Muir Woods and the Pacific Ocean

The Redwoods were beautiful at Muir Woods. The trees were very large . . .

Never fear, we had Batman there to protect us

My kids were really tired of having their picture taken

It was still a great place to visit

Jared put on his glasses and was trying to figure out who the winner will be.

The kids were racing in a grassy area by the San Francisco Bay.

We found an amazing beach by the Muir Woods

The boys found lots of interesting things in the sand

Like dead jelly fish

Despite these signs

Justin and Devyn spent all of their time playing in the ocean

The tide really freaked Jared out, he kept running up the beach when I tried to take his picture.

I was finally able to bribe him into taking this picture. He kept telling me,

"I do not like that water"

Tanner had fun burying himself in the sand

Sami really enjoyed sitting on the beach.

I think she was having a Six Flags hangover from the day before.

I didn't spend any time in the water either, because remember these signs.

Me and sharks don't mix.

The beach was gorgeous. It was my favorite day on this vacation.

Summer Vacation

We decided to take the kids on a vacation this summer, our destination: San Francisco

We stayed in an amazing hotel that had a great pool right in the middle of the hotel, with real trees and waterfalls with koi ponds.

Did you catch the nightmare part, the pool was right in the middle of the hotel and half of the hotel windows face the pool. I'm not sure about your kids, but we love hotel pools so they can get some energy out. Trying to keep them quiet is almost impossible. I'm pretty sure most families are this way because you could hear the kids yelling in the pool from 6 am to 10 pm. The hotel was very pretty, just not very practical.

Our first destination: Alcatraz. As we were waiting for our boat ride, 200 plus bicylists rode past us, they were all naked. They had some live free ride happening. It's pretty hard to shield your kids from the sight when there are so many of them. Holy cow, not what we wanted to see. We rode a boat to Alcatraz.

The kids thought the boat was great!

The view was amazing

They thought they were cool

Until they were locked up

Tanner voted thumbs down

Solitary confinement

Can you believe that random people kept making comments about Chris's BSU sweater, but they didn't say anything to Sami. I think her orange Broncos stands out way more than Chris's blue sweatshirt.

Back to the boat we go.

What Do You Do?

What do you do when you are in the woods and you don't have any toilet paper?

It's sad that I have to learn these things.

Newport, Oregon

When I quit working back in April, Chris was working on the Oregon coast. He had a couple of days off, but it wasn't really enough time to come home. Since I finally had some time off, I decided to join him in Oregon for a last minute vacation.

It was really cold, this was the closest that we wanted to get to the ocean that day (we are standing in the parking lot next to our car. I know it's pathetic).

We went to the aquarium, which is amazing. This is one of the smaller crabs. Holy cow they were huge.

I loved these Puffin birds. They waddled across our pathway and I thought they were adorable.

This octopus freaked me out. She lives in a dark cave and when you peak in you see this crazy eye staring at you. I know it's not a great picture, but you can see the eye in the middle of the photo. Imagine her head upside down taking up the rest of the picture.

We also went fishing in the ocean. It was so much fun but it was so cold. We were both shivering when we finished so we didn't take a picture of our loot. Fear of hypothermia overtook the need for a photo. We limited out on sea bass and I also caught two Lincod, which are crazy ugly looking fish.

It was an amazing last minute vacation.

Devyn Doodlebug

Some of our kids are unfortunate to have nicknames that stick. Devyn Doodlebug happens to be one of them. Sometimes we just call him Doodle or Do. I know, it's not the name your child wants to be called in middle school. At least he isn't the only Doodlebug in the world.

We found this store in Newport, Oregon.

Devyn loves to fish. He was pretty happy when he caught the first fish with the scouts at Cabela's.


Earlier this summer, Devyn had his appendix taken out. He really liked the cool bed in the hospital. He thought it was awesome that he could page the nurse and that the hospital delivered food to his room like room service. Modern medicine is so amazing that he doesn't even have a scar from the surgery, only a picture. He thinks that he is very cool since he is the only one in our family missing an appendix.

We love Devyn Doodlebug and I am glad that he still lets me call him that.

Spring Break

Where did we spend our spring break, oh yeah, we went skiing. It was so hot that none of them wore their coats and they all complained that it was too hot. I can't wait until I make them ski and it really is cold.

Brains v. Speed

Justin is super smart, but not super athletic. He decided to join track this year, because it is a big social event and he is a big social kid. He really wanted to qualify in an event so that he could go to the next level at Timberline. He knows that he isn't much of a runner, but he calculated that they take the top 8 and there were only 5 people entered in the 800 race. He knew that if he ran the race that even if he came in last he would still get to move on.

So he ran the 800 and just as he was coming in dead last, he slows down at the finish line and takes a puff of his inhaler and tosses it to his buddy on the sidelines and finishes the race. He was super happy because he knew he made it.

Unfortunately, he didn't do enough research. He thought if he made it to Timberline, he could participate in any event that he wanted to, he didn't know that he would have to run the 800 again. He was a good sport and ran the 800 again. He wasn't too disappointed that he didn't move on that time.