Escape to Florence

No, not Florence, Italy. Although that would have been a wonderful vacation as well! We live about an hour away from Florence, on the Oregon coast. We desperately needed to get out of the house and make some happy memories, so we threw caution to the wind, disregarded the fact that we have no income, and went on a little vacation. It was a short trip. We left on the 19th and came home on the 20th, but it was wonderful! We’ve NEVER gone on vacation just for the heck of it before. NEVER! We travel to visit family a lot but this was our first real vacation.

The ocean was beautiful and blue.

We got the Florence before we could check in to the hotel, so we drove out to the Sea Lion Caves.

This, ladies and gentlemen (are there actually any gentlemen reading my blog?!), is the world’s largest sea lion cave. Can you see them? The rocks are covered. Nathan wasn’t too sure about all the “dinosaurs” and I wasn’t too sure about the smell, but overall, it was pretty cool!

Some nice girls took a family picture for us.

This is the view from our hotel room! Amazing!

Room service is just getting younger and younger these days.

We had some lunch on the balcony, then spent the afternoon on the beach, despite the crazy wind.

Happy Birthday Alex!

It was sunny and beautiful, but remember, we’re in Oregon, so it was also freakishly cold.

The hotel

Living in the lap of luxury in his queen-sized bed.

The hotel had an indoor pool with a kids area that we decided to take advantage of. Apparently we were the only ones, which is fine by me because the less people that see me in a bathing suit, the better!

Nathan was timid at first . . .

 

but after a while we had a hard time keeping up with him so he wouldn’t just jump in and drown.

When we got back to the hotel, Nathan got right down to business making some phone calls. This was his absolute favorite thing on the trip! Ryan really likes this picture because you can see Nathan’s shoes and pants discarded in the background. He says it looks like Nathan came home from a long day at work, got comfortable, grabbed a binky, and started talking on the phone.

Our room had a full kitchen so Ryan made us a yummy dinner- complete with easy mac for Nathan.

The sun is in my eyes, but the point is- we had ice cream!

Speaking of the sun, we spent the evening watching it set and it was so beautiful! We took a ton of pictures. Here’s a few:

I must really be a Northwest girl, because I thought the ocean was the most beautiful early the next morning when everything was gray and wet.

We took one last trip outside (it was way too cold to go close to the water) before we drove home.

Look, Mom! Birds! (He keeps calling me Mom, not mommy or mama. What the heck?! I’m not ready to be Mom!)

This was such a healing trip for us. The hotel was totally quiet and empty and the ocean was relaxing and it was just what we needed!

Easter

We had a low key Easter at home this year. It was nice to relax and enjoy the Sabbath.

I made Nathan a really cute little tie a few weeks ago, but this is seriously the only picture of him wearing it I could get. The kid just does NOT sit still! His new favorite thing is to put two binkies in and run around. He thinks he’s so funny! Oh boy.

Nathan was excited to see what the Easter Bunny left him.

Once he found a car in his basket, nothing else really mattered.

Ryan made our entire beautiful Easter dinner while I stayed in bed. What would I do without such an amazing man?!

 

After dinner, we did a small Easter egg hunt around the house for Nathan. He caught on pretty quick and we’re still playing the “hide the egg” game on a daily basis.

(Look! I really was there too!)

Loss

This past week I suffered a miscarriage. Our hearts are broken. I am finally starting to feel better physically, but I know it will be a long process to recover emotionally. Right now, we are grateful for a knowledge of eternal families, and for all the tender mercies that have been given to us. For one, since Ryan hasn’t found a job yet, he has been home with me 24/7. He’s done all the cooking, cleaning, and taking care of Nathan.

Right now, we are at home, spending time together and trying to heal. I have good days, and bad days, good moments and bad moments. I’m just grateful to know that Jesus Christ died for me and that He felt my pain (both physical and emotional). That knowledge will help me heal in time.

Party Time

This year, because I’m crazy, we had 2 birthday parties for Nathan. We had a friend party the week before his birthday because his birthday fell on the same weekend as General Conference. We had another party on his birthday with family.

Nathan’s friend party was Pirate themed. Nathan loves pirates and has been known to randomly shout out a resounding, “ARRR!”

He had a few friends over for lunch and pirate cupcakes.

 

The weekend of Nathan’s birthday was jammed packed with fun. Nana and Papa and Auntie Leslie came down from Washington to help us celebrate.

“CHEESE!”

We went to Sweety’s for frozen yogurt on Friday night. Serve yourself and over 50 toppings can be very dangerous.

On our way home, I asked Nathan if Nana, Papa, and Leslie could sleep at our house so they would be there for his birthday. We hadn’t really talked about it much yet. His eyes lit up and he looked at me and said, “CAKE?!” He’s a quick learner.

Saturday was Nathan’s birthday and we spent the day eating Nathan’s favorite foods, letting Nathan open presents, and watching General Conference.

He got a table of his own from me and Ryan. He loves to invite his toys to sit with him at meals.

In between conference sessions we went to Roaring Rapids for pizza. He was a little wary of it all at first.

I love his Mr Collins style curl on the side.

He warmed up quite a bit once he saw the games.

He also went on his first Carousel ride with Auntie Leslie.

It’s amazingly difficult to get good pictures on a moving carousel.

We took advantage of a little bit of sunshine to get a family picture on the patio overlooking the Willamette River. We’re so glad to be living in the beautiful Northwest again.

We all had fun, but I don’t think Nathan even ate any pizza. Oh well, the Birthday Boy gets what the Birthday Boy wants.

Even if that means drinking orange juice and milk at the same time. GROSS!

Nathan had a chocolate truck cake for his party that night. I was too impatient to do a crumb coat so we just said is was a dirty truck.

I mean, who really cares as long as it’s chocolate?

By the way, the recipe for this fantastic chocolate cake can be found here: http://bestfoodsforever.blogspot.com/

 

Nathan got so many fun new toys (all the noisy ones came from grandparents) including his very own tricycle. I would call this year a birthday success!

2 years old!

Saturday was Nathan’s 2nd birthday. He’s such a big boy now!

Some fun things we love about Nathan:

He loves to sing. We often hear him singing little songs that he made up. His favorite (and ours too) goes like this, “me me me . . . SOOOONG!” I have no idea where he came up with it, but it’s so funny!

He has recently become very interested in babies. Let’s hope that lasts!

(I found Nathan and his bear on the couch like this, watching a movie.)

Nathan knows colors and is working on shapes. He’s so smart!

Nathan is really good about folding his arms for prayer, but he usually shouts “APEN” about 5 words into it.

Nathan is VERY stubborn and determined, sometimes a little too determined.

Nathan is a very polite boy. He’s so good at remembering to say please and thank you, and most recently “your wa-cone”, which he says to himself after saying thank you.

I don’t know where it came from, but Nathan has crazy wavy hair that seems to go everywhere!

Nathan loves cars and trucks. Anything with wheels is a truck and must be driven around.

(Nathan had to have all the trucks in sight at the computer with him.)

Nathan is still definitely a “mama’s boy” but he loves to have fun with his daddy too. Ryan always says, “Hey, Bub!” to him, so now he calls Daddy “Bub” too.

One of my favorite things Nathan has been saying lately is, “Wow, cool!” He just sounds so grown up!

Nathan has recently gotten really picky about what clothing he wears, and prefers to pick it out himself. He also likes to pick the color of his diaper.

(The other night, Nathan couldn’t decide which jammies he wanted to wear, so Ryan finally gave up and put all 3 pairs on him. Don’t worry, we took most of them off before bed time.)

Nathan is happy to go potty in his big boy potty when we ask him, but we aren’t too serious about potty training yet.

Nathan loves to hide, and often falls asleep with his face underneath his pillow.

Nathan is the greatest joy in our lives. He is so sweet and kind and wonderful. He makes us giggle and makes us happy every single day!

Brand New Nathan

One Year Old Nathan

Two Year Old Nathan

Oh Baby! Some Exciting News . . . A New Addition!

It case you didn’t notice, I’ve been leading you on all week. And yes, I know it’s April Fool’s Day, but this is no joke!

We’re having a baby!

I figure I am about 9 weeks along, which means I am due about the first week of November.

I feel so blessed to get to bring another child into our home.