All the fun after the lake house and before girls camp...

When we left the lake we headed to my in-laws house. My kids found their power wheel truck that we left there when we moved. They were so excited to play with it. 

I knew my friend Em had been in Oregon and I wasn't sure I would get a chance to see her. Somehow it worked out that we were able to meet up on her last night in OR. She invited us to chucky cheese to her daughters birthday party. It was so much fun, and her littlest was so darn cute and loved for me to hold her. 

Mac and her oldest got along really well and had so much fun playing games together. 

The kids wanted grandma to read to them before bed. It was so cute!

We also got to visit our old neighbor friends. 

These boys really missed each other!

We met up with grandma and grandpa Minor and it had been a couple of weeks since we had seen them and the kids ran up to grandpa and gave him a hug. 

Visiting more friends.

An old friend that I knew from girls camp passed away from heart surgery complications. I was able to attend her memorial service. She was so young and left behind a  sweet little boy. My memories of her were of her big cheerful smile. She was always happy and loved life. 

Of course we had to make a Target run with Grandma. 

We played lots of bubbles at grandma Wilma's house. 

We even got a fire going so we could roast marshmallows. 

My brother and my niece and nephew flew in for a quick visit. It was so much fun to have them here. 

We played bocce ball and although we lost this round by 3/8 of an inch, my nephew and I won the game. 

I had some sparklers and pop-its and so we did them one night at grandmas.

Another Target run and the kids were in a fine mood to think they could have what ever they wanted and they were driving me nuts asking if they could get everything under the sun. However they were pretty cute sitting looking at books. 

Cousin Brenna really wanted to straighten Oaks hair. It turned out really cute, but we love her curls!

Helping grandma make lemonade. 

We went to Newport old town and it is an understatement when I say that this boy adores his grandpa Dick. 

Love Oak's pose here!

It was SO WINDY at the beach we went to. It was crazy! 

Oak found a whole empty crab body and was so excited. 

Unfortunately she put it in a bag and then closed the van door and the bag got caught in the door and it ended up in little pieces. She was so sad!

So we had been away from daddy for 10 days. And we thought we wouldn't see him until the next day and he surprised us by showing up to my parents house a day early. We were all very excited!

We finally got home after being gone for two and half weeks.
One morning Oak came out of her room in a duck dynasty shirt, no pants and her high heels. It was hilarious. 

While we were gone I noticed that when I got up to driving 60 MPH or above that the car shook a bit. We had just gotten new tires at les schwab so we took it in as soon as we got back. They realigned all the tires and found one to be extra wobbly and said if it was still wobbly to bring it back and they would replace the  tire. Got back from girls camp and noticed that it is still shaking so will be going back in. Anyway, the pic is of the kids watching while we were waiting. 

Cute boy doing hooked on phonics. 

One day I asked them if they wanted to watch Magic School Bus and they decided they wanted to the Insanity work out instead. 

Grandma came in on the train so she could watch the kids while I was at Girls Camp. The kids loved being able to go and get her from the train station. 

When we got home our front door were covered in bugs that I later learned are called midgies. Thankful I had recently put the garage door opener in the van and we were able to go in through the garage so that we didn't get any of those bugs in the house. 

I french braided Oak's hair for pioneer day. I am not good but I am determined to get better. 

Thought she looked so cute eating a huge hamburger with her bonnet on. 

Our pioneer picnic was held inside because it is just too hot here right now to do it outside. Anyway part of the entertainment was the bishopric doing this hilarious skit with their wives. 

Then the kids did games outside. 

Two days later I left for girls camp!

Something else I wanted to jot down that happened during this time...

While we were at the lakehouse my car sat for long periods of time without being turned on or moved. The day I left the lake a noticed a faint sour smell and just thought it was some food I had in the van or the cooler that I know already had a bad smell. A couple of days later we were driving in the van with the AC on and we were driving by some farm fields and all of a sudden the van started stinking BAD. We thought that it was just fertilizer on the fields. But the smell didn't go away. So I put my nose up to the air coming out of the vents and realized that the smell was coming from my air vents. Thankfully the next two days it wasn't hot outside and we could roll down the windows. Monday morning we drove to Eugene from my parents house and I decided that since I was due for an oil change I would do that and see what they thought about the smell. They weren't sure but said they would change the cabin air filter for me although I had just had that changed the time before. When the guy went in to change it he found a dead, rotting animal ( they thought was a really large squirrel or a small racoon) stuck up inside behind the filter. Thankfully they were really great about it and got it out for me and put in a new filter. We drove to the store after that and got some air freshners until the smell fully went away. Thankfully after that the smell did go away.