So on Monday morning me and my best friend Matthew set off on our journey up the west coast to Vancouver. We made a stop to see Hearst Castle on Monday since I had never been there before and then ventured on to Mike & Brooke's house in Monterey for the night. Thanks again for letting us stay there!

We left early on Tuesday morning to attempt to make it the rest of the way. We weaved through the remainder of the foggy CA coast going over the Golden Gate bridge, onto the 101 and up through Eureka and Crescent City. Then, after a brief almost-running-out-of-gas incident, we cut over to the 5 which we met up at Grants Pass, OR. We finished off the trip for the night, arriving at about 11:45pm at my parent's house. About 16 hours total driving for the day...long day...

Matthew was a great passenger and we had a lot of fun talking, singing along to music and listening to Harry Potter and This American Life. Definitely a trip to remember. :)

We are definitely glad to be done with driving and in an air-conditioned house today though since it is about 110 degrees outside. If it weren't for all the trees I'd have thought we took a wrong turn and ended up in AZ!

Anyway, here are some pictures from the trip...

Ragged Rock point - central CA

Our month of July has been a crazy busy one with so much going on. We had a blast at Lake Shasta and I think you all can say that it was so much fun. Andrew still asks daily if we are going house boating and throws many fits when we tell him we are not going. He also goes around asking where Parker, Taylor and Papa are. That week will be a week to remember in our house and we can’t believe it will be a while until we will see you all again.

Our month has also been filled with many throwing up episodes. The week after we got back from Lake Shasta, Beck got a fever and threw up a couple times. The next week it was Andrew’s turn. He threw up once in his makeshift bed next to our bed and then he threw up the next day in the car as I was pulling out of the garage to go to a volleyball tournament. This last week was a combined effort from Beck and Andrew, starting with Beck throwing up the first night we were in Utah. Andrew then proceeded to throw up later in the week, randomly, while playing with his cousins. On our drive home Saturday, He decided to throw up in the car after both lunch and dinner and has thrown up a couple times since we have been home. Peter does not handle throw up well, so needless to say I was in charge of cleaning up with some effort from Peter but definitely not much. I think I have come to the conclusion that Heavenly Father gave me a nose and sense of smell that does not allow me to really smell the throw up while cleaning it up so it does not bother me. That is enough of the throw up talk.

I played in a grass volleyball tourney the weekend after we got back from Shasta and ended up coming in 2nd. We were running it as a fundraiser for our school team and we had a pretty good turnout. We are hoping next year and the years to come will be more successful so we can get some good competition out there.

We headed to Utah last week to have a reunion with Peter’s family. It was the first time in a while that everyone was there for the reunion so it was fun. Peter was able to go mountain biking at Sundance and hike Mt. Timpanogos while I was able to go see Harry Potter and go wakeboarding. I successfully changed my feet a couple times and was pretty proud of myself. We all hiked to a waterfall one of the days and that was fun. There was lots of hanging out with the in laws and Andrew and Beck playing with cousins. Peter was able to run the “Toughest 10K in Utah” up at Soldier Hollow on the Saturday we left. He placed 5th in his age group and 32nd overall out of like 100 plus people. I was proud of him especially since he hadn’t really been running other than a couple times in the weeks preceding the race.

Now we are finally home and we are winding down from a busy month. We have Andrew’s birthday on Thursday and he is definitely excited for his cake. He asks every day for his fire truck cake which we ordered for his birthday. We got him a bike early as Peter wanted to take it on the trip with us. The second day we had it; Andrew took too sharp of a turn and fell face first into the concrete. He cut up his lip and scratched up his face. It has all healed now but he would not get on the bike without force while we were in Utah. He has ridden it twice on his own since we have been home and he is warming up to the bike again. He just refuses to go down the driveway since that is pretty much how it happened.

Volleyball starts back up on the 14th of August so summer is winding down for us. We had so much fun this summer and so glad we were able to do all that we did. We love you all and thank you for making the Shasta trip such a great one.

Happy Birthday to McKenzie! It is crazy that a year ago today she was born, I just graduated, and moving on to start my student teaching. It seems like it was not that long ago. She brings joy and laughter to our family everyday even if she is very serious some times. She is walking now and loves to grab our hands and take us around the house. McKenzie loves to play with the toy kitchen pans, loves to put on necklaces, and LOVES to brush her hair! We couldn't imagine our family without her! Happy Birthday!

Everything is going well here, just not that much to update. Jane finally found her way home and we are happy to have her until Monday, when she leaves for Girls' Camp.

While Jane was gone Sadie really stepped up to the plate and became a very responsible oldest sister. The secret is out now and there's no going back. It was fun to have the little kiddo stay up late with mom and dad after Sawyer and Ellyn went to bed, help me on outings with the kids, go to the 9:00 Harry Potter with us all by herself. We had a really good time.

There isn't really much to tell. We are just enjoying hanging out in our new home. I have several more hours a day now that I'm not driving everywhere and I've been using that time to keep a very clean house, read, try out a few new recipes. It has been great.

Unfortunately this is not prime weather time here in Carmel. It's not too bad, low 60s, mostly overcast, still great for playing outside and running along the beach but it definitely isn't the kind of summer weather I love. The Washougal pics look more my speed. But... I know I will get the payoff the rest of the year so I am complaining only a little bit.

Ellyn is finally using her foot again, walking around with only a tiny limp. They chose not to cast it and that was a relief. Especially with as much as she loves to go down to the beach to play in the sand.

We've had a couple of dinners with friends this past week and that has been fun. One couple is our friends from Germany that just arrived here for school and the other couple is the only other Army guy in Mike's program. Mike and Jason get along really well, they came over last night and their family was really alot of fun. They have two girls- 10 and 5 and Jane and Sadie really liked them. We played Ticket to Ride so that was cool. I think those are the only two social events we've had in the past year. Luckily we like hanging out by ourselves.

Sawyer has started talking like crazy and that has been very fun. He is such a happy, cute kid. Ellyn started Horse therapy this past week and loved it. They let Sadie ride as well. They get to ride on trails down by the ocean, how cool is that? They are going to let Sadie ride with them the rest of the summer. Sawyer and Jane and I spent time looking at all the horses and riding giant tricycles. It is a great way to spend the afternoon. On the way home we picked up a few flats of strawberries and I have been making freezer jam in between our different activities.

Well Ellie is done eating and I need to get kids dressed and off to our Pioneer Day Primary Activity. I love you all. Adina, I'm sorry I didn't give you any words. All the good ones were taken. I could only think of Mexican night, mexican night, mexican night, and Faceplant. Marnie, we are so excited for you to drive through!

                  No, he's not confident
                        Persistence

                     My Beautiful wife
Good close up, makes a nice desktop image

• It is highly frustrating to me that the weather is now fully cooperating now that family is gone - it has been absolutely beautiful. The kids and I took advantage and went to Blue Lake yesterday. I hope my kids are never too old to just go hang out at the lake, because I love it. They are threatening triple digits this weekend, in which case, the kids and I will hang at K&B's in the A/C.
• Dave is headed to AZ tonight, where it will definitely be in the triple digits...he'll have to get up at about 3 am to do his 20-miler this weekend. He is really looking forward to the marathon with Mike & Brooke. And Hood to Coast is only about a month away, which we are both really excited for.
• Taylor and Parker are in the midst of scout camps. I have agreed to help with both camps - because there is nothing more thrilling than spending a hot, summer day with 9-11 year old boys. And Brent, being the awesome Uncle that he is, has agreed to do the overnighter this weekend with Tay since Dave is gone.
• Isaac cut his hair - all on his own - and loves it. Dave is happy.
• We see Blue October next weekend, and some more groups later this summer: Snow Patrol, Keane, & Joshua Radin. I buy tickets and drag Dave along - he's a good sport.
• It has been so much fun putting together our second Shasta book...re-living the memories. It was a blast seeing everyone and I think it is a testament to what an awesome family this is - to spend so much time together in such tight quarters, and to have so much fun. We look forward to the next gathering...

Well, I am missing Washington and really missing Tom but am enjoying our time here. Thank you to everyone who made our time up there so much fun. We truly had a blast and can not wait until we come to stay! It's been strange having Hayden around so much because I think he thought he'd been adopted by D&A, thank you for taking him in! He just keeps telling stories about things he did with his cousins and stories his cousins told him, etc. Today Danica told me she wanted to go play with Melia and asked why we couldn't just go see her. Taking Tom to Seattle worked out well, he got the Patriot and had a good flight. He's totally bored in Japan and counting down our return which sadly isn't for a while. I arrived here Thursday night and on Friday we drove down to southern Utah, to Antimony, a tiny town where my grandpa grew up and we still have a house, or rather cabin type house. I grew up having family reunions there every Labor Day. On the way down I was able to stop in Spanish Fork to see my brother, his wife and my nephew Parker who is 4 and met my adorable niece Penny for the first time, she’s 5 months old and so cute!!! We enjoyed lunch with them and then continued on our drive stopping at Big Rock Candy Mountain before arriving in Antimony. We went for a ride on the 4 wheelers and took Hayden to the dump to go target shooting. He’s been so excited to go shoot a real gun for the first time. He was surprised it wasn’t as easy as it looks to hit the target but he eventually got one of the glass bottles and was really excited.
Then we had a hot roast and ate s’mores. I however, ate a microwave lasagna in preparation for my 1/2 marathon on Saturday morning!
I got up at 4 (after hardly sleeping due to kids and the stress of not getting up on time) I drove the hour from Antimony to Bryce Canyon, barely missing a deer, a fox, several rabbits and skunk on the way. I made my way around got to the starting line just in time. It was dark and cold but within in minutes of the race starting it started getting light out and the race was just beautiful! I thoroughly enjoyed it, the scenery was great, my music was great and I felt great. (is that too many greats?) There was a lot of downhill running which left me with a fantastic time but some really sore quads, bloody toes and swollen foot all in the name of fun. I finished a lot faster than I imagined possible. After the race I changed and we went back to the starting line to take a picture. We spent a while at Bryce Canyon going to a few lookouts. Once we returned to Antimony I showed the kids around the town and we climbed the trees and explored the ranches. Danica kept walking around holding Alyssa’s hand. When I tried to help out Danica said I had to let go because I was not Alyssa’s big sister and she was going to take care of her! It was cute.
We rode the 4-wheelers up the canyon and played in the river. It was freezing but we had a lot of fun!

Now we are back in Sandy. Today we went to my sister’s apartment and went swimming and then went to visit my grandma in Provo. The kids have been good and are really enjoying themselves. Our days are jammed pack with something to do every day. Time will fly by for us. Hopefully it will fly by for Tom as well because we miss him a ton and don’t want him too bored waiting for us to return! Well, I must go to bed I want to get up early so I can talk to Tom before he goes to bed...oh the time difference!

Follow the next 18 hours of the Apollo 11 Lunar approach in real time, minute-for-minute as it was 40 years ago. Link here. I have been listening for the last couple of days. Unfortunately, I will be in class when they land tomorrow afternoon. The real time nature of it makes it surreal and brings the event much closer to home. There is also a great documentary call "In the Shadow of the Moon" that is not to be missed.

Mike