Sleepovers!

We like to have the kids (Ricky, Holly, Keoni & Zachary) over as much as we can. One of the times they came over this summer Keoni brought his cassette player to listen to. Yes, I typed that right. cassette player. He's really into the band Bread right now and my parents only have it on tape which isn't that big of a deal except he wanted to listen to it every waking minute he was over.

Here he is watching Saturday morning cartoons while listening to Bread. lol

Mmmm fruit loops

We also had lots of fun playing in the pool

And of course on the way home Keoni is listening to his tape again... while we are listening to the radio in the car. :) hee hee I love you K-dog.

***

Tracy went back to college just after Labor day so we had all the kids over one last time before she left. We watched a ton of funny videos on youtube and played Wii games the whole night. Lots of laughing and lots of fun!

The favorite videos of the night were the Kid History Episodes (we love #4) and Star Wars "Thumb Wars" videos.

Zach - Wii bowling!

Riiicky!!

 Family time :)



4th of July!

We spent 4^th of July with my family and had a yummy bbq. Ricky taught all the boys (Greg helped too) how to make their own firework bombs so they spent the evening perfecting the loudest one. I have to admit they did a pretty good job although I think we were all nervous of the outcome every time. Luckily no one got hurt and it we all had a really fun time.

  Holly is so pretty

On our way to watch the firework show at Tigard High



Ricky's super hot socks haha

Finale!

Melted bottles....

Ricky saved the best bombs for last. These were sooooo loud!

This is a pretty big one- made by Ricky

This is the biggest one Ricky made... you could actually 'feel' it. By the way, this is around 11 at night. I'm sure our neighbors love us. lol

This last one is Keoni's. Not bad for a 9 year old. :)

Wildlife Safari & Crater Lake

We went on a road trip this summer and drove South for the day. We made quite a few stops but our favorite were Wildlife Safari in Winston, OR and Crater Lake.

Wildlife Safari is pretty much a zoo that you can drive through. It's so cool! I felt like I was 5 years old and seeing animals for the first time. haha The drive through the park is almost 5 miles and it took us about an hour in a half to go through. One of my favorite animals were the Flamingos! They were in the entrance area where you can walk around and see the smaller animals. I have never seen a Flamingo in real life before. When we were walking by to go to the gift shop we thought they were fake until I accidently saw one twitch. It was crazy. I don't know how they stand on one leg for so long without moving. And their feathers were the most amazing neon looking pink.

We also got to see Eeyore... Well that's what he looked like to me.

A really pretty bird

Mr. Hippo was eating both times we drove by!



The little babies were so cute

These bear cubs were our favorite!! They were playing and wrestling together the whole time. It was so fun to watch.



This camel is shedding really bad!

Bambi walked right next to our car... like less than a foot away. so cute!



We also stopped by a restaurant called Heaven on Earth. It is soooo yummy! If you are ever in this area you have to stop and eat here. We had a delicious lunch but we actually came for the HUMONGOUS cinnamon rolls! They are so big…. actually all of their cakes are too.

That is a full size glass of milk… just to compare the size of that roll!

Next, we went to Crater Lake. I had never been before and this was the whole purpose of our trip so I was really excited. I was surprised to see how much snow there was in July!

My first view!

It is so big and blue! It's very breathtaking. Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the US and the 7th in the world. I'm glad I got to check this off my bucket list. :)

This is the longest straight road on the way home... had to post this.

With all the driving we did we ended up make a huge loop back up to Portland. We drove through Sunriver on our way home... just for fun and stopped in Bend to eat dinner. We ate at Pizza Mondo which has the biggest pizzas.Totally recommend it... it was so delicious. Perfect end to a perfect day trip.



Holly's birthday, Thanksgiving & Black Friday

HAPPY 12th BIRTHDAY HOLLY!

November 16th was Holly's birthday! I can't believe she is now 12 and in Young Women's. I think I'm stuck in a time warp because this is what I still think of Holly. Isn't she cute?

 Anyway, we had a fun night with the family celebrating her special day.

Love you Holly!! You're so beautiful and I'm so glad you're my sister!

(Oh, I had to post this one of Zach. haha I don't know why he was wearing Holly's rings. Silly boy.)

***

We had 2 Thanksgiving dinners this year. We went over to my parents house first and we didn't even have to put the extra leaf in the table this year! We definitely did miss Brittany, Dan, Danny, Natalie and Tracy not being there but we still had a fun day.

Zachary and Keoni love to eat the legs.

We went to Greg's parent's house later in the afternoon for our 2nd feast. :) Boy, was it good, but we were soooo stuffed!

This was so funny. One of the kittys kept jumping up playing with the blinds at Greg's house. And then it would go over to the other glass door and jump up and unlock the latch! We couldn't believe it!

***

 So, this year was the first time I've made an attempt to go shopping for Black Friday. I didn't get up super early because there wasn't anything I needed that early so I ended leaving at about 9am. I found some cute jeans for Greg and I at Old Navy for $15 a pair that I couldn't pass up. Then, I decided to go over to Best Buy just to look around because I knew all the good deals would be long gone that late in the morning. I had found an awesome deal on the exact tv Greg had been wanting earlier at Fred Meyer's but after waiting in line for forever to talk to an employee I found out that they were sold out. Bummer. :( So anyway, I just went window shopping at Best Buy just to see what they had. I ended up finding that same tv again and it was even a better price than I had seen earlier. I asked a worker to see if they still had them in stock... crossing my fingers. By this time it was well past their advertised 'sale hours' I wasn't getting my hopes up. Well, he checked their stock and he said they had about 5 or 6 left and the price included a free Blu-ray player too. I couldn't believe it. This would be the best surprise for Greg. So I decided to get it. However, I had to end up calling Greg at work to make sure this is the one he wanted for sure. He was so excited! (I'd been telling him we weren't getting a new tv for awhile because we desperately needed a new couch first. BUT, it's so fun to surprise your husband so I changed my mind) After he told me for sure he wanted it I had to stand in line for probably another 30 min to purchase it. I was so nervous they would be sold out when I finally got to the counter. Well, my fears came true and the guys said they have been sold out for hours and the guy I previously spoke with was wrong. By this time Greg was with me (he was so excited he came to the store on his lunch break). Long story short they checked again with the warehouse and to their surpirse they were told they had ONE left!!! I was so relieved. They immediately put our name on it and we were soon the proud owners of a new 46" LED Samsung TV. WOOHOO! I don't think Greg has ever been happier. :) So, all in all this was the best black friday ever. hee hee

First movie we put on was Avatar on Bluray. It looked amazing!! We love our new tv!