A Day with Nature

We went to Hendrick's Park on Saturday. The kids loved walking around looking at the different types of flowers and plants. There were many areas to sit and enjoy the scenery. While we were there, we saw a gray squirrel, a huge bumble bee, a wild turkey, many types of birds, and a snail making his way across the road.

Bumble Bee.

The snail.

K in some pretty ground cover.

L in a tree surrounded by pretty ground cover.

L loved smelling all the flowers.

K and L took turns walking down some logs we found.

This is a picnic table they have in the pavilion.
M and I both thought it was very pretty.

Mom and K by the pavilion.

The girls next to a running fountain.

After wandering around the park for a while, we decided we hadn't had enough exercise and decided to hike up Spencer Butte. It has been a while since I have made it up to the top. We decided to go up the front this time and boy was it steeper than I remember! The girls did a great job, though. L only had to be carried a couple of times over steep rocks and K scrambled up all the rocks on her own. Once at the top we were greeted with a gorgeous 360 degree view of Springfield, Eugene and surrounding area. We could even see some of the mountains, I believe Mt. Hood and the Sisters. After we rested for a bit on top, we headed down the back of the butte. It was more leisurely going down the back side.

We found a little area off the trail to take a picture.

L and Daddy walking up. You can't really tell
how steep it is, but trust me, it is a very steep incline.

This is a view from about half way up the side.
Mommy was very tired so we took a breather.
The kids were raring to go, not a bit tired.

Daddy and the girls waiting for me to catch up.

We finally reach the top.

K after climbing the rocks to the very top.

On the way down, M spied this squirrel eating a snack.
L wanted to touch it, thankfully M wouldn't let her.

See all the rock behind L we climbed down?
Those are a piece of cake compared to the front.

I LOVE this picture of the girls holding hands.

Down at the bottom; what a great day!

Our Night with Christian Kane

For those of you who don't know, Christian Kane is an actor on the T.V. show Leverage which is filmed in Portland, Oregon. The entire cast lives in Portland for much of the year. Christian Kane is also a singer and musician. He performs at Dante's Inferno in Portland once a month while he is living here. Karen and I thought it would be fun to go see him since we like his music (plus he's easy on the eyes) so we bought tickets for 16 dollars a piece. We also invited a friend of ours for her birthday weekend.
I must say it was nothing like I had envisioned. Christian Kane sings country/soul music but the crowd that was at Dante's was very rough and the bar was a dive. He came on stage 30 minutes late and cussing. Apparently his drummer was late and he was non-to-pleased about it. They started singing without him but he showed up half way through the first song. The first couple of songs were good and what I would expect but the rest of the night he turned his country songs into aggressive rock. It sounded fine, when it wasn't distorted, just not what I expected. He also swore a lot and seemed to be in a very bad mood. When his set was almost done, 4 go-go dancers came out, climbed on platforms and gyrated to the music. I kept my eyes firmly planted on the band. That was nothing I wanted to see again.
A nice surprise to the evening was when Timothy Hutton and Aldis Hodge showed up. They are actors in Leverage and good friends of Christian Kane's. They mingled a little with the crowd and I was able to get a picture with them. They seem pretty nice. I was really hoping to get a picture with Christian Kane too, but he doesn't do pictures with his fans. I was so glad I got to spend this night with Karen and Sue, they made it more fun than it would have been and helped the time fly while we were waiting for the performance to start. This has really altered my opinion of Christian Kane. I guess it just goes to show you can't judge someone based on what you see in interviews.

While we were waiting to get in, Sue went around the corner
to VooDoo Donuts to get us a treat. They were pretty good doughnuts.

I think it took her 20 minutes to get through the line.
Here is a picture of the inside of the place.

Christian Kane's name in lights, sort of.

Sue and I waiting patiently in line.
So glad it didn't rain on us!

We were getting bored waiting for the show to start.
We started being goofy. Karen licking the icing off the wrapper.

Me laughing hysterically.

Sue's sexy drink face, oh the fun we had!

Christian Kane on stage, he didn't look that great.
I was surprise he didn't dress better, he looked kind of
grungy, perhaps because of the venue he was playing in.

Here is his band- three guitarist, one drummer and him singing.

Christian Kane. You should go to the link up top
to see a better picture of him. I swear he is good looking!

Aldis Hodge, me, and Timothy Hutton.
I have no idea what is wrong with my face.
I kind of look crazy. Maybe I can photoshop a
better picture of my face on there.

A Weekend with the Girls

I went up to my aunt's house for a fun-filled girls weekend. We started out going to the spa to get a facial and massage on Friday. After that we met Mikaelas at work an took her out to dinner. On Saturday, we picked up our friend Sue and headed to the nail salon to get pedicures. It was Sue's first time, but she loved it.

Auntie and Sue enjoying the leg massage.

Our painted toes; we each got a flower on our big toe.

After the pedi, we went to Quizno's for small sandwiches.

We dropped Sue off then headed to the salon for our color,
cut and style. Karen got in a few shots of me with my hair in foils.

After our hair was done, we picked up Sue and headed to Portland.
We stopped at Macy's to get our make up done. Well, Sue did her
own make up and it looked great. I wanted to check out some new
foundation and got a make up lesson while I was at it. I found
some new colors I didn't think I could wear. It was a lot of
fun and we were all ready for our evening with Christian!

Mother's Day

On the Monday before Mother's Day, my family took me out to Road House Grill where we had dinner and our FHE lesson on Mothers. After dinner, K gave me a package to open and inside was an array of iced cookies, my favorite.
On Mother's Day it was such a gorgeous day. The sun was out and it got up to 70 degrees by the afternoon. In the morning I awoke to a yummy breakfast of apple puff pancakes and bacon. After breakfast we all got dressed up and headed to church were we heard wonderful talks given by our youth and musical numbers by the primary and young women. Everyone did an amazing job. After sacrament, all the women received chocolate truffles from Euphoria's Chocolate, so yummy! In the afternoon, K gave me her creations she made at preschool. A lovely picture of a purple bouquet and a potted purple flower. M made dinner, bbq pork in the crock pot, with broccoli and pasta followed by homemade brownies. Then I opened another gift from the family. A beautiful framed picture with the girls hand prints on one side and a picture of them on the other. Such a wonderful and thoughtful gift.

My iced cookies, very tasty.

Apple Puff Pancakes and Bacon.

My picture frame and my beautiful girls.

K's flower she gave me.

The bouquet she made me.

The delish brownies M made for me.
So much better than box brownies!

A Primary Talk

K came home from church last week all excited because she had been asked to give a talk in Primary the following week. Her talk was to be on "How the Principals and Ordinances of the Gospel bring her closer to Jesus Christ". I was nervous and worried about this talk for her. This was the first time she had been asked to give a talk and I wasn't sure how to go about doing it. Was I supposed to write the talk for her and have her memorize it? How long was it supposed to be? and What exactly was she supposed to be talking about? M and I talked about it and we were both unsure of how to proceed. However, I remembered a book I had bought last year entitled, "Creating Terrific Talks", so I pulled it out and read it. It was a quick read and very helpful. It explained how you should have your child write their own talk, because it helps to make them stronger in the gospel and to build their testimony. It gave great ideas on how to get your kids to talk about their thoughts on the subject their talk is on and how to expound upon it. So we started on Monday night at FHE with teaching her about the 4th Article of Faith which pretty much sums up what her talk should be on. Then before bed we asked her some questions and wrote down her answers for her. We did this on Tuesday too, and by Wednesday I had something typed up for her, completely in her own words. She spent the rest of the week reading it multiple times a day. Today she was able to get up in front of the class, and after a couple seconds of nervousness, was able to give her beautiful talk. We were both so proud of her. I never would have thought a 5 year old could write and read their own talk, but she did it! Way to go K!

K in her pretty Sunday outfit.

I love this picture of her.

K giving her talk like a pro in Primary.

A Surprise for Papa

Papa sent us an email saying it was awfully quiet around the house with his wife off traveling the US. He said he would love to have K come up and liven things up a bit. We decided while we were in the neighborhood that we would oblige him. We stopped by for a surprise visit and hung out with him for a couple hours. We went down to the horse barn to feed K's horse, Red, and Grandma's horse, Spud, some carrots. (I forgot to bring the camera, so no pics, sorry.) On the way to the barn, we saw a baby mole moving around in the grass around the horse track. It was pretty interesting, none of us had ever seen a mole up close before.
After feeding and petting the horses, the girls played on the rock pile and sand pile by the barn. They took turns running up and down the piles. Then Papa got a great idea. He found a cardboard box and let the girls slide down the piles. They had lots of fun doing that. After a while we headed back down to the house where the kids played on the swing set for a while. It was a wonderful visit with Papa and hopefully it gave him some excitement to tide him over until Grandma returns.

K on the rocket swing in her stylin' cowboy hat.
I tried it on too and everyone said it looked really good.
I think there may be some cowboy hats in our future.

Dad swinging on the bench swing and Papa looking at something.

The girls and Papa had fun playing on the swing set.
Papa was impressed at how high they could go.

L loves to hang from things. She can do it for a long time.

Here are the flowers K picked for Grandma.

No trip to Grandma's is complete without a trip to the cookie store.
K picked out a butterfly cookie with sprinkles.

L picked out a pink flower with sprinkles.

Butte Creek

It was a beautiful day on Saturday so we decided to head to a new area to go for a hike. We headed up to Salem, thinking that it would be just as nice there, however we were wrong. When we got to the place we wanted to hike, it started to downpour. So we headed over to Grandma's neck of the woods. We stopped by our favorite place to eat, The Home Place, and grabbed some lunch. Then we headed to Butte Creek in Scotts Mills. When M was a kid he used to swim there in the summers. There is a great little watering hole above the falls that is pretty shallow. But the creek below the falls is pretty swift in the winter time. I have never gotten an up close look at the area, just seen it as we drove past. But today we got out and walked through TONS of blackberry bushes out to the edge of the water. The creek was moving very fast so we stayed away from the edge, but the sound of the water was relaxing and enjoyable.

M standing with L were the water flows toward the falls.

The view from above.

Here is a little background information about this spot.
I found it very interesting, especially since Scotts Mills
is not much of a town. Maybe this is why.

Daddy carrying both the girls through the blackberry vines.

K sitting near the water's edge.

Mommy and L staying away from the water's edge.

A view of the falls from below.

New Beginnings-Virtue Academy

We had New Beginnings for our girls on Wednesday. Our theme was Virtue Academy and the girls helped out a lot. They worked on a skit to perform, made backdrops, and helped decorate the room the day of the event.
I conducted the meeting and did the Welcome, Sister Wright talked about the changes to Personal Progress, Natallie and Emily both gave talks, Ally gave the Mutual Theme for the year, and Avery gave the Young Women's Theme. Then they all did their skit and did a fabulous job! Afterward, we had snacks of pbj sandwiches, apples, pudding cups, and juice. I also gave everyone a little tile with our theme on it for this year which is from Joshua 1:9-Be strong and of a good courage, be not afraid neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with ye withersoever thou goest.

Here is our table with books decorated for each of the YW values.
The tiles for each girl and the incentives each girl can get if she works on her
Personal Progress and finishes experiences and projects.

The banners were made by Sister Wright and have each of the YW values
on them. On the piano are the lockers the girls colored for part of their skit.

Here is my 1st Counselor, Kristy, looking amazing as usual
and the other banners and backdrops for the skit.

Becca, Ally, Emily and Natallie came to help decorate.

Emily giving her talk on How Young Women's has effected her life.

Natallie giving her talk on How doing her
Personal Progress has helped her in her life.

Natallie, Emily, Avery, and Kaeley talking about Divine Nature.

Sierra, Stefanie, and Ally talking about being good examples.

Stefanie, Sierra, and Becca talking about modesty.