Seaside and Newport

I was able to take three weeks off of work so we took a big vacation. We went to Hells Canyon, Bend, Newport and Seaside. I thought three weeks in our trailer with all six of us would drive me crazy, but it turned out to be a lot of fun.

Seaside

Our last stop was Seaside. We stayed here five days. One morning we rented a six seater bike and rode around town.

There were a couple of hills that we rode up. It expected it to be easier to peddle up with four of us peddling, but it wasn't.

We went to Cannon Beach and saw Haystack rock. We were also able to find a few sand dollar shells.

We went swimming quite a bit.

We even found time to put together a few puzzles.

You can't go to the coast without stopping at Tillamook and getting squeaky cheese.

Newport

This is Newport. It was foggy like this on the beach almost the entire week we were here.

We met up with my cousin Teresa and her family for the week here. I told our kids not to get their clothes wet on the beach. Of coarse everyone ended up riding in the back of the truck because the were covered from head to toe with water and sand.

We ate at The Chowder Bowl. It was fun trying to find a table for eleven.

Newport pier

We had to stop and get pictures at every little statue.

We spent a day at marine science center.

We spent our days playing pickleball ....

miniature golfing ....

and squeezing into phone booths.

The kids wanted to see the sea lions, so off we went to the Sea Lion Caves.

I bought a crabbing license, rented some crab pots and we were off to try and catch dinner.

We caught quite a few.

It was so cold. We were all huddled together under blankets and jackets.

I brought my sturgeon rod and bought a little crab trap the hooks to the end of the line. I could cast it out a lot further than we could get the pots. It actually worked pretty good.

We spent a day at the Oregon Coast Aquarium.

Bend and Hells Canyon

BEND



Our second stop on our big vacation this summer was Bend, Oregon. We only spent one full day here so we decided to float the river. Heidi had to take Emily to the doctors so the rest of us braved the cold water. It looks like Sean is having second thoughts.



Marissa slowly worked her way in.

Tyson didn't have much of a choice, I threw him and his tube into the water.

Here we go. I know that it doesn't look like I'm sitting on a tube, but I am. It must be angle of the camera and reflection of the water that makes it look like I'm sinking.

Movie night.

HELLS CANYON

This was our first stop on our trip. It was unusually cool this year. We even had to wear jackets part of the time. The kids still had fun playing with their cousins. This is Tyson, Emily and Jenna trying to keep warm.

Marissa and Sean relaxing with Dixie.

Boys and their bugs. Sean, Boe and Luke caught a preying mantis at Grandma Susie's house and had fun chasing the girls with it, especially Heidi.

It must be cold there also.

Watch out Tristian, here comes Sean.

Run Tyson Run

Summer activities

We kept busy the first part of the summer with a bunch of activities with the kids. We went to the movie UP in 3-D. They gave us some pretty stylish glasses to wear.
Emily took swimming lessons this summer. She is turning into a little fish. Of course we forgot to take pictures of her during her lessons, but this is her riding home after one of her lessons.


Tyson started his first year of T-ball. He had a good time and did a great job.

HOMERUN !!!

Sean played baseball also. He played third base, outfield, pitched a little and anywhere else that they needed him. This is him with a good friend Nathaniel.

Tyson graduated from pre-school. His teacher lived around the corner from our house. We had fun walking him there with Dax (our dog) on days it wasn't raining.

This is Tyson with his teacher Mrs. Janet.

The garden
We finally got our garden ready for planting. We planted green beans, regular and cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, red potatoes, turnips, and eggplants. Hopefully it won't snow again this year, but it is Eastern Idaho.




Tyson and Bearworld

Tyson got to go to Bearworld for pre-school. They even got to ride in a "Grampa Howie school bus".







This bear is the one they used as Balou the Bear in the first Jungle Book movie.



OUCH!!


Feeding time for the babies.



Emily playing dress-up.



The boys trip to St. George

Travis, Ryan and I meet our parents in St. George for a golf weekend. After we all got there, Mom left the next morning to go to Sarah's to make dresses, leaving us alone to fend for ourselves. We survived on cold cereal, brautworsts, nachos and pizza (not good if you have a bad gallbladder, sorry Dad). We played golf about every day in 80 dergee weather, better than the 30 degrees we were having in Idaho. Dad looks like a pro here. It's a good thing this picture doesn't show where the ball ended up.





Poor Ryan had surgery on his knee and wasn't supposed to swing a club. We let him chip and putt when the Marshall wasn't looking.

This picture is prove to Mom that we kept the condo nice and clean the entire time.



There has to be at least one bathroom picture.


Lava Hot Springs

Heidi's Aunt Janet has a timeshare at Lava Hot Springs and invited us down for the weekend (of coarse I had to work). They spent a lot of time in the pool.


Emily loves to dress-up. Heidi's wedding dress almost fits.



EFY (Especially for Youth)

Marissa went to a youth conference at BYU-Idaho (it will alwasy be Ricks to me). She got all dressed up and had a good time.

There was a concert by an acapella group after the conference was over.

This is the main singer from the group. He is Grama Nancy's neighbor in Ogden.

Semi-annual posting

Ice fishing with the Claysons





We all bundled up and made our way out to Robert's gravel pond.

I think the kids had almost more fun playing with the fish than catching them.

I think this one was the "monster" of the day.

Emily's Snowman

Snowmen: The Movie

Sean got the chance to be an extra in a real movie. They filmed it in Park City. Sean and I were there for 4 long and cold days. All the filming was done outside in 10-20 degree weather. The first scene was a bunch of kids walking to school. They would shoot for about 30 seconds and then everyone would go back to where they started from and do it again and again and again. After that, they would move the cameras and do it again 7 or 8 times. In the picture above, Sean is in the very back standing by himself.

They were trying to break the world record for the most snowmen made in a day. It was pretty funny to see only half snowmen out in the field.

These are three of the main kids in the movie. A couple of them have been in quite a few other movies and TV shows.

This is another scene. Sean is wearing the red coat and walking towards one of the main kids.

Camping at CJ Strike Reservoir

The kids had Spring Break and wanted to go camping somewhere warm. We decided to go to CJ Strike Res. which is just west of Mountain Home. We left Idaho Falls to 3 inches of snow and hoped for the best. The weather stayed around 50 or so which was a nice change to what we were used to. One day was very windy. It started about one in the morning on Sunday and didn't stop until Monday afternoon. At one point I thought the trailer was going to blow over. We had Jill's tent set up to keep the dog and other stuff in it. Needless to say it now looks a lot like Uncle Bill's Hells Canyon tent, more duck tape that tent. (Jill, I forgot to tell you that your tent got a little wind damage, but it is as good as new after a little tape.) This picture was taken from the top of the dam looking down on where we camped.

We did quite a bit of fishing but they weren't biting very well.

Even Marissa baited her own hook.

We brought the 4-wheeler with us and had some fun one afternoon.

I got a little high-centered.

Heidi felt so bad that Dax was outside in the cold that she let him hang out with us inside the trailer a couple of the days.

There were 130 to 142 stairs from the bottom of the dam to the top, depending on which kid counted them.

Sheina and her kids came and stayed with us for two days. Everyone had a lot of fun hanging out.

A guy caught a small sturgeon and a all the kids got to touch it before he let it go.

Tyson turns five

Do you think he is excited?

Hey, I'm five!!!

It's been a few month since we've posted anything, so I thought we would catch up.

We spent a week at Bear Lake. We hung out at the beach a couple of the days. This is Sean and one of his cousins. They were seeing who could cover themselves in the most sand.

This is the best way to spend a day at the beach.

I'm not the only one who naps.

We spent a day and hiked up to Bloomington Lake which is about 20 miles from Bear Lake. It is a 2 mile hike to get there. The fishing was pretty good and the view was great.

Baseball

Sean spent the spring playing baseball. He plays about every position including pitcher.

He was selected to be on the Idaho Falls All Star team. They ended playing in the state tournament in Moscow. We stayed with my cousin Danielle and her family and my parents camped at the ballfield. It was alot of fun. Their team missed qualifing for the next tournament by one game.

Fishing/Hunting
I spent a few day fishing on the Snake River for sturgeon. Three of us caught about about 16 of them in three days.

They averaged around 7-8 feet and weighed about 200 pounds.

After reeling one in for 45 minutes, you need to rest for a half an hour to let your arms stop shaking.

I went deer hunting in Mackey with my cousin Cameron. It took us 3 hours to get this little thing back to the truck.

Halloween

We all had fun carving pumpkins.

Tasty

Doesn't this look like fun.

I had to work that night, so they came to visit me. I x-rayed their candy. Some of it had to be confiscated.

Christmas

The primary put on a program and Emily had a speaking part in it.

Santa even showed up.

We had a big Christmas party with Heidi's family. Lots of presents for everyone.

Christmas morning at our house.

Tyson turns four

I can't believe our youngest is four. They sure grow up fast.


Goldilocks and the Four Bears
Emily was in a play and she got to play Godilocks.

That chair is too small
This bed is just right
Golf N' Sod

Heidi and I celebrated our 14th anniversary. We spent the night at a bed and breakfast and went golfing the next morning. It was the first time for Heidi and she almost beat me.

Jill and Dan watched our kids overnight and we helped them lay sod. The lower the stacks got, the heavier the sod got.