Seaside Family Reunion

It was over a year ago that my dad started planning our next family reunion and since it was a favorite for most we decided to go to the Oregon Coast again in Seaside. We left the morning of July 28th and came back a week later on August 4th. This was Alice's first ocean experience. Charlotte was 1 year old last time we came to Seaside and then she saw the California coast when we went to Disney in 2020. When we headed over to Seaside we didn't really have any plans except that Curtis wanted to see the Tillamook Air Museum and I wanted to go to an aquarium with the girls. Our trip ended up jam packed full of activities as we tried to do what others were doing as well.

Stopping in at Multnomah Falls on our way.

It was nice to get a close up shot this year. Curtis and I tried to see it last year but didn't know we needed reservations so we saw it from far away.

One of the first things the kids wanted to do was swim in the pool.

While the girls did go swimming in the pool (did not get pic of them) I also later took them down to the beach right outside our condo.

This was Alice's first time seeing and feeling the ocean!

The 2nd day there after our morning meeting with the adults some of us went exploring downtown on Broadway, which is also right outside our condo so we were able to walk. We did some souvenir shopping and played.

Riding the carousel that's in the middle of Carousel Mall. Jayden and Jack.

Charlotte, Garrett, Alice riding the Tilt-A-Whirl

Later we went back out to the beach. This time the girls were prepared to get wet.

She played hard today and zonked out.

We went out to dinner that night with Stillman's family at Dooger's Seafood and Grill. I thought we got a group picture but it must have been on someone else's phone. I did get a picture of Alice and her octopus dinner.

Mac and cheese with an octopus hot dog. She loved it and ate it all!

The girls and I were working hard to look for clues for the treasure hunt that the condo (Worldmark) was putting on. We did get a little help from some other kids at one point but we found most of them on our own. They had small prizes in a treasure chest after finding all of them.

This was one of the clues, a round window looking out to the beach. Charlotte's holding the treasure map.

Another clue was the sign pointing to Broadway.

The prizes were small dollar store type of prizes but it was still fun to do it with the girls. The next day on Saturday was a visit to the Maritime Museum in Astoria and then Cape Disappointment in Washington. Then ending the day with some more swimming.

Crossing the bridge from Astoria, OR into Washington.

It's a long bridge.

It was a hike to get to the first light house but very pretty. These were my hiking buddies.

They found a cool tree.

Showing the disappointment on not being able to go inside the light house. That's Cape Disappointment for you! 😂

It was pretty warm at the first light house and a gorgeous view!

Enjoying the view with my dad.

Relaxing in the shade at the lighthouse with my sister!

This was the 2nd lighthouse. I can't remember the name of it. The weather was much different here. Cold and windy with some fog!

The fog was starting to blow away as we left.

Relaxing in the pool after we got back.

Sunday morning most of us went to Sacrament meeting at the church in Seaside. Afterwards, the girls really wanted to feed the seagulls so Curtis and I took them down to the beach to feed the gulls and go on a short walk. Then in the evening some of our group went to Indian Beach to have Michelle take some family pictures for us. We had to wait around for a while though because the sun was too high. When taking pictures the sun needs to be setting or behind clouds so it doesn't cast shadows.

Did some exploring at Indian Beach after pictures were done. Found our first star fish! This one was orange and mostly under a rock.

Alice found a purple colored star fish.

I think these are Sea Anemone. 

Monday morning some of us went to Sunset Beach to do some beach combing looking for sand dollars and shells. We didn't see much by the time we got there but Laverne went ahead and found lots of sand dollars. She said she was following the birds. Alex did find a live crab in one of the pools and Stillman picked it up. Curtis, Charlotte and Nikki found some cool shells in good condition. We didn't find a lot but I am pretty excited about them finding those shells!

Stillman and the crab.

Alice got wet in her clothes and I walked her back to get a towel. She fell asleep in the chair next to GG. We had walked quite a ways to get back to where GG was and by the time we walked up to GG the water was coming up under her chair while she was reading a book so she didn't even notice until I said something. Ha ha! Good thing Alice and I had to go back because we had to help GG move further up the beach since the tide was coming back in.

Jayden and Jack are great buddies.

The treasures they found, including a toy turtle! ha ha

It was pretty foggy at this beach.

I don't really remember what else we did that day, probably just relaxed at the condo. Later that evening though a group of the boys got together in the conference room to play games. I went down to play originally but I wasn't feeling up to being the only female and learning a new game. I watched for a bit and then went back up to my room because I was tired.

Stillman, Derek, Garrett, Curtis, Teancum and Helaman.

Tuesday was a big day waking up at 5:20am to drive down the coastline to Newport and the Devil's Punchbowl. We had to go that early if we wanted the tide to be low enough to walk inside the punchbowl. I also spent some time beach combing there looking for cool shells, sea glass and agates. We were there for a couple of hours. Then we stopped for lunch and headed to the Aquarium in Newport. It was pretty cool and I think the kids enjoyed it. We then headed back up and stopped at the Tillamook Air Museum an hour before it closed and then hit the cheese factory right after, again right before it closed. We relaxed in the pool when we got back. That day was packed with activities and driving but it was fun!

Alice standing in the punchbowl

A lot of people started showing up and it filled up fast (with people).

At the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport walking through the glass tunnels.

 

The Tillamook Air Museum was huge. We definitely needed more than the one hour that we had.

They had some cockpits that the kids could climb into.

Going inside the big air plane called the Guppy that's outside in front.

It was a quick trip through the cheese factory too. Charlotte enjoyed this truck.

The girls got to feed a fake calf and milk a fake cow. They had fun.

Wednesday was our last day before heading home and we just wanted to do a little souvenir shopping and take it easy. After doing some shopping we went to eat lunch at Pig n Pancake with Stillman's family. Then we did some relaxing. Our last thing we wanted to do was to have a fire on the beach.

One more ride on the carousel.

The girls picked out stuffed animals. They were just posing for a picture at this hat store.

While I was shopping the boys played in the arcade.

Waiting at the restaurant.

Breakfast for lunch for these kiddos!

The view from the balcony of our room out toward the ocean.

The view going the opposite way. This is Broadway where we did our souvenir shopping and some eating out.

Fire on the beach!

The treasures we collected. We threw away some of the black shells later because they were peeling and cracking.

It was a great vacation and I'm so thankful we were all able to go. We weren't sure if Nikki was going to make it because she had just moved and started a new job. 

Summer of Changes - Part 1

So much has happened since my last post back in May!

Nikki graduated high school and Alice graduated from preschool!

We finished getting our house ready for sale in June and got it on the market on June 24th. 

Garrett playing the piano one last time before we gave it away. We had it outside ready for pick up. I had to show this picture. How often do you play the piano outside your house!?

Moving our stuff to the rental on the last day of June.

Our 20th wedding anniversary was on the 22nd and since the realtor needed to take pictures of our house that day and have our family out of the way we decided to celebrate our anniversary by taking the kids to Roaring Springs. Charlotte had a free pass to use from school anyway. Well, the market pretty much slowed to a stop by the time we got our house listed and even though we were getting saves and looks online we did not get any showings for at least the first couple of weeks. Our house was for sale for about a week before we were able to move out into a rental right next door to my in laws. We figured things might pick up on showings after we moved out but nope. Our price was lower than most that compared to ours but the fact that the interest rates just went up before we listed did not help at all. We did not get any people come to the open house either, even after lowering our price (after only being on the market for about 2 weeks). 

Right after we lowered our price the very next day our competitors lowered their prices again! We decided to wait about a week and see how the open house would go. Nobody came to that and so we met with Troy again on July 13th. With CBH Homes being so competitive on dropping their prices we wanted to be aggressive so we could get our home sold as soon as possible. We had a prayer together and made the decision to make a huge drop in our price. Our starting price was $459,900. Our first price drop was to $448,000. Our huge price drop was to $405,000. It wasn't until that last big price drop that we finally started getting showings. 

Meanwhile, Nikki was getting ready to move to Washington to go to art school at Northwest College of Art & Design. Curtis, Garrett and I traveled with Nikki the weekend of July 15th (girls stayed with Gaya and Jack stayed with a friend from our old ward). Curtis had the crazy idea to leave Friday night and travel at night time to beat the heat. Ugh, I was NOT happy but I went along with it. It wasn't too bad. We did stop at a rest area once to sleep for a few hours. Another big reason to travel at night was so that we could drop Nikki off earlier and have more time to travel back to Richland so that we could look around and stay the night there before heading home on Sunday. We helped Nikki unload her stuff and pick up a bunk bed before driving into town to find the college and eat some lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory. We took her back to the apartment (she's rooming with 3 other people) and said our good byes. It was my first visit to both Tacoma and Tri Cities. While Tacoma was cooler, greener and wetter it was still really dirty (trash everywhere) especially in downtown where the college is located. Tri Cities (Richland, Kennewick and Pasco) is in a desert climate just like the Boise area so it was hotter, drier but it was a lot cleaner. It's also a lot flatter! There was a lot of open sky and only small hills compared to our big mountains back home. I was not excited at first but the more we drove around the more I liked it.  I love that we'll be close to rivers at least.

I rode with Nikki in her car and the boys were in the truck.

It was very beautiful over there.

Waiting at the restaurant, The Old Spaghetti Factory.

The temple in Richland.

River view from our hotel.

I had to laugh because of this sign. Skunks? Really? I'm not sure I like that! We didn't see any though.

Walking around on the Pasco side of the river. It has a nice greenbelt.

We travelled back home on Sunday but we had to stop at the Costco in Kennewick to gas up and get some water and snacks for the ride home and I was so surprised to see Ashlee Poulsen working at Costco! She's the younger sister of my friend Brittanie Poulsen, who I have known since I was little. Now there are at least 3 people I know that live in Tri Cities! Little tender mercies.

The girls also did swim lessons in July. It was the first time for Alice and 2nd time for Charlotte but Charlotte hadn't done it since before Covid I think so we had to get swim evaluations for both. They both passed their classes and loved it. Alice was a little shy and timid at first but got more comfortable each day. They both love to swim. In fact, swimming was the first activity they did in the new ward with the activity day girls. (I had brought Alice along since I got in the pool too.)

Alice was in Preschool 2 level.

Charlotte was in Level 2.

On the last day they had some fun. I can't believe Alice actually jumped off the diving board! (the instructor was in the pool to catch her)

Charlotte was so excited to go in the deepest pool and do the diving board.

And the rope swing!

Well, after we got back from our trip to Washington we received an official offer on the house on the 19th of July for the amount we had listed! They went and saw the house multiple times and fell in love with it, especially the play house. We learned that he is a veteran and that together they have 3 young kids with another on the way. They did want us to pay closing costs though which is around $10,000 so we came up with the idea to add it to our selling price. They agreed so we marked the price up to $415,000. Afterwards they had an inspection and appraisal done, which went very well. We didn't need to fix anything else up after inspection and the appraisal came back sooner than expected, which was while we were on vacation to the Oregon coast!  To skip ahead a little, we did end up closing the sale of our house this week and we officially no longer own the home on Aspen Grove St. Everything is working out so this must be what the Lord has planned for us. I'm going to split this post into two since there's a lot. Next will be about the Oregon Coast trip and the start of the new school year!

Working Hard

Well, we have been busy the past few weeks with painting our doors and trim. We broke it up so it wasn't all on one day but Curtis found an idea online to be able to paint multiple doors at one time. It was raining and since we had stuff in our garage for the yard sale we're going to have so we set up in the family room. Curtis just had to screw in a board to the tops of the doors so they wouldn't fall over and then we could do both sides of the door without having to wait. It worked great! Just last weekend we repainted our front door and garage/laundry room door. The only doors left to paint are the outside garage man door and our bedroom closet doors. I have also been doing baseboard painting here and there. I have finished the kid's hallway, the kitchen, the area by the laundry room and half of the front room. I didn't get a lot of pictures because I was busy painting but here's a few.

This was the only doorway that needed sanding down. It was so bumpy it was driving me crazy. We borrowed an electric sander from Whitney.

The top of the doorway is still a little bumpy but the doorway looks so much better now! And Curtis also fixed the bottom of the office door.

This was what our baseboards looked like in the kitchen by the fridge. You can tell the hoverboard was there....many times! I don't have an after picture but I can tell you that it now looks white and so much better!

Mother's Day was nice. I was so thankful to be able to sleep in because we had painted all day the day before. Who knew prepping for painting could take so long! I think that was the night we went to bed at 1a.m. Since we have church at noon, that helped a lot. The kids did help Curtis make me breakfast and the little girls made me some things at school, along with a card from everyone, chocolates and roses.

This was from Alice. It's a mom and baby polar bear, which is supposed to be me and her.

Charlotte made this at school.

Charlotte made these corsages at activity days and I wore mine to church on Mother's Day. Charlotte was going to wear hers also but she forgot. She had it on at first but then took it off.

Alice made a necklace for me out of glow sticks. I hung it on my purse at church.

Charlotte made this card.

Relaxing after church in my bed.

Last Friday (the 13th) was Nikki's last day of school. She is finally done. We made it! There was also an awards night for some of the seniors. It's the first time in a long time we had something to go to for Nikki so Curtis and I both went. Garrett had a band thing around the same time but thankfully Dad and Laverne were able to take him for us. Nikki received an academic award for receiving a 3.5 GPA or higher. She was in a hurry to leave afterwards because she had some plans with friends to go do a bonfire so I didn't get any other pictures with her. We were worried about whether she would finish school so getting this award was just icing on the cake. We're so proud of her after these last two difficult years!

That was the spot on stage where the students would pause for a picture. Thankfully I got a good shot because she moved fast.

Thankfully Laverne took some pictures for me of Garrett. I love this shot and glad she made him do it before the performance!

He was doing shakers or something, no drums this time.

Last Sunday was a surprise birthday party for Curtis's sister Jeanie. She turned 50 years old on Friday. Most of us wore black shirts but since Curtis didn't have a black shirt he wore a plastic bag and added some words with tape. It was funny! She was very surprised and pleased by the big turn out with mostly family and a few friends. We watched her open some gifts, then took some pictures and then ate some cake and ice cream that her girls made. Then we visited. It was a nice time, although I'm realizing more and more that I prefer smaller crowds. I feel overwhelmed with so many people in a small space. Thankfully it was nice enough to go outside for awhile before it rained.

We took a picture with him and Jeanie together but it was on his phone so I don't have it.  This was inside while we were waiting for Jeanie to arrive. He stood over the A/C vent so he wouldn't be hot and sweaty.

The siblings that were there. Curtis, Steve, Jeanie, Shauna, Casey

Yesterday was Alice's last day going to speech for this school year so I got a picture with her speech teacher, Miss Katy. She is improving and works hard for her teacher.

Today Alice brought home her cap and gown for her preschool graduation that will be on June 2nd. They are hoping to be able to stream it live again like they did the Christmas concert. It's very cute but I think it's a little much for preschool to have a graduation. But we'll enjoy it anyway! Nikki said she looked like a little judge. I will have to get a picture with Nikki and Alice both in their cap and gowns.

I haven't been taking as many pictures or videos lately because the past few weeks my phone camera has been acting up. It takes forever to open for me to take a picture. Then it doesn't always focus and the last video I tried taking was choppy. I'm going to have to take it to Verizon soon and see if they can help me with it.

Meanwhile, we are busy getting ready to put our house on the market next month. Little by little we are getting baseboards and trim painted. We're also collecting more items out in our garage for the yard sale we will have the first weekend of June and now the boys have started boxing up their stuff. I can't remember the last time I saw their room so clean! Nothing under their beds. The book shelf has been moved out. Basically all that is left is their beds, the shoe rack, dressers, luggage in the closet and their coat/backpack hanger on the wall. I can finally paint that room. 

The plan for now is to sell our house and then rent a house until they are ready to send us to Washington. Curtis says he's hoping that will be by the end of summer. I hope we can find someone willing to rent on a month by month basis. 

Oh yeah, and Garrett has been taking driver's ed the past few weeks. They did the course online. It used to be in person before Covid. The nice thing about doing it online though is that you can go at your own pace. Garrett was so excited that he did not waste any time. They opened the class on April 26th after orientation even though the class was time slotted for May 2nd-20th. There was a quiz after each section with 10 sections. He struggled with some of the quizzes, having to take them multiple times. But the final two tests (one for vocabulary and one for other questions) he passed the first time taking them! He took the first one on Sunday evening after Jeanie's party and then he did the 2nd one Monday evening. Garrett is needless to say very excited! He was happy to be able to tell his driving instructor that he passed when he took his final drive today! 

I have to admit he keeps surprising me! I was so nervous for him to take driver's ed because he's so shy and timid. I wasn't sure how he would do but I received good reports from his instructor each time he was done with a drive. I'm so happy for him because this is a big confidence boost and will show that he can do hard things. I now think he will get his license faster than Nikki did. I'm anxious to see how well he drives after he picks up his driving permit Friday night!