Chapter 2 - BYU

On Monday, July 26th we decided to take the kids to BYU. They have never been and I knew that they would enjoy going and seeing where mom and dad went to college. When we got to campus we went to the BYU bindery, where I worked for two years, and I was able to introduce my family to my boss and where I worked. Pete wondered how I could stand the smell, but you get used to that and all the loud noise.

We then headed to the Wilkinson Center and we all enjoyed a fun game of skee ball, even Grandma P. enjoyed playing. We shopped at the Bookstore and each got a t-shirt and souvenir. Then we ate lunch at the Cougareat and headed to the Creamery for an ice cream for dessert. (I didn't take any pictures)!

After all that fun we met Inger and her kids at the Bean Museum and the kids had a great time looking at all the animals there. Jaron was scared of the animals (surprise, surprise) and so of course Pete had a fun time teasing him about sitting in the crocodile's mouth and other such fun things. It was pretty funny to watch his reactions.









We had a great day. But, boy was I exhausted when we headed back to Pete's moms. That night we had most of Pete's siblings come over for dinner and dessert. It was chaotic, but fun to see everyone. (again no pictures!)

Our Utah vacation- chapter 1

We headed out to Utah on July 23rd, a little earlier than originally planned since my brother was getting marred. We caravanned with my sister and her family since her hubby was working and couldn't make it to the wedding. It was a good, trip and I was even feeling fairly decent that day.

On July 24th, my sisters, Gina, Cindy, Debbie, my mom and my future sister-in-law Mandy spent the day together. We went to lunch at Cafe Rio (yummy) and then we went shopping. Gina and I both found dresses for the wedding and Mandy found a necklace to with her dress at the wedding luncheon. It was fun to get to know Mandy. She is a nice girl and my brother is very happy. That night we had a BBQ to celebrate the 24th and then we did sparklers.









On July 25th we headed to Pete's moms house and we enjoyed a yummy pizza dinner and then we did fireworks with Pete's brother, Paul's family and his niece, Kristy's family. It was a fun time and the kids loved watching the fireworks on the tramp.












This is how Jaron enjoyed the fireworks!

The Fourth of July

For the fourth this year, we stayed home. We invited some friends over for dinner and then we did some fireworks we had bought. After we were done with our fireworks we headed over to some friends for some bigger fireworks. The one good thing about the fourth here is that you can sit in your yard and see fireworks going off in all different directions. There are no illegal fireworks, so people set off their own really big ones and they go crazy with them. Some people spend hundreds of dollars every year on their fireworks. It is crazy! But, makes for a great show in the neighborhood.

Such Great Friends!

The last few days have been very interesting in our family. On Monday morning, August 2nd, I dropped my husband off at the Salt Lake airport. We came to Utah on July 23rd to visit family and attend my brothers wedding. He had a headache and an ache in his leg, but other than that seemed fine. On the airplane he started feeling nauseated, so when he got to PDX he decided to head home. After he got home and his head was hurting so bad he couldn't even sleep he decided to go to the doctor to get a some stronger pain pills. The doctor took some blood and it came back with his white blood cell count WAY high! So, he was sent to the ER to see if he had meningitis. He called me about six on Monday night to tell me what he was doing and I was in absolute shock! He was fine just hours ago when I dropped him off. After a VERY long and painful night, Pete was cleared of having Meningitis, but they still didn't know what was wrong. Finally last night he got a doctor to see him that was an expert in infectious diseases. After many questions and examinations he decided that Pete has a strep infection that turned into cellulitis. It is on his right leg and is very painful. He is still in the hospital, but we are hoping he will get to go home tomorrow. He is starting to feel better now.

During all of this, I have still been in Utah, so I have not been able to be there to help him and be there for him in the hospital. It has been very frustrating and upsetting to me that I am not there for him. But, luckily we have wonderful friends who have been so great to Pete. He has had many visitors and phone calls, and we have had many people praying for us. I am so grateful to everyone who has helped my husband and been there for him when I could not. We have been blessed with many fabulous friends. I told Pete if we can't be in Utah close to our family than we are in the best place we could be with the best friends ever!

Thanks again to everyone!

Half of Eight Is NOT Enough!

Yep, that's right! We are expecting baby number five. We are excited and ready to add to our family. I am thirteen weeks and the baby is due on January 26th. We will be finding out what the baby is at the end of August or beginning of September.


This ultrasound was taken at 8 weeks

Fun Summer Times

On June 18th we went to the zoo with my sister and her kids. We had a fabulous time. It's the first time we saw the lion exhibit which I loved. The kids had a great time hanging out together. Especially Kenyon and Evan who were in their own little world playing war games and wandered off away from us more than once! With eight kids and those two not paying attention it was difficult keeping track of them. Silly boys!

We have been going to the school and public library every Wednesday for a craft time and to check out books. The public library has a reading program where the kids read a certain number of hours and they get little prizes. So, they have been enjoying participating in it.


This is one of the crafts at the school -
face painting

Another thing we have been doing frequently this summer is going to the park. We have tried out four or five different parks already and I'm sure by the time summer is over we will have tried out many more. We are very blessed to have tons of parks within a very short distance.









We went to the river on July 8th with a bunch of our friends. It was a really hot day, so it was a
perfect day to enjoy the water.











On July 12th we went blueberry picking with some friends at Majestic farms. The kids really enjoyed that and I spent the next few days washing and freezing the blueberries. Now I can make Pete as much blueberry pie as he wants!









We have also been harvesting blueberries and strawberries from our own backyard garden. The kids love to go out and pick them and eat them. YUM!

Aaron's visit

On June 24 - 28, our nephew, Aaron came to visit. We had a fun time with him, but hope he wasn't bored out of his mind! He's fourteen and we did our best to entertain him. We went to the river and had a picnic, eating Burgerville of course! We went and saw the many waterfalls surrounding Multnomah Falls. We took him to the coast, Astoria, Seaside and Tillamook. We played Ticket to Ride and went to the park. It was a fun filled weekend and we really enjoyed getting to know our nephew (cousin) from Alaska a bit better.