Tourists at Multnomah Falls, Oregon

We recently returned from a great family vacation to the Oregon Coast and to Lake Tapps, Washington. Our drive to the coast along the Columbia River in Oregon was beautiful. We got to see a lot of it twice, because we had to back track 120 miles to retrieve a mistakenly-thrown-away-retainer from a rest stop garbage can (it was Cameron's lucky day-long story). Anyways, we stopped to enjoy the beauty of Multnomah Falls....



We hiked to the high bridge overlooking the falls and loved the cool mist after a long day in the car.

Then we took off our shoes and put our feet in at the bottom of the falls.

It was a great start to a fun vacation in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

More to come......

Bridesmaid hair....

It was a wedding fashion show at the young women's activity last week. Kaitlyn modeled a bridesmaid dress. The beehives got their hair done by a stylist for the night.


She looked really pretty....

One of the girls modeled my dress while I talked about our wedding day.( My dress isn' t in this picture) We're about to celebrate 16 years next week and I still think my dress is beautiful-even with the puffy sleeves! It was fun to see how styles have changed over the years.

Play Ball!

Kaitlyn's softball team the "Hot Chili Peppers" went to county this week and took first place!

They had a great season and lots of fun playing together. It's the first time we've had a sports champ in our family. She's a good ball player!

A Nice Visit

We hadn't seen Grandma and Grandpa Nielsen for a while, so we decide to head up to Cache Valley on Wednesday. We took them on a picnic to Willow Park.


We had a nice, shady picnic and then walked around the zoo. The coyotes were howlin' and it reminded us of Reno (packs of coyotes would sometimes roam the neighborhood and make a lot of noise) . Happy birthday to Grandpa who turned 86 on Thursday! It was fun being with them and we are glad we live so close.



We've had quite a bit of smoke lately because of so many wildfires. The sunsets have been firery red. Chris took this picture while he and Kaitlyn were at a youth waterskiing activity at Pine View on Tuesday.

Bear Lake get-away!

Chris' family and us are buying a lot up at Bear Lake with a trailer on it so we now have a permanant vacation "home" on a lake. To celebrate...we also bought a boat (well, raft). This is Kaitlyn with our friends the Shaws.



Jack and Stevie loved the sand.


Cameron loved it more. That boy had sand in every nook and cranny.

Sun bathing Jack....

Cameron and his "blob"

Chris and the kids attempted a sand castle with limited tools. He's working on that farmer tan.

I forgot to take a picture of the lot and trailer. I will put one up next time. We are so excited to have a place to visit on the weekends. Anyone is invited to come with us!

One HOT parade!

The sun was sizzling hot on the 4th, so we braved the elements to pick up some free candy and celebrate America at the North Ogden Cherry Days parade. Jack waved his flag to everyone who passed by ("because that is what you do at a parade"). It was very cute.


Jill and I hung out under the umbrella and begged the parade people to spray us with water.



Patriotic boy...


Chris and his dad....

The Findlay cousins, minus Audrey and Olivia...

A bunch of happy Americans!!