Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Whirlwind Summer!

Wow! It has been forever since I wrote last. Luckily, I can at least say that I have been busy having fun all summer long. We are home, for now...with only a few camping trips planned over the coming months. But life is calming down and we are happy to be home.

The fun started in July when I took the girls to visit my parents in Estacada. I was able to leave them with Grandma and Papa for a week while I attended the Miss Oregon competition with our local title holder, Miss Malheur County - Brenda. She did very well in the pageant and won not only Most Improved but also Miss Congeniality. It was a lot of fun watching and I'm looking forward to next year's competition and the excitement that comes with that. After the competition was done, my parents brought the girls (including Mercedes, my niece) out to Seaside to see me. We had a wonderful time together and got to do lots of fun things. Elli got to ride bumper cars for the first time and everyone loved feeding the sea lions at the Seaside Aquarium.

We were only back in Estacada for a day when it was time for Mercedes to go home to Tennessee. She had been able to visit my parents for two months and was excited to go home and see her family. I asked to fly her back, since I hadn't seen my sweet new nephew Max yet. It was a long flight, but seeing Aaron's family was so worth it! Thanks Aaron and Becky for the fun times!

A flew back to Portland and spent a few more days there and then headed back home to Vale - with the kids and my mom in tow. The girls were excited to see Ruston, who had to stay home and work to pay for all our fun. We were only home for a few days when we left, with my mom, to go to the Wilkinson Family Reunion in Coalville, UT. I met a lot of family that I had never met before and had a wonderful time. It was a short trip though and we came back after just the weekend.

A few days after that Ruston finally joined us on a vacation to Yellowstone! We'd never been there before and we all loved it. Ruston made it a goal to fill up as many photo memory cards as possible and when we got home he had taken over 1800 photos. We saw buffalo, elk, moose, antelope, even a bear. We gave Elli a camera too and she loved being just like Daddy. She took several hundred photos over the week - many that actually look good too! I'll have to write more about Yellowstone later, but for now I just need to catch up on the summer time-line.

We got back from Yellowstone on Sunday and I left with the girls and Ruston's parents to got to the Munk Reunion in Bear Lake, UT that Thursday morning. Ruston would've liked to have come but it would have been a lot of driving for only a little family time. We stayed in Lava Hot Springs where they have an awesome water park. There wasn't a little baby pool, but the shallow area was still fun for the kids. Actually Elli decided that she was a big girl and since she was tall enough rode down several water slides all by herself. She was scared on the first time down and then she wouldn't stop riding. I lost count after while, but she must have gone down the slides over 30 times. I can't believe how big she is getting and I'm glad that she's so much braver than me. The trip ended with a stop in Salt Lake and a short visit to the Hogle Zoo (where Ruston took me the day he proposed) then a long car ride home.

It's sad that the only time I had a camera this whole summer was in Yellowstone because there were lots of great memories made. We had a wonderful summer and I'll have to make sure that I write down a few more details later, so that I don't forget.

Ruston's office is doing well. He stays busy and loves working in Nyssa. Elli will start preschool in Vale again after Labor Day, she's excited about that. Addison is working on potty training and has both good days and bad. M&M's have been a good motivator! As you can see by the baby tracker I'm due in about two and a half months. I'm feeling good. I've had a few funny moments of people mentioning (less than politely) how much my tummy has grown - Ruston's grandma being the most rude!! But luckily I don't get too offended. I'm actually not that big, but there's no where for the baby to go except out. So, it's funny when people haven't seen me in awhile. There are people who can mention my growing tummy with tact and some that still have a few lessons to learn. Oh by the way, we still don't know what we are having. It's a fun surprise and keeps us guessing everyday.

I'll write more soon. Hopefully you are having great summer too!

Love, Alesha