impromptu photo shoots

We were in Emmett because I had a family reunion to photograph, and while waiting Soren and I walked around the farm and snapped a few shots. The farm always makes for nice backdrops.

Certainly couldn't leave out fashion queen and pose master Kaydence. This was taking along one of our walks one morning.

Oregon Coast

Craig had a week with nil on his schedule, so we planned a quick trip to visit the lillywhite 5 in Salem and visit the coast. It was a lot of fun, but so much to do in such a short trip. We drove up Wednesday and stayed the night at Lindseys in Salem. Thursday morning we drove down to Newport/Depoe Bay. We went to the whale watching center, which July happens to be the worst time to go, and Yaquina head lighthouse, before heading to the Newport "Oregon Coast" Aquarium. (FYI there is also a newport aquarium in kentucky so don't purchase tickets online from there seemingly identical website like I did)

We spent Thursday night back at Lindsey's and then spent friday morning driving up to Seaside. We found a great place to park the 5th wheel and had lunch and headed to the beach. It was such a lovely day. The previous day was a drag, cold, rainy and foggy. The kids loved the beach and Craig got to try out his stunt kite we got in Newport. Derek accompanied us in the evening as we then traveled to the Astoria KOA Kampground where we camped the next 2 nights. Saturday we went to the Astoria Column where we threw plane gliders off the top. We ate lunch at the Bowpicker. It was the #1 restaurant on all the online reviews and Craig and Derek just about threw a toddler tantrum because we didn't get to go for dinner the previous night. After lunch we headed over the bridge to Long Beach Washington, to see the Sand Castle competition. We drove home Sunday, where we were rudely welcomed by a very long and busy MONDAY back at work and laundry. It was fun and we need to do it more often.

Swim Lessons

The kids started swim lessons yesterday. My camera battery was pretty much dead when i got there so I only got this one. But I have 2 weeks to get more.

summer

Here are some more of the yard. We pretty much finished up getting the front put back together.

Kaydence and Soren had a playdate with there good friends Analee and Luke Lainhart last thursday. Ana and Kaydence have been in the same grade school class the last two years and are the best of friends. I joke around that Luke will be my future son in law...that is, if only Kaydence and Luke could stand each other :) (I think it's a cover)

Yep thats typical Mya (the dog) waiting under the table for the scraps that will fall.. Her favorite place is under Ivan's chair.

More landscaping improvements

I've been trying to clean up the landscaping beds after we had to tear them all apart to get the old curbing out and lay the new concrete ones. We won't be getting the rock we want to replace the old bark right away and we can't just leave it all torn up the way it is till then...(we have an HOA to worry about) I spent the day tearing out some ground weed barrier, and pulling grass and weeds that have been growing in the old beds, and pruning trees and bushes. I filled up both garbages so I will have to wait till next week to finish or until I can borrow the in laws trailer.

but here is what I accomplished today.

BEFORE:

When we re-seeded the lawn, seeds flew into the bark and took root :( So all that needed to be ripped out.

AFTER: (exact same location as above)

oh look there is another bush under there :)

I also hacked alway at those huge junipers. I didn't exactly know how to trim those suckers and just went at it :) I'm young, this is all a learning experience. Same with the rose bushes, I just cut away, except those are more forgiving since they will be huge again in a month. I have to cut those things back about 5 times every summer.

Home Improvements

We've been trying to get some things done around the house that have been on the to do list for almost 2 years now. We were able to replace the old plastic curbing with nice concrete curbing. We pressure washed the house and got all the outside windows washed. We colored and sealed the concrete around the house as well. We had upgrade stamped/colored concrete work, but it hadn't been kept up over the years. Most all the color had be bleached away by the time we moved in and we always wanted to reseal it, but again it has been on the back burner of things that needed to get done. But we finally got it done!!! Things are coming together but A LOT is still yet to do.

BEFORE Sealing:

AFTER:

BEFORE Curbing:

AFTER:

We still have some landscaping to do before it's a completely finished AFTER. We plan to replace the ground weed barrier and put rock down instead of the existing bark.

Kaydence

Kaydence had her 1st graders singing performance today at school so since she was all cute I brought the camera out :)