Memorial Weekend 2008

We had beautiful weather for Memorial Weekend this year. I was so afraid that it was going to be cold and rainy, but it wasn't! Hurray!! We slept warm and dry as we camped at Honeyman Park with family and friends.
Dad treated us to his yummy campfire cooking, along with all the food prepared by Mom, Kim and everyone else.

The kids liked to be able to "graze" for food whenever they wanted to.
The kids had a good time riding scooters and bikes in front of our campsites. We camped in a new area this time (which for the record, I really liked...but I don't need electricity like most of the campers with trailers and motorhomes do), which had a hill in the roadway that made riding bikes fun and exciting. There wasn't as much traffic, so I didn't mind them playing in the street!

Leilani broke my mom's little "big wheel" bike, but I think the kids had more fun pushing around the broken wheel than they did riding the bike!
We played at the playground a lot.
Benjamin was perfectly willing to let himself be buried.
Then my kids all decided to jump out of the swings. Believe it or not, Elisabeth was actually the first one to do it and then her older sisters followed suit. I got some great pictures, and thankfully nobody broke anything!


Benjamin had to try too, of course, but he didn't get much air :)
We went to a couple of nature lessons put on by the rangers (might as well learn while you play, right?) This one was about beavers. Leilani is examining a beaver skull, I think.
This is the beaver fur.
They made beaver masks with the help of some parents (I was impressed that my brothers took the time to come and share the event with their kids)

In case you haven't figured out, I LOVE to take pictures. I really need to get a digital camera, because I burn a lot of film! So I borrowed my mom's camera a lot during the weekend. I wanted to see what kind of bubble pictures I could take of the kids while they were playing with bubbles.

We also climbed the sand dunes with the kids.
Even both very pregnant women!

Everybody in my family is used to me sticking a camera in their face, so they all endure my endless photo shoots with patience (at least to my face). The kids are even getting trained to pose for me without question, but this shot took the help of all the parents! After the grandkids shoot, Brooke was in the mood to pose for me. This is unusual, because she usually hides from me, so I took advantage and got several cute shots!

My mom and dad surprised us and came up on the dunes also.


Dollar store plastic horses and dinosaurs keep the kids entertained for hours.
We were able to get a family shot after church on Sunday. We sure love our traditional Memorial and Labor Day camping trips!
On the way home we stopped at Heceta Head beach - another tradition.
Grandpa and I took a bunch of pictures. I just realized that I don't have any of his...I guess I will have to ask him for copies.


It was kind of cold at the beach, but my kids wouldn't have missed it for anything. It was low tide, so they played in the caves and the tidepools and had a great time. We are already looking forward to Labor Day!

p.s. Kelly, I need your email address so that I can send you your pictures.

4th Grade Track

My mom keeps telling me that I need to update my blog. Easier said then done. I have a million things to do, and only one me to do them! I can't blog while Alan has the kids like I used to do.


Leilani had her first track meets this year. In 4th grade they get to compete in track and field events against other schools. The district track meet was canceled due to lack of planning, so our school held their own 4th grade track meet.

Mom, Dad, Grandma Bevans and Benjamin were there to cheer her on!
They eventually scheduled a track meet against Corridor 4th graders.
Leilani kept trying to do a forward roll over the high jump. It just wasn't working (kept knocking down the ribbon), so she was finished with that event quickly.
She excelled at the long jump. I imagine doing the gymnastics vault probably helps her jump like that.
She took first place by jumping the furthest.
This is her relay team. They didn't win anything, but they had fun.
Alan worked at the track meet, and Grandma Bevans, Mom, Elisabeth and Benjamin came to cheer her on.

Unfortunately, Benjamin was not on his best behavior. He kept wrestling Elisabeth to the ground...
and then he sat on her and wouldn't let her get up. She was mad that I wouldn't help her up, so she wouldn't look at the camera for the picture. He definitely holds his own with his sisters!

A Handful of Haircuts

Since I had the camera in the car already, I decided to take pictures of our mother/daughter haircut appointment. My sister, Kim, thought I was out of my mind to be taking pictures, but she just doesn't understand the need to record little events in our lives! :)
Kim got to be the first in the chair.
Hailey decided that she needed her hair done too.
The beautiful finished product.
I was next, and they made sure I was going to get my picture taken too.
I went a lot shorter in preparation for the Missouri heat and humidity this summer.

Mom waited patiently through our haircuts until it was finally her turn.

Hailey thought it looked fun to have a towel on your head...
so she wanted on too!
We enjoy visiting with Shawn as she does our hair, and it always feels great to walk away looking fantastic!

Changes

It is unlike me to go so long without blogging, but I have discovered in the past few weeks that life can throw things at you quickly and without much warning. I guess that is why it is best to always be prepared for whatever may come. I need to work on that a bit.

After almost a year of unemployment, Alan got a great job offer. Hurray! Unfortunately it is in Missouri. Enough said. So, life has been a whirlwind of getting him packed to go and preparing for him to be gone. I don't know if he will end up back here or we will end up out there, but either way life has changed. He left this morning, and I am missing him already. He will be back 4th of July weekend to baptize Emily, and then we will go to Missouri for the summer. After that, who knows? Right now the plan is for Alan to be there and for us to be here during the school year. The company is giving us 12 months to move, so we have time make more permanent decisions. This would be an example of how you should be ready for anything. I am not ready to move mentally or physically. My house alone will take 12 months to get ready. I still haven't completely unpacked from our last move (almost 4 years ago)...but if you think that is bad, I just unpacked two boxes from our shed that I know haven't been emptied since we moved down here from Portland 9 years ago. (I threw most of it away, but I did find some things I'd been wondering where they'd gone) :( Needless to say I HATE moving - the packing, the unpacking, ect. I like sinking roots deep. And I imagine I am not going to like being a single parent much. Sigh... Maybe my girls will rise to the occasion and help out a bit more?!

Life threw a fun surprise my way recently too. (I don't consider Missouri fun, but maybe I will be pleasantly surprised!) I won the opportunity to take 5 annual passholders with me to Disneyland to try out the new Toy Story ride before it opened to the general public this week. I found out on June 1 that I won, and I had to be there on June 11. So, I pulled the kids out of school and we had a whirlwind trip to Disneyland with my mom and dad on the spur of the moment. Poor Alan had to stay home and pack, because he doesn't have an annual pass, but the rest of us had fun, and he will be going on a trip there with us in October. My Aunt and my mom made Emily's birthday a special day with cake and presents and special Disneyland treats, and we were able to visit my grandma in the hospital. I would highly recomment the new ride. It is a blast!

So, now it is back to my normal busy life - only without a husband. Maybe someday I will get this blog caught up, but I suspect I take too many pictures to ever completely catch up! :)

Free Summer Fun Movies

I have been waiting for years for Eugene to have a Regal Cinema. Seriously. Every summer Regal Cinema theaters do free movies for kids on a weekly basis, and we haven't had one. Now we do! The new movie theater at Valley River Center is a Regal Cinema, and they are having the free summer movie program for kids. This is the link http://www.regmovies.com/nowshowing/familyfilmfestivalschedule.aspx?state=OR

Basically they show two movies each week - on Tuesday and Wednesday morning at 10 am. One is a "G" movie and one is a "PG" movie. The link above shows the movie schedule. They are older movies of course. This year some of the "G" movies are "Babe," "Charlotte's Web," Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium," some Veggie Tale movies, ect. Some of the "PG" movies are "Shrek 3," "Alvin and Chipmunks," "Fantastic 4," and many others. Check it out.

Also, this weekend is free fishing in the state of Oregon. There are many activities going on. We are going to the Leaburg dam. They have free fishing for kids under 13 from 8-12. They even provide poles, bait and life jackets. We go with Grandpa every year! I also heard that you can camp free at all Oregon state parks this weekend only.

And don't forget it is the 1st Saturday this weekend. That means the free Home Depot kids club meets and builds a craft from 9-12. They will probably be doing something for Father's Day. Lots of fun things out there to do!

An Ariel Party

Elisabeth decided that she wanted to have an Ariel theme for her birthday party. So, I enlisted the help of my sister, Kim. She is very artistic, and she can usually produce whatever I ask her to.
So, despite being about 8 months pregnant, she got down on the floor and drew me a picture of Ariel that I could use for a "Pin the Flower in Ariel's Hair" game. She can just free hand draw about anything she can see a picture of. It is pretty amazing!

The girls had a lot of fun putting the flowers on the finished product.
My sister is also a great cake decorator. I showed her some pictures on the internet, and she produced a fine product.
Isn't it cute? The tail is all frosting. The barbie doll is actually stuck into the cake.

It was a fun party. The girls had quite the moves when they played "Freeze Dance," and they enjoyed coloring pictures of Ariel as well. I think five is a fun age.

Happy Birthday, Elisabeth!

Elisabeth just turned 5. She was excited that her swimming class sang "Happy Birthday" to her in the hot tub at the end of class. She also got to make a cake and wear a birthday crown at preschool. We had the family over for dinner that night. Elisabeth picked the menu of pepperoni pizza, blue jello with gummy fish in it, and watermelon.

Elisabeth was excited to open her presents. Grandpa Bevans gave her the necklace she is wearing. He made it from one of the sun stones he mined.
The big barbie elephant from grandma was a big hit!
Her favorite Disney princess is still Ariel (the Little Mermaid), so of course I made her a cake with Ariel on it. Lucky for her, her Ariel dress she got last year still fits her, so she was dressed up with her favorite princess clothes too. I think she had a very happy birthday! Below is her video from her 5th year. She is definitely growing up.