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.

City of Rock, Idaho

 On our way to Oregon, we had planned to meet up with our good friends from Kalispell, Montana in Idaho. 
Luke is the one that got Tyler really into rock climbing, and this was a rock climbers dream place. So many rocks to climb! And they were HUGE!
The first night there was great. It was great to catch up with Becca and Luke, and the kids ran around and just loved playing together... and then....

 We got sick. Kellen, Soren, Ayla and myself all ended up sick. Throwing up sick, not just tired sick either. The hammock worked out great, because you could keep away from the ants, and just lean over the edge and throw up. I know, gross.

Ayla got it the worst.... she was sick for 3 of the 4 days. We actually got really worried with her eyes sunken in and the inability to keep anything down. We took her to the local (60 miles away) ER and they gave us some anti nausea medication, but said she was right on the cusp of being dehydrated, but they didn't want to stick her with a needle if they didn't have to (thank goodness, because that girl is awful with needles!)

Kellen's sickness only lasted a day... so he was his usually rascally self for the camping trip.

These guys are adorable! It is hard to believe this boy will be one soon!

Our last stander! He never got sick... his immune system must be pretty good. 
Oh, wait... he did get sick like a week later. But we cannot verify it was the same illness.

Above is camp for the first couple days... everyone asleep under a sheet...

and here is our last day. Having a fun little snack picnic under the shade of a big rock while Tyler climbed with some of the kids.

 Colton getting in a climb with Tyler... he went climbing a couple different times with Tyler and the crew, and I stayed back nursing the kids and myself back to health.  

But still... the sickness really wasn't very fun for any of us. Our trip was supposed to be fun filled with some awesome people... 
Instead, the awesome people tried to keep a respectable distance from the sick camp... I can only imagine how it was back in the day when part of the group got cholera or whatever!!

Soren doing his bear crawl... he still does it and it always gets some chuckles from people!

 Ayla getting in a climb. For a girl who was sick and couldn't keep anything down for 3+ days... we were amazed. She climbed up a HUGE rock (like 6 stories tall or more), without stopping. All she had eaten was a couple peanut butter crackers and gatorade! Yes, not good on our parenting, but she REALLY wanted to climb once, and we were leaving that night! So.... memories were made.

 Becca and I encouraged Kellen to go find a big rock, he looks up at the HUGE rock Tyler was climbing with Colton, and says with his hands in the air "It's too BIG!" It was so cute.
Kadence and Gracyne were so sweet while we were sick. They made cards for the kids, and would bring little gifts. I wish it would have been less sickness, and more fun!

 The kids doing some "rock climbing" at base camp.

 Look at that dirt!!! What cute brothers.

The geological area of City of Rock was so neat. It was just like pastures, and then all of a sudden HUGE rocks jutted out of the ground all over the place. I don't know the history, but there were wagon trails that went through the area, and some of the pioneers wrote their names on the rocks. It was really neat. We hope to go back again sometime.