Night Out

Jamie and I were lucky to get away for a night while we were home in BC. We had a free night stay at a hotel in Surrey and so we were off for the evening and night. We made out way to our hotel, checked in and then we were off for some fun shopping. There is something about shopping when you have no children around and there were some great deals at Sears.
Then we were off for dinner to a restaurant that we used to go to after our church dances. Fresgo Inn is a great place to eat, I can guarantee you that you will not leave there hungry. Jamie had a hamburger for dinner crazy how big it is. LOL They give you enough food to last for a week. After our evening of shopping and eating it was back to the hotel for a relaxing evening. This has been a great month of traveling and it will be great to get home, but we are so thankful for the time that we have with our family and our kids. There is nothing better than making more memories together.

Fire Works

This was something that Jamie and I used to do all the time when we were dating. The Symphony of Fire. It is a huge display of fireworks put on by 4 different countries and it is amazing. This was the first time that we have been home for it and so we decided to take some of the kids in for it. It was Darien's special treat because it was his birthday he got to bring a friend. It is crazy because Darien and his friend only see each other once a year but they always have a great time. Rylan just wanted to tag along. Stefan is too little and Keagan wasn't feeling very well and wanted to just hang with my mom. So off we went. It was just as crazy as we remembered but we managed to get some really good seats.

It was a long wait for the kids and we filled the time with card games and some people watching . After seeing how amazing the fire works were they decided that it was worth the wait. It was a great way to spend the night.

Beach Fun

More beach fun. I must admit that we just love the beach. The kids are so happy playing in the sand and water. This beach doesn't really compare to Oregon but the water and fun is still the same. Rylan loves it.
The tidal pools are great for skim boarding.

Keagan was so happy for finally getting in on the skim boarding.

Stefan was having fun showing Grandma Hazel all the fun things that he was finding.

Our famous beach cabana. It is so hard to put back in the holder but having it at the beach is so worth the work and laughter when we are putting it away. LOL No word of a lie it usually takes us 30 min. to get it back in the bag. :)

Birthday Celebrations

It never fails that we are always away for Darien's birthday. This year we were once again with our family in BC. It was great and we always have fun being together as a family. Darien is the only one that really gets to have all the family for his birthday because we are almost always home in the summer. This year my sister and her family came over to my moms to help us celebrate. It was great to be together. It is amazing to see how all the kids are growing up so fast. I can't believe that my nephew is old enough to drive this year. CRAZY!!!
The boys enjoying the celebrations.

One of many cakes. LOL

As has been tradition we always celebrate Darien's and Jamie's moms birthday together because they are in the same month. This year we were so happy to spend the day with Penni's dear friend Betty. She made us a wonderful meal and then had the great treat of cake after.

Getting ready to blow out the candles.

I can't believe that my baby is 11. I really have no idea where the time has gone. Darien is turning into a wonderful young man. I feel so blessed to have him in our lives. This year really seems to have been the turning point for him from boy to young man. He is planning things for his future, starting to make goals and it is so neat to watch. I am so excited to have teenagers. I think that it is going to be challenging but also there is going to be so much fun. I love Darien so much. It can be a hard being the oldest but he is going great and I can't wait for the future.

Our Favorite Things...

As is tradition when we go home to BC, we always make our way to Lynn Canyon for a fun filled day of playing in the really cold water, throwing rocks and cliff jumping. We love this place and the kids always ask to go here.
Keagan catching some rays in on the warm rocks.

Rylan striking a pose. He loves playing and exploring in the water.

There are more rocks than Stefan can throw so that is always a good thing. LOL

Darien got in on the cliff jumping again this year. But it is so cold that he can only do it for so long.

Jamie made his way over to the other side for some higher jumping. He is such a show boat. LOL

This is always such a fun filled day. We pack in our lunch and drinks and a chair for me to sit on to keep track of all the kids and it is a great way to spend the day.

Our Final Day On the Beach

Here is our sleeping beauty!!!
I love the fact that I was able to really enjoy having our boys together for this vacation and to really enjoy our time together. Stefan is at such a fun stage and it was great to see him interacting with the other boys.

We spent our last day on the beach because that is all the boys wanted to do. I love the look of concentration that Rylan has.

We thought that this new hat for Jamie. He had so many comments on it. LOL People actually thought that it was his hair.

Our boys were the only ones in the water. The only other people were in full wet suits. It was so crazy but my kids are die hards. Keagan was so excited because he got one this trip too.

They figured that being buried in the sand would keep them warm but it really didn't work. LOL

It was great to see how far they could jump. What a great couple of days we were able to spend in Oregon. We can't wait to go back again next year lets just hope that the weather is better.

Day 2 - A Little Ride and Hike

This was our favorite form a transportation while in Cannon Beach. It was great because we could ride from our campsite to the beach in about 5 min.
This was our big hiking day. It was so beautiful. We went to a coastal hike called the Ecola State Park.

This was Stefan can you tell how excited he was about going for a walk. LOL

The views were breath taking.

What do you use when you have no kleenex? Daddies sock of course. LOL

The boys loved the exploring and playing in the forest.

We finally made it to the end after a very long 3 km. hike. For Stefan I am sure it felt like it went on forever. With a lot of ups and downs. The boys were so happy to go and do some great exploring on the rocks.

Fun loving boys!!! The funniest thing was that instead of heading back the same way we came Jamie and Rylan started to walk down the road to the truck to come and pick us up. But after a while the discovered that it was going to be a ver long walk so they did some hitch hiking instead. They were picked up by a very nice family from Alberta. LOL It was all that Rylan could talk about.

Fun Filled Days in Oregon Day 1

We were pretty happy with our "swamp buggy" LOL We never went through a town without having to stop at an RV dealer to get a part or two but all in all it was great and we are glad that we had it.
This was the first night that we were able to have a camp fire.

The camp ground in Oregon was amazing. We loved the small town of Cannon Beach. It was beautiful.

Our only saddness was that there was not very much sun and everyday it was over cast. As you can tell by Rylan it was a little on the cold side. LOL

But what was funny was that it didn't stop the kids from playing. Stefan digging in the sand.

Rylan even gave skim boarding a try it was very entertaining.

The large rock behind Keagan is called Haystack Rock and was a protected bird santuary. We saw some of the coolest birds on it. Even the famous Puffin's.

We had a great time going out and exploring all the creatures that lived around the rock. They even had people there to explain and point out all the different things.

The amazing architecual design.

Keagan was finally able to take a ride on the skim boards.

Our Stops on Our Journey

We spent a couple of days in "boduck" Oregon AKA Pendleton Oregon. It really is one of those hole in the wall places that you wander what people do for a living. LOL. We figured that we would stop here on our way to the coast. They had a very nice outdoor pool and the kids had a great time there.

The wind was a little bit cold so Darien decided to stay under water to stay warm.

They had a lot of fun things for the kids to play on.

It was a great way to spend the day and burn up some energy before carrying on our way.

The next day we stopped at the Bonneville Dam. This was so interesting and the kids were amazed by the size and the amount of water that comes out. They don't open the flood gates very often but we were lucky enough to see it that day.

The workings inside the dam. These turbines are huge.
They had this really cool hatchery and fish couting display. It was so neat to watch the boys get excited when a fish would swim by. I just couldn't resist the picture.

Who knew that sturgeon fish could get so large. This was crazy. This one fish was over 10 feet long.

There was so much to do here that we wish that we had more time. But there is always next time.