First Day of 1st Grade

I have a few posts to catch up on from some summer fun and Kambria's 6th birthday, but I wanted to at least get this one posted today!
My little girl is growing up! I have a 1st grader now! She was so excited to start school and she had a great day!!!!

Eli wanted to be in a picture as well......he wants to go to school too!!! (as you can see in the picture below :)

Oregon Vacation ~ On our Own Adventure

Since we were heading to Portland, Oregon for my cousin's wedding we decided to make a vacation out of it!!! :) This was a long awaited vacation for Jon and I since we hadn't taken one in 7 years!!!!
We left the Monday after the wedding weekend and headed to Tillamook, OR to visit the Tillamook Cheese Factory! This was a planned and anticipated stop since we LOVE Tillamook ice cream, cheese, and teriyaki sticks!!!! It was amazing only driving almost 2 hours and it being a 20+ degree temp. difference from Oregon City to Tillamook which is right near the coast. We went from hot and humid to cool and windy!

Kambria now has a favorite ice cream flavor~Grandma's cake batter! :) (which is the "featured flavor" right now being sold in the stores too). The Factory is the only place in the world where you can choose from any of their 38 flavors!



We stopped in Lincoln City on our way down to Newport to check out the beaches there. The ocean was beautiful even though it was cold and windy! Kambria was so excited to finally see the ocean!!!

Eli found this piece of drift wood and thought it looked like a guitar so he picked it up and started playing it! :)

We bought a kite before we left Spokane knowing the beach is the perfect place to fly one!!!

Kambria and Eli were very excited to sleep in a hotel!!!!

Jon and Kambria woke up at 5 am to walk down to the beach to look for sea shells and sand dollars. They didn't find any sand dollars, but they did find a few shells and also discovered some rocks with these~ (I don't remember what they are called, I just know it is fun to stick your finger in them! :)

They also found this little ocean creature! It looks like an alien frog! :)

It was super foggy in the early morning!

These were the 86 steps they had to walk down to the beach and back up them when they were done! Kambria counted them as she walked back up. :)

Tuesday we went to the Oregon Aquarium in Newport. The kids LOVED it! :)

This was the coolest exhibit! They had 3 very large tanks that you could walk through via glass tunnels. They had a lot of different kinds of fish, sharks, and sting rays!

They even had a few areas on the floor that you could look through!

Its a good thing we were protected by thick layered glass!!!

One of our many sandwich making stops!!! We ate a lot of sandwiches on this trip!!!!! It saved money but it definitely got old!

We toured the Yaquina Bay lighthouse. It was interesting to see, hear, and read about the history of it! :)

Kambria walking down the staircase from the top of the lighthouse~

This is the view from just below the top of the lighthouse~

After we left Newport we drove back to Lincoln City to go to the beach where you can drive onto it and park. This was especially convenient since Eli had just barely fallen asleep when we got there!

Kambria was really looking forward to building a sand castle on our trip! So even though it was cold and a little windy, her and daddy got the buckets and fun tools out and built themselves a sand castle! :)

Kambria took this picture! :) ~

Tuesday night we drove back to Oregon City to stay with family again. We are so grateful for Jami and Adrian and all they did for us!!! :)

Wednesday we decided to wander around downtown Portland for a bit before heading back to Washington. While we were down there we found out about a bunch of interactive fountains that they have. This one, in the picture, we were told was the best!

We didn't stop at Multnomah falls on the way to Oregon City so we decided to stop there on the way back. It is a great and beautiful stop in between Washington and Oregon!!!! :)

Our original plan was to head back home on Wednesday, but we decided to take an extra day and stop in Walla Walla for the night to spend some time with my grandparents! We didn't end up leaving Walla Walla until Thursday evening, but since it was so HOT we had to stop at a yummy ice cream shop they have downtown! This was our last little adventure of our vacation before finally heading home. :)

We had such a great time and are so grateful we got to see so many family members too!!! I love making new memories like these!!!!!

Oregon Vacation ~ The Wedding Weekend

When we found out my cousin Emily was getting married in Portland toward the end of July we decided to make it a vacation!!! A vacation much needed after 7 years of not going on one!!!! Here are a few of the pics from the weekend of the wedding with the rest of our vacation week on the next post!


Kambria did a lot of coloring while we traveled from each destination! :) I got a great idea from the "Today Show" to use cookie sheets for something hard for the kids to color on! :) They worked out great! :)




My cute Grandpa and my cute boy! :) Eli was entertained for a while climbing up and down Grandpa Great's walker! :)



My cousin, the beautiful bride, and her groom, Chris :)



The beautiful Portland Temple!!!! Always one of my favorites!!!!

The kids, especially mine, were well entertained by the trees while pictures were being taken! :)

I remember having pictures taken of me in front of this same fountain when I was younger! :) Now it is my kids' turn! And I think they look pretty darn cute!!! :)

After we all left the temple, some of the family went to lunch at a yummy Italian restaurant at this Promenade (fancy outdoor stip mall). After lunch Jon and the kids and I decided to walk around for a little bit.......walk off some of the yummy calories we took in! :) We found this little play area for the kids that they had in the middle of everything!

We also decided to have a little after lunch dessert! We ate geleto for the first time from this cute little Italian cafe! :) It was very yummy! :)

Benson with his Grandpa Great at the reception. :)

Daddy loves to dance with his kids! :)

Emily and Chris departed the reception by running through everyone lined up with sparklers! It was my kids' first time experiencing sparklers! Eli loved it but Kambria was very hesitant at first.

Kambria especially loved dancing with my cousin Katie! :)

It was a beautiful wedding and a beautiful reception!!!! And it was so GREAT to see a lot of my family and we missed all the others who couldn't make it!