Monkey's first day of school

The first day of school was so fun for Monkey. He started school at Jefferson Elementary in Richland Washington.
He was so excited to go to school!

grandma Julie was there to and loved sharing this awesome day with Monkey!

The boys were just like this as we were waiting for Monkey's teacher to open the door and let the kids into class. Monkey was so excited and just couldn't wait and Bob-a-loo was sad that he didn't get to go to school too.

Outings

We went to the Jensen Nature Park in Syracuse the other day to walk and be out in nature. It was a cool day, but so beautiful. Bob-a-loo kept throwing the duck rocks, we forgot to bring bread crumbs. And the poor ducks kept going after what he was tossing. I think he even knocked one in the head... nice!

Monkey brought his bike (not in the picture) and was all over the place. He loves being the fastest.

Aren't they so sweet! They can be the best of friends, and then turn on eachother and be enemies. But mostly they're best friends!

We brought along Grandma and Luna ( Bob-a-loo makes me call my mom grandma, if I don't he yells "NO, you're mom and she's grandma!" It's quite funny!

back home

Well, we have made it back to utah, and more specifically, back to our home in Clearfield. It was a stressful, crazy move, all by myself I packed and loaded the house in Washington in 1 week. I have to say it wasn't all by myself, I had some amazing support from my mom and our ward, the Shoreline Ward. I am so humbled by the support and help I received. And not to be shown up, my ward in Clearfield came out in droves to help unload our very full, very tightly packed moving van. The out pouring of support has been amazing, I am so greatful for these 2 wards and my loving family.
I am currently looking for a job as well as really working my Usborne business. A little plug, if you want to buy some books or have a homeshow PLEASE call, I'll hook you up!!!!! And if you know of a GOOD job, I'm looking for anything; but really I want a geology job if I can actually have what I want. Please keep your eyes and ears open for anything, I need all the help I can get.
This is totally a bummer of a post, sorry. Hopefully I can get some pics of the boys and the fun they're having and all that.

Multnomah Falls, Oregon

We had an amazing trip to the Gorge to hike to the top of Multnomah Falls. Here's looking up at the falls, we're going to the top! The boys had a lot of fun hiking and playing! It took us A LONG TIME to get up there. Jesse was resting every couple steps. Which worked well because Torrey's Friend from College joined us and she's 7 months pregnant. It was fun hiking with Marie!

Here we are at the top. The falls is just in front of us. It was beautiful!

Bob-a-loo was carried most of the way. That worked well for him, except when he wanted to hike. He sure let us know either way he wanted it!

Here he is hiking! They boys sure love our hiking poles. Too bad the hiking poles became piercing agents for those passing us. It was a great time for all!

Here's Monkey looking over the falls. It was A LONG way down! Monkey was definitely proud of himself for hiking the whole way (just over 1 mile up)!

Check it out! Looking down the falls. Amazing!!!

We've had a great time traveling around Washington and Oregon. This is a fabulous area and we love it!

weekend in utah

Alpine Days Parade. We set up our chairs Thursday afternoon, the parade wasn't untill Saturday, but it was all filled up by Friday morning, so we were right on time I guess. Funny how many people want "good spots".

The beginning of the parade the boys kept their ears covered, it was LOUD!!!!

They had fun watching the floats and grabbing the candy!

We also went to the Hill Air Force Base museum and saw some awesome air planes. Here we are outside under the wing of a plane, great place for a picnic.

My brothers Alex (above) and Mitch and his fiance Shalecia (below) joined us on our field trip. It was fun to hang out with them too!

Bob-a-loo was a little ornery (that's pretty normal) and wouldn't look while I was taking pictures. I really like the old time planes. They were really neat.

The boys liked the fighter planes.

Monkey got to sit in an exection seat. He barley could fit in, but I wish I had the picture of Alex, he was almost to tall for it!

This museum is only a few miles from our house in Clearfield, we lived there for 3 years and never went. Doesn't it seem to take leaving to find the neat things around. Atleast Mitch and Shalecia are living at the house and we can do all the fun things with them.

Oregon Coast weekend

We had a great time on the Oregon coast last weekend. The boys loved playing in the sand at Agate Beach. There were awesome dunes and the boys were up and down them thousands of times. They sure did have have fun!

We even found a fun place to play while the marine layer burned off in the morning. The boys pretended to be pirates and loved calling eachother "matee!"

Sunday we went to another beach and played most of the day. We had fun playing in the sand, playing in the surf, and picking up rocks and shells.

Even Luna had a great time at the beach. She didn't like the salt water, but luckily there was a fresh water stream cutting the beach and perfect to play in, plus it was a little warmer then the ocean water.

Pictures from the summer events

We found ourselves at Mt. Rainer the end of July. What a beautiful place! The boys really loved the waterfalls and seeing the big mountain. We only went for the day, but I definitely want to go back and spend more time.

I finally have the photos from the combine deomlution derby. What a fun day! IF you find yourself in central Washington while this is going on, it is worth the drive to Lind Washington. Way FUN!!!!

Combine Demolition Derby!

You read correct folks! Saturday, June 12 we found ourselves in Lind, Washington at the Combine Demolition Derby! Let me tell you, it was something to see! We waited FOREVER for it to start, but once it did it was awesome! Between the "heats" it would take a long time to get the pieces of the combines out of the arena. Jes would get bored and forget what we were here for, then EVERY time they started again he would say "This is the best thing I've ever seen! I love this!" We also got to see some dirt truck racing that was very much like a demolition derby too! It was such a fun, redneck day! Our digital camera was out of batteries, so the pics have to wait till Tor developes his film, but we'll get them, I promise!

Hello Garden!

well, we planted our garden this last weekend! We have all the likely candidates: tomatoes, chilis, onion, spinach, broccoli, corn, zucchini, and yellow squash. This year we added some new items, and I'm really excited about them: spaghetti squash, lettuce, basil (oh yeah!!!!), green peppers, cantaloupe, watermelon, and pumpkin!
Monkey LOVED helping us plant the seeds. He was given the seeds and a stick broken to the length the seeds were to be separated by and he just went to town. We dup a long hole for him and he was working like a worker bee. He asked if we can plant seeds everyday. I told him he can help weed and harvest! Oddly that sounds good to him, we'll see after the summer is over how much he likes the garden. I'm just hoping this will help him WANT to eat his veggies.
bob-a-loo we're juts trying to keep out of the garden, all he wants to do is dig, dig and dig some more! Good thing we have a sand box, if only I could keep him in it!

pictures from our trips and easter!

Easter was lots of fun! The boys loved searching for eggs and really loved getting candy!

We had a lot of fun at Multnoma falls!

And Here we are at the rainy, cold Oregon Coast.
These boys just love getting out and exploring the world!

busy, busy, busy

We moved all our stuff to Washington Saturday, March 13. Torrey got there with the moving van before I got there with the kids, and he had it all unloaded (with help from our new ward!) by the time I got there. The next week we were unpacking and unpacking and unpacking and unpacking..... and unpacking. The buys loved having all the room to run around the boxes, but didn't particularly like not having their toys and stuff right away.
The next weekend we took a roadtrip! We checked out Multnoma Fall in the gorge then headed out to the Oregon Coast. Yeah, it was FARRRRRR away! And of course as we're heading out of the coastal mountains to the coast, it starts raining (and it DIDN'T stop)! I made us get out and walk on the beach (I did put my arm out of the car and it was just misting). Well as soon as we got out the 20mph winds hit us. we were soaked by just waling out to the water and back, maybe 20ft. Oh my. Poor Bob-a-loo was crying "soaking, soaking, back to car, back to car!" We had dinner and didn't leave the coast till 8pm. The kids slept, but we didn't get back home till after 1am. Needless to say we were almost an hour late to church the next morning!
This last week was good, but not much unpacking happened. We have all the basic stuff out and I'm in no mood to unpack anymore. Hopefully we can get it all done this next week. Friday we drove back out to utah. So we're in Utah for the weekend. we cleaned more of the house that didn't get done when I left and Torrey got the lawn mowed. Work work work!
I'll try to get pic up of our adventures and our new place soon!

Wahsington here we come!

Well, it is official. We are moving to Washington... I know it has been official for a while, I just wasn't ready yet. I have been up here in the Tri Cities for the last week and I'm pretty sure I like it here. The house is just a block away from the Columbia River and the FABULOUS river trail. The boys and I go EVERY day for a walk and swing on the bench swings along the way (that's why monkey likes to walk anyway).
We're heading back to utah tomorrow and we'll get cracking on packing and getting ready to go. I'm really excited and quite nervous. But it will be really good to have the family all together again and I think Torrey will enjoy not having to sleep, eat and watch tv on the floor!

The Holidays!

The new year has come and gone and I didn't blog about any of it! Well, Christmas was fun, and lasted a week. We had parties 5 out of 8 days the week of Christmas. It was lots of fun, but going to the last party Monkey asked "after this party, then is Christmas over?" Apparently he was done.
We did go and see Santa, and the boys reacted completely opposite of what I expected. We were in a short line, so when it was our turn Bob-a-loo just walked right up to Santa with his arms up in the pick me up way. And Monkey was glued to my behind. He would not let go of me and would NOT talk to santa. I got to interpret his whispers in my ear, to santa. All the while, Bob-a-loo is happy sitting on the lap of a man he has never met before.
All in all we had a really fun Christmas. Christmas eve the boys got to open one present (jammies of course). When monkey opened the gift he gave a huge Uggh and said "That's not a fun present!" It was pretty funny, even though I had to tell him to be nice.
It is so fun watching the kids on Christmas morning. This year was somewhat interesting because the boys didn't feel to good. Monkey got up first and we had to wait a while for Bob-a-loo to wake. As soon as Monkey heard Bob-a-loo, he was in the room trying to pull his brother out. I walked in and asked bob-a-loo if he wanted to see what Santa brought, he YELLED "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" He was so ornery all morning. Otherwise it was a fun and of course, I completely forgot to take photos. I have NO documentation of our 2009 Christmas. Well we have some video of the kids coming down the stairs and looking at their gifts. Atleast there's something!