Work

Joe has been working some insane hours for the last couple of weeks and the kids have missed him a lot! Here is a picture of the kids after one of our Thursday night dinners with daddy. (This weekly dinner is the only time the kids get to see him, except on the weekends because Joe gets home so late at night). Mason has taken up the role of 'man of the house' while Joe has been gone and he has been doing his best to protect his mom and sister by killing spiders, helping to take out the garbage and trying to do anything else that Joe usually does. He has been very cute and it has been fun to watch him try to be just like his dad. The project will be over at the end of the week and then we can settle back into a normal routine!

Our Weekend in Astoria with Josh, Katie, Collin and Hadley

We took off last weekend to stay and Katie's parent's home in Astoria and we had a wonderful time! Here are a ton of pictures from our trip (also check out the pictures katie added to facbook. She got some really great shots!):

Saturday

Hadley was pretty excited about my camera

Leah could run and run in their backyard all weekend long

Mason was really excited to play with Collin again

Collin and his Grandpa

Leah's fort

Katie's dad somehow talked me into letting everyone try out the ATVs. It was a lot of fun, even if it did make me nervous.

Campfire and Marshmellows

Katie's dad made a fire in the backyard and we roasted marshmellows over it. It is so beautiful out there, without the city lights. All the stars were crystal clear and beautiful.

Sunday-Trip to the Beach

This was my favorite trip to the Oregon Coast. It was pretty warm, even though it was right before sunset and their was hardley any wind. The kids played in the water while they watched the sun set. It so beautiful that I had to include all the pictures that we took:

The last picture of the day, just as the sun set:)

Thanks Josh and Katie!

A Weekend Without Mom

Janell went to a home school seminar in Portland one weekend and it was just me and the rug-rats. I figured that I would make the day somewhat memorable with a hike to Hamilton Mountain (although the kids can't make the entire 4 mile hike), we just went about 2 miles to some falls and ate lunch, played in the water and talked for a bit. Here are some pictures from the trip.Below "The Pool of the Winds"

A quiet moment at a spot called "The Pool of the Winds". It was a hollow rock formation with an open top that has a stream flowing into a water fall, then down to another pool area followed by more falls. It was really very peaceful and pretty.

The usual scene between Mason and Leah; "Dad! He/She is not sharing!" and "Give me that!"

4th of July Fun

Making the Bathrooms Beautiful

I helped someone paint their house this week to help get it ready to sell and it really put me in the mood to to finish some projects I had been putting off around the house. I thought I'd start by paining our master bathroom (the last room I had to paint in the house). Once I got started, I remembered why I had been putting this painting project off. I had to take down the unattractive (ugly) medicine cabinet and replace it to keep storage space, paint the vanity (it was red) and replace the hardware, and replace the 80's style light fixture. Since I was doing all those things to one bathroom, I figured I'd do the same for the other bathroom so that they'd match. A simple project turned more complicated when things started coming down off of the walls and we discovered that we had major patch work to do on the walls before we could even get started. The painting is pretty much finished now and we are going to install the lights tonight! The bathrooms look beautiful and I am happy to be done!

Here's Joe, sanding away and making the walls beautiful!

Here are Leah and Mason playing with the tape measure. . .anything to keep them out of the project area:)

Hike Around Lacamas Lake

After I finished painting, I took a nap and Joe, Leah and Mason watched a movie. Then, we took off for a hike. It was a perfect day, not to hot and not too cold and overcast. It felt like a lazy day, even our neighborhood activities were toned down today.

These are flowers that Leah picked for me on our hike.

Dinner at Grandma's House

Grandma Horrocks, Elli, Elli K. Crystal, Stan, Joe, Abbie and Lial

Fireworks

Leah and Mason had a lot of fun with the inexpensive fireworks we bought.

Uncle Stan called these 'smokelers' and rightly so.

We never got to hold these when I was little!