Mums 60th

My Mum is turning 60 soon so all of us that live close wanted to get together to celebrate!  I just have to say I hope I look half as good as she does when I turn 60-she looks so young!!!

She wanted to see star fish & have a bonfire on the beach - easy to accomplish around here :)

We spent a day in Tillamook going to the cheese factory for cheese of course but more importantly Tillamook ice cream.  The BEST.  Especially the Tillamook Mudslide. Yum.  We also went to Munson Creek Falls, visited Cape Meares State Park & hung out at our favorite beach in Netarts.

The next day Brigg, Hava & company joined us for a day at Hug Point & hanging around the house doing pinata's & birthday pie.  We picked the best day ever to go to the beach.  It was pretty much windless & I thought it was warm.

Hyrum was working hard to dam up the little creek trickling down the hill.  He did an awesome job!

Vincent the newest member of the fam!  He has the making of a beach baby.

Uncle Lu buried Hunter & turned him into a birthday cake at his request.

Justy & Luke had lots of fun together 

(Dallen tried to join in too)

Pinata's are fast becoming a tradition around here

Some other things we did last week-the Regata parade in Astoria.  Tons of floats & candy-there were even people participating from Portland & parts of Washington like Leavenworth

Seaside hosted a huge volleyball tournament.  We went down for a while to check it out but instead of volleyball there was a huge crowd encircling a spelling bee competition ???

We hiked the trails one late afternoon in Gnat Creek close to Astoria.  It was perfect for our family & our "hiking" abilities.  I made everyone wear their own back pack so they could carry their own sack dinner & water bottle.  What a fabulous idea!  My bag was much lighter!

 

Jeremy & I have some friends here that we knew from Michigan & we've started swapping babysitting- it is sooo nice to have have someone around that we already trust.  Anyway Jeremy & I celebrated our 9 year anniversary by going on a 5 hour date - hiking, beach exploring, bakery sampling & Costco shopping.  It was blissful. Just the two of us.

 

We love Oregon!

Ecola State Park is one of our new favorite places to go & it's only 15ish minutes down the road.  On a low tide day you see so many animals!  Look at that face on Dallen-so cute & happy to be sandy & wet!

Hammond is a teeny tiny town on the very North/West corner of OR.  There is a jetty there that helps protect the harbor from the waves.  It was FREEZING cold. But fun (for the 20 minutes we stayed outside)

 

Young River Falls.  Wow it is my new favorite place!  Ok I keep saying that but it really is!  It has a waterfall, rocks, a river, little trails & bonfire sites.  We've been on the lookout for a new bonfire spot & this just may be it.

 

             

 We like to chase the sun around here since it likes to hide & Astoria seems to generally be sunnier than Seaside so we have spent lots of time there going to parks, on walks, the county fair, parades & riding the trolley etc.

We've had fun around the house

Hunter finished his Kindergarten workbook months ago & has been working on an extra math one & has been practicing reading.  He finished his first book the other day & has started a new one!  I love it when a kid learns to read but why does our language make no sense whatsoever???  There should only be one letter per sound & we should spell phonetically.  (So...would that be fonetiklee then??)

Hyrum has worked very hard on his 2nd grade workbook & only has 50ish pages left out of 450!  He started out the summer excited about it but by now this about sums up the way he feels about the whole thing.

Our first family attempt at playing Twister. I think I've caught everyone pretending to fall down so the game goes a little quicker - hahaha - but it's been fun.  I love my kids little because they're so cute but it's fun having "bigger" kids too. We've been playing Uno a lot lately & it's so fun that 6/7ths of us can actually follow the game.  The 1/7ths of us that doesn't get it just runs around dancing & being the entertainment in the background.

Car washing is the perfect chore for a sunny day.  And for a filthy car too.

Those look like I'm-smiling-cause-Mom-has-the-camera-out-but-I'm-really-nervous-&-scared-of-these-fake-horses-faces.

Falling asleep in our cheese stick & crackers.  Big news is that Dallen finally decided (at 16 months old) to sleep through the night.  To me this means he goes to bed & 11-12 hours later he wakes up.  NOT 9 1/2 hours later which is what he'd been doing.  Yay!

I got up one morning to find Jeremy asleep in Dallen's room & Dallen & Justy eating all the chips out of the chip bag we forgot to put away the night before.  It was over half full when we went to bed & pretty much just crumbs when I found them.  Stinkers :)

We have deer in our yard sometimes!  How cool is that.

                            

We've gone to Cannon Beach once with just our family & once with my good friend Libby, her husband & 3 boys.  We love that beach!

There is a shipwreck on the coast up in Fort Stevens State Park.  That was one of things the kids were really excited to see.  There is not much left of the ship!

We went to a sand sculpting competition in Long Beach WA one day.

We've gone to Portland about 3 times since we've moved here.  An hour & a half is really not bad at all-it goes fast & it's a gorgeous drive.  We went berry picking one time & made some raspberry/marionberry freezer jam that I think just may beat the strawberry.

We also went to Pa & Darlin's house one weekend.  My brother Brigg, sil Havalah & their two boys have moved to Portland-yayayay!!!- so we came up for the newest additions baby blessing.  Vincent Frost Turner (I almost started writing Shakespear for the last name-oops) is the 9th grandson for my parents!  We are going to have lots of missionaries in the future.  Lots & lots all in the span of like 8 years :)

We were also able to see one of my best friends Liz & her 5 kids - so fun!!

We went to Lattin's to feed the goats (which turned out to be quite hilarious) & eat some delicious apple fritters.

Hunter still loves babies so much.  Once they get to age 2 he's not as interested but the little guys he just loves.  I kept finding him just sitting next to Vince & watching him.  So sweet.

 

I am so proud of this man!  He owns his very own business, gets to be his own boss & is doing great adjusting to everything.  He likes all of his employees & is loving getting to know his patients.  We feel spoiled that he has a 3 day weekend every week & a 4 day weekend for the next 6 months.  We love having him around as much as possible.

I have 2 goals tonight. 1.  Take more pictures (I know there's a lot but we've done so many things that I forgot to take the camera to like going to Hug Point with Hava & Brigg & our all day excursion to Tillamook & Netarts.)  2.  Blog much more often so it doesn't take quite as long :)

Again we love being in Oregon & all the adventures we've been having!