so exciting

I wasn't sure how well my little girls were going to do in basketball. I haven't had them in as much basketball as their older sisters. Autumn is our little one and has had to work twice as hard. (Hannah is a half head shorter then Autumn now, they are 4 years apart) I spent some time outside showing her how to shoot the other day just before all this started. I was concerned because with all everyone has taught her, she didn't know how to use the box above the rim. And since I showed her, she started sinking more shots than she ever has. Today I couldn't have been prouder of both my girls. They both started in team one and played together. Autumn made the first basket of the game! And then Kylee did and then Autumn made another one. Kylee stole the ball a couple times too. People were talking about them being sisters and they were stomping it up. One had T8TR on her shirt and the other one T8TRTOT. SO cute. I almost brought my camera and didn't figuring,oh, who knows what. I will never leave it at home again unless it was an accident. When they played the 2nd time they both made more baskets and steals. I haven't failed them after all! Not that I thought I did. They played well today.

Kelsea was asked to homecoming last week. He brought her a bunch of flowers in a vase and gave them to her during lunch. What the poor guys go through. She was asked by a friend of hers but now he can't even look at her. She said yes. So he shyly waves at her even though he has known her since 5th grade. The fun of high school. I have been wondering if it was going to happen for Amber. It sounds like something is in the works with the boy that has liked her so much. Amber broke his heart this summer and she has been trying to salvage his broken heart slowly. He is coming around. But now he is tormenting her with something. Something is up. He has a scheme. Everyone around Amber is finding out about it but she doesn't know what it is. It is making her crazy. HAHA. We all laugh. It is good for Amber to squirm a little. We know it takes place on Friday. On Friday she will be on a bus to Pasco with the band. BUT he is not on the same bus so he must have recruits for his evil scheme. It sounds a little evil anyway and he is asking Amber if she has a good sense of humor. So I am curious anyways. We know it has something to do with homecoming. The saga continues. Homecoming is Oct 18th so I will have some fun pictures to share again. With 2 girls this time!

Phew

I think I have blogged more this September than I have all year and maybe since I have had a blog. I don't know why except it is quiet in my house with no one to talk to all day. It is good practice typing for me and I guess it is my journal. It is so good at putting off all those things I should be doing.

So I am glad last week is over. The birthday party is over. We can move on. Kylee had about 6 friends show up to her party. 3 stayed the night. I was up intil 1 telling them to go to sleep. I got a got a call really early in the morning so I was exhausted all day Sat. I took Kylee to lunch and we went to my mom's house for her presents from grandma. We all miss our family get together with Melissa and her crew. Saturday night one of the friends showed up that missed Friday's party. She got the day wrong. How sad is that? But Kylee and her friend watched the movie they watched at the party and I took pictures of those two and we reenacted Friday's party for the friend. Lee Joe took the rest of the girls shopping for my birthday.

Sunday was quite the thing for Kylee. She moved into YW. We got her and her friend that turned 12 too the day before Kylee. And they had to come into Relief Society since it was fast Sunday for the opening and then the lesson in YW talked about dating standards,abortion was mentioned, marriage, divorce, chastity. Kylee walked out of there saying the lesson was yucky for her. Poor kid. Kind of too much for a just turned 12 year old. Now we have to have the can I shave my legs? lesson. I guess with the other 2 I let them in 6th grade. In 7th they can wear make-up. We will have 5 razors in the shower now. I think I need a rack for them all.

Tomorrow is my big day. No big plans yet but I hope to take it easy and do what I want to do all day. So there is this funny thing that has happened to me more than once. When I tell people my birthday is the last day in September I have a few say "The 31st" ANd I say no the 30th there are not 31 days in September. People have tried to argue with me on that point. Don't you think if my birthday is on the last day of the month for my entire life-it has not changed-That I would be an expert on how many days there are in September? There is no arguing that point with me on how many days there are in September. You are not going to win that one. I find it funny that one would doubt me and think they were right. Any other month you might win the argument with me but not September.

Happy Birthday Kylee!

Look how she has grown! Above is in 2006 below is yesterday

My number 3 baby just turned 12. I can't believe it. She is still stuck in my mind as a very little girl and she is getting so tall and grown-up looking, I don't like it. Because it also means I am getting old to have 3 girls over 5 ft tall. She is going through the transition of finding out who she is and if she is likable. Last year was bumpy, summer was depressing and this school year she is blossoming and building good friendships and is now building confidence.

We thought she was boy until the very end of my pregnancy when I started to doubt and an ultrasound somewhat confirmed my doubts. I had dream about a baby boy but what is so funny is she came out looking just like the baby boy in that dream. Just a girl instead. We were going to name her Kyle for a boy and choose Kylee for the girls name so that is how she got the spelling for her name. She was baby with a tremendous amount of dark brown hair. Now she still has a tremendous amount of brown hair. She was a very good baby. She cried in the car when we would stop at stop lights but all I had to do was bounce her car seat and she would be fine. If she fussed while we were at the store or anywhere else I just had to swing the seat and she would fall asleep. She loved her swing and so did I. When she was a toddler she was very painfully shy. When people would talk to her she would give them ugly looks but once she knew the people around her and they got to know her they would call her Smiley Kylee. She is our middle child and that has made her the peacekeeper and the steady easy going one. She has a sister with a strong personality above and below her. I have always been able to count on her to be good. But she would have moments where if she got in trouble she would do a super duper good job of it to make up for all that good time in between. One day she found blue finger nail polish. Never had problems with it before. She painted the little kids table, some walls, some door handles, some toys and numerous other things I discovered weeks after the episode.

She is a very good kid, very eager to please. She has a strong desire to touch and be touched and I don't think we do that enough for her. She is a good artist but needs to build more confidence there to know that she is. She is creating her own niche with music. She loves to sing and is developing her voice. She is learing trombone which will be an area all her own and I was impressed at how well she learned the violin last year as well. She is a little spacey maybe a smidgen lazy or there is a super laid back side to her so she needs to be pushed sometimes to step it up. Her younger sisters at times come close to showing her up but that never bothers her. She is kind of like sneaker wave. You think she is lagging behind and doesn't seem to be up with everyone else and then all of a sudden it clicks and she right there above and beyond everyone expectations. We work real hard to make sure Kylee isn't the lost middle child especially since she has sisters that can overshadow her with their dominant personalities. She has this little thing I call a curse and it is really sad. Whenever she has made something special it will get broke or like last night she lost her punch card at the carnival before she used the whole thing. Little disasters always seem to happen to her so I kind of guard her and guide her carefully to prevent it or make it better when it hits. Many times she just has to deal with it. She is still a little girl who likes her dolls and special things. It is OK with me if she takes her time to feel more grown -up. She loves her jewelry and feeling like a girly-girl. She doesn't follow the crowd. She knows what she likes. She loves Hello Kitty and loves movies-especially when princesses are a part of the story. I love how she gets along with her 2 younger sisters most of the time. She is a special girl with a special place in my heart. I can't believe she is old enough to be 12.

Happy Birthday Kylee!

A minute

I am attempting to blog for minute. I think I am taking up all the space in the layfamily site.

But Lee Joe went to the doctor. I loved the guy. Budget doctoring for a hand specialist. He told Lee Joe to try and work his mobility in his had to see how it comes along in the next two weeks. If he doesn't mind a little bit of a crooked finger and the mobility is good we might be OK. Hopefully it can rule out surgery. He left the splint the other doctor place put on it and suggested we go to D&B supply for horse wrap. Just like the first aid stuff it was just cheaper. I did and got him red, blue and green wrap for 2 dollars each for large rolls. He likes how it wraps too. Then they gave us a 30% discount for paying cash up front. I haven't seen a doctor like that in a long time. So awesome and we will see how Lee Joe heals.

I tried to quit my job as mom yesterday. Lee Joe said he would have hire several people and spend a fortune to replace me. All right, I will stick it out-for now. We have had stupid unexpected changes on the two middle girls activities all week long. I have had to call about changes in car-pool situations daily and I am sticking it out and wringing the towel so I don't throw the towel in surrender. I can do it! Maybe. Yes I can, no I can't. Yes I will! Things changed all evening last night and nobody had dinner. But we had brownies and cake at the church.

There is a party here tomorrow night and I should be cleaning-giant messes all over.

This is suppose to be a minute remember? Oh yeah. So off I go to climb the mountains of laundry and journey through the obstacle course that is my house at this moment.

the proof

You don't have to be an x-ray tech to see it.


Kelsea chewed him out for giving the camera the bird.

Amber informed us earlier this week that she is student of the month. Someone congratulated her and that is how she found out. There are only 2 students picked out of the whole school every month so it is quite and honor for her. Way to go Amber. She was as excited as she gets about it. Excited, but mildly so.

It's broken

Lee Joe's finger is very broken. He went to get his stitches out and told them how it was feeling. They x-rayed it and the bone is pretty smashed. The doctor is worried because after a week it is not even trying to regrow bone. He has to go see the bone doctor. Now it is in a splint. He is pretty bummed. I kind of am too. No insurance or workman's comp. It is his right hand. When he gets hurt he sure does a good job. But I have to say. He is still handling it all well. Still has only had tylenol for pain and is still working. I will post pics of the x-ray later.

We are heading into a birthday weekend. We had a nice break. Kylee is 12 on Friday! My b-day is Tuesday next week. Kylee is having a party and then a few friends will be able to stay the night. Not very many.

I won't go into details but I am starting to hate car-pooling. Especially people who think that the car pool is only there for themselves. I am refusing to be a doormat. It is like I have to make people help me back. I would almost rather do all the driving for my own kids so I can be done dealing with selfish people. I am a little cranky.

Kelsea started it!

Kelsea has had dishes this week and on Friday night she got on a roll. She did dishes. She put all the lost stuff away. She started cleaning out a cabinet and then I started cleaning out another cabinet. And then another one got clean. I couldn't believe it. She even mopped the floor. I went through our lid "box and we almost half filled it with cool whip lids and frosting lids. I want to know where all those bowls went. Not that I needed that many. On Saturday afternoon she didn't want to help Lee Joe change oil in his truck or the car. So she started on the fridge. What a kid! I got one that is a cleaner out of the bunch. On Thursday after her last driver's ed class she rode her back to a senior home here and applied for a job. She has some mojo. She is one hard worker.

No, I haven't finished my kitchen yet.

It has not rained at all in over 2 months. Amber and Kelsea decided to volunteer at the Women's fitness challenge. They left the house on Saturday morning at 6 am. At 7:30 the rest of us woke up to the dog barking at the thunder and lightning. It started pouring rain and lightning strikes downtown where the girls were. They were trying to find a food booth to volunteer at once some of the rain eased up-for a minute. Everything but one of the coffee stations were taken. So my girls maintained a coffee booth for some cold and grumpy people that missed their coffee fix. They came home before noon with all the layers of clothes they were wearing soaking wet. And then the sun came out once they were home.

We had one of Hannah's little friends stay the night over Friday. He brought a photo album his grandma made for him. Autumn, for some reason took it outside and left it there. It rained something crazy. We were getting ready to take hime home when I found the book and realized how wet it was. I quickly and carefully pulled all the pictures out. They all needed to dry. I told him I would fix the book for him. I had to find a new photo album. I went to all the really close stores to see if I could find one. I was looking for those cheap plastic ones you can USUALLY find anywhere. I couldn't find one. I went to Fred Meyer. They had them in girly glitter. That wasn't going to work for a little boy. I had to go home because another nasty storm blew in. Later that night I hit 2 more stores and found them but used one I found at Wal-mart. It had flowers on it but I realized I could salvage the cover on his if I let them dry out. Sunday everything was dry enough to put his album back together. All I was trying to do was find something close to home and should have just gone for the drive to Wal-mart. Even though I usually have the same complaint as most people do lately. They either have no selection or are out of what I am after. I was trying to find Swedish fish for Kylee to take to school for a gift basket they are doing in her class. I had to get them at Wal-greens. I was not feeling good to top it off so that made the whole photo album seeking mission miserable.

HEY!!!

I fixed my COMPUTER!!!!! I did it MYSELF!!!! It was really acting stupid and now its not. I fixed it! I fixed it! Now we can watch you tube videos without it acting really slow and wasting a ridiculous amount of time. Now I need to replace my Wii sensor bar. The rabbit was not watched as well as she should have been and ate the wire. I bought one but it doesn't work.

Why?

I am slow. But You wouldn't believe how fast my regular laundry accumulates. I am washing the 2nd sleeping bag from my trip and I am wondering why? So I can put them in the shed freshly cleaned so they can collect fresh dust until next season I guess.

TA DAH

See! Super cute and yummy too. It doesn't take much to make me happy really. We all were after this. Lee Joe just happened to be home for the delivery too.

Super cute

You are going to have to wait a little bit for the picture. I am heading into the busy part of my day even though this whole day has been that way. Anyways, we got this super cute thing delivered yesterday. It was adorable and totally made my day-and everyone else's in the house because things do not get delivered here very often. It was so appreciated!! Just typing this little bit I had 2 phone calls, on one my cell and one on my landline. Sheesh. A new CUTE picture is coming so you don't have to look at Lee Joe's ugly hand anymore.

And Hannah went to the eye doctor and finally has improved her vision in her bad eye from 20/40 to the 20/30 - 20/25 range! That is great news after 6 years of eye doctor visits every 3-6 months. And just speaking to Kelsea just now, I have to make ANOTHER dr's appointment. jeez louise. Keeping it happy! Do you see me smiling my cheezy smile? Got to go!

I have a minute to post a picture. Was gonna jump up and get the camera-Oops Amber has it for YW tonight. They are doing photography at the park. Lee Joe and I did Amber and Kelsea's schedules at the high school last night. There are some amazing teachers. Kelsea's acc Chemistry teacher was a hydrologist and the girls math teacher (they have the same teacher) was some sort of engineer. I got Kelsea into the doctor today. She has something weird going on with her ribs that could be caused by her hypermobility joint issue. I am working tomorrow. Some day you will see the super cute thing that made my week.

EWWW

Here is the big bad owie. It is really swollen.

More good news. Melissa fared well in the storm. It moved to the East a little. They had lots of wind only about an inch of rain. Their house held up well. No damage to cars or to David's family store. A rather large tree branch fell on a neighbors roof and that was the worst damage they saw. The kids slept in the hall and in the end Dylan felt the storm was a let down. They still have power. We didn't hear from my grandfather and uncle for awhile. He is without power. But word finally got out and they fared well. And he has a generator he got after Rita. They might be without power for a while. Since Janika hasn't blogged in awhile I bet she is getting hit now.

Something better

Here is the something better. I know I have been griping progressively all week. Probably scared all the 2 readers that are still reading from reading anymore. Anyways, another store where we bought formals for Amber this past year is going out of business. We hit that store today. 2 girls in high school with homecoming around the corner, that is a big bonus especially with 3 more girls that have the potential for wearing them in the future too. We found dresses for 30 bucks! and little sweaters for 7 and 8 dollars. So the Amber and Kelsea got dresses. Amber got 2 and Kelsea got one. We are keeping an eye out on another one for Kelsea that is not quite 30 bucks yet. They put their dresses on at home and it was like the big girls were playing dress-up. So funny and cute. I have to repair and alter some but they are great dresses. Some fun news. Dove will have to let me know if the JCPenney outlet is still in Reno. That would be a great place to visit if we get into Reno again.

The not fun news. My problem seems to becoming more of a kidney stone issue. I know Devanie relates. I have been waving in and out of feeling really bad and OK. I found some meds from my last episode so that is helping.

More not fun news. I wish I had cable right now. I am blogging so much because I am trying to find out everything I can about Ike and I keep searching for updated info on the internet. I am not finding much. Hopefully I will be able to reach my sister in the morning. I did talk to her a bunch today though.

Lee Joe's hand is doing well so far. He is going to an air show tomorrow at Mountain Home. Good diversion for him. I think he is taking 4 girls. Kelsea is not interested and I shouldn't go far either.

I think I have blogged plenty in the past week alone.

Hurricane

I know Janika may get a little bit of Ike but here is what my sister and grandpa are in for-
From an e-mail I got today from her

"Well, initially the eye of the hurricane was going to pass directly over us (Sealy) as a Cat. 2 hurricane still. Can you believe they are projecting it will be a hurricane this far inland?? But, it shifted slightly to the east and now the eye will pass over Houston. We will still see some pretty extreme winds and rain, though. They say that hurricane force winds are extending 115 miles from the center of the storm and tropical force winds are extending 275 miles from the center.

It is looking like Galveston is going to be devastated!!! You should see the flooding in Galveston already and landfall is still projected out 18 hours. Waves have topped the seawall already and they are at low tide. The storm surge is projected to be somewhere around 15-20 feet with 8-10 foot waves above that and the streets are already flooded! How awful. They have been under mandatory evacuation since yesterday. Some of the people that have been here for years have said they haven't seen flooding like that so far in front of a storm ever!!!

I talked to Grandpa yesterday and he says he is pretty prepared. He has a generator and water and food, so hopefully he will be fine. I will check in with him after the storm. We are all warned we will most likely lose power and be without it for an "extended period of time." Yippee! At least a cool front is coming in behind the storm and we are supposed to be in the 80s instead of the 90s for a few days afterwards.

Great timing! I was supposed to start working on Monday...now I have no idea what the plan will be. Anyways, the storm is supposed to take a sharp northward turn once it hits landfall, but they are showing it still being hurricane strength until Livingston. I don't know if you remember where that is, but that is like really far inland I would think for a hurricane."

She tells me Kailyn is very distressed but Dylan thinks it is cool.
I have been to Galveston a few times so seeing pictures on the news I recognize some of the places they show. It is a neat little town. Hopefully it won't be all gone after the storm.
My grandfather is on the west side of Houston. Where Sealy is, where Melissa is at is a 30-45 minute drive to my grandfather's house.

I am pretty miserable. I think I will have to go to the doctor whether I like it or not. Lee Joe went to work. He is limited on some of what he can do but he is doing OK.

Pete's sake

You Lay people are sure good at one upmanship. Lee Joe didn't want Zach to get all the injury attention so he tried to cut his finger off. But it hurt too much so he really just hurt the heck out of the top of his middle finger. He has 17 stitches and just barely missed severing a tendon. He hurt the sheath around it but it is still in tact. So dealing with him in situations like these is on the super obnoxious side. I have a hard time feeling sorry for him when he is really being a pain in the you know what. He argues about EVERYTHING!! And the nurses and the doctor also said how "sensitive" he is to pain so it isn't just me and my super human tolerance for pain that thinks those thoughts. He will be fine and better off if he will decide in the morning that he doesn't need to work. I am sure the pain in the morning will change his mind. He got a shot in the butt too that is almost hurting more at the moment than the hand injury. They did say that it was going to hurt.

I was having a ridiculous day. I was so tired I don't what was wrong me except I am fighting a UTI with cranberry capsules so I didn't have to go the doctor. It is working slowly. I worked a half day, got nothing done around here except I started my sheets and with everything tonight I am waiting for them to dry right now. I was going to watch the marching band at the game but got there at the beginning of the 3rd quarter so I missed seeing it. Last night the rabbit escaped and was lost for hours and the little girls found it on the otherside of my animal hating neighbors house. I had to zip tie that door closed on its cage. This whole week has about become a nightmare. I have parents that seem to think I am the neighborhood chauffer for their kids and I am trying to get them to help me out a little more so I don't lose my mind. I think I did it but I keep mulling it over and over and I get more frustrated by trying to become less of a door mat. If I keep going on it will be more of an irritating blog than it already is. I will have to take pictures of Lee Joe's wrapped hand I guess. By the way Hannah must have had some monster trophy teeth. They were big with the roots in tact. She got 7 dollars for 4 teeth. She is still on a soft diet today.
And my sister is outside Houston. I have been trying to call her back all evening and can't get her. I think they will be OK where they are at. I haven't talked to her so I don't know.

I have had it. I just thought I would let you know before I lose it completely.

Procrastination

Blogger, I have found, is great form of procrastination. I need to clean up my disaster living room before piano and have not been hope long enough to do anything about and here I am. I wasn't going to blog but I want to procrastinate some more.

It was uneventful really until this morning. I worked for 2 days and besides the one kindergarten class having a crazy nutty day, there was not much to report. It was our stake temple day last night. They made such a big deal out of it but I hardly saw anyone I knew from our stake. But that doesn't mean they weren't there because they were mostly people much older than me and couple of couple's younger.

The girls drug themselves to the temple trip this morning. Amber was fine and got Kelsea moving a 5 when they were suppose to be at the church. I think it was men thinking like men saying they had enough to get ready for school. The girls did not and they were 20-30 minutes late for their zero hour classes. In the course of their home time getting ready for school, Kelsea was scared by a mouse. Screaming at 7am is hard to ignore. And there was a big katydid as well. Ok, Socks and I need to have another talk about the condition of mice brought into the house. Bring them dead, very very dead, not playing dead. It might be under the piano. The katydid was sent outside. Makes for good stories though.

Poor Hannah had a rough afternoon. She got 4 baby teeth pulled in front and did not handle it very well. The dentist we have right now was so good and tried to be careful and get her to calm down. I said just go for it. She is like that with band-aid removal and use to be like that when I trimmed her nails. Nice mom aren't I? So he did the last 2 real quick. He just wasn't sure and didn't want it to be traumatic and I appreciate that. Anyways Hannah is hanging out at home now and is having jello, pudding and mac and cheese for the next two days. Amber had 2 cavities filled but no drama there.

I have to get those band uniforms finished tonight. It has gone a little bit better. But I still grumble how much I hate them when I do them. Well, now I have hustle. Procrastination time is over.

stupid--

Here is me cursing the fact that I can not do a decent slip stitch to save my life on some stupid cuffs on the band uniforms. And cursing the person that stitched the elastic on with the smallest, tightest sewing machine stitch there ever was. I am diversion-ing my self as I wish I said no to 4 band uniforms-8 pant legs. I am working tomorrow and they need to be done Weds. I did one pair and even though I redid one cuff it still looks bad. AND AND AND . Wah wah-pity party is over. Back to stitching my crappy stitching. By the way-I do not envy kindergarten teachers. Fun day there.



Wouldn't you love this in High School? They are having a temple trip at 5am Weds morning before school starts. They are suppose to be done in time for 6:30 seminary and zero hour seminary and classes. Being a girl, wouldn't that just make your morning? They say their best turnouts have been the very early morning ones. Maybe we should skip those in favor of the later in the day trips. I am kind of grumbly. I guess I should quit now and go sew more bleeping pants. This really isn't suppose to be a vent fest. But that is the kind of mood I am in besides tired.

Don't like it!!

I don't like all the back to school stuff! Take it back! Take it back!!

The days are quiet and seem short and long at the same time. Depends on what I am up to I guess. I will be subbing already for 2 days next week. Could have added another day but I have to take 2 kids to the dentist. I have been asked to sub 3 days the next week but I had a conflict on one of those days too. I had 2 back to school visits last night and we rented a viola from the school for Autumn which meant I had to be a the Jr high in that window of being at the elementary school. And kids were everywhere it seemed. And the husband was working late again. Needless to say I was frustrated. We have 4 kids playing instruments at the moment-besides piano. I am kind of excited except for the fact that the Elementary orchestra teacher is the same one from the jr high that we had problems with last year. It is one year and she wants to play flute next year. Kylee is playing trombone this year.
We are going to a football game tonight. Mainly for the pep band and to hear their marching music and see Amber be bossy. I am helping hem band uniforms as of today and we are to make a quilt before the end of this month for a YW thing. It isn't even started yet.
I have plenty to do this weekend but I am hoping for a helpful husband to be home and help take care of the outside so I can get things in order in here before I have to work on Monday. I STILL have several loads of laundry left. And many other messes.

The kids are doing well at the moment. Kelsea did a hilarious powerpoint presentation about herself. She did it while she was still very tired from the trip. We were still very tired from the trip so we laughed a lot harder. Both girls said they were crazy hyper on Tuesday and they didn't like it. That was kind of funny. Hannah is on some sort of accelerated learning thing it is like going through a new experience that could get overwhelming. She loves learning but is learning things so fast, I don't know. The first week of school she is reading at a 3.5 grade level. I have never, ever experienced this. The teacher just bumped her up in her math group to see how she does and she is doing great. This teacher sounds great at figuring out the kids in her class and how each one learns and where each one is at. There are only 17 kids in her class. With the 5 and 6th graders we will have to see if they can keep up and get things turned in on time. It is prep for jr high right now and that could be a problem for them both. But they are doing all right for the moment.

I got all my pictures back from Penney's. So I am happy about that. I like pictures. But I am depressed too. My favorite store ever is closing here. I have shopped at Mervyn's for years and they have had store closing signs every where. I forlornly walked through the store very sadly this afternoon. I didn't buy anything but mourning never being able to shop there again. Or park in my favorite spot at the mall in front of the upstairs at Mervyn's and work my way through the mall from there. No more sundresses for little girls or jeans for me. No more great clearance deals. So sad. Yes I like the mall. And have always liked Mervyn's since we lived in Nevada. I am done mourning. I need to get Kelsea soon. She is almost done with her very first driving experience in Driver's ed. That is so scary!!!!!! I have recovered. Have a great weekend!

A couple more pics

The first elk picture. Another beautiful view picture.

Trip

Here are the words to go with the pics. I ran out of time last night after I posted all this pics. I was copying a ton of stuff for Amber while I posted. So anyways-
This is Mount Hood coming into Portland. Very pretty mountain

We stopped at Multnomah Falls which is just before Portland. It is a fantastic place to stop after nearly 6 hours on the road. We walked up to the bridge to see the falls up closer. It is a beautiful waterfall.

On the other side of Portland we found this little diversion for Lee Joe. He found a happy place. He just got out with the girls and looked in that big window and at the planes in front.


We stopped at Depoe Bay and got the best whale spotting. So cool! The whales we saw this time were much closer and easy to spot. It was just difficult to get the digital camera to take the pictures fast enough. But we saw it come up many times. It was awesome. That was the first little diversion once we hit the coast on Friday.


We stopped at a Science Center in Newport. They have these "tide pool" things where the kids can touch everything. The center is a donation only place so it is almost free. 10 dollars for all of us. Can't beat that kind of deal.

Kylee is touching the octopus. Out of all the aquariums we have been to the past few years this is the only place I have ever seen where you get a great view of an octopus and have an opprotuniity to touch it if it is awake and active. The other picture is in one of the tanks there.

We drove a little farther down and the kids were itching to get near the water. It was very close to low tide and Lee Joe took them up some rocks and this is what they found. Real ocean tide pool.

We drove as far South as a town called Bandon. It was too late to find a camp ground and it was acting like rain. Lee Joe took the loop in that town that went by the ocean and we found this motel. It is the cutest nicest and best night sleep I have ever had in a Motel. The first picture is the view out our room. The 2nd is the room the girls stayed in. They had a princess room that the little lasy that owns the place fixed up her self and it was the cutest room.

We knew that low tide was at 6am that morning. So Lee Joe and the girls got up early and took the walk down to the beach from the Motel. We have never found tide pools like these before.

Hands on the sea stars

Sea Anemones and WOW look at all those Sea stars. Shh-I was still in bed.

We drove all day down to the red woods and we were looking for a camp ground that wasn't full and wasn't a dump. But we had to take this diversion to drive through the tree.

This is the potty stop in a giant log.



We set up camp and this is the next morning. We were able to find our own food. At least a snack. And they are good in cereal too. Blackberries are everywhere there.

We went to the scenic drive and found this area where there was a trail. It was called Big Tree and we are all standing in front of big tree. And then we found Big hollow log, big stand of trees, and the enormous root cluster.



It is place where you feel quite small. But beautiful and breathtaking.

We heard that they filmed a lot of Jurassic park here. I have only seen parts of it on the TV version but this field reminds me of a scene. But that is Lee Joe taking a minute to pick blackberries. We were going to go to this other area where they did film some of the movie but the place was too full people and we weren't allowed to go the rest of the way up.

Back to our hike. I think we were hiking for about 2 miles on this trail. Towards the end we told the little girls to stop running ahead and then we saw elk tracks on the trail. They looked like fresh tracks so we were trying to keep our eyes open. Then Kelsea and Kylee and I were trying to speed walk in first just playing around and laughing at each other where we all of a sudden heard something move in the brush and we looked over to see a bull elk really close. Dead stop and I grabbed both girls next to me and covered Kylee's mouth as she screamed. I said Elk to Lee joe and I wasn't sure what the Elk was going to do so we just stood still Lee Joe and the other 3 girls joined us and I was able to get my camera out because he wasn't going to charge us. I got a picture as he moved away a little and then we saw 2 doe and 2 babies in the trees. We went on our way all jumpy after that but our walk was near the end.

The kids were still so excited about the ocean. We ate lunch in a picnic area. Not really. We sat in the car because it was too windy and cool. But we spent awhile on the beach collecting driftwood and watching pelicans dive in the water. That is a bunch of Pelicans and other sea birds sitting on the beach. We could spot seals here and there but they were never there long enough to get pictures. The waves were just crashing into the beach so the girls couldn't touch the water.


We took a drive up to some bluffs and here is a pretty view.

On our way we tried more beach combing Monday morning. The girls found a few shells that day and they even found some pieces of sea glass. The sea gulls were quite pretty compared to the inland ones. This guy even posed for me.


So yes, we got a flat tire. I have never seen anyone so excited over it in my life. "I can get extra credit in driver's Ed if I change a tire!" So she did. She dressed like that for two days. What a dork.

And there you have it. It seemed like so much longer. We spent hours and hours in the car and the kids were so well behaved considering. The only regret we have is that we couldn't camp closer to the ocean but it was pretty windy where we were so it probably wound not have been as nice as our other trip years ago. And 3 days later I am STILL cleaning up the mess AND doing loads of laundry. But it was all worth it.