Oregon

I went from blogging once a week to once a month, but I am not giving up. Here are the pictures of our Oregon trip. It was so much fun. We were debating whether to use Mike's vacation to go to Oregon in April (high chance of rain all week) or go down to Southern Utah and do some of the National Parks before it gets too hot. Boy did we make the right choice. The weather in Oregon was in the upper 70's the whole time and we couldn't get enough of playing outside.

The first day we got there, we helped my dad set up this tire swing, which was a hit among the kids.

The neighbors up the road just got a horse and goats and we went down the several times to feed Gypsy. Sam stuck sticking his finger up his nose. Go figure.

While I was out doing a photo shoot with my sister, Mike was watching the kids with my mom and  had the brilliant idea that the kids should crawl through the dark, long culvert. Definitely a dad idea.

Poor old, fat Lucy. Same thought you were a horse and Mowgli (yes, we brought the pooch with us) wanted you to play all day long. I am sure you had to sleep for two weeks straight to re-coup from our family.

 The kids always love pulling out the bow and arrow and pretend to be Merida.

We spent a whole day up in the Gorge with my mom. We visited the Bonneville Dam, Mike had a lunch date with a practice in White Salmon, and we hiked up Multnomah Falls. Here the kids are watching the fish swim through the dam because it is someone's job to not only count all the fish but to classify all the fish by breed and size that swim through the dam. 24 hours a day. I just thought that was so crazy.

 At the dam, being silly.

Mulnomah Falls, There wasn't much that I wanted to do on this trip, but this was one of them. I hadn't been here since I was in young womens. It was gorgeous, of course.

 We made it to the top, even Grandma

And of course, Grandma had to get ice cream at the end.

The other thing that I really wanted to do was go to the Wooden Shoe Tulip festival. It was so fun to meet up with Janecce and the kids there. I don't think the kids were impress with thousands of my favorite flower, but they enjoyed all the play equipment and tractors that they could run all around.

We got to spend a lot of time with Annie and her family and see their amazing little home that they rehab the whole thing.

 I guess at Annie's house, all rules go out the window. Just kidding, it is just root beer, but boy did he like that bottle.

 Hailey and Brooklyn were showing Sam how to catch a chicken. He was so funny to watch, running around and happy freaking out when he actually did catch one.

 Sam helping Grandpa getting the boat ready to take out on the lake. I don't know how we didn't get a picture of my dad or of the Silverton Reservoir, but both were amazing.

And there was a lot of goofing off time with Grandma and the cousins.

We loved the trip, so much that we are going back next month. Well, actually, my family is having a little reunion, so me and the kids are going out. I am so much more nervous about this drive as I am without a co-pilot, but it should be great.

Too many hours in the car

We left last Friday for a week in Oregon. We picked the most perfect week to go. The weather has been in the 80's and we got to be at church when my Dad was released as bishop. Well, we did all 11 1/2 hours in one day. This is how it went.

Notice Sam's leg? I think it is freaking adorable how he uses his leg to prop up his doodle pad. 

Holy cow, Sam is a genius. He just turned two and he drew this all by himself. It is hard to see but there is a head with two circles in it for eyes.

When you get bored eating your trail mix, you start putting it between your toes.

Jamming it out to "Shake it Off"

I think we it that threshold around 10 1/2 hours. Sam was getting loosey goosey with his feet. Good thing they were both so tired that it was funny.

A day in the life of us. . . and Mike's birthday

I was bathing the kids when Mike got home. I stepped out of the bathroom for one minute and I come back to Mike sneaking the dog into the bath tub. So gross but kinda funny.

This may be a regular scene in our house every day after nap time. We have perfected the double cuddle position.

Mike turned the big 3-0. I surprised him with tickets to the Jazz game with his brother Tommy and Laura. When he got home from work, I gave him an envelope with the tickets, but since they were the print-at-home type, the ticket only took up the top banner and the rest of the page was a giant ad of U of U women's basketball. He was really confused at first, thinking we were going to a Ute game. It was a great night. We ate at Crown Burger, enjoyed a double overtime game we barely lost, and then finished the night off with Nelson's frozen custard (amazing!!). I love this man so much. I am lucky to have him as a hubby and daddy.

Easter

Easter this year went well. Maggie came up to me earlier in the week and asked if the Easter Bunny was going to bring her presents. I decided right then that I really wanted to focus on the Savior and that the Easter Bunny doesn't really come to our house. We talked a lot about how Spring can remind us of the Resurrection and that it should be a happy time. We did all the Spring festivities and egg hunts with friends and family, but on Sunday, we kept it simple. The kids found their baskets (they knew it came from us because heck they were with me when I bought the candy-life of residency) with their books. We ate a bunch of candy, read our books, and then Mike gave a really sweet lesson on the resurrection. I love our little family.

Maggie's Party

Maggie helped plan her party this year. It was very similar to last years party, but when you love princesses as much as she does, why change it.

Table decor

A princess cake, per Maggie's request. I am the worst at decorating cakes so the fact that this is still standing is just short of a miracle.

All of Maggie's favorite lunch food

It worked out that Maggie's room is princess so I was able to just use those for the parties.

The first activity was decorating tiaras.

We then played a Snow White version of hot potato. When the music stops, whatever girl is holding the apple falls asleep until I come around with a chocolate kiss and wake them up.

Tiana's kiss the frog.

We also played a magic carpet ride with Jasmine music, color princess pictures with markers, hit a Flynn Ryder pinata with a frying pand, and read a Frozen book. Overall, I think they all had fun.

Maggie's Birthday

This princess turned 4 today. She has been talking about her birthday for months. Preschool was canceled due to illness (bummer because she had cupcakes and rings to share) so instead we borrowed a friend and went to the Children's Museum in Salt Lake. When we got back, Grandma and Papa Matthews came over with happy meals for lunch (she loves "Old McDonald"). She then spent the next couple of hours playing with the sticker book and princess castle she got from them. When dad woke up (working nights this week), we did cupcake/candles and presents. The barbie clothes and shoes were a huge hit and our livingroom floor was soon taken over by barbies. We had chicken pot pie for dinner (favorite) and ended the night was watching The Little Mermaid. I can't even begin to express my love for her. She is the sweetest girl you will ever meets and tries she best to be nice to everyone.

**The magic never ends when it comes to mermaids.

Sam's Birthday

This sweet boy turned two this month. We started the day with a room full of balloons and a Mickey Mouse Birthday Balloon on his chair. In the morning, he got to open up one present, which was a shirt for him to wear (though it took him a few days of convincing that it is worth wearing). We spent the day doing things he likes, going to story time, Costco for samples, board games, lots of books, a long bath. It seems like a typical day, but I tried really hard to not be distracted with other things during the day and simple enjoy him. We had cereal for breakfast (and lunch if I had let him). That night, we had all the Northern Utah Matthews family come over for pizza dinner. It was so fun to have our first family birthday party. All the cousins were so sweet to him and excited to share their "boy" gifts for him. We love this happy, kind, helpful, yet silly boy of ours. And we kept him alive for these first two years, so that is an accomplishment in itself.

Sam has been talking about having a football cake for so long. He loved it. I made another sheet cake since there were so many people. I died the white frosting green to make a football field, but I didn't have enough so I threw on the left over chocolate and bit of white that I did have, swirled it together, sprinkled green sprinkles on top and surprisingly it looked like a camouflage cake. Not what I planned, but he love it just the same (sad I didn't get a picture of it).