June

June started off with a fun trip to Portland, Seattle, and then to see my parents in Ashland. We were in Portland to see my nephew Landon be baptized, and my nephew Asher’s baby blessing. Both went really well – we’re so proud of Landon for making the decision to be baptized! And it was so fun to meet little Asher and be there for his blessing. Apparently I didn’t take very many pictures with my camera, but did get a few cute ones at a fun park we went to. First is Ryan swinging with my mom, and then a couple pictures of the game the kids came up with – choose an adult and chase them around the park (my dad, Shane, and Nate all took a turn being chased).

After Portland, we drove up to Seattle to do a house-hunting trip. It was tough with the kids, but they were pretty good and survived the 3-4 days of driving around in the car. Bennett had recently discovered a love of drawing, so a notebook and some crayons kept him pretty entertained. We tried to give them breaks here and there at parks and friends’ houses. We had some time to kill the last day as we were finalizing things and signing the lease, so we went down to the waterfront for fish & chips, and saw this:

Plane on a Train

After signing our lease, we made a last-minute (as in on-the-freeway, at the freeway junction last minute) decision to drive down and visit my parents in Ashland for a couple of days. We had fun jumping on their trampoline, hanging out in the hot tub, having a picnic at Lithia Park, and swimming out at Emigrant Lake.

 

Then it was back to Utah, and back to “work” – packing and getting everything ready to move. We had two little “helpers” who liked exploring the things we were packing (like the fireman costumes). We did manage to fit in some fun too—swimming at seven peaks, a lift ride at Sundance (see pics below), and lots of get-togethers with friends (Nate managed to fit in several rounds of golf, and lunch with friends on multiple occasions).

 

 

Loading the truck, and Bennett’s artwork on one of the boxes. He liked to help label them.

We had some more little helpers come down for the day – actually, they were great to play with Bennett and Ryan while their mom & grandma were amazing helpers in the house. Nate’s dad and bro-in-law Cory came down to help load the truck (and apply a massive quantity of bubble wrap and saran wrap to our furniture)

Once the truck was loaded and on its way (we packed & loaded the semi trailer, and the company drove it out), we stayed with Nate’s parents for a few days before making our trek out. We enjoyed hanging out with family, seeing Heidi & Cory’s owls (they had a family with mom, dad, and 3 babies living in a tree behind their house for several weeks), going to Connor’s soccer game, and Nate and his dad took the boys fishing (while I enjoyed some shopping by myself :).

the kids enjoyed a fun slip & slide in the backyard

the results of the fishing trip – they went up to a mountain lake where they were all able to catch some fish (pics are all on Nate’s phone) and got attached by mosquitoes. Bennett has an especially strong reaction to them and ended up with swollen ankles, and a huge swollen circle on his forehead. You can’t see it great in the picture, but it was about 2.5 inches in diameter and stuck out about 1/2 inch in the middle.

We were excited to start our adventures in Seattle and start getting moved in and settled, but also so sad to leave friends and especially family in Utah!!