1. We played host for lots of family this summer which was so much fun. My parents and sister Amy and her two little girls came for a week or so. It was so much fun. I hadn't seen Amy for 2 years. Her baby Sophia and I got to share a birthday cake together since our Birthdays are on the same day. It was so fun. Scott's parents and brother came for a weekend(they came and babysat for us.) My sister Melissa and her husband and two boys came to visit for about 2 weeks.
2. We went and visited Scott's family twice-once in June and once in August. It was a lot of fun. The girls always love going to Grandma and Grandpa Carpenter's house, they love having a slide and swings out the front door to play on and all the fun coloring and activity projects Grandma has for them to do. In August Scott's whole family was home. It was so much fun to see everyone. There are five kids in his family and three of us are married and live in different states, us in Oregon, one in Utah and one in Minnesota.
3. We live right along the Columbia River and there is the prettiest river walk that we love to walk along, there are always huge ships coming and going and there are sea lions at the end of the walk. There is also a trolley that runs from april-oct and is so fun to ride. We rode that several times this summer and tried to walk along the river walk 2-3 times a week at night.
Megan cheesing for the Camera by the sea lions.
Megan cheesing for the Camera by the sea lions.
My sister Melissa and her son Caleb, top of Kaylee and Elizabeth's heads, riding on the trolley.4. We live next to many lighthouses and this summer we visited Cape Disappointment lighthouse several times to show it to family. We also would visit Long Beach, WA which is just a few miles away from the lighthouse while we were at Cape Disappointment. There is a fun boardwalk along the beach and there is a skeleton of a gray whale. While we were at the lighthouse we saw a couple whales playing and spouting. It was pretty cool.
Cape Disappointment LightHouse and the side view of the cliffs and Pacific Ocean.
The Gray Whale Skeleton at Long Beach, WA-My nephews Nathaniel, Caleb and my Kaylee.
5. We drove to Mt. St. Helens when Melissa and her family were here with us. It is just a couple hours away from where we live. We went and walked in Ape Caves one of the lava tubes, then drove up to the look out area for the volcano. It was pretty cool. The temperature gets down to around 45 degrees and there is no light, (it's underground of course) and the further in you get the more humid and drippy wet. The kids were all scared as we climbed down the scary steep stairs into the darkness but when we turned around at the end to come back they all begged to stay and go again.
Funny stories-The roads are really windy up to Mt. St. Helens and Kaylee was sitting in the back. They had just eaten a string cheese when Kaylee kept saying her tummy didn't feel good and she was going to throw up. Well we stopped and she felt better. We started driving and she burped really loud-never heard something like that before from a child-then she cried that she was going to throw up. We stopped again and just as I was getting to her she threw up. It went all over her clothes and for the first time ever I didn't have extra clothes-who would have thought I mean we're 2 hours away from home. Well we put one of Elizabeth's diapers on her and hang her shorts and panties out the window to "air dry". When we got to the caves and put her shorts back on she was a little stinky.
Later Megan and Kaylee had to go potty when we were up looking at the volcano and so Scott held Megan by the side of the van (it was just our van and my sister's car no one else was around for miles) and she went potty. Then it was Kaylee's turn, she wasn't quite sure what to do and Scott couldn't really hold her well because she kept moving, well she went potty and with the awkward way she was held and the little breeze Scott ended up being a little wet the front of his shorts. It was pretty funny. We couldn't stop laughing. Not only were Kaylee's shorts gross and wet and stinky, she managed to get Scott's shorts wet and stinky and he didn't have extras either.
The entrance to Ape Caves and the steep scary stairs #1
Our fun adventure group in the dark-that's Elizabeth bundled up who later fell asleep in my arms while we walked. I bundled her up in my jacket and zipped her in. It was great!
Nathaniel with his head light on-he was very nervous to go in the caves and get anywhere near the volcano. We had fun teasing him that the tubes went up to the mountain and that it would start to "warm up" and he would see a "faint red glow" ahead. 
Happy Elizabeth who fell asleep half way through the caves and slept soundly until we stopped for dinner.6. After Mt. St. Helens we drove straight to Portland which was an hour and a half away. We ate dinner at Burgerville and tried to keep Kaylee in a corner-her shorts stunk so bad at this point in the day. After dinner we went to the Japanese Tea Gardens in Portland. It was so gorgeous. The kids loved it. If you ever want a place that is quiet and peaceful and amazingly green that is the place.
Melissa and I on the shuttle up to the gardens and a quiet path in the gardens-gorgeous
Kaylee, Caleb and Megan-they had so much fun together.
With all the beauty around them, at the end of the visit the girls and caleb only wanted to jump from the stairs and be caught on camera.7. Scott and I went as chaperones with a group of 22 teenagers down to the Shakesperean Festival in Ashland, OR. We toured Southern Oregon University with the kids and got to go to "Much Ado About Nothing"- it was so good and so funny. We slept in the dorm rooms with no A/C, no wind and it was 90 degrees. Some of you may say that's nothing but to us who have gotten used to cool temperatures always and no A/C put into houses at all it was horrible. The bus ride one way was about 8 hours. Did I mention that we were on a bus with 22 teenagers.
8. Scott went on a salmon fishing trip in the ocean and caught 2 huge salmon and was very sick on the boat.
9. Playing in our backyard, swinging in the hammock, having a fire in the fire pit, tinfoil dinners, smores, smores and more smores, hauling wood and storing it for winter, watching the dinner, chewing out the raccoons for tearing up the grass, spraying the huge garden spiders and hoping you don't unknowingly walk into their massive webs that are invisible, watching my girls grow and play together. Dreading when Scott goes back to school and when Megan goes to school herself.
10.Visiting Indian Beach at Ecola State Park which is right next to Canon Beach where Haystack rock is. Most people know Canon Beach for Haystack rock where the movie Goonies was filmed and one-eyed willie's pirate ship sailed away at. Well Indian Beach is just a little bit more north, just around a couple big rocks, from where Haystack rock is at. We went with Melissa and her family to this beach early in the morning to catch low tide so we could see all the tide pools. It was gorgeous, you have to walk over a little bridge and creek and it's not super sandy like other beaches by us and there are awesome rocks and tide pools that have star fish(huge ones) and crabs and shrimp and little fish(don't remember their names but their tiny) and barnacles and the water is warm there compared to other beaches and we found tons of whole sand dollars. It was so much fun.
I'm sure there are many more things I could post but you are probably thinking that I have rambled on much more than I should have-will she ever stop? Yes I am stopping.
