GPS

Rob has a GPS in his Tahoe which came in REALLY handy during our trip. We had never really used it before so it was like magic to us. We would stare with wonder saying, "How does it know?" The woman's voice that directs you is very soothing and nice, yet when you're lost or have made a wrong turn she comes off as too nice--thus ofttimes annoying. As we were driving to Krista and John's in Washington we decided to name our GPS woman whose voice we had grown so accustomed to. Here are some of the names we discussed with the suggesters name next to them.

1. Dana Darling (Rob)
2. Gaylene Patricia Sorenson (Hayden. See that the initials are GPS? He's awesome.)
3. Robotnik (Bastian. From Sonic the Hedgehog)
4. Nicole (Abby)
5. Sally (Bastian. Also from Sonic he Hedgehog)
6. Sister Sally (Rob)
7. Pumbo (Weston. What language is that?)
8. Gabriella Patrice Sally (Hayden. Also initials for GPS)
9. Darlene (Rachel. The name of an annoying woman that used to call Rob all the time about work. He hated the suggestion.)

We decided on the name Sister Sally and Rob said, "Now Abby has a sister." The moss and the ferns grow on the trees in Oregon. We thought it looked amazing and a little bit spooky. We called this area the spooky forest.

After naming the GPS we decided to name Rob's Tahoe. A couple of years ago we named our blue van Glorious Gloria. Once Rob had a truck he named Carl, and then another truck he named Godfrey Henner. It kept us occupied and was fun to hear the imaginitive answers. Here is our list of names.

1. Dragon Warrior (Bastian. From the movie Kung Foo Panda)

2. Metanight (Bastian. From the video game Super Smash Bros. Brawl)

3. Moving Paradise (Hayden)

4. Car Sickness (Abby)

5. Mose (Rob. From the show The Office)

6. Tick Tock (Hayden. Because we had spent so much time in it on our trip)

7. Boog (Weston. From the movie Open Season)

8. Dream of My Life (Abby)

9. Stroke of River (Hayden)

10. Beauty Seeker (Hayden)

Sadly I realized that I didn't write down any of my suggestions. Oh well, another time, another trip, another car. Rob insisted that since it was HIS car, HE got to name it. The Tahoe is named Mose.

Tillamook, Oregon

I visited the Tillamook Cheese Factory in Tillamook, Oregon as a child and wanted to tour it with Rob and the kids as part of our Oregon trip. Before we found Rockaway Beach, we were headed to Cannon Beach which was far away from Tillamook. We were passing through Tillamook on Sunday and I REALLY wanted to go, but I couldn't rationalize (and I tried) the fact that touring a cheese factory would not be keeping the Sabbath day holy. I tried telling myself that I live sooo far away and may never get the chance again to do this with my children or the fact that we were already breaking the Sabbath by having to pay for a hotel on Sunday and find food. They seemed like weak excuses for something that wasn't needed--just wanted A LOT, so on we went. We tried to stay in a few hotels that would be close to the factory, but because they didn't have rooms to accomodate a family of 6, nor did they have ajoining rooms, we had to move on. A few miles down the road was Rockaway, the perfect place to stop and we were able to tour the cheese factory on Monday. Yeah for Tillamook Cheese!

Taste testing the cheeses was fun. Abby liked the curds the best. Hayden liked the cheddar, and Weston thought the pepper cheddar was much too hot. Bastian tried the cheeses even though he says, "I don't like cheese all by itself."

Seeing so many blocks of cheese being made and packaged was very interesting.

At the end of the tour we bought ice cream cones filled with Tillamook ice cream. It was delicious.

These cows had their Christmas hats on. The sign on the cow reads, "For your safety and for our cows' safety, please stay off of them." Too bad Weston can't read. One minute he was right next to me and the next minute I turned around to see him trying to leg up on the calf. How does he do it? I thought it improper to take a picture of him breaking the rules, so you'll just have to imagine it.

There were penny flattening machines there that cost 50 cents to flatten your penny, plus the penny that you put in! We told the kids it was a waste of money. Hayden was playing with the machine and out popped a flattened penny. Some poor little child didn't get his penny souvenior, but boy did it make my child happy!

The Trip We Always Meant to Reschedule

On August 13, 2006 Rob and I headed to Portland, Oregon and made a stop a my sister's house in Washington. We were going to go visit my sister, Mindy, and her husband, Steve for the week. This would've been the first time that our family had ever been to Aunt Mindy and Uncle Steve's house and Rob's first time visiting the Oregon coast. We planned on going to the Portland Zoo and also going to the beach. We never did reach our destination of Portland because the day we arrived at Krista's house, Rob's grandpa passed away. So after a 12 hour drive, we turned around the next day and travel 12 hours back home. We never did reschedule this vacation until now. The first tearful words out of Abby's mouth when she found out Aunt Mindy had passed away were, "But we were going to go to the zoo with Aunt Mindy." I had to tell her that we will get to go to a way cooler zoo with Aunt Mindy someday in heaven when we can actually play with the lions, tigers and bears instead of just look at them in cages. We didn't go to the zoo on this trip, but we did find a great little place called Rockaway Beach, Oregon.

We stayed at a place called the Sea Treasures Inn. It rented out fully decorated three story condos with a fireplace, decks right on the beach and a hot tub. Here is the first level of the condo. It had a garage and air hockey table on the ground floor.

Here's the view from the top deck. Isn't it gorgeous?

Here is the top floor.

More top floor from the other direction.

Here is the middle floor. There were two bedrooms. One queen sized bed, one king sized bed. There was a fold out couch on the ground floor and a nice sectional on the top floor.

The ocean was soooooo cold. I love Hayden's expression in this picture. He wasn't quite prepared for the temperature of that big wave.

I love this picture of Rob and Weston. Weston cracks me up. Look at how he is hovering in midair. It's a good thing we're still young and can keep up with this kid....barely.

Here's a picture of the condos we stayed in taken from the beach.

Weston would get handfuls of sand, run to the ocean and say, "Ready, set, fro," to which he would throw his handfuls of sand into the ocean making sure the water didn't touch his feet.

On this trip I introduced the kids to laughing cow cheese. It has become a new family favorite.

First Family Home Evening of 2009

I was hoping the first FHE of the year would be a great one. The message was great, but the kids were having a particularly hard time not wiggling, jumping, pushing, and more. I had to get after them. Why is it that sometimes they behave so well, and then sometimes they are bouncing off the walls? I think Hayden was the only one that listened the whole time. Rob was at work until 9:30pm, so he missed out on the brawl. We sang the Primary song I Lived in Heaven. Bastian had the lesson. He held up a picture of Joseph and the first vision and asked us questions about the picture. We read Joseph Smith History 1: 11-20. While Weston catapulted himself from the couch to the ottoman (and I was sooooo frustrated), we talked about how Heavenly Father answers prayers, how powerful Satan is, how light conquers darkness, and how Heavenly Father knows us by name. I did throw in the statement from Darth Vader, “Do not underestimate the power of the dark side.” Satan knew that Joseph would be a “disturber and an annoyer” to his plan. I gave my kids FULL permission to be a disturber and annoyer…….to Satan.

Just like Joseph’s experience with Satan not wanting him to learn the truthfulness of the gospel, Satan doesn’t want us to learn it either. We talked about the ways that Satan does this and the things that we can do to follow Heavenly Father’s plan. Satan tries to tell us that we don’t have time to read the scriptures or they are too hard to understand, or that we don’t want to go to church, etc. Then we talked about the ways we can follow Heavenly Father’s plan. Hayden and Abby both said, “We can go to church.” I wanted them to know that is important, but that there are things they should be doing AT church. We talked about what some of those were. Hayden said, “We can listen to the speakers in Sacrament Meeting.” Abby said, “We can be reverent during class.” Bastian said, “We can listen to our teachers.” Weston cried…not because he was touched by the Spirit but because he was in trouble for coloring, biting the pillows, and springing off from almost EVERY surface in our family room. He did not give an answer but said, “I’m sorry for doing that,” and hoped that he still got a treat. If there’s one thing that Weston is good at, it is meaningful, heartfelt apologies.

I then gave my children a charge to learn the songs taught in Primary because if they learn them well, the messages in them will be with them forever. I love my children so much. I want them to KNOW the important things. I am trying to do a good job in teaching them and even through my frustration from misbehavior I hope they can feel that. We closed with the song I Am a Child of God. It was my turn to pick the treat this week. We had a variation of Skywalker Smoothies from the Star Wars Cookbook. It was strawberries, banana, pineapple sherbet, and vanilla ice cream blended together. Mmmmm good. The real recipe calls for strawberries, banana, orange juice (or pineapple, or grape juice) and ice. Ours tasted MUCH better with the sherbet and ice cream! And yes, Weston DID get a treat.

October Top Thirteen

13. During FHE one night Weston was making up a far fetched story that he claimed REALLY happened. Rob decided to go with it and added a few additions. Rob said pointing to our backyard, “Do you remember when that big bird came and carried you?” Weston said, “Yeah, he carried me with his feet. He flew me to my statement and I said, 'weeeeeeee.' Did you see me?”

12. Abby brought home a new friend (Kourtney Jackson) from school. They came in while I was sweeping the kitchen floor and I greeted them. Abby whispered to her friend, “That’s our maid.”

11. I was so cold one day and couldn’t believe that Rob was actually hot. I asked him, “How could you be HOT?” He said, “I’m still storing heat that my body absorbed in July.”

10. On the 11 hour van ride home from Arizona, Abby was having a cute conversation with Gavin who is 7 months old. She commented that he has beautiful brown eyes and then added, “Maybe that is why Olivia wants to poke them out.” Olivia is 8 months old.

9. We gave our dog Toby to a family that wanted another lab, and we gave our dog Turk to a cowboy that lives on a farm. Wanting to see one of our dogs again, Bastian remembered an uncle that had visited our home earlier this year that said he liked our dogs. He said we should’ve given one of them to this uncle. When I inquired which uncle he was talking about he said, “I think his name was Uncle Blueberry. Do we have an Uncle Blueberry?” It took me a while, but I finally figured out that Bastian was talking about Uncle Barry.

8. While visiting Shelly’s house in Arizona we often found ourselves in their luxurious massage chair. It was very relaxing…except for one setting: percussion. Percussion feels just like it sounds—like it is trying to play your back like drums. It hurts, really. Abby was sitting in the massage chair and she put it on the awful setting and said with a hint of disdain, “Oh, persecution.”

7. Lawrence brought a talking Darth Vader mask to Shelly’s house one night. The kids loved it. They played with it for a few days. One morning someone pushed a button and James Earl Jones’ voice said, “You don’t know the power of the dark side.” From a far away room in the house I heard Weston’s little voice call out, “Yes, I do.”

6. Abby has been reading a couple of Little House on the Prairie books from the Library. One day Abby was telling me what had happened in one of the books. She said, “Mary and Laura were reciting Book of Mormon verses.” Actually, they were reciting Bible verses.

5. My children love playing with k’nex. They build all sorts of things with them. The only problem is keeping them intact with a Weston in the house. Hayden came upon Weston after he had wrecked Abby’s k'nex car. Abby was coming down the stairs to see the damage when Weston said, “Hayden, I need to hide.”

4. After returning home from school Hayden announced that he was hungry. My new helping my children become more independent self said, “Feel free to get something to eat.” He said, “I loved it when you used to be my servant.”

3. We were leaving to go camping for the last time this year when Hayden exclaimed, “I forgot my stuffed animals!” I was shocked! Since when did my 10 year old boy need to take stuffed animals camping? He gave up his blanket at four and stopped carrying stuffed animals around about the same time. I looked at him incredulously saying, “You want your stuffed animals?” He said, “Yeah, I want to shoot them.” I smiled thinking, “Ahhh, there you are, Hayden.”

2. After the kids asked Rob what he was going to be for Halloween, Rob replied, “I wanted to be a skinny person for Halloween, but I couldn’t fit into the costume.”

1. Bastian came home from kindergarten explaining to me that he can’t tell if his P.E. teacher is a girl or a boy. Yikes! Later in the month while at the school for the Halloween costume parade we saw his teacher down the hall. He pointed the teacher out as his P.E. teacher and I could see why he couldn’t tell the gender. I said, “So you can’t tell if your teacher is a girl or a boy?” He said, “Should we go ask her?”

Staying with the Brittain Family in Camas, Washington

Rob's Aunt Kristen, Uncle Shaun, and cousins, Bryan, Hunter, Lauren, and Ben were all hospitable hosts/hostesses. Rob and I slept in Lauren's room, while our four kids slept in Bryan and Hunter's room. Two children slept in each double bed in their room. Here is everyone playing guitar hero. I love how Weston is getting serious on the drums. Abby and Lauren right before our family left to attend church at Stanton and Bonnie's old ward in Lake Oswego.

Here is Hunter and Bryan with Bastian and Hayden. Ben would've been pictured here with the boys but he was recooperating from an episode of the throw ups.

TowneSuites by Marriott in Boise, Idaho

On our way to my sister's funeral in Portland, Oregon we stayed overnight in Boise, Idaho. We all loved our room. Our suite had two bedrooms, a pullout couch, and a mini kitchen. We got there around 10 pm. The kids were exhausted and fell into bed. Bastian had to be carried in because he was COMPLETELY out. It came with a free breakfast. The two plates on the right is the food that Abby took. She got to it before we could warn her that her stomach can't hold that much food.

Homemade Applesauce

Aunt Jessica came over and helped me can applesauce. It was my first time ever canning applesauce and I am so grateful to Jessica for her time and effort. It was an all day process! We used Jonagold apples because that is what "Mother Allred" suggested would be best for applesauce. I must say she does know her apples because the applesauce tastes divine. I taste tested every batch just to make sure I had added enough spices. I made mostly spiced applesauce and a few jars of 100% natural applesauce. The spiced applesauce tastes like ground up pie filling. Ashlee and Gavin came to visit and do laundry while we were making the applesauce. We all had a fun time visiting.

Bastian turned the crank for a long, long time. Seriously, I think I got to turn the crank for a few minutes during the entire canning process. He took it over as "his job" and never tired of turning that crank. I am very thankful for his help.

This is the cores, seeds and skin that comes out the garbage spout. This machine really made things very easy.

The kitchen smelled soooooo good.

Look at how much darker the spiced applesause is. I am glad I learned how to make applesauce. Thanks to Aunt Jessica and Bastian the applesauce was a great success.

The recipe we used came from the Ball Blue Book: Guide to Home Canning, Freezing, and Dehydration.

Applesauce:

2-1/2 to 3-1/2 pounds apples per quart

Water

Sugar (optional)

Wash, stem, and quarter apples; do not core or peel. Cook apples until soft in a large covered saucepot with just enough water to prevent sticking. Press apples and juice through a sieve or food mill (this is such a fun process for the mom's and the kids) to separate seeds and peel from the pulp. Return apple pulp to saucepot. Add 1/4 cup sugar per pound of apples or to taste, if desired (each box was approximately 25 pounds so I used 6 cups sugar). Bring applesauce to a boil, stirring to prevent sticking. Reduce heat; simmer 5 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking. Ladle hot sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process pints and quarts 20 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Recipe Variation: Spiced applesauce can be made by adding ground spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice, to the sauce during the last 5 minutes of cooking. For a chunky sauce, core and peel apples before they are cooked. Coarsely crush half of the ocoked apples with a potato masher; press remaining apples through a sieve or food mill. Combine crushed and sauced apple mixtures; continue as for Applesauce.Note: Using a sweet variety eating apple may lessen the need for adding sugar.