5 Days in Paradise

Cannon Beach, Oregon

Yes, it really was paradise..wet, rainy,sunny at times and absolute paradise! There were 6 of us for the weekend doing a whole lot of nothing and laughing so hard that we pulled a few tummy muscles! I am eternally grateful for these women in my life! They are the epitome of true friends! Here are some picture from our trip!

My bedroom...I called Mark after the first night and told him that I needed an ocean in our backyard! :) What a sound to fall asleep to!

Cleopatra - No..really Tiff..we'd just had an afternoon and evening in front of the big front ocean window making cards and needed some FOOD!

Haystack Rock...we tried to brave the waves and reach the rock - not a good idea ..even at low tide. I'll save the near drowning story for another day! :)

Haystack Rock again! So pretty!

The six of us...Tina, Shawna, Stacy, Tiffany, Luanne and Me..holding little Rachel (Stacy's new baby)

Shawna feeding the seagulls!

In the hot tub overlooking the ocean!

Luanne and Shawna at the Cape Mears Lighthouse...I love the Rocks in the background!

At the Cape Mears lookout point.

We spent a day in Portland and visited the Portland Temple. This is taken at the Atrium inside of the temple!

Yes, that is me in front of the prettiest tree at the temple! I miss those colors!!!

Multnomah Falls! It was freeeeezing cold!!! Brrr!

Mom and Dad were at the coast for a Judicial Conference. They came up to Cannon Beach and we were able to meet for dinner! It was soooo good to see them!

Playing!

Well, I'm back from my "5 days in paradise"...(I'll post pictures of that later). Mark deserves the "Dad of the Year" award and spoiled them all rotten while I was gone. All that Garrett and Em wanted to do this morning was play with mom. I made some play dough and this is one of our creations:

Funny little men...

My little partners!

Jordan came to Mark and I last week and asked if we would buy him a lizard. Mark wasn’t thrilled, but eventually I persuaded him (they’re only going to be little once! J). Monday night for family night we ventured to the local Petsmart. Jordan and Nick pooled their money and donated $85 dollars to the cause. We donated to the rest of the cause. Needless to say – we had no idea what we were getting into. . .

Spike is now an official member of our family. He is sooo cute! He is living the lizard life of luxury – He get’s fed collard greens and mustard greens in the morning, get’s misted at noon and receives little ALIVE baby crickets dusted with vitamins each evening. His cage is at a constant warm temperature during the day and cool at night! WHO KNEW!!!

It has been an experience, but we are all enjoying him so much! Mark is the funniest because he worries about him as much as the rest of us!

Spike sleeping...what a life!

Setting up his terrarium. – oh the things we do to make our children happy! :) I really do love Spike!

I'm Failing....

Well, I had a conversation with Garrett in the car today and I've decided that I'm completely failing...We got the new Friend in the mail and he was looking at it as we were going to pick up the kids from school. There is a picture of the temple on the front cover. Our conversation went something like this:

Garrett: Hey mom...I think this temple is the one at Grandma's house.

Jill: Why Garrett?

Garrett: Well, It has that "golden guy" on the top.

Jill: You mean the Angel Moroni?

Garrett: Ya mom...What is that thing in his hand?

Jill: It's a trumpet Garrett.

Garrett: Ahh..So he played that during the War?

Jill: What war?

Garrett: The war when Jesus died.

Well...we talked about the "war when Jesus died" - (I have no clue where that one came from) and on and on from there...nice isn't it?

Then came the second realization of failure...Some background..I believe that our conversation started with all of the talk of the trumpet. Our Bishop plays the trumpet and is extremely talented! Here are the two sentences that made me sink a little lower in my seat:

Garrett: Mom, you know that "Missionary Guy" who has candy in is office?

Jill: Um Garrett..you mean the Bishop?

Garrett: Ya Mom...He plays the trumpet good doesn't he?

That's it in a nutshell! I'm not doing so hot! I think I'll move to Australia!

Emily Funny...

I was putting Em down for a nap when all of the sudden she said, "Mom, my bum burped!" Well...you know what happened! I got a good giggle!

Random Pictures... I just love this picture of Emily. Love matching pink bows in their hair.

Emily loving on Nicholas.

So the other day I asked Jordan and Nicholas to do the breakfast dishes. Sadly for me, I'm fairly controlling over my dishwasher and don't often have the boys do the dishes - they always empty the dishwasher and clear the table - but I get the privilege of loading and washing up! I know...it's a little problem of mine. Anyways, it's very obvious in this picture! Love the gloves, garbage bag apron and don't forget to check out the dishwasher. Notice the pitcher on the top shelve! :). Needless to say I had to teach the boys how to properly reload!

Okay...I'm so far behind on my blog...uggg! It's been quite the month! Over the next few day, I'm going to post - post - post until I'm caught up! It's amazing how a little bit of sickness can put me behind! Thank goodness all is well now and we are back to normal here at this crazy house :).

Mark and the boys got home Sunday night from their "Boys Weekend". It was quite disconcerting to hear Garrett tell me all week long how excited he was to go to "Vegas!"

Three years ago, I gave mark a "Nascar Experience" for his birthday and he was finally able to experience it this weekend! He took the three boys with him and they left Friday night and stayed in a hotel by the Las Vegas Speedway. Early the next morning they went to the Speedway and began. Mark said it was the time of his life...I told him that it was too bad the scouts weren't watching! :) He got to race 8 laps around the track and went up to 132 mph! The boys had an awesome time watching their dad. Grandma and Grandpa Woolley met them there from St. George and hung out with the kids while Mark raced. Afterwards they went back to St. George and spent the afternoon swimming in the pool. They slowly made their way home on Sunday. Apparently, they had the greatest spitball fight in the world at Pizza Hut in Flagstaff and it even spread out into the parking lot afterwards. The cars were great cover! It sounded like they had way too much fun! I'm so grateful for Mark - that there is nothing better to him then spending time with his kids! Love him!!

Get Ready...

Get Set...

Go!!!!

And going 132 mph!!!

I love the fact that it's so easy to get out of these things!!!

Is it really over???

They staff at the raceway was so kind to the boys. The loaded them up on this van and took them on a ride on the racetrack. The boys LOVED it!

I love these pictures of Mark and the boys! They're such buds!

Best Friends! I love the fact that they all have their Dale Jr. shirts on!

Cool Engine!

One of the highlights for the boys was sitting in the number 2 car!

Life is good!