scrapbooking summer

I've been busy trying to scrapbook all of our summer adventures! Our summer has been filled with fun memories that just have to be included in a scrapbook. Here are a few...

family, family and more family!

August has been the month of family! Last week we had Aunt Maria and cousins Emilie, Jared, Marissa, Aaron and David here. We filled the week with lots of great activities. We had a few days break when they left and this Monday, Aunt Katie and her kids arrived to spend a week with us! Our house is brimming with girls! We have spent this week at the pool, taking a bikeride and just letting the cousins play together. They all get along so well! We now have just one more week before school starts so my focus is to clean my house and prepare for school.



that's alot of pink!!

In other news, I started taking lessons on the organ. I figured that playing the organ should be a piece of cake after learning the piano but I was wrong. Figuring out the fingering (which is different from the piano) and coordinating my feet to hit the right pedals has proven to be a challenge. I have set a goal to learn one song really well ("Father in heaven, we do believe") and then once I've gotten that one down, I'll move onto another song. Needless to say, it is going to be a while before I am ready to play in sacrament meeting.

I'm a little behind, but here is week 33.

beautiful Oregon

we had a couple of adventures this last week that reminded me how lucky we are to live in this beautiful state. I grew up in Spokane...a place that I thought was just lovely. Then, I came to live in Oregon and realized that Spokane doesn't hold a candle to the beauty that is the western side of Oregon.

Last Monday, we went on a bike ride with some families in our ward. It is a brand new bike trail that starts at Clearwater Park and follows the river for 2.5 miles. It is a flat ride and easy for kids but the scenery is gorgeous. We passed through a few sections that seemed like an enchanted forest...lots of moss covered trees all around us and the river gurgling along on our right.



When Aunt Maria was here this week, we took a hike up at the Dolly Varden campground. (Up by Fall creek). There is a trail there that leads to a nice rocky beach and a swimming hole. We had a picnic and let the kids swim in the creek.

We let Lydia hike with aunt Maria the whole way (she took all of the below pictures) because with us, she would have been complaining and wanting to be carried. With Maria, she didn't complain a bit! She trudged along for 2.25 miles!

Absolutely gorgeous, don't you think??




This is Drew and Sweet Pea...a boy and his dog (well, our dog, but he calls Sweet Pea his dog.)

Just a mile down the road is a place called "Big Pool." It is a really deep section of the creek where the kids jumped off of rocks and giant logs that had fallen into the creek.

Here is Casey, launching himself off of an enormous fallen tree into the deep (and cold) water.

The cousins (and Casey) found this giant floating long and tried to haul it upstream. The current got the better of them though.

Finally, we took a trip to the coast for the second time this summer. Once again, the weather was stunning...breezy and warm. Heceta Head is the best place on the coast to visit. The kids get to choose to swim in the ocean or the river. A river flows right into the ocean on the south side of the beach. Some of my girls preferred swimming in the shallow, warm fresh water while others perferred jumping the waves in the much colder Pacific ocean. Allison just loved searcing for starfish in the tidepools.

Oh Oregon, how we love you. If you can put up with 9 solid months of rain, summers here are incredibly wonderful.

We love having aunt Maria, cousins Marissa, David, Emilie, Aaron, Jared and Mackenzie here all week! We love family!

house painting

Summer's coming to a close and as I look back on it, I can't believe all that we have packed into these last three months! We are in the middle of an "un-reunion" right now with Aunt Maria and her kiddos arriving earlier in the week. Each day has been fun-fulled and exciting!

We are so close to finishing our house painting. It is looking so great and I know the neighbors like it. (anything is better than the faded, 10 year old paint we had before). Casey will be glad to get it finished. I am proud of him for doing it himself. He bought a sprayer and did the majority of the house while I did the trim. We ended up saving $2,000 by doing it ourselves!!

The color is a little lighter than the origial grey and we went with a dark trim this time instead of light.

Here is our last week of fun.

Finally, a few more Millar reunion pages.

give me some light!

We are painting our house over the next few days. Casey is doing it himself and saving us a ton of money. The only downside is that it is taking much longer. We spent the whole day today in darkness as all of the windows are covered in dark paper...in preparation for a whole day of painting tomorrow. I was amazed at how not having light in the house (other than artificial light) can affect one's mood. I found myself grumpy and irritated all day. When I realized what was causing it, I quickly took the kids out into the sunshine to the park. Everyone's mood improved. I hope this project goes quickly!!!

Have I mentioned how much I am enjoying Oregon's non-summer? We haven't had a day hit 90 all summer. Today's high was 78 degrees. I wish that somehow all those suffering in the midwest...and just about everywhere else in the country could come to Oregon and enjoy our summer that forgot to be summer.

Finally, I finished a few more Millar reunion pages.



w

Scrapbooking away!

I'm on a roll guys and since I don't have anyone else to share my scrapbooking creations with, I'll share them with you! Below are the pages for the Zoo and Lego Land. Hope there aren't any typos :)

Girls Camp!!

I knew this day was coming...it just crept up on me too soon! I sent my firstborn off to her first year of Girl's Camp! I feel like she is growing up way too fast. Surely I was older than Charlotte is now when I went to my first year of Girls camp right? She was so excited to get dropped off at the church this morning. Yesterday we packed her bags, made cookies, packed her a lunch and made a foil dinner. She prepared a spiritual thought that she was asked to give and before I knew it, she was gone! I get to pick them up this Saturday and I'm looking forward to hear about what they did all week!

This is a picture of the Springfield 3rd ward Beehives...ready for camp!


I finally caught up with my project 365. I was three weeks behind as of yesterday! thankfully, I found a little down time to finish them. Here is our last week.

I love making Star Wars pages. This one is from LegoLand last month!

And finally, the waterpark at LegoLand: