Deception Pass - Puget Sound

Robin and Tracy took us to Deception Pass which is a group of islands in the northern Puget Sound. The ocean was as calm as a lake. The kids had a lot of fun hiking and throwing rocks in the water.

Crew is a big fan of rocks so he was in rock heaven here. Instead of sand it was just a bunch of small rocks for a beach.

The trees in this area had witches hair hanging from them, I have never seen anything like this before.

Robin took us on a crazy hike through the forest in the rain. It was either go by a cliff on slippery rocks or crouching and ducking through thick trees and bushes. We chose the bushes.

This was Fort Ebey. It is a bunker that was built during WW II in case of Japanese invasion. It reminds you of the movie Saving Private Ryan when they invade the beach on D Day. Crew is running trying to catch up to everyone who are standing at the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean. You had to keep the kids on the trail because the drop off was about 100 feet down.

Here's Koye and Bill overlooking the ocean.

This is the bunker we walked through. It was pitch dark inside so thankfully we had a flashlight to be able to see all the different rooms throughout it. This is Robin, his girls Regan, Isabelle and Baylen and then Madi and Crew. We tried to get the date that is on top of the bunker...1942.

From there we took the ferry boat back to Seattle. It was kind of fun driving your car up onto the ferry. Then we went to the upper deck to check out the view. As you can tell from Madi's expression it was freezing and very windy but they still liked it.

Thanksgiving In Seattle

We spent Thanksgiving in Seattle with our friends the Hartley's. They are such good friends and always show us a great time when we go there. This is Madi and their daughter Isabelle having some hot chocolate.

Kids table...don't they look excited to start eating.

Here is Billy with his yummy Sweet Potato Pie. This certain recipe tastes just like pumpkin pie with pecan pie topping. We made had to make 3 or 4 batches of this stuff because we just kept eating it.

Here is our master chef Robin. He's a great cook and made the BEST turkey...it was so juicy. We ate until we couldn't eat anymore, everything was soooo good. I don't want to have to step on the scale at the doctors this week!

What's Thanksgiving without a game of Twister? Here are all the kids after they were tired from playing.

Bill, Madi and Regan are getting their Twist on here. Madi is hidden behind Regan.

It was pretty funny to watch these girls. I didn't think I should try playing....I didn't want to show them all up or anything.

Naked Boy And Shoes

I just had to take this picture! Crew loves to put shoes on all the time. In this pictures he has on Koye's but he loves to clomp around in mine and his dad's shoes also. I got him ready to put in the bath so he ran off and found some shoes real quick.

We did a little "blocking out" of a certain part here, didn't want to offend anybody or anything! We thought Crew might appreciate that further on down the road.

While Mom Is Away.....

I was gone for a couple of hours today so I left dad in charge. It was kind of quiet so he went looking for Crew and this is where he found him, taking a nap on the sink. Probably not the most comfortable place to sleep but I guess he was tired enough.

He loves to climb up onto my bathroom counter and get into all kinds of trouble, it's become his favorite spot lately.

Notice the mess on the floor, nothing more fun than cotton balls and Q-tips. He also loves to go through my makeup bag and put a lot of Q-tips in his mouth. He was awake when I got home so Billy showed me the pictures on the camera.

Happy Halloween

Here are some pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes.

Our cute little Cheerleader.

Koye is the Black Spikerman. You should see some of his moves, pretty awesome!

Here is our little Batman. He actually wore the mask for a little while but it didn't last too long.

Halloween was also my dad's birthday. I wish we could have been there with him to celebrate! Growing up as kids he always had to take us to the annual carnival they had at the Pomerene School, which you know you loved it dad deep down somewhere, right?! Glad you had a good birthday dad, we love you.

Best Surprise Ever!

Shelley, my sister-in-law, decided that she wanted to come up and surprise me for a visit. Chris told her to come on up so she invited my other sister-in-law Brooke and my mom. Bill was obviously in on it but I was clueless. On Thursday Bill told me he was going out of town for work and would be home late. Well, 7:30 rolls around and I get a phone call from Shelley so I'm talking to her explaining that I'm waiting for Bill to get home (she's in my garage) and the next thing I know Billy comes walking in with Braelyn, her little girl. I let out this scream, hang up on Shelley because I know she is here at this point. I was thinking that her and Chris came so I run to the garage and I see Shelley, my mom and Brooke. I was so happy I was crying! It was so much fun to see them, especially Braelyn. We left AZ right when she was born and only saw her a couple of times. She's so cute and so much fun. She loved being right down on the floor and playing cars with the boys. I'm also so happy my mom got to come. I'm not sure how she got away without my dad but she did and we loved every minute of it.

Here she is with Aunt Brooke. Her mom had her dressed in the cutest outfits everyday!

I thought this was a fun picture of her mother doing her hair.

Here she is again playing with the boys. I was very tempted to send them, especially Crew, home on the plane with them to keep Braelyn entertained. Crew has been a little hard lately with being a mommas boy which has been so hard for me because he has been so easy up to this point. I threatened him several times that I was going to send him back to Arizona.

I love this picture. Brazer is wearing a coon skin cap. The very same one Crew loves to stuff the tail up his nose! We had so much fun while they were here and I couldn't have asked for a better 4 days. Thanks girls for coming, we miss not having family around and this was such a treat for us!

Portland Temple

We took everybody to see the Multnomah Falls. It was pretty up there. We stopped to take a picture of the kids on this log. You should have heard all the people ohh and ahhh over these four.

Here is Brooke, Mom and me.

We stuffed Madi and Koye in this old tree log.

This was the funniest picture. Koye wanted to "pose" for this picture and this is what he came up with?! Notice the crossed legs and arms. Braelyn was just having fun hanging out.

Beautiful Day At The Park

We decided to take advantage of the nice weather and take food to the park and eat. Shelley made some yummy chicken tacos, Bill made salsa and guacamole and then we had home made ice cream waiting for us at home. Grandma made us all get together for this picture.

Can you tell that Madisen just loves this little girl. She couldn't get enough of her. Poor Braelyn.

Koye thought she was pretty cute, too. He would keep saying "she's so cute"!

A Visit To The Roloff Farms

Not sure how many people watch Little People Big World on the TLC channel but they live here in Oregon. We decided we would go and visit their pumpkin patch one day. Amy Roloff was standing outside meeting and taking pictures with people so we waited in line to get ours taken. Koye was a little unsure of her, as you can see in this picture. He just would look at her. She was such a nice lady to take the time to stand out there and greet all the people visiting their farm. Anyway, it felt like meeting a celebrity.

We pulled the kids around in this along with our pumpkins.

I thought this picture was sweet of Braelyn sleeping on her Uncle Bill.

We took a tour of the farm in this tractor pulled ride. The kids really wanted to go on it. Koye kept telling me "mom, this is going to be so much fun"!

They let us off at a little place that was like a ghost town and explore. Braelyn did so good, there was a lot going on and she just took it all in.