A terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

A few weeks ago, I was having a REALLY bad day. We had just got back from our trip to Oregon and the transmission went out on my van, my neighbor is an idiot and there were a few other things going on that I can't remember but I just know that I was really grumpy. Anyways, my friend asked me to teach her Sunday School class so she came over to drop the manual off and I was on my way out the door for a bike ride. We visited for a minute but I was not very good company. I usually ride for about an hour and the kids just stay home and play. Well when I got home from my ride, this is what I found. My friend went and got me beautiful flowers and with my kids, hung kisses all over the ceiling! The flowers were a bright happy yellow and who can't use chocolate on a bad day!!! I went to bed that night feeling good thanks to a good friend!

I really think that I have some of the most amazing friends (and kids) in the whole world! Thanks Alex, Andrea, Bizzy and Larecia

Andrea turned 7 July 24th. We have made it a tradition in our family to go camping for her birthday. It is something that we all look forward to each year. This year our friend came up and brought cake and ice cream. Andrea was surprised with her new pink bike! It is nice to get away and spend time with the kids and really celebrate Andrea. Her birthday falls on Pioneer Day which is a holiday in Utah. They have parades and a celebration at the park and end the day with fireworks and we really like to make this day about her.

I let the kids invite friends and each year, they put on a play that they "write". It is always fun to see what they come up with.

This year Andrea was the princess, Bizzy (on the corner in the black) was a trouble causing gargoyle, Alex and his friend Chase were the detectives, and Patricia was the maid.

A sweet action shot of the detectives trying to catch the gargoyle.

And of course we played many board and card games! We really enjoy our time together and I LOVE getting away from phones, computers and TV!

Calling all readers!

My friend is doing a giveaway on her blog. If you like to read she is giving away two of her favorite books so you should check it out! Even if you are not a reader, it is so much fun to win things! Plus, I get to enter my name twice because I mentioned her giveaway on my blog!

Another really fun thing we did in Oregon was to spend the day at Silver Falls. As a child, I spent lots of time up here with the family and at girl scout camp-outs. It Think Alex was telling me how much he loved me:-)

We have no cousins that live close to us so when we go to Oregon(as you can see from the picture) there is no shortage of family to hang out with. This is probably half of our cousins. The kids always have so much fun!

Just a random picture of some of my cousins at the the BBQ. I should have taken a picture of the food. It was amazing. The guy next to the grill in the blue shirt is my cousin Mario and he is a master griller. Him, my dad and my Uncle Rudy really did a nice job that day!

I probably have a picture of me and my sisters as children standing in this same gross water! It's not really gross, it just looks dirty. I even got in to cool off:-)

The kids and I went on a hike with my dad. It was really fun to watch him be a grandpa and teach the kids things. Here he is showing them what an ant hill is. We haven't seen any in Utah so the kids were amazed by the size of the hill and the number of the ants.

Family Vacation to Oregon

We have been back from our vacation for a few days now and if i don't start blogging about it, it won't get done. We spent 2 weeks in Oregon and had a great time seeing family and friends. We were able to do a lot of really fun things and make lots of memories. One of the first things we did was go to the beach with Aunt Roberta. When were were driving up the coast we passed Lil Sambos restaurant and Alex said it looked like a fun place to eat so Roberta took us there to eat.

Here are Bizzy and Andrea posing with the tiger. Alex didn't want to be in the picture:-(

Alex loves to play with Quinny. Here they are both enjoying the beach

It was a beautiful day and the kids had a blast playing in the ocean and sand!