May, Part 2--Oregon

I have loved having kids in Oregon. It's always beautiful and fun to visit.  Now that McKay is graduating, Stan and I decided to take one more farewell tour before they left.

Cute little Nora and Brinlee showed us McKay's school for the last time.  Here we are, up on the roof, checking out the faux zoo.

I really hope this is a faux turtle.

I'm feeling the love too, Brin.

The rooftop provided convenient splash pools. 

Why waste water at home when you can cleanup at Dad's school?

Just so you know, the girls didn't cause all of the water on the deck. There were a couple of drops that fell out on their own.

Oregon is a Garden of Eden. The eventual drive home to brown Montana was quite painful.

The skies may be cloudy, the rain showers frequent, but it's still an incredibly vibrant, gorgeous place to visit.

I don't know how any dental student can sit in class with views like this. On a clearer day, you can see Mt. Hood.

Little Brin in a big school.

The school even thoughtfully provides racks to park the kids.

Look at that adorable face! Sorry, Stan, I'm not referring to you this time.

We were lucky enough to be in town the week the Kenison was blessed. McKay has a gazillion cousins, so it's no surprise one of them lives not too far from Portland. McKay's cousin Todd and family also came for the blessing. They've been really good to Ashley's family while they were there.

Look at that lucky McKay, surrounded by all those cute girls.

I always get a teensy bit nervous when Nora is left alone with Kenison. 

That gleeful face can only mean trouble ahead.

Fortunately,

someone is already working on escaping her tormentor loving sister.

We can always count on endless fashion shows when we visit the Pearsons.

We spent the few days we were there visiting all of the Portland highlights.

We started out at the Rose Gardens, counting the change in the wishing pond.

Grandpa is pretty excited to stop and smell the roses!!!

This was a great time of year to visit-roses are in their full glory.

Is that I bee I see?

These smell good enough to eat!

Way to color-coordinate with the flowers, Nora.

All the rose-sniffing is tiring.

Plenty of opportunity to burn calories here for later ice cream consumption.

The Rose Garden also has Japanese Gardens with these ginormous and colorful fish.

Nora wants

that one.

There were weird interesting fung shui areas.

Those matching expressions tell me we are not impressed.

When one of the girls accidentally disturbed the neatly combed gravel, we hurried away

and acted like we didn't know what happened.

See? I told you there would be ice cream.

I can't tell--do you think Nora likes it?

Brin prefers to eat hers movie star style.

Nora has this endearing habit of wearing her sunglasses upside down. If you "fix" it for her, she'll turn them around again.

Upside down Nora and Brinlee had great plans for the next day.

We are going on a harbor tour.

We boarded the "Portland Spirit" for a little cruise.

And we're off!

You don't get to see a frown on Brinlee's face very often.

Our harbor cruise included a nice lunch.

I had some tasty Oregon salmon.

Enjoying the sun (and the breeze).

We enjoyed the talented entertainment on board.

Fortunately we didn't get shipwrecked, and could move on to more fun.

Like this contraption we pedaled around the park.

Good thing we had these two to tell us where to go.

The middle and backseats provided the pedal power. It was quite a workout. 

I need one of these at home.

We all have our ways of cooling off.

Personally, I prefer the junk ice cream route.

Our next stop was Multnomah Falls

We did a little hiking.

I need one of these in my backyard.

The next day we headed to the coast.

A random local mermaid.

I also need one of these in my backyard. I might need to get a bigger backyard.

My kind of dog.

Our destination was Cannon Beach, a beach we visited as a family years ago.

It was a breezy day

but these two bathing beauties

didn't seem to mind.

McKay demonstrating the proper way to

anchor a child.

I was pretty much a freezing lump on the beach, but these guys decided to venture out.

Ensuring that Ashley will be washing sand off of Brin for the next several weeks.

I think the water was 33 degrees this day.

Nora decided she wasn't up for cold toes

and talked her daddy into carrying her.

As you can see, it was such a pleasant day we had to really fight the throngs of people.

Some of us were ok just to shiver on the dry part of the beach.

What an angel.

All too soon it was time for Stan and I to head home, so we had Salt and Straw for the 35,829th time.

I'll miss that almost as much as I miss these two.

Up next: Home Again.

May, Part One--Utah!!

My blog is back from the dead. I'm going to catch things up in the next couple of weeks.

I love May in Montana. The weather begins to warm enough to venture outside again. 

We had the grand kids for a few days, and headed to the playground to wear them out. I think they got confused and wore us out instead.

These little buggers have way too much energy.

We decided to move on and let these two wear us out for awhile. I love that they play together, Krew with his fighting men, Myla with her princesses.

Almost no one knew it yet, but Jessica was in the early part of pregnancy. You know-that part where you want to sleep, eat, and throw up. Jessica has been pleasantly unsick with this pregnancy compared to her others, which off course, makes one sick with worry that something is wrong. 

Krew's last day of first grade happened during our visit. He wasn't very excited. 

It was super easy to get a "last day of school" picture of this calm, unhyped-up kid.

He does a mean happy dance.

It's ok to be sad, Krew. Second grade will be here

 before you have a chance to take a summer breath. 

It breaks my heart to see him so unhappy.

We'd actually came to Utah to attend the wedding of my niece

in the Salt Lake temple.

Jorden and Krew were on a long-ago planned opening-day-of-fishing trip in Island Park. Can you believe they went fishing when they could have sat around admiring flowers, discussing bridesmaid dresses, and hanging with in-law relatives?

Poor Krew, having to fish with Dad, Uncles, and Grandpa B. He's probably cold and wet. He's obviously miserable pulling that fish out of the water.

Seriously, does this look like a little fella's dream come true? I think not! They're probably gagging on the fish smell and straining those muscles to hold up that puny fish.

The REAL fun is in Utah, playing hand shuffle with Grandpa J. and Uncle Cliff,

greeting the newlyweds,

cutting the rug with mom,

and Grandpa.

No smelly fish in sight!

While I was in town, I rebound Krew's baby blanket. It's getting pretty worn. Good thing I still had some matching fabric. Also a good thing he turns eight next year and gets a new quilt!

 I love that Krew has used it to near oblivion. 

After Myla showed me how to take a selfie it was time for us to move on.

Stan and I hopped back into the car and enjoyed a long drive and some incredible scenery as we headed to our next stop.

Up next: au revoir to Oregon

April 2016

April was a pleasantly busy month around here.

We had a few overnighters. I just love when I think the girls are sleeping soundly. At least I know why they were so grumpy this day...

Since we were in Boise on Easter weekend,

I didn't get to see these two in their Easter finery.

Hailey picked out both dresses when she and I were at Costco without Makayla one day.

Aren't these two cute?

I have had this experience before: I'm with Shelly, in her car, when we hear an odd thumpity-thump- thump. It happened again! Seriously, I haven't indulged in ANY ice cream lately. 

The two of us are in cold and rainy Utah together for Women's Conference.

Of course, Jessica joined us, even though she was struggling with a stomach flu.

The three of us may have eaten too much, partied too long, and slept too little.

Myla joined us the first day when her pre-arranged babysitter backed out at the last minute. Since children are verboten at the conference, she and I spent some time at the Bean Museum while Shelly and Jessica went to a class. Here she is helping the magnetic ants wander the ant farm

and trying out the slide. This girl talks. And talks. And talks. She's pretty fun to listen to.

We hit the Cougar Eat for lunch. Myla showed us the correct way to eat a chocolate bar:

Keep your hands clean

cause your face is going to get dirty.

We joined the ward pinewood derby party. That guy on the right that looks a lot like Jorden, is the bishop. Oh wait, that IS Bishop Jorden.

That blue car is Krew's. 

Not only did the car take first place, it also set a course speed record for the day.

Krew was awarded a chocolate bar cleverly disguised as a million dollars. 

Excuse the over-exposed picture, but I've been so impressed by Myla, who cleans up the toy loft without even being asked. I need a Myla in my life.

We made sure to take Shelly to all of our fave eating places.

Ok. Let's be honest. I HAVE been eating ice cream lately. Sorry about the flat tire, Shelly.

Our visit was short, the conference was wonderful, the company was better. 

Even so, Shelly and I eventually had to head to our respective homes so that the Backman family could catch up on their sleep.

See you in May, Backmans!