Adrian & Rachel's Beautiful Wedding

Our whole family

Rachel wore the same dress her mom and grandmther wore at their weddings. Beautiful.




Journey, not the flower girl, but just as cute!

Justin, Charity and Peyton

This may be their last family picture before Lilly comes...

Tyler, Mark, Troy and Brett - looking good guys!

Troy & Kirstyn

Me: 28 weeks Charity: 39 weeks

Can you believe Charity is ready to give birth any day? She barely looks pregnant in this picture!

Happy 10 Years To Us!

Okay, so I'm a month and a half early on that. Our real 10 year anniversary is June 19th, but we celebrated our anniversary a little early since I won't be able to travel in June. We spent a week in Oahu, Hawaii just the two of us and had a blast. It came at the perfect time before I'm super huge, and it was a very needed brake for us to just relax and enjoy some free time together. Especially since it will be at least another 18 months before we can get away again :)

We stayed in the heart of downtown Waikiki at the Sheraton Princess. It was nice and right across the street from the beach. We walked pretty much everywhere since we didn't rent a car. A totally different kind of vacation for us, but it was fun. And when we didn't walk, we rode the super crowded city bus system. It was an adventure!

One of our most memorable lunches was when we took the bus to Chinatown and walked through their supermarkets to try the craziest things we could find. I don't think there was one thing we tried that we didn't like. We tried everything from fish balls wrapped in tofu to fried rice donuts to 'to die' for tuna sushi (yes, I know, bad me!). And lots of other stuff I wouldn't even know how to describe.

24 weeks pregnant! I got so many stares on the beach with my big belly...

This was so much fun. I'm not sure what they call it, but it was basically a big surf board that you paddled around. I couldn't believe I could actually balance :)

Riding the paddle surf board. Next time Mark will take it in the surf, but he didn't have enough time to do so since he had to share it with me, ha ha.

Relaxing on the beautiful, white sand beach. But, being the whities that we are, we didn't spend too much time laying on the beach. We spent more time laying around our hotel pool. Two reasons - poolside Mai Ties for Mark, shade and comfy lounge chairs :)

We rented this dune buggy for a day and took it all over the island. It was so much fun to drive and see the rest of the island.


First stop, Hanuma Bay. Our plan was to do some snorkeling, but we ended up just relaxing on the beach. From there we drove around the perimeter of the island, stopping to get coconut shrimp from a roadside shrimp cart (popular on the North side of the island). They were amazing. We drove to North Shore with the big waves and explored the tiny town's shops. After hours in the sun and driving in the bumpy dune buggy, I was totally exhausted.

Hanuma Bay - a beautiful, sheltered bay, but let me tell you, we weren't the only ones who went there that day. There were hoards of people! (On a side note: see my burned belly?)

On a dinner sunset cruise.

On our last day we toured Pearl Harbor and a submarine that served in WWII. The pic was taken inside the sub. Mark found all that much more interesting than I did, but the site where the USS Arizona is still underwater was pretty fascinating. It is still leaking oil and they think it will for the next 100 years!

Boating

Our big 5 year old with his birthday treat - a whole can of pop, haha. He is learning to love the water and boating like his daddy.

He's got a great seat!

As Aspen gets older, we are working on establishing traditions for birthdays and other holidays. For Aspen's 5th birthday, Mark took him out sturgeon fishing for the afternoon the day before his birthday (since it was the weekend), and then out to McDonalds for dinner to get a happy meal.

It was beautiful and there were tons of boats on the water. They had a blast together. Funny thing is that when I turned 5, McDonalds was the restaurant of choice for my birthday.



Another boat trip

There's no place Mark loves more than the water.

Enjoying the ride through downtown.

23 weeks pregnant
We anchored near the St. Johns bridge for dinner and to watch the sunset.

This goose stayed with us the entire time we were anchored for dinner. As you can see, he was rewarded for it :)

This was one brave goose.

Mark and I were able to take the boat out for dinner on the water during one of the 80 degree days we had this last week. It was just beautiful and so relaxing. It really felt like summer, especially with the chicken sausages, cucumber salad and chips we had for dinner. Summer food!

I love taking the kids out on the water with us, but there is something so rejuvenating about listening to the water quietly lap against the boat, watch the sunset and just enjoy the scenery without the chaos of kids in a small enclosed space.

Happy Birthday Aspen!

I can hardly believe that Aspen is five years old already. Times goes too fast! He is a great, protective big brother, smart and questioning just like his dad (worries and drives me crazy at times!), and is incredibly loving and challenging all at the same time. He has recently started an outdoor preschool class, and I heard through the grapevine that his teachers were "impressed with his character". Nothing makes a mom more proud and encouraged! Although I may not always see it at home, others do!

Aspen's birthday fell on a Monday this year so because of that and the fact that I had to work that day, we celebrated his birthday the Saturday before. Aspen was very excited to wake up to the kitchen decorated for his Batman themed birthday complete with blue and black balloons and a Batman table cloth. We started the day off with traditional cinnamon rolls and Saturday morning cartoons.

Later in the afternoon, his party started. We invited 5 of his friends and took them to the Clackamas Aquatic Park for a couple hours, and then back to our house for pizza, pop, ice cream cake and presents.

Aspen showing off his birthday cinnamon roll - our family tradition!

On our way to the Aquatic Park with a car full of excited boys - Aspen and Adam in the back and Isaac and Luke in the front. In the locker room after swimming the boys were telling Mark, "this was the best day of our lives!"

Luke and Isaac getting into the water...still a little timid. By the end, they were both going down the slide (in the shallow area) and playing with Aspen and Adam in the wave pool.

Adam and Aspen, on the other hand, didn't waste any time running into the wave pool and wading out as far as possible.

Luke, Journey and Isaac hanging out in the shallow area. It was quite the challenge keeping track of all 6 kids!

Ahhh, boys. It's impossible to get a good picture without some major bribing (or threats!).

The lone, brave girl, Aspen's friend Sofia.

Aspen got some great gifts, batman toys and Legos! He's been playing with them every day since :)

It was a blast and I think Aspen will have great memories of the day for years to come.

Salmon!

Whoo hoo! Mark's first salmon of the season! I love fresh salmon and was seriously doubting whether we would see any this season. Mark has definitely put the hours in over the past month or two. Way to go sweety!

More Randomness From Our Lives

Aspen's in the middle. See explanation below...
We had two days in a row of no rain and took advantage of it by going to the park each afternoon. I included the two pictures above because Aspen just cracks me up at the park. He has no shyness when it comes to groups of kids already playing. As we walked up to the play structure we could hear the kids counting. Still 50 feet way, Aspen loudly joined in causing the whole group to stop and look at him as he approached. He automatically pushed his way into the middle of the group and started playing. He completely asserts himself into any group without hesitation and immediately starts vying for the top dog position.
I just stand back and try not to laugh.

Journey's favorite part of the park are the 'quak quak's'. She is fascinated by the ducks and loves to feed them. The ducks at the Happy Valley Park are some of the most loved ducks I've ever seen. Every time we go there, there's food floating on top of the water while the ducks ignore it.

Journey doesn't go anywhere without her babies!

One of the best purchases I've made this spring are the rubber boots Aspen's wearing. He's discovered that he can now play in the creek that runs through the park and he loves exploring and pretending that he's apart of Dirty Jobs show.

Even a port-a-crib can become a fun toy in the right hands!

I can't believe they were all able to squish in together. Fun times!

Our afternoon snack time has turned into "tea time". Both Aspen and Journey love eating their snacks on pretty plates and drinking milk from the tiny tea cups. It's a fun time for us all to sit down together after naps are done. I'm hoping to find a chapter type book that we can read out loud together during our tea time. The only problem is that I've always hated reading out loud so I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with that idea.

Here are a couple recent pictures of me at 18 weeks pregnant. Definitely got a belly, but enjoying it while I can before I get giant :)

Also, 18 weeks :)

Our Crazy House

Here are some pictures of our adventures tonight. It's been pouring down rain all day, we had already watched "boy" shows like Dirty Jobs on tv, and Mark and Aspen were looking for something else to keep them entertained... They started the wall climbing in the entry way and then migrated outside to rope up to the deck. Journey and I watched from the windows as they swung from the deck oblivious to the rain. I love watching them have fun together!