A Christmas Carol Train Tour

My friend, Tina, invited the girls and I to go on a fun Disney's Christmas Carol Train Tour. It is a train that stops at various train stations across the US and they provide the tour for their upcoming movie for free.

We waited in line for an hour and a half, but had a lot of fun and it was well worth it.

(Taylor Lyon, Connor Lyon, Tori Lyon, Ashley, Lindsay and Hailey)

Our kids loved the mist fans that cooled us down quite a bit being that it was a pretty hot day. They also had some water that was free while you waited in line.

Carolers serenaded us by singing various Christmas songs.

(Taylor, Lindsay and Hailey waiting in line to get onto the train.)

Once we were inside it was really cool. There were pictures of the characters and actual clothing that the actors/actresses wore in the film.

Ashley is standing in front of some museum pieces from Charles Dickens home including writings and pens that he used to write his novels.

Hailey liked the replica of Big Ben that they used in the movie.

A really fun part was the morphing computers. You were able to morph your faces onto the characters faces. Ashley liked this morph the best. They said that they would email the morphs to us in 7 days and I have yet to receive them so I am glad that I got a picture with my camera.

At the end of the train they had this cute set up. You can not see it in the picture but in the background behind us it is actually snowing in the windows. It was really neat and smelled heavenly like pumpkin pie.

Outside they had another area that had a 10 minute sneak peak of the movie that is in 3D. It was absolutely amazing and I am really excited to see it. I would not recommend the movie to smaller children though. I would take Lindsay and Ashley, but not Hailey. It would be too scary. Can't wait for the movie to come out!

Tina, thanks for the fun day!

Girls Camp - Hearts Knit as One

I had the wonderful opportunity of going to Girls Camp this year. I had such a fun time and met so many new friends and got to know the girls in my cabin really well.

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Our theme was Hearts Knit as One. Our camp shirts were adorable. They had hearts shaped like the Olympic Rings.

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Lets see if you can play Where's Waldo and find me in this huge group of girls.

When the girls stepped off of the bus Sister Moss had everyone march around a fielded area like the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics. At our Stake the girls slept as years so we were Egypt and I was with the 2nd years. Each year competed in small competitions that later the winner won a Bronze, Silver or Gold Cookie.

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After we played games, we went to our cabin and got to know the girls a little better. Jessica Markham and Jessica Selfaison were our YCL's. They happen to be in my ward and were a lot of fun. They were great leaders and our girls absolutely loved them. The other girls in my cabin were Natalia Neilsen (in my ward), Emma Maxwell (in my ward), Felicia Heimsoth (Council Creek Ward), Cassidy Clement (Council Creek Ward), Cherrish Johnson (Tillamook Ward), Caroline Gallegos (Council Creek Ward), Kaitlyn Selfaison (in my ward), Nani Ellison (Tillamook Ward). Everyone got along so well so that made my life a lot easier. Sister Ballard was my helper for the first half of the week, she was so much fun! Sister Cuttright helped me the last half of the week and was quieter but very sweet.

(My cabin doing their cabin call at Flag.)

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One night the adult leaders had their "Night Off" and got to have an adult party. When I came back to my cabin all of the girls were staring at me. I was knew right away they did something to my bed or something. I could not figure out what was going on. I checked my sleeping bag and did not find anything out of the ordinary. Natalia asked me if I needed to wash up in the bathroom, I knew she was going to tell me. :) She said that while I was gone the girls had 12 cans of silly string that they sprayed ALL OVER the cabin. Apparently I walked in as they were cleaning up so they shoved everything under my bed. I walk back to the cabin and layed down it my bed acting like I did not know and I found a piece of silly string attached to the wall by my head. I grabbed it and said, "What is this?" Of course I was laughing while I was asking. I thought the girls were going to cry (there are no pranks allowed at camp and they all thought they were going to get kicked out). I laughed and told them I knew they had the silly string because I saw it the first day that we got there. (My girls making Thank You's for our wonderful YCL's. We gave them foot creme, nail polish and a manicure set and wrote a note that said "Thank You for Keeping Us On Our Toes.")

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Around the camp were these really cute "Kodak moment" picture spots. I had to get one, or two pictures.

Sister Dotson was my trusty bull.
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I was called three weeks before camp started and was asked to do the Recreation for camp. The two ladies that were in charge at the last minute could not go but thankfully they did all of the hard work. Everything was planned, I just had to execute the plan.
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My favorite part of Rec was watching the girls go on this HUGE slip-n-slide that I brought.
We also played Water Softball where the bases were Wading Pools.
Heather Shields helped with the Rec by being in charge of the Rec in the lodge. The day after our hike she had "Spa Day." She brought nail polish, face masks and bath salts to soak their feet into. Rachel Aina, who is massaging our Stake Young Women's feet, also helped me with Rec. She was in charge of our Volleyball tournament. She is such a sweetie. She left for her mission to Texas today. I am so glad that I got to meet the sweet girls that I worked one on one with.
Our hike on Wednesday was absolutely gorgeous. We hiked to Punch Bowl Falls. I did this hike with my girls years ago and I thought it was quite scary. There are areas that you have to hold onto what we call, "The Iron Rod" or you would fall down a steep cliff. I was worried about all of the girls, but everyone did really well. I did not realize how scared of heights I was until I went without my kids with me. I always thought I was scared because of them being there, but not so.
Me, Carolyn Saunders and Katie Maxwell. We had fun hiking together.
A beautiful waterfall on our hike.
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Campfire was always the highlight of camp. None of my pictures turned out but my favorite game that the girls played was "Freeze." It is improv. Our wards ate together one night and while we were waiting for our food to cook we played Freeze as a ward. I have not laughed so hard in a long time. Our Bishopric came while we were playing and they were pretty much thrown into a game that they had no idea how to play, but they did well and were hilarious.
Kandra Shurts and our trusty Camp Director, who happens to be in our ward, Heather Wynkoop playing freeze.
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The last night of Campfire was Testimony Meeting. This is where you share your personal feeling about the church. It was so spiritual. There were about 7 or 8 non members that attended camp and I believe that all of them stood up and bore their testimony. A couple of the girls said that they want to get baptised. Most of the testimonies were about being pretty much the only member of the church in their school and it was nice to be around other girls that understood them and they could be themselves and just have fun. We also have wonderful Destiny lessons at camp and a lot of girls spoke about them.
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After testimony meeting we all went to a large field and everyone had a candle. The YCL's came one by one and lit everyones candle while singing spiritual songs. They call it the Circle of Light. My absolutely favorite Young Women's song has to be Walk Tall. I grew up singing this and it holds a special place in my heart.
The last day of camp we had our Camp Director run through our tunnel. She did such a great job. That is a calling that I would NEVER want. :)
I am so thankful for the opportunity to go. It strengthened my testimony and I know that it helped a lot of girls to strengthen theirs.
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Thanks to Danielle and Heather for watching my girls all week. The owners of our property that we manage happened to come during the middle of that week and there was so much to do. Mitchell did it all by himself and was very stressed, but he did a great job. Our girls had a blast at their cousins house and when I came to get Hailey she said, "Oh Mom, can I have a sleepover again with Tavis tonight."

Trek to the Top of Mount Hood

I have waited a long time for Mitchell to write about this and my blog is getting backed up, so he will have to write about it later. He made it to the top of Mount Hood and it was a wonderful adventure!!!!!!!!!!! I just want to make sure it is documented correctly. The pics are out of order, but for the sake of my blog, I am posting it. :) Also here is a link to a video of Mitchell and my brother, Jared, who also climbed it with him.

HERE

On Top of Oregon!

WOW! Straight up!! You can see Mitchell climbing up.

Taking a well deserved breather.

Mitchell and Jared, look at that slope they climbed up. This is just the beginning.

Getting Ready!
Making the descent.
The whole gang.

Last Day of School

June 17th was the girls last day of school. It was delayed a couple of days due to the huge snowstorm in December that cancelled school for a week.

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Lindsay had such a fun time in Mrs. Kinions 4th Grade class. I asked her a couple of questions about the school year.

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What is your favorite thing about your teacher? She was always nice and exciting

What is your favorite subject? Writing

Who were your good friends that you played with? Emma Johnson, Sahil Jani, Jeffrey Kinniple and Victoria Pope

During recess what did you like to do? play on the bars and do tricks

What was your favorite food to eat during lunch? The yummy pizza

What is your favorite memory of fourth grade? Studying the Oregon Trail because she got to see an actual wagon train and we got to wear uniforms

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I had the privledge to be her Head Room Parent and plan the parties. It was so fun to watch Lindsay interact with her teacher and with the other students. Whenever we would come into the class she would drop whatever she did and run up and give Hailey and I a hug. I will miss that!

(Last day of school June 17, 2009)

Ashley was in Mrs. Heigh Avrit's 2nd grade class. I also asked her some questions about second grade.

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What is your favorite thing about your teacher? Once in a while she would play around and act like they would be going on a field trip. It made it easier to imagine what we were studying.
What is your favorite subject? Math

Who were your good friends that you played with? Hannah Warner, Megan Schapert, Sophie Maurugg and Naomi Perez

During recess what did you like to do? Go on the bars, play basketball or play teatherball. (She was quite good, I hear)

What was your favorite food to eat during lunch? Cheese Sticks and Fish Sticks

What is your favorite memory of second grade? The bike rodeo when she had to share her bike with a boy, her bike was purple, but he did not mind and the Spelling Bee. She was the best speller in her class.

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Ashley was such a huge help in her class. Her teacher would call on her to help the other students with their work when she was done with hers.

2009 Rose Parade

I am a HUGE parade fan. I LOVE them. Right when we moved to Portland I decided to take Lindsay and Ashley to the Rose Parade. I was so excited to park and find that there were SO many spots for me to sit, right in front of Burger King. I started walking with the girls, while being 7 months pregnant having contractions (I told you I love Parades, a little contraction was not going to stop me from watching it.) I noticed that on the ground there was tape everywhere on the sidewalk with initials on them. I could not figure out what it was.I got my chair and was ready to sit down when I had an entourage of people telling me that that spot was theirs. I was shocked, I did not see chairs set up, I did not see them sitting on blankets saving their seats. They informed me that the markings on the sidewalk were names saving their spot. They had them saved for a week. WOW was I upset. There was chalk and tape on EVERY inch of the sidewalk.

I picked up the girls and started walking and walking and walking. I think that I walked for a mile until a sweet lady asked me if I was looking for a spot. She felt sorry for me and let me sit by her. I told myself that I would NEVER go to that parade again. I though that was a ridiculous way of saving seats and I did not think that it was fair.


A couple of years later they finally made it a rule that you could not save seats unless you were there and only 24 hours before YIPPEE! Someone else felt the same way that I did.

This year I decided to load up my girls, three this time, and take them to the parade. Heather and her daughter Rebekah, Danielle and her kids Tavis and Jade met us there. We had fun writing with chalk while we were waiting. Danielle made a huge hopscotch game to play with the kids.

We had a wonderful time. The floats were absolutely gorgeous! I was so glad that we went and I want to make it a tradition to take my girls every year.

Piano Recital

When I was young I took piano lessons for a couple of years. My greatest regret is that I did not practice the piano when I had the chance to. I did not take advantage of such a wonderful opportunity.

I have always wanted to have a piano in my own home. I got that opportunity when my Grandma Courson offered her piano to me. In December of 2007 my in-laws brought the piano to me. It is a treasure to me!

Lindsay and Ashley have wanted to learn how to play so I finally found a piano teacher, Becky Baker, and put them into piano lessons in September 2008. Both girls absolutely loved to practice which really shocked me. The second they came in the door from school, they would drop their backpack and run to the piano.

They have learned so much this past year. In June the girls had their first Piano Recital. They practiced really hard and memorized their songs. Ashley was first and played "Tiny Lullaby." She was nervous but did a great job. She tells me that she loves piano because, "when I am older I can write songs on the piano and sing them.

Lindsay was the next to play her song, "Silver Bugles." She likes piano because, "it is very fun to play." One day she wants to play in church.

Becky has been an exceptional teacher. She said that she loves that the girls do their practicing every week and it shows. Most of the times they have their songs memorized by the end of the week. She has a reward system for the kids and my girls get really excited when they get a sticker closer to picking something out of the piano bench.

All of Becky's students. Top: Becky Baker, Bailey Lubean (they are in our ward)
Middle: Ashley, Lindsay, Kiara Lubean, Jenna Lubean, Sara (in red), Allie Baker (in our ward)

Bottom: Amber, Aaron and Sarah Baker

Our New Kitten

One of our residents abandoned their home and their neighbor brought us a newborn kitten that was left outside the home. I had all of the intentions of giving the cat to the SPCA but it was the weekend and it would not be open for two more days. We soon fell in love with the cute kitten and could not give her up.

Meet our new member of the family, Molly. She is such a sweetie. She was potty trained right away and took to solid foods pretty fast. She is very cuddly. Teddy, our dog, absolutely loves Molly. She carried her around with his mouth. He is VERY protective of her. Smokey, our cat, did not care for her at first, but is okay now. We caught this picture the other day that blew my mind...

She is a sweetie and we love having a kitten around the house.