There and Back again: The Oregon Trail!

(Multnomah Falls)

At 11:00 PM, we pulled in last night from a week and a half vacation in Lincoln City, Oregon. The Hemmert family rented a beach house on the north side of the city, and the ocean was literally in our backyard. The view was breathtaking and it was only 43 steps (is that right Mara?) to the beach. Here are a few lists to summarize our trip. The pictures following are out of order, but it kind of gives you an idea of what we did.

Heidi's top 10 favorite things:
10. The outlet malls with no sales tax!! Woo hoo!
9. Dan Jr.'s talent at the family talent show. (imagine a cute 6-year-old boy singing along to Alvin and the Chipmunks "Funky Town". He didn't know the words, but he had a blast singing along!)
8. Picture Day. I know these are usually dreaded, but the sun was shining the entire day, and after our family pictures everyone spent the day out on the beach building sand castles, getting tan, and flying kites. It was so relaxing and will go in the books as one of the best days ever.
7. The food! Every night someone cooked a feast. We ate fresh halibut, tacos and homemade smoothies, authentic Italian spaghetti, gourmet meatloaf, and fresh crab and artichokes dipped in melted butter. (Sorry Kjell! I couldn't resist! You can kick me later :)
6. The jelly fish and shark exhibit at the Newport Aquarium.
5. Devin's attempt to fly glow sticks tied to a kite at night on the beach. (He was trying to do a prank on the kids and we were all supposed to think it was an alien or something but there wasn't any wind, and he was overshadowed by a spectacular fireworks show over the ocean by a local casino.)
4. Running the Lincoln City 5k with my family. (sorry no pictures yet)
3. Going to a strawberry field during a strawberry festival and picking them with all of the kids.
2. Being with my entire family and enjoying their company. (A special thank you to my nieces and nephews for playing with Tyson!!)
1. Being with Devin and Tyson every day! I've been so spoiled I don't want Devin to go back to work tomorrow!! I'm so grateful for him.

Devin's Favorite things:
10. Only having to cook and clean one meal for the entire trip!
9. Family picture day. (same reasons as explained above)
8. The Newport Aquarium. Tyson loved the fish and the Shark exhibit was amazing. The Japanese crabs were freaky too.
7. Climbing on the neighbor's roof with a ladder to get his fallen kite.
6. Hiking Silver Falls and Multnomah Falls.
5. Becoming friends with the raccoon that lived under the deck . (Devin and my brother Jon named him Rocky, and fed him food every night)
4. Tyson's new favorite hobby...throwing rocks into the ocean
3. Spending a lot of time with Tyson and Heidi
2. The outlet mall with no sales tax!
1. Dan's spaghetti

Needless to say it was a fabulous experience. The only negative thing was that after competing with 10 other boy cousins under the age of 7, Tyson got possessive over everything. So I send a written apology to all who were there... Sorry ! Thank heavens for a 7:30 bedtime!!! :)

Our crab feast...

Eating a sucker at the Newport Aquarium

Me going crazy at Silver Falls. (Some people got lost and were found again with the fabulous invention of the walkie talkie)

Underneath the waterfall at Silver Falls

Tyson excited to be out of the Ergo carrier after the hike.(Click on it to see a close up of his expression)

The Spruce Goose at the McMinnville air museum. That thing was HUGE!!

Tyson liked to lean his head back on every information sign... Maybe he thought it was a head rest?

Cool tank! (Devin made a funny 'Life is Beautiful" reference here)

Picture day, and our beach house's backyard. (That is cousin Mark on the left)

No, this isn't a doctored photo, and yes, I was terrified.

My dad chatting with some of his sons. left to right: Matt, Jon, Dad, Dan
Jared was up in the house I think.

Cowboy Tyson! Everyone was in charge of a devotional every night. For my Mom's devotional, she had all of the kids dress up like pioneers and had them gather around her. She told my Grandma Duffin's famous story about Indian Joe and the mountain lion. It was filmed for posterity.

Injun Joe... (Yes all of the boys tried to kill him after the story) Devin was voted to be Indian Joe because he had the best body. :)

Oh the power of DVD players and headphones!! My sister-in-law Julie made DVD's of Tyson's favorite show Super Why. It seriously saved our sanity for the long drive.

Cousins in Sasquatch's cave on the Multnomah Falls hike. :) In pic: Mark, Jeffrey, Anson Hayley, Tyson, Mara, and Daniel

(Daniel, Emily, and Mara)
Our wind breaker/fort!! It was really windy the first few days, so we made a wind breaker fort out of drift wood and rocks. It was so nice to be able to play in the sand without getting wind in your eyes! It was later converted into a fire pit for s'mores and songs. Yes, Tyson is eating rocks.

Did I forget to mention we cut off Tyson's legs? Just kidding. He actually really liked being half buried. Kind of weird...

Training and Church Callings

As most of you know I've been trying to get in better shape before we think about having another kid. (I started my first pregnancy out in horrible shape, and now I'm paying for it!) So Dev and I signed up to run the 10k at the Freedom Festival on the fourth of July. So far I've gotten myself to a point where I can run for an hour without a problem, but I'm a little frustrated because I was only able to go about 5 miles! I'm so slow!! So this week will be my speed up week, and hopefully I will be able to do it without aggravating my shin splints too badly. My goal is to be able to run the 10k under an hour, which I know for my runner friends out there is rather slow, but for me who hates running that is quite a feet! What makes me the most frustrated is that Devin wont even train, and he will totally kill my time. Ugh... men... :) K... I'm done venting. I still have a few weeks to go, so I know I can do it.

Tyson came on our last run with us in a jogging stroller, and I was nervous about him getting antsy, gut he was great the entire hour! I was shocked!



On to Church callings... we have been teaching the 11 year-old-boys that turn 12 during the year in Primary. There are only two kids, so to be honest, it has been a very easy calling. I just got a phone call from our primary president yesterday, and they want to blend our class with another one and put us in the nursery. Here is my question... When do you start complaining about how long you have had a calling? We have been in the primary/nursery ever since we have been married. (5 1/2 years) It's been really fun, however, it has been extremely hard to form relationships in the wards that we have been in because we never get to know anyone. Putting us back in nursery will only make it worse, won't it? The president was desperate, and it's really not that big of a deal because we are totally physically capable and we don't have any other kids or babies to worry about. So it makes sense to put us there and we will totally do it, but at the same time... When is it okay to say, "Can we do something else for a change?"

There's a first for everything...

I've been so proud that we have survived a year and a half with successfully having no bathtub poops. As of an hour ago, that is no longer. I was reading by the tub when Tyson became very upset, and lo and behold his bath water had fun brown floaties! "Yucky!" I exclaim. He responds with a sad whimper, "Mom! Yucky! Poopy!" He repeated the word the entire time I scrubbed the tub. I pray that he learned from this experience and it will never happen again. (Which I'm sure it will...) :)

ps...enjoy my new blog design!!