Falls.  It was pouring again.  And there's Holden's tongue again!  Silly kid (or naughty Dad for teaching him that)!

We hiked up to the bridge for a closer look.  We then started up the path to the very top but decided to turn around after all the warning signs about wet slippery trails.  The rain scared us away.  It was still an awesome experience and we are glad we stopped.

Then we started the long drive to Ontario.  We had pizza for dinner and then played in the hotel pool.  The next morning we headed for home.

It was such an awesome trip and I'm so glad we took the time to go.  We definitely will go back!

Tillamook and Cannon Beach

One of Grandma and Grandpa Naylor's favorite things to do while in Oregon is to go to the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  We decided to see what all the fuss was about and stop by.

It was fun to watch the workers in the factory.  They even waved at us!

Of course we had to take a picture in the loaf love bus.  I hope they have this next time we come for a visit so I can get another picture of the kids in it.

Our next stop was at Cannon Beach. It actually stopped raining while we were there! Holden was not excited to be there, though.  He was still scared of the ocean and didn't want to get any closer.  We're mean parents and made him stay anyway.

The other kids were so happy to walk on the beach.  It was their first experience on an Oregon beach (or any beach, really).  Holden was fluctuating between being scared and curious.

The kids all took turns writing their names in the sand.  Holden found a stick and wrote his name, too!  He only had help with the last two letters.  Not bad for a four and a half year old!

Logan found 50 cents.

Holden got closer and closer to the ocean until he started having a ton of fun!

In fact, he ended up loving it!  He said he liked the "actual" beach.  I guess the rest of the day we weren't really by the real beach.  He's such a funny kid!

We ended up spending the night in Astoria, Oregon in a brand new hotel.  We had a room looking over the bay.  We listened to the sea lions barking all night (it was charming, not annoying) and watched the huge ships come in.  It was a very fun, exhausting day!

Newport

We stayed the night in Brookings at the nicest hotel.  It was so clean and the owner was super nice.  I wish I could remember the name of it!  In the morning we headed up the 101 along the Oregon Coast.

We all loved driving along the ocean and watching the waves.  We even saw some seals on a beach as we drove by.  We wanted to explore some tide pools with the kids so as soon as it stopped raining we found a place to explore.  Holden was really excited to head down to the ocean.

We found some cool stuff!

It didn't take Holden long to become terrified of the ocean.  The weather was pretty crazy and the waves were breaking not very far from where we were exploring.  Then it started to pour. Again.  So we headed back to the car.  We took this picture on the way back. Josh told Holden to stick his tongue out and it became a trend...

We stopped at the Marine Hadfield Science Center to see the sea creatures.  Logan, Jensen and Ally enjoyed seeing and touching the creatures.  Holden was having nothing to do with it though.  He finally touched one right before we left.

He liked looking at the fish and other creatures.

Then we made a stop in the pouring rain a the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse.

Next stop was the Yaquina Head Lighthouse.  Logan and Jensen loved watching the ocean.

Holden was absolutely terrified and ran right back to the car in tears-poor kid!

A very wet family!

 

Lady Bird Johnson Grove

Our next stop in the Redwood Forest was at Lady Bird Johnson Grove.  It was just a one mile hike through the Redwoods.

There was a neat bridge entering the grove. We were lucky and the rain let up for us take the walk.  As soon as we were done it started pouring again.  It was quite muddy and I think I still have redwood forest dirt in my car!

Teeny tiny kids by a giant tree.

I thought this picture was cool because of the fog.  It was so refreshing to walk in the redwood forest.  Sea level and fresh, moist air!  No allergies, either.

Ally got nervous about running into a bear, and Holden may or may not have "watered" a redwood.

Beautiful!

It's not every day you get to stand inside a giant, living tree.

Yup. They're big!

I'm so glad we were able to see them. It was truly amazing.