The Missing Month

Apparently we have not written blog posts in a long time. From the 22nd to the 26th of July we went to a family Reunion in Oregon. Much of the Brown family was able to make it there, and we had a fun time.

We loved playing with our cousins and going to the beach. The kids also "found" arrow-heads that seemed to magically be seeded in the yard of our camp site.

Rea remembers the really windy day at the beach where it was so windy that it kicked the sand around all over the place. The first time that we tried to fly kites at the beach, we were hardly able to get them up, however the second time, it was so windy that we had a hard time controlling all but the largest kites.

Sara liked the fact that we stayed in Yurts, and she also liked "crab paradise", which was when grandpa Mike caught them a lot of crabs and they played with them in a man-made tide pool.

Gideon liked playing on the sand, and drawing pictures to Mommy, and grandma Sheila sharing out food to us, and getting crabs. But he liked the best grandma Sheila sharing out delicious snacks.

Timmy liked the most playing with the cousins - especially Dustin.

One day we went out and saw some whales and lots of tidal pool animals, and we also went to a glass blowing shop. We also had lots of face painting, and we hiked up to a waterfall. All in all it was a fun trip.

The driving was pretty horrible - Baby Elizabeth dislikes driving a great deal, and she made us have to stop all of the time.

The next week was Mike's final week at dealertrack, and we got back into the swing of things. Gideon't feet got pretty much all the way better from the surgery during that week, and we also got to have a sleep over with the Plastows then. It was fun to have them come over, and they were very good. We even had a Pizza party in the park, and catch snails and climb trees with them before sending them home in the evening.

On Thursday of that week, Mike went to the BGDG, and the kids and Mom had a movie. They both had a fun time. We also played Akrotiri for date night, and had a fun time 

This last week Mike started working at Paylocity, and he has been able to get off before 3 every single day so far. He feels sort of weird that it is working out, but we are already starting to take advantage of the extra 2-3 hours in the evening, and having lunch together every day as well.

Monday was Mike's birthday, so we had Chinese take out, and we also played My Little Pony: Tales of Equestria. Alison was exhausted, so the kids really drove the story along. They went up in a blimp, and helped people find their lost pets. There was more than we could get through in a day, so we played Tuesday as well.

One night this week we also played Sprawlopolis, which Timmy, Sara, and Gideon all liked.

On Saturday we went shopping, and we also hiked in the dell, and got a bunch of wild plums and some excellent currants. For lunch we had hamburgers and watermelon, and for dinner we had pizza.

Saturday was the start of stake conference, which went well. The kids had a Dalyia for a baby sitter, which they love, and the adults got to mostly pay attention. Sunday was the family session which was hard, since the boys were all crazy. Even the bribe of stroopwafels was not sufficiently valuable to keep them quiet. Thank heaven for little girls!

Baby Elizabeth is only waking up for 1 feeding in the middle of the night, and she is also pooping in the potty some of the times. Gideon is still not always doing that, but Alison had been reading the "potty bootcamp" book, and using the techniques in it on him. They seem to be working, so hopefully it is over soon.