Oregon and the Redwoods 2014

Last summer we crossed an item off our bucket list. We had been wanting to go to the Redwoods for a while (surprisingly both Ry and I had never been) and 2014 was the year to make it happen.

We flew into Portland and stayed with Ryan's friend Patrick for a few days. We explored Portland, hiked through the Columbia River Gorge and the Hood River.

Powell's book store.

 

Ice cream at the bottom of Multnomah falls and Hula Hooping at the lavender festival in Hood River.

  

 

  

  

  

Then we drove down to Grants Pass to visit Presh and her cute family. On the way we stopped at the safari park. When you have a little girl that gets car sick, we have to find fun ways to break up long drives. This was perfect!

Finally in Grants Pass with Friends!!!

  

  

Next we drove down to the coast to explore the Redwoods. After all the hiking that we did, I have to say that it rivals the beautiful hikes we did in Germany and Austria a few years back. I love hiking in Utah, but after this trip, it won't be the same. I definitely prefer the lush fern and moss covered forests along the coast to our dry mountains.

 

  

  

 

  

  

 

  

   

 

 

 

  

After the Redwoods we spent a few days on the Oregon coast before heading back to Portland to fly home. 

 

 

 

 

  

Hanging out in downtown Portland

We can't wait to go back!

Home remodel before

So, the basement has been done for a couple of years now. But we had a conversation with some friends recently about how awful the basement was before we re-did it. They can't believe when we tell them about the Armageddon Room, the royal blue kitchen, forest green molding, the poo-brown brick fireplace, the awful wood paneling... the list just goes on. 

So, I've dug up pics from when the renters were moving out and Ryan and I walked thru the house. This post has some of the BEFORE pictures. You'll see we weren't lying! It was really bad :)

  

Berlin's Baptism 2015

Berlin turned 8 and that means she had the opportunity to choose to be baptized. We gave her the option of being baptized with her cousin the day after her 8th birthday while we were down in San Diego. But she wanted her friends to be able to come and share in the day so we waited until we got back. 

There were 7 kids baptized on the same day including her good friend Gracie. It was so cute to see those two sweet girls sitting on the bench together dressed in their white jumpsuits each with their dad on their other side. Berlin was the the second to last so we got to sit in the chapel and sing a bazillion primary songs. Berlin was able to go see Gracie get baptized during that time and then came back to sing more songs.

 
I am grateful that I married a man who is a worthy priesthood holder. Not only was he able to baptize Berlin but he was able to lay his hands upon her head, confirm her a member of the church, and gift her the Holy Ghost. I am also grateful for the other worthy priesthood holders in our family who were able to participate. My dad and brother served as witnesses to the baptism and all of my brother-in-laws were able to join in the confirmation circle. Berlin is so lucky to have such good examples in her life of what it means to live righteously, serve others, to love our Savior, and be a good person all-around.

 

 

Afterwards we had family and friends over for lunch. Berlin chose to have a crepe bar as it is one of her favorite meals. Ryan spent two nights making crepes, I made nutella mousse, lemon mousse, homemade raspberry sauce, whip cream, to go with fresh blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. It was a big hit.

These girls gave themselves whip cream facials.



It was a beautiful day that ended at Tres Hombres. Love this little girl no matter what she does, but I am grateful that she chose to be baptized and follow in the footsteps of our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Halloween 2014

This was an odd year for our family regarding Halloween. Typically, the kids know EXACTLY what they want to be months ahead of time. Then I end up making the costumes myself. This year they  had a hard time deciding and I didn't end up making any of the costumes. I won't lie, the latter part was kinda nice!  

Berlin ultimately decided upon being a Lady Ute Gymnast. I think the main reason she wanted this was so that she could get a legit performance leotard to add to her blank and pink cheap $5 cotton ones from Walmart. I about choked when I saw the prices of competition leotards. Thank heavens for amazon. She loves it and wears it each week to tumbling now. Thankfully, the weather was very warm and she didn't need to wear pants.

Finley never decided what he wanted to be. His backup plan was to just wear his Germany soccer uniform, but the morning of the school parade on the 30th he decided to go as Samurai Jack again - his costume from 2 years ago. It fit, but barely. He wore the same costume the next night when we went trick-or-treating and he wore the wooden sandals for almost 2 hours. I finally made him switch to regular flip-flops so we could speed things up a bit. 

Our neighbors have the coolest yard decor!

Love all the kids in our neighborhood. This isn't even HALF of them!!!

As always, they scored more loot than any person (child or adult) should consume. After they got to choose their 35 pieces of candy, we still ended up with 3 gallon bags full of treats to use on our gingerbread houses next month. Finley finished his within the week. Berlin is more of a rationing person and has most of it left.

The kids actually had Friday off from school so I decided to take off work that day. Ryan met up with us for a matinee movie of How to Train Your Dragon 2. Fun way to spend halloween before all the parties and trick-or-treating began.