Final Summer Fun

I am in shock that summer is almost over! The schools in our town are all set to begin this Wednesday! Yikes! Fortunately, we have two more weeks of relaxation to look forward to. We are starting to gear up though! Pencil boxes, crayons, glue sticks, scissors, and pencils have been purchased and we will receive our curriculum this week. We are ALL excited, but anxious to see what this will exactly look like for our family.

I promised an update on our VERY seperate end of the summer vacations...here you go! Unfortunately, I only have pictures from the Oregon trip to share with you though.

M returned from Mexico last night at 9:30. He was so glad to be home and we were thrilled to have our daddy back! Z and A kept saying, "We are FINALLY a whole family again!" Little B just threw her arms around her daddy's neck and gave him kisses. M had an amazing time on his 10-day journey. He learned a lot about himelf and interacting with highschoolers. He had wonderful experiences. I struggled with not being able to talk to him while he was away...whatever did we do before cell phones? :) I had sent a stack of letters down with my dear friend. She had her boys deliver one to M each morning at breakfast. M said he began to expect them and was thrilled to "hear" from his wife along the way. Thank you, dear friends, for making this possible!

The boys had a ball at First Mommy's. My sweet A lost a tooth while he was there and then another one the day after I picked them up! He is a little bit toothless right now and the tooth fairy has been VERY busy! Z had fun with his baby sister and learning how to advance in a game cube game. Oh to be 9 again!

Little B and I traveled all over Oregon during our nine days away. We first journeyed to Eugene to visit my beautiful cousin and her pets...that was B's favorite part! See two of them (fighting for their lives it looks like)!

Another stop in Eugene was with dear friends. M's mom has wonderful friends in Eugene and I could not imagine not meeting them myself! We have been emailing back and forth since M and I got married, so I felt that I already knew them! B and I went for a visit and had a great time. My only regret is that we did not get a picture. What was I thinking? We love you K and G!

We then headed down the coast to finally arrive at Great Grandma and Grandpa's house at the OCEAN! B has been talking about it for weeks now! "We going to the ocean? Right?" When we finally saw the ocean, B said, "Oh my goodness!" It is so fun to see life through her eyes.

Some of her favorite activities at Grandma and Grandpa's house were reading a farm book with Grandpa and wearing his socks!

We also headed back up the coast to Bandon to a Wildlife Park. There were animals roaming around and others in cages to view. Little B was able to hold a baby lioness and an opposum! This was probably the highlight of her whole trip!

Finally, on our last full day at the ocean we actually went down to the beach to play for a while. The weather was so cool that we wore jackets and did not even think of going in the water! :) B had a blast visiting with doggies, digging in the sand, and finding "cute" rocks and shells.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for an amazing last hoorah!