Oh, that stinkin' dog!

Mornings around here are pretty crazy. No matter how hard I try to get everything organized the night before, we still all run around crazy. Drives me crazy. I don't like repeating myself 4 times asking someone to do something. Urgh! So we are working on it.

Well Monday morning was just as crazy as the rest of them. We ran out of her barely in time to get Kayla to her first class on time. After I dropped all the kids off, I went over to pick up a lab slip from my doctors office. They didn't open until 8:30 so I had a 1/2 hour to waste. I went over to the Nugget Market, which I never shop at because of their prices, and just wandered around.

At about 8:25 my cell phone rang. I looked at the caller and it was my neighbor. I immediately thought something wasn't right because she never calls me on my cell. I answered it and she said that another neighbor brought our dog over to her house because he was out front. I told her that it couldn't be Cody because he had been in Evan's room when we left. She said "well, he's black, has a blue collar and the name White is on the collar." Sounds like Cody. So she told me that they put him in the backyard. I thanked her repeatedly.

When I got home, sure enough it was Cody in the backyard. I have NO idea how he got out. No clue. Last I saw him he was in his crate (with the door open) in Evan's room. Sometime during all the craziness, he made his escape. I was so thankful for the neighbors!

So, this morning was crazy again. We were all running around and Hailey couldn't find her shoes. No matter how many times I ask and remind them, they don't put their shoes in the garage. We finally found them and ran out the door rushing to school again. I backed out of the garage, shut the garage door and started to pull forward when I had the thought "where's the dog? The door has been open for awhile while we hunted for shoes. Where's the dog?" So in a panic I hopped out and ran to our dining room window, which was open because it was a cool morning.

"Cody," I yelled. Nothing. "CODY!" Nothing. Oh no. So I ran to Evan's bedroom window, also open, trying to see if he is locked in his crate or in Evan's room. The way the blinds were tilted, I couldn't see his crate so I yelled "CODY!" Nothing. No noise at all. Oh man! So I ran to the gate and into the back yard hoping that we left him outside. Nope. So I went to the kitchen window "CODY!" Nothing.

As I ran to the front yard to open the garage door, all I could think of was "do I take the kids to school and then look for the dog, which means he could get farther away, or do I keep them here and we all look and then they are late for school. If I send them to school without knowing where the dog is, are they going to be able to focus or be too worried?" I ran in the house thinking maybe he somehow got stuck in a room upstairs. Nope. Panic was really starting to set in now.

I ran into Evan's room to check the crate door and guess what? There is that stinkin' dog just laying in his crate, with the door open, looking at me like "what is with all the noise? I'm trying to sleep here!" Not once did he bother to get up, respond to his name or make any sort of noise so that I knew he was there.

Oh, that stinkin' dog!

Labor Day Hike

We usually go camping on Labor Day but it just didn't happen this year. I still wanted to do something as a family though. I didn't want to sit at home with all the chores calling my name and the kids trying to sneak off to watch tv. I wanted to do something fun. So I asked our friend if she knew of a fun, easy hikes to do with kids and she did. So off we went. 

Now, let me just say that everyone else was not thrilled with my idea. Apparently being lazy and watching tv sounded like a lot more fun to some of my kids but I dragged them along because "we are a family and we are going to have fun together so get in the car, smile and HAVE FUN!" Ya, it was one of those kinds of trips.

So it was a pretty cool hike. Although I think it would be WAY better in the spring when water is actually flowing in all the little creeks you cross or walk along or see. Not so exciting when it's dry. We will definitely do it again in the spring time.

Hiking with my baby and my man:

So you reach this point were you walk along this long bridge thing. It was really cool.

Then you get to a turn off and you get to zig-zag down the ramps. Doubly cool.

 Evan going down:

Hailey going down:

At the bottom of the ramp was a little pond so we stopped, sat in the shade and had lunch.

And where are is a pond and rocks,

 rock throwing and splashing will occur.

Marty was the thrower and Kurt was the photographer.

The kids were the screamers =)

Then we thought it would be cool to get a picture of all the kids with a splash in the background. But I am sure you can imagine that timing a picture with a splash and all the kids looking at the same time, would be rather difficult. 

Here is what Kurt got:

Missed the splash.

And here is what Lorraine got:

 Got the splash but not 2 kids looking. So use your imagination and put the two together and we got the perfect picture!

 Also, this was the picture that put Kayla over her limit. She was a little challenging that day being that she didn't want to go to begin with. Then she didn't like the splash happening behind her. Oye! It had been so long since she had been difficult that we felt rather out of practice. We weren't quite sure what to do with her. But luckily she was a bit out of practice herself at being difficult because she wasn't that bad and we so we were able to work through it.

 At the end of the trail. 

All smiles for this little guy!

It's a good thing he has feet!

Trevor is sooooo quiet in the car. He rarely makes a peep. Unless we are traveling a far distance, then, of course, he makes his voice be heard. But just ordinary running around, dropping kids off, picking kids up, he is dead silent.

This has caused me many a-times to panic thinking that I left him somewhere or I forgot to put him in the car or something. Since he was a newborn I have asked the kids "Trevor is back there, right?"

Well with the kids in school, no one is back there for me to get confirmation from that Trevor is indeed with us. So now in my moments of panic, I look over my shoulder and  . . . 

A huge sigh of relief because there are his little feet. 

Thank goodness! 

I love those little feet.

Going vegan?

Well, maybe. We'll see.

About 2 weeks ago Kurt went to Chipotle for lunch and ran into some friends that we haven't seen in awhile. They invited him to join them while they all ate. He called me afterwards and told me that they had switched to a vegan diet and that they love it and feel great. They also recommended watching Forks over Knives (or something like that).

Now, I am always, ALWAYS, trying to get my family to eat better. And Kurt will always say that he wants to eat better but then he will go to the store for one thing, usually milk, and come home with 10 boxes of cereal. Sugar cereal. And I shake my head and say "where's the guy who wants to eat better?" and he will say "he's over here eating a bowl of Lucky Charms." Or he'll do something like this:

Buying 24 boxes of brownie mix at one time. And I just shake my head because I love him and he loves his sweets.

But he was really interested in this vegan diet idea. So while he finished up his day working, I got on the computer and researched vegan diets. Turns out they are totally free of any and all animal products. Nothing from animals . . . including eggs. I called up my man and told him that eggs (and therefore brownies, cookies, cakes, etc.) were out. He said "well that was fun being vegan." He lasted 2 whole hours =)

But the seed got planted in my brian because 1) I don't eat that much dairy because I am lactose intolerant and 2) I'm not a big meat eater. I have watched some documentaries, like Food Inc., about our country and what is being done to our food. And it worries me.

So then last week I had a dr. appointment with my all time favorite doctor. He is my Nephrologist (kidney doctor). He is awesome and funny and super smart and I swear he doesn't blink - ever! The thing is that I am not "sick" enough to see him regularly, which I soooooo appreciate, but I really like his advise and his outlook on things. He is very proactive. So I try to get in and see him when I can.

So how do I make this simple and not way long? Basically he said that my system shows signs of someday developing lupus, which is bad, so we should try to do everything we can to prevent a flare up. While my other doctors are just waiting for something to happen, he says we should try to prevent anything from happening. During our discussion it came up that I am lactose intolerant. He said "well you should avoid dairy like nut allergy people avoid nuts." Wow. That was pretty serious. He explained that every time I eat dairy, my system has an allergic reaction to it and that causes an inflamed  state. We want to avoid those at all costs. Makes sense to me.

So Kurt asked him about a vegan diet for me, notice he didn't say for "us" =)  The doctor said that it could help me avoid flaring up my system. Oh, and by the way, we were in there because of a kidney stone on my left side, so we talked about diet and kidney stones which he said meat can contribute to those. He explained the scientific process of what happens when meat breaks down but it was way over my head (see, he's smart). So basically, I should avoid meat and dairy. Sounds vegan to me.

So I tried it this last week. I bought a ton of veggies and fruits and tried my best to avoid animal products. And honestly, by Friday, I was STARVING! So I have added some meat back into my diet. I have a referral in to a dietitian so hopefully she will call next week. I am really looking forward to talking to her and figuring out what else I can eat that will fill me up.

So I may not be totally vegan. I may have some weird made up Jennifer diet but it will be interesting to see how it makes me feel. I am very excited!

Off to the Oregon Coast

We got home from Virginia and, I think, about 12 days later we left for a trip up to the Oregon Coast. Kurt's cousins from Washington so nicely invited us to join them for their family vacation. So off we went again!

Now, I am getting old and just had a baby (okay, so maybe the baby is now over a year old but I'm looking for any excuse I can find here people) so I don't remember details like I used to. Anyways, one day we drove to a light house and, of course, I don't remember the name of it BUT it was pretty cool. This guy (leaning on the wall) was very informative and shared a lot of knowledge with us. They did offer tours to go up in the lighthouse but only 5 people could go at a time and it went every 30 minutes. When you have a party of 40, that doesn't work so good so we listened to him and he answered all of our questions.

Also at the lighthouse parking lot was a little hike that lead to the Octopus tree. I think you can see how it got it's name.

The hotel was right on the beach. It was so awesome! The kids could run down there and play in the sand and we could see them from our room. We spent a lot of time on the beach.

Kurt and Matt went and bought big, grown up shovels so the men, um - I mean, the kids - could play in the sand. The dads, along with the kids, had a lot of fun digging holes!

My baby boy at the bottom of one hole!

Here we are just relaxin' on the beach. It was so wonderful to sit and talk with family.

The tunnel

Notice the dads have the shovels =)

There was an indoor pool that we went in a few times. Let me just say that when you get 40 people in a cement room, noises ECHO like no tomorrow. It was so noisy in there! But the kids had fun so that's what's important. Oh, and Kurt did his kids line up on the side of the pool and domino-fall into the water. Have it on video, but like I said before, videos no worky =(

Another day we went to the Tillamook Cheese factory. Yum!

How many could we cram into the car?

Cheese samples

The factory

Here you can actually see the factory

And of course we had to try the Tillamook Ice Cream! Double yum!

I honestly have to say that since this trip I have become a Tillamook snob. I will only buy Tillamook Cheese now. It holds a very special place in my heart!

Speaking of my heart - I had a love note in the sand!

The last night there we did a fire on the beach and roasted smore's. I ran up to our room so I could get a picture of our group.

And here is a zoomed in shot

Kurt dug out a "bench" for the kids to sit on while they roasted their marshmallows. 

The morning we left we took a group shot. Now, I knew we were a big group but I had no idea how big until I saw this shot. I love this picture! What a great group we were!

 Thank you so much to everyone who helped plan, shop, prepare, organize, and cook . . . it was WONDERFUL, AMAZING, and SUPER SPECIAL!

We can't wait to be able to see everyone again!

Virginia - Part 3

Ok, so honestly, this post was suppose to be a quick little "catch up" with only a few pics of each event we have done this summer. It was a compromise between the 2 sides of my brain - one side is the OCD part that says posts need to be in chronological order with ALL the pics and the other side is the realistic side that says that if I do that, this blog will end up just like my scrapbooks - neglected and waaaaaay behind. So they made a compromise and were going to do a quick little update.

Well, while going through the pictures trying to decide which ones would make the cut, the OCD part of my brain said "they are all so great! You can't leave anything out!" and so here we go: Each event will get it's own separate post.

Here is the conclusion of our Virginia trip:

We went to get pizza for lunch one day:

 I believe we finished off 6 whole pizzas. The lady brought us a "to go" box but we didn't need it. Every piece was gone and we were all stuffed.

One of the activities that the Truman's brought was crafts. The kids had a great time being so creative! I have some very beautiful magnets on my refrigerator that will forever remind us of our fantastic trip!

We had a great time at the pool. The water was heavenly! And by heavenly, I mean I could walk right in it was so warm. I am a big cold water wimp and for me to get in a pool it has to be just right. This was just right and wonderful!

Kurt also had the kids stand in a line on the edge of the pool facing him and then one at a time they fell sideways into the pool like dominoes. It was so fun! If I could get videos to load I would include it but I haven't had any luck with that lately so you will just have to picture it in your mind.

There was a diving board that was super fun too. One time Evan got to the edge of it and jumped and totally did a front flip. He got out of the water and said "I didn't know that was going to happen." Ha ha ha! We didn't either little buddy. After that, he was front flip obsessed and constantly worked on it. I have that on video too but oh well.

One day we went to a blueberry farm where you got to pick you own blueberries.

We tried to go early before the heat attacked but it was still rather warm.

And just in case you were wondering how many pounds of blueberries 21 people could pick, it was 22 POUNDS! We had more blueberries that we knew what to do with so we made blueberry muffins, the girls made a blueberry cake-thing and we had blueberries with every meal. They were soooooo goooood! We always had a bowl of them on the table and I ate them constantly like they were candy.

Spencer had to leave early for a boy scout activity so before he left we got a picture of all the kids on the stairs. Mine are in there somewhere =)

Kurt impressed his woman with his mad stilt walking skills.

Evan tried on the little stilts. Aunt Jenny also showed off her stilt skills!

Evan also became obsessed with the pogo stick. At first he could hardly get on it but by the end of the day he could do a few jumps. The next day he could do 10 and from there he took off. Kurt told him if he did 100 jumps without stopping, he would buy him one when we got home. We were proud owners of a pogo stick the day the plane landed in Cali.

Before the trip, Jenny had asked us to email her a family picture for a surprise she was doing. On Sunday we got our surprise. She had had family pictures made into puzzles. So we all sat down and worked on our family puzzles.

They turned out so cute!

  What a great surprise! We have ours laying on the old family desk in our room.

Sunday was also Jared's bday! Happy Birthday Jared!

We sang, he opened presents, we partied.

And then sadly, we had to leave. Our flight was first thing Monday morning and so we had to make the 2 hour drive to DC Sunday evening. We had a blast and wish the time didn't go so fast! Why do vacations just fly by? It's not fair!

Thank you so much Truman and White families. We had a great time and can't wait to see you all again. Hopefully sooner than 2 years again!

Virginia - Part 2 - 4th of July

Wednesday was the 4th of July. We all got up and dressed in our Old Navy Flag t-shirts. We had all purchased red, white and blue shirts for a family photo and we were excited to all be matchy-matchy. 

The Truman family was our activities committee and they did a fantastic job. That morning we played a game called "dot your partner" (or something like that - apparently I am not good at remembering names of games). You had to buddy up with someone and we had dots (from holes from punching paper) in a bowl with water and you had to stick them on your partner. The buddies with the most on their partner in 1 minute won. 

Here are some of our dotted buddies:

(The dads were such good sports!)

Dotted Kayla:

We then headed out for our family picture. Virginia is just beautiful and green. This was a trail near Jared's home. Look at how luscious and green it was.

Trial runs with the kids ~ Having fun!

Here is the whole group, all 21 of us.

 Front row: David, Katie, Michael, Evan

2nd row: Kayla and Gavin

3rd row (standing): Hannah, Emily, Ryan, Hailey, Dianne, Jared

The rest of us: Jessica, Chad, Jenny (holding Braden - he is behind Ryan), Spencer, Megan, Me, Kurt, Trevor.

The girls:

 Megan, Hannah, Jessica, Kayla, Katie, Hailey and Emily.

The boys:

 Gavin, Michael, Ryan, David, Spencer, Evan, Trevor and Braden (on the side being held by Jenny).

Our Little Family:

 (Anyone know how to adjust the color so we aren't so washed out? This would be such a great picture if the color was better).

When we got back the girls got to bakin'

While some were baking, other were involved in a serious Nerf war!

 Jared and Dianne's dining room, entry way and office were turned into the battle zone. You had to call a cease fire to walk through there or you would be shot!

The boys took this very seriously! And seriously, there were bullets all over the house. Everyone had a great time!

Still baking

One of the activities that the activity committee planned was cupcake decorating. The kids loved it!

 Emily

 Megan

 Hannah

 Hailey

Beautiful cupcakes:

The boys did some too but I guess I just grabbed girl shots. Oops!

We then went outside and the kids had a water balloon tossing contest. Although, as it usually goes, it turned into a water balloon war. Much fun was had!

And here is where the adults sat. In case you were not aware - Virginia was having a heat wave! It was 103 plus humidity. It was HOT! You walked outside and instantly started sweating. So unless you were running around in the water, you planted yourself in the shade and chilled.

We then did some fireworks at their house. On our outing that morning to the trail, we may or may not have misplaced some kids for a short while =) and therefore didn't feel like taking all 15 kids to a crowded fireworks show was the best idea - plus remember it was killer hot. So we stayed home and enjoyed the company.