Wedding Trip

We went on a quick trip last week.  Isaac's sister, Maren, got married and so Isaac packed up all his papers and computer and planned to work on the road.  It was a quick trip that involved lots of driving, but was well worth it.  I didn't think it was going to go so smoothly because within the first hour Kason got carsick and puked (in a bag, luckily), the "Are we there yet's" had started and Emry was crying.  I think that was probably the hardest hour of the trip though.  Then we all became resigned to the drive and everyone did great.  We stayed the first night at Mckay and Katie's, saw my cousin at BSU the next day and then drove to Rexburg for the wedding. 

First, we had to be sentimental and get a picture of Kason by the same sign we took a picture of him by shortly after he was born.

5 1/2 years ago

Maren and Wade

It was so sunny with lots of white around that made it difficult to see.  We tried not to squint for pictures, but mostly just ended up with watering eyes.

Payton and Kason

The wedding was during nap time, but Emry made it through.  I think the 3rd child just gets to learn to go with the flow and gets their naps when they can. 

Isaac's family minus Levi who is on an LDS mission

I love this picture

Emry and cousin Brielle with Grandpa

The cousins that were there, we missed 3 from Bret and Megan

Kason, Asher, Brielle and a favorite uncle Oliver

Then we headed to Montana for the reception.  The kids just played and played and thoroughly wore themselves out.

Eating pistachio's on a golf cart

Trash bag batman capes

There was also a fair amount of wrestling that went on.

At the reception...

Then we headed home.  We usually split the 15ish hour drive up into two days, but we did it all in one shot this time.  All things considered, I am pretty impressed with the kids.  They did awesome and there was hardly any crying, especially since they don't sleep much at all in the car.

Emry was pretty pleased I gave her a carrot to munch on

I absolutely hate this picture of me (really, it had been probably 8 hours in the car at this point), but I love it of the boys.

Sooo tired...but in her happy place - sucking her left thumb and pulling her hair with her other hand

We watched the sun set as we were driving along the Columbia River

And, to boot, the kids all fell asleep when it got dark for the last 3 hours.  

It was a great trip. 

Bonus picture: Emry crawls down the hallway to go play and make a mess with her brothers in their room.  I just have to keep the pennies, chalk and all the other little toys she finds out of her mouth.  She loves it and I think they do too.

And just to make this post even longer, I'll add the family photos we had a friend take a few months ago.  I'm afraid if I don't get them on here now it won't happen.  She took some and then I played around taking some of my own. Here are our favorites:

Jenna

My sister is going on a mission (for our church)!  My family made the drive up here so we could go through the Portland LDS temple with her before she leaves and so our favorite baby sitter could watch the kids while we were inside.  I'm so glad they came, it was a fun 2 days. 

Look at that blue sky!  I never take it for granted here.

The best picture I got.  My kids aren't good at taking pictures into the sun.

Some other pictures playing around the grounds...

Also, little miss Emry (or Whippy as our friends still call her, which I love) is 9 months old now!  She's crawling, starting to find good spots to get into things, tripping her brothers (she has the goose egg on her head to prove it as one brother landed on her), and smiling.  I swear she's starting to wave and say "hi" too.  Don't have her stats yet, we'll get those a little later.

A Good Weekend

We had a good weekend.  And, so, here's another post with a whole lot of pictures.  

First off, we had our 7th anniversary! When we were thinking about what we wanted to do we both really just wanted to go on a bike ride.  Some nice friends braved taking all 3 kids and we rode our bikes to PF Chang's.  It was super good and then we went on a bike ride.  Eugene makes it very easy to love bike riding.  There are loads of beautiful bike paths.  It was very pretty.  We rode around Autzen Stadium.  We rode fast, we went wherever we wanted, and we didn't have to constantly make sure someone was keeping up or not getting too far ahead at the same time.

It was also the Eugene Celebration parade.  We went to this parade shortly after we moved here 4 years ago and I think we have gone every year since, so I now consider it somewhat of a tradition and I knew we couldn't miss it. It is a very unique parade that makes me laugh and shake my head.     I think I go to it mainly to be surprised by some people's opinions, though I don't agree with most of them here, and to just laugh.  We watched it with friends and had a good time.  I love Eugene, but there is a definite "quirkiness" here where being whatever kind of weird you want to be is embraced.  

Holding hands

 A guy on stilts

A favorite of the boys...monster trucks

Then, of course, there are every kind of bike imaginable that people create

our favorite...

can't forget Occupy Eugene with people dressing up as whatever just because, I guess

The Slug Queen.  From the website: "Officially, Slug Queens are selected on the basis of talent, costume and ability to ad lib witty answers to inane questions"  She was handing out crocheted slug finger puppets

A group encouraging people to stop shaving and grow beards

This one surprised me.  The nudist colony (wearing their boxes) wasn't there this year, but the communist party was...wow.

fairies

tie-dyed men wearing bird costumes

And someone wearing plastic bags to remind people to be more green...I can't imagine how hot he was.

Now that Emry can crawl she tries to join in on the wrestling and tickling fest that inevitably happens when Isaac gets home.  I think the boys look forward to it all day long.