catching up!

This has been a crazy summer so far. My goal starting out this summer was to update our family blog weekly. Well, that all went out the window the first week.We have been extremely busy the last few weeks. So now it is time to play catch up with our events so far this year. It all started out when Brian had to study and take the comlex board exam in mid-june. This was a very hard and stressful time for our family. Even though only Brian was the one taking the test we were all worried and stressed out.
After the exam my mom came out to help me with Jason's baptism. I am so thankful that she came out. I would not have been able to get everything done in time without her. Jason had a wonderful baptism. It was a little stressful, but it was worth waiting for my Dad to arrive so that he could see one of his grandchildren get baptized. Ellie sang a wonderful song, "I am trying to be like Jesus". (i love this song) And Jennifer gave a great talk about baptism. I am so thankful also to Heather who played the piano on such short notice and for so long. It is so wonderful to have family members that are willing to help out. I was also glad that Sister Budge moved their ward party outside. It made things less complicated than they were.
Between the baptism and Brian's boards I was able to take the boys strawberry picking. I took the two older boys separate making it a whole lot easier. I also was able to spend some alone time with each of them. I took Matthew on a Saturday that had really bad weather. He like it anyway. We went for a half hour.
I think that is all he could take. Then, a couple of days later Jason and I went with Ellie and Kaylee, it was so much fun. We found a great place to pick our strawberries and the berries were so cheap. I think we will go back there again next year. The boys always eat more than they pick. Oh well, it is a lot of fun. Gavin will have to wait until next year or the year after that. He is too crazy for me to take Strawberry picking right now.
After the baptism we went to Corvallis Oregon. There is a residency program there that Brian wanted to check out. So we went along with him to check out Corvallis. It was pretty nice there. The program seemed very nice. I think we can add Corvallis to our list of possibilities of residency programs. The boys like the little park they had there. It was kinda cool it reminded me of parks you can find in Iowa. The park had a castle theme and all the boys had so much fun!
So after Corvallis we took the boys to Tillamook and to the Oceanside to see the coast of Oregon. The weather was cold and wet for most of they trip. We all had fun in Tillamook seeing the Cheese factory. The kids liked seeing where we get all the cheese they eat. At the cheese factory they have this big cow. Gavin was so afraid of this it was funny. It is tough when your the youngest because your older brothers can tease you and that is exactly what Jason did. We also enjoy our trip to the Ocean even if it was rainy. We went through this cave which was really cool. It went through a mountain. The boys enjoyed seeing and playing in the water. Jason especially loved it. The beach was so pretty the only thing that bugged me was all the rocks. We were hoping to take some shells home. We found a few, but after Gavin was done with they looked like the others at the beach broken. Oh, well we will just have to wait until next year. Here are some pictures of the beach and our family. Please excuse Matthew he fell at the end of our journey and was not a happy camper.




Into the cave





You know you live in Oregon when you wear
rain boots to the beach.












Before he fell off a tree trunk and hit his head









This has been our summer so far, we still have lots more planned. Thank goodness we purchased a new car. Oh I forgot to mention we bought a second car. I love it!!