June Happenings

June was a busy month! Kelly was still on his leave and spent most of it working to get the boat running. Not exactly how I had envisioned spending his time off but, oh well, that's kind of the way life goes!

In June we went kayaking at Devils Lake,

Shelby FINALLY got her braces off,

we welcomed a new member of the family, my niece's baby boy, Karter, the girls got out of school and we took the boat out a couple times.



The month went by fast!

May Goings On At Our House

May was a lot of wonderful with a little not so much.

The wonderful was having my sweet husband home after a looonnng deployment to Iraq. He came home with 11 weeks of leave time so we spent the days together while the kids were at school hanging out, waiting for the rain to stop, bike riding (when it did) and he shopped for a boat. He ended up buying a boat that needed a new engine (what can I say, we love a challenge!).



Another part of the wonderful was the trip that Kelly and I took to Washington. We spent three nights in Seattle at the Silver Cloud on Lake Union. We had a great time checking out Gas Works Park, riding bikes, visiting Ballard Locks, Pike's Market and Fisherman's Terminal.








We left Seattle and took the ferry across the sound and stayed three nights at the Inn at Port Ludlow. We stopped in at a marina and found a guy that worked there that had an engine for sale that we ended up bringing home for our boat. We spent our time there kayaking, riding bikes, visiting Port Townsend and the Museum of Glass.





The "not so much" was my grandfather passing away while we were on vacation (see previous post for that). We came home from our vacation and had a nice going home celebration for him.

Grandpa

My grandpa died this morning. How do I begin to express how much I loved that man. One of my earliest memories of him was of a game we would play. I would sit on his lap and look at his watch and say, "what time is it, Grandpa?" and he would say, "it's kissing time!" and I would give him a kiss and then ask again and again and again... His looks were deceptive. He was a big man with a gruff voice but he was a total marshmallow with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was always sweet and loving and I always felt that no matter what I did he loved me and was proud of me. He was proud to have lived long enough to be a great-great grandpa when Holden was born and his family meant everything to him. He had so many stories that I wish I had recorded. Stories about his childhood, history of McMinnville and areas around Oregon. He was humble, hard-working, a genius at math and loved figuring out the best time to invest or sell stocks. Even in his last months, whenever we would visit him, he would get a big smile and was happy to have hugs and kisses from us all. I miss him already!

He's Home!

Kelly returned home from Iraq (via Ft. Lewis) on Wednesday, 4/21. Up til the last minute the military was changing the date, time, location, etc. Finally we got the "official" word at about 10pm, Tuesday night that they would be arriving in Portland at 11am, Wednesday. So, the girls and my mom and I left for Portland planning to arrive by about 10:30 so we would be there when they arrived. Yeah, not so much. Kelly is texting as the buses are driving down from Washington telling us each city they pass and while we are still about 1/2 hour away, they have just crossed the river into Oregon. So, he got there before we did. I was really disappointed but, what can you do, it's done. We finally met up with him and held up his sign, got hugs and went into the Chiles Center to wait (3 hours!) for the ceremony to start.

We staked out our seats and sat and talked for a while. They made an announcement that lunch was available for the soldiers so Kelly went and got a plate to share with us. Later they apparently had a lot of food left so they opened it up to all the families so we got to have a nice lunch before the ceremony. Thankfully the ceremony was pretty short and after it was over we went to the armory, picked up his bags and headed home. We've haven't done much since then. We went to the Roadhouse for dinner on Friday and went to church on Sunday but the rest of the time has been spent hanging out. He doesn't have to go back to work until the 6th of July. He and I are taking a kayaking class and taking a week-long trip to Seattle next month and he's searching Craigslist for the boat he's been waiting to buy. Otherwise, we're just enjoying life right now!

Spring Break

So, yeah, Spring Break was like almost three weeks ago and I'm just getting a blog written about it. Brittany and Holden flew in from Texas on Monday, March 22nd at around midnight (Tuesday am).

Wednesday morning Brittany invited her friend and her baby girl over and Brittany made waffles for everyone.

Thursday we went to the beach with all 7 of us, my mom and my sister and her girls. We stopped at Otis to get corndogs for lunch and my keys got locked in the car. After waiting for the tow truck driver to come and get them out we went on our way. We went to the outlet mall and shopped and then stopped for pizza at Galucci's. The girls wanted to go the "beach" so we drove down to Road's End and stopped. It was raining quite hard that day so we just sat there in the car for a few minutes and then came home. Saturday was a nice day so the girls all went to the beach and I stayed home. This time they actually got to go to the "beach". While there they found two glass floats that are planted all along the Oregon coast by local artists (pretty cool)!

Sunday morning after church Brittany, Holden and I went with my mom to see my grandpa in the nursing home. I don't know if he could tell that it was Holden or not but he smiled and kissed his head.

The next week I kept Holden one day so Brittany could have a kid-free shopping date with a friend.

We didn't do a whole lot else but it seemed like we were really busy and the time went by quickly and they went home on April 1st.

15/93

My babies turned 15 yesterday. It's sort of hard to comprehend really that they are becoming young women. We had a good time yesterday. Kelly called from Iraq in the morning to wish them Happy Birthday. I took them balloons and candy to school and after school we took cupcakes to celebrate with my grandpa at the nursing home. He turned 93 yesterday and the girls are his birthday babies. Later Kelsey, Chloey, Shelby, Lindsay, my mom and me went to McMenamins for dinner. We ate on the rooftop, inside and had a really good time. Then we came home and had ice cream cake and the girls opened their gifts/cards. It was kind of a low-key birthday but it was fun!

Gratitude - Day 28

I actually did it, I wrote a blog of some sort or another for 28 days straight!!

Today I have left the best for last. I am grateful for God. I am grateful for knowing Him early in my life. For trusting and believing His words and for miraculous things that He has done. I am thankful for all that He has provided for me and my family. I am grateful for His love and mercy and for the sacrifice of His son.