August and September Stuff

August and September ended up being slow months for us. When we came back from Oregon, I found out I was pregnant. I was so excited! We had postponed another baby because of my panic disorder that reared it's ugly head a couple years ago. I wanted to make sure I was emotionally ready. Finally this year I felt good to go! Unfortunately, I had an early miscarriage back in April. But I was sure this one would stick! By the beginning of August I was so sick I could hardly get off the couch. I stayed sick until the end of September when around 11 weeks I started feeling much better. I was so happy to finally feel like myself again! But it was not to be. I ended up miscarrying at 14 weeks on October 7th. It was a hard and very traumatic experience, thanks to hemorrhaging and ending up in the ER with a blood transfusion and D&C. If you want to read more about that you can find it on my baby blog . Anyway, I am ok now and am going through recurrent miscarriage testing to see if there is a reason for all this. Hopefully 2015 will finally be our year! 

Anyway, picture taking was hardly on my radar so there isn't much, but I managed to get a few.

Mark took the kids fishing one weekend while I lay on the couch. Tyler caught a fish and was ecstatic! He asks all the time when he can go fishing again.

 When your mom is a couch bum you find weird things to play with. After a Costco run they made this box into a row boat. Pirate sword and Elsa wand being the oars. 

 The Turkey Shoot was another epic adventure for Tyler. He got to shoot real guns!!

Tyler did not heed the directions from his father and put his face close to the gun as Mark was pulling the trigger. The kick caught him in the nose. You can bet he won't forget that rule again. 

 A fun day of shooting was had by all. I'm just glad I got to stay home!

 I know we're a little late on this mustache thing, but Mark bought some for our costumes (we went as Mario and Luigi) so of course we had to play with them. 

Clara learned to pedal at some point during those months

Mark did the ice bucket challenge at back to school night. I think that made him pretty popular with the kids and parents. 

Family Pictures

This past summer we had a family reunion at the Oregon coast with my mom. My mom has been dying for some updated pictures so I managed to find a lady that was in Tillamook who would do our pictures for a decent price and I think they turned out great! Unfortunately, my brother, Jared, couldn't make it so he is missing. 

The whole fam (minus Jared)

 The sibs (minus Jared)

 Grandma and Papa with the grandkids. Tyler was having a rough time and refused to smile so Papa decided some funny faces would snap him out of it. Worked like a charm! I love Madi's face looking at her crazy cousins! 

 Clara looks super enthused, but it's still cute!

 First time getting pictures just of us since our wedding!! 

Ross Family Reunion

After driving back to Salem and spending a night at a hotel, we drove to Tillamook for the Ross family reunion with my mom, Jim, and some aunts, uncles, and cousins. Another terrifically fun trip! Seriously, my kids are never going to be satisfied with lame ol' summers ever again!

*A random, for memory sake side note. For some reason whilst in Oregon Tyler found the most random places to sleep and terrified me twice. I had this fear that he would follow someone outside and get hopelessly lost. The first time, in Sunriver, Mark and Kyle had gone on a bike ride and a little while later I realized I hadn't seen Tyler for a while. I searched all over the house and ran around outside screaming his name. Someone finally found him fast asleep under the dining room table completely hidden under a blanket. Who sleeps like that? The second time was at the beach. Mark woke up early to go on a run. When I woke up Tyler was not in his bed and no where to be found. Once again I ran around the whole house and outside terrified that he had tried to follow Mark and gotten lost. Finally someone found him fast asleep on a couch completely covered in pillows. REALLY? That kid needs to find better ways to sleep. Ok now back to the regular post.

Our beach house was up a steep, big hill covered in bushes and trees. Getting down to the beach was a slip, sliding adventure, going back up was a completely different story. The ground was sand so basically it was a two steps forward, one step back kind of progress. On our first trip to the beach we found a whole sand dollar and lots of other broken shells. Clara loved running around until she stepped in a deceptively deep puddle and got soaked. I then had to carry her wet, sopping body up that ridiculous hill. Every time I stopped to breathe she cried even louder. It's pretty cold at the Oregon coast, especially when you're soaked. Talk about exercise! 

Before the fall in the puddle.

 For Clara's birthday, my mom made her this princess dress....

 And this matching princess quilt, with built in pockets for stuffed princess dolls. Clara LOVED the presents. I have a hard time convincing her to wear a different dress long enough for me to wash the princess dress.

 Tyler giving some loves to grandma

 My mommy and auntie.

 Nap time with grandma

Tyler fell in love with grandma's dog. He followed her around the whole time and wanted to hold her constantly! Someday we'll have to get this kid a dog...someday.

 Tyler and cousin Jackson with great grandma. Grandma loved being with lots of her family all under one roof. 

You can't be in Tillamook and not go to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We had a delicious lunch at the Tillamook cafe of grilled cheese and ice cream.

 Tyler in the cheese van

 Farmer Mark and Cow Tyler

Lots and lots of beach pictures:

 On one of Mark's runs he discovered this cave that leads to a different beach with lots of tide pools and fun things to see. The next day we all woke up early so we could take the kids while the tide was low enough. 

At the mouth of the cave.

The rocks were covered...I mean completely covered in sea life. If you walked on them you squished life. Some rocks were covered with shells and muscles, but some were covered with thousands of sea anemones - every square inch. I wish I could have seen them all when they were covered in water and opened up. It must be super colorful! There were also tons of starfish! 

 This isn't a cave, it's actually a big hole in the rock. 

 Tyler took these..hence the finger.

 We found a live jelly fish in a tide pool. No touchy!

 I finally talked Tyler into touching an anemone. 

 He obviously loved it......

 We found the biggest crab we'd seen yet. It was alive! But when we came back later it was gone. So we had to settle for this dead one. 

 Dead or alive...Tyler didn't want much to do with it at first.

 He eventually got more comfortable. 

Another wonderful trip with my wonderful family! It was so much fun that I really struggled when we had to leave. So did the kids. For days afterward they kept asking when we'd go back to Oregon. Hopefully soon kids, hopefully soon!