Catch Up

Sorry I dropped off the face of the planet for awhile. July is always a whirlwind of activity for us and this year is certainly no exception! In the last 7 days we drove 9.5 hours home from Idaho, drove 90 minutes up to Portland for my 10th High School Reunion, celebrated David's birthday by going out to brunch with my Mom and brother while still in Portland and then had friends Pat and Katie over for dinner and ice cream sundaes that night, took pictures/wrote descriptions/listed 68 Ebay auctions, volunteered for check in/check out duties at VBS this week, prepared for Grace's birthday party tomorrow and baked/decorated cupcakes, took the kids to a friend's house last night to run through the sprinklers and eat ice cream, ordered a new flash for my camera, visited Corvallis to scout out locations for a senior photo session this Saturday, and fit in a trip to Salem to go to the bank and ran to the grocery store twice. Not to mention that it's been super hot (106 two days in a row!). If that has your head spinning I'm not surprised because I can barely keep up with myself!

Let's break it down a little into the important events.


The drive home from Idaho went pretty well considering it was 9.5 hours long and we had two kids under 4 in the car with us. Grace is actually a really good traveler and the only complaint I have with her is that she frequently waits until we're 2 minutes outside of a town with 45 minutes until the next potty to say she has to go to the bathroom. I can ask 16 times as we drive through a town and she doesn't have to go until the opportunity has passed. She almost had to pee in the bushes next to the freeway but was saved by a well placed rest area 20 minutes outside of Hines, OR. Ethan did pretty good but was completely DONE rear facing by about Bend. He threw a huge fit and when David asked if he wanted to watch the movie (he could barely see it by craning his neck around so he knew it was there!) he immediately stopped crying and nodded his head yes vigorously. We took the hint and when we stopped in Sisters for gas David flipped him forward facing. I had wanted to leave him rear facing until he turned 2 this fall but he's definitely a lot happier and the last 3 hours home were much more pleasant without the fussing.

My high school reunion was interesting. I still think it was pretty spendy and could have been done cheaper but it was still fun to see everyone. I didn't stay in contact with many people after I went to Idaho for school so it was fun to see everyone and find out what everyone is up to and where they landed. I missed seeing a few people I would have liked to have seen.

Sunday was David's birthday which was a fun day. We had breakfast at a place near my Mom's house that we have never been to despite passing it a bazillion times since we moved to Clackamas in 1987. Turns out it was a pretty good place to eat! While waiting for a table we checked for any nearby geocaches (another activity we've recently taken up!) and found one about 15 feet from our car. Even funnier is that we recognized our friend's name (who live in Monmouth) on the list of finders! That night we had Pat & Katie over for Pizza Mac and an ice cream sundae. It's been so hot and we weren't home for me to bake a cake so I jazzed up the ice cream sundaes with crushed candy bars and new toppings. It was pretty tasty!

This week we've been doing VBS at our church. Grace is in the preschool program and seems to be having a great time. I volunteered to help check in/out which has worked out pretty well since I have to be there to drop off/pick up Grace anyways. Ethan "helps" me but is usually not willing to be far from my lap in the mornings. In the afternoons he is very content to play with a ball next to me.

Tomorrow is Grace's 4th birthday. I'll blog more about that tomorrow. Grace deserves a post to herself! I did make the cupcakes this morning to her specifications: chocolate with pink frosting.