We go coastal day 1 and 2

March 8 and 9 2018

Back in November we decided to memorize "The Living Christ" as a family.  We determined that we would need something to keep us motivated to keep going, and decided that a trip to the coast as a family would be the perfect carrot to dangle in front of our noses! So we got busy and memorized this inspiring, testimony building, LONG document:)

By the second week of March, everyone in the family had it memorized, so we didn't waste any time:  we reserved at a hotel in Depoe Bay, had the kids skip school Thursday since there was no school Friday, and took off!

Nolan took over Caden's job of letting everyone lean on him all the way there:

It was pouring rain the day that we arrived, so we didn't spend any time down by the beach, but that didn't stop the kids form rushing out to look things over:

The first night we took the kids out to eat:

and then went swimming, watched movies and popped pop corn.

The next two days we completely lucked out because the weather was AMAZING!!! We got up and walked/played along the beach:

My favorite picture of the trip:

Abram and Nolan:

The whole crew l-r: Isabelle, Pace, Maddie, Shawn, Nolan, Abram:

Lots of these cool rocks:

After our walk we drove down to Newport to see the Sea lions. This is one of my favorite things to do on the Oregon coast!

l-r: Nolan, Maddie, Abram, Shawn, Pace, Isabelle

After the Sea Lions, we went to eat at Piggy's Place, and received some compliments our nice family  how well behaved the kids were! I was glad they were on good behavior!

Next we split up for a bit because the girls and I wanted to go to the outlet mall, and the boys wanted to go swimming. Later they met up with us again at the mall and we all bought some new shoes!  Everyone needed some, but there are no stores where we live... It was fun to get them all at the same time!

We spent some more time on the beach that evening:

Beach beauties:

So dreamy:

Injured Abe:

I look like an owlet: 

We spent another evening swimming at the hotel and watching a movie afterwards with popcorn:)

Book battles and confessions

See this little orange growing away on Caden's orange tree? One day when Anjoleena was here she was beside this plant and I kept thinking that I saw her putting something in her mouth from the corner of my eye.  I was setting the table at the time and kept glancing over and would just see this:

Finally I noticed some peel on the floor and when I turned the orange over, this is how it looked:

 I don't know how she could keep going back for more; these oranges are SOUR!! So funny.

Kami with a family that she loves in the Phillipines:

One thing I love so much about Caden serving in the states is that I get random pictures of him texted to me all of the time from members in Texas.  This picture came from a lady who cut his hair on p-day.  I love seeing my kids looking so happy! And boy do I appreciate all of the good people all over the world that take care of them:

Some cute little boys at the dentist this week:

And one COOL dude!:

Nolan has been involved in this activity called "battle of the books" at school.  He LOVES to read and there was a list of books that he had to read, and then they formed into teams and the teams compete against each other answering questions about the books.  The competitions have been going on for a month or two, and he would come home about once a week and say, "we had a book battle today.  My team won!"  This week he told us that they were having the final battle and he had made it to the top two teams.  He mentioned several times that he really wanted Shawn and I to come to the "battle".  We asked him if parents were allowed to go watch, and he checked with his teacher and she told him they could. We had NO IDEA what a big deal this is here!!  ALL of the parents were there, and they were talking about all of the studying that their kids had been doing and asked me if Nolan studied for a long time the night before.  (He hadn't). The parents informed me that the winning team would go to regionals.  I think they even have nationals. I was glad that we went to watch!

Nolan answered every question for his team but one and we were really proud of him!  His team ended up losing by three points, though.  I guess we know to take it more seriously next year, if he wants to do it!

His team is on the right:

I took this one before the "battle" began:

Holding their second place plaques:

I had a tri-stake leadership meeting in the tri-cities that the bishop had me attend on Wednesday night, and didn't get home until 10:00.  Shawn had been telling the girls they needed to go to bed, but Isabelle said that she needed to talk to me first.  She had something weighing heavily on her conscience, and told me that she and her friend had skipped mutual.  She said that they got there early and went upstairs and got talking, and when they noticed the time, they realized that they were 15 minutes late.  They were worried that they would get into trouble, but still headed down to go in.  They reached the door and a leader, that they are scared of, was standing right in the doorway, so they chickened out and headed for the bathroom where they stayed until it was over.  She felt TERRIBLE and said that she was never going to do it again!!  What a little sweetheart!  I love that she tells me everything and has a healthy conscience.  Also, she said that it was fine if I blogged about it:)

The view from my kitchen window one morning:

We've been making an effort to do better about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy around here, and one thing, among others, that we have been working to do is to have church clothes ironed and ready the day before. It's always interesting to see what kids have done with their clothes the week before.  Abram apparently decided that his white shirt was clean enough to wear again and *amazingly enough* hung it up.  Shawn and I got a good laugh about the way he hung things:D

Shawn happened to see Pace crawl out of bed one morning, and called me to come see.  Pace didn't want to take the time to look for pajamas the night before, so he stuck his legs into the arms of the shirt he had worn that day and used it for pajamas...