Part of our Austin trip

This is the house we stayed at while in Austin.

It was beyond AWESOME!

This was one of the doors on the front porch that led to the living room.... I would say that this house is a place I dream about someday living in. It was that nice. A dream house, I say.

How sweet are these two?

These stairs led to our family bedroom... which was so cozy. There were old double doors on each end of the long room, and opened they let in a wonderful breeze.
Awesome, I tell you.

Here is the upstairs "family room" with the two models. The huge windows let in SO much light.

So throughout the whole house, beadboard (what you might think of as the boards that go halfway up a wall) was on the ceilings.... it looked fantastic.

In this right hand corner of the pic is a chaise lounge... Kellen slept there and LOVED it!

The most awesome old bathroom sink! I really want one in our future house in the "kids" bathroom. I loved that it had three spouts for the kids and one drain. It was perfect.

Looking from the bathroom into the bedroom.

Oh, and the beds were VERY comfy. Even with being super sore from the Tough Mudder, we slept like rocks!

Off the back part of the wrap around porch. The kids had a fabulous time running around the whole house over and OVER again.

Even Soren was loving it. Which was tiresome.

Tyler really wanted to fish... too bad we left the poles at home.

The master bedroom, and its wonderful antiques.

My parents said it was very comfy, and the only complaint was on the last night, and the wind was howling... they said it was pretty noisy.

Something I would be willing to live with. Promise.

Part of the living room.

There was a TV here, along with a DVD player... but no cable and no WiFi, much to my father's dismay!

Here is the rascally crowd! Kellen was not wanting to have his picture taken at all.

And it was cold.

If you can see... Colton is wearing Tyler's special Tough Mudder headband... the kids loved them.

Plus they kept their ears warm!

On the back stairs of the house.

We had a couple people over for dinner the night we got into town, and had a great time bbqing up some chicken and enjoying the beautiful sunset.

The front of the Pond House....

Absolutely beautiful.

Even with the scorpion we found, the mud daubers (we think), and the dead mouse under the sink (in a trap). Those are just things that occur out in the country.

We loved every minute of it!

More to come on the Tough Mudder and how much fun that was (and the week working up to it!)!!!

4th of July in Astoria, Oregon

We had a fabulous 4th of July in Oregon. The kids enjoyed every minute... they loved the little fireworks, and LOVED the big ones. Kellen fell asleep on me while Tyler and his dad were lighting off fireworks. It was fabulous.

Country Fair with cousins

 Country Fair in Elvira, Oregon was certainly an interesting experience. I was prepped by my sister in law to be open to many sightings... and sightings we saw. A man in only a strategically placed fig leaf (darn, i have no pictures of that!), boobs hanging out in all different shapes and sizes, stilts, costumes, and many many many hippies. It was a great time had by all. We dressed all the kids up in cute little costumes that we had laying around Danielle's house, and off we went.

 We brought a wagon, and used it to carry children (there were 7 of them, age 6 and under!), diapers, costumes... etc.

Kellen even fell asleep in it on the way out... and that was pretty cute because you couldn't even see him!

 Look at that cute boy. I just love him.

 Nonni helping the kids go down the slide in the kid section.

 The girls catching Kellen.

 Our oldest boys (above) dressed up as a gecko and iguana showing us a cool mushroom.

And of course our cute little bear (?)

 Sweet little Natalie dressed up as a butterfly.

 Watching a very interesting stilts/gymnastics show. The kids thought it was very entertaining.

 Elin with her mohawk.

 Making some wind streamers at the art table...

Want some coconut milk ice cream bars? They were delicious!

We had a great time, and recommend anyone in the area should definitely go and have yourself a nice, "freeing" time. Go naked. you only live once, right?!

The rest of the camping trip

The pictures do a lot of the talking. I love the last sequence of pictures... Ayla and Colton doing their treasure hunt. The look on Ayla's face as it dawns on her that the basket is tied up above her is so cute! Brooke and Kasey took their turn after (they were busy feeding ducks the first time around!) and the other two "experienced" ones showed them the ropes.

I know I always put up close ups of my kids... I just love their big blue eyes, so of course there are a couple of those.

And the walking stick creature! It was huge! The kids were all fascinated.

We picked up some peaches on the way in Fredericksburg, Texas, were there are signs for peaches every couple feet it seems!

The last night we were there was interesting... a family came to join our crew (they spent the day doing other family things, so they didn't come when we did), and somehow while they were setting up camp, their car keys went missing!

Last place they were seen was on the kids blanket, so we assumed that one of the kids walked off with it (Kellen was a huge suspect). So we asked them if anyone had... Kellen was asked a couple different times, and we said "when we find the keys, we will make smores." So of course, he admitted to taking the keys and throwing them in the river!!! We searched and searched. But did not find anything. So after a couple hours of searching, we decided to have smores and put the kids to bed.

In the morning, the keys were found... under their tent!!! Glad it didn't turn out to my kid!

This was a 4.5 hour trip away from our house, and the kids were so AWESOME! They really are great travelers.

Soren is OFFICIALLY crawling! He scoots around everywhere! Trouble!