Jason and Family at the Family Reunion

Above, cute Paisley at the Lincoln City outlets..........
Below, Jason and family on the beach - Jason, Ashley, Paisley, and Spencer.
I just love this picture below.........
Below, the happy family..............
Precious Paisley playing in the sand.......

Nate and Family at the Family Reunion

Nate playing with Elijah...

Adalei posing with the seals...

Nate and family - Misty, Elijah, Brielle, and Adalei with the ocean in the background.

Happy Adalei in her chair!

Nate - 30 minutes before the marathon! He's trained for a year and eager to go!

Just one shot of Nate in the race - he was doing great!

The finish line for the marathon - Nate did great. I missed the shot of him crossing the finish line. It was quite an accomplishment!

Nate on the beach after the marathon....................

Playing Ball on the Beach

The family activity on Casey's birthday was throwing the ball on the beach. I got a few good photos.

Weston loved running after the ball and never seemed to get tired.

It was a great day. I got to hold Benson some of the time.

Awesome Aunt Charity at the Family Reunion

It is always hard to get photos of Charity as she avoids the camera. I did manage to get a few shots of her.

She is so good to spend time with her nieces and nephews. Weston and Paisley were so content to have her read to them.








This is my favorite picture of Charity on the beach with her camera. Doesn't she look great!

















Here's Aunt Charity taking Paisley for a walk on the beach.

I regret that I didn't get other shots of her - reading in her bed, and participating in other activities.... Perhaps next time.....

Weston in the Water

Weston was quick to find the water and play in it. It was raining this day and quite chilly but that didn't stop Weston from playing in the bird bath. He got buckets and was scooping the water out.

Adalei watched for awhile and then she joined in the fun. After a short while Paisley came out with her doll to see what she was missing. Then Paisley joined it.

Weston was the only one that was drenched from head to toe. The girls went inside when they got cold but Weston had no thoughts of stopping. It was really fun to watch them and see how different little boys are compared to little girls. The girls tried to pour the water without getting any on them. Weston didn't seem to care that he was pouring water on himself!

I have 3 more grandsons from 3 to 6 months old so I'm sure even more exploring and adventures are ahead for future family reunions!

I got Weston these sunglasses for his birthday and he loves wearing them even without the lenses. I thought he looked so cute.

Casey's Birthday Party!

As usual, Jenna did an excellent job with the meals for Casey's birthday all day long. She barbecued bratwurst and hamburgers and made a delicious jello salad and fruit salad for dinner. The bratwurst was superb! Great job Jenna!

This birthday cake was unbelievable! I can't do it justice in describing it. I think Jenna said the recipe called it a "heaven and hell" cake. It had angel food cake and chocolate cake with peanut butter mousse and covered with chocolate ganache! I'm not sure how I managed to only have one piece! It was so-o-o-o-o good! I thought this was a great picture of Casey with Jason and Paisley in the back.

I gave Casey a rubber mallet which was on his wish list! I think he liked it.

I just had to include this picture with Casey's smile. He wasn't real happy about me giving him a "self-help" book but I really thought it was a classic that he would find interesting. Oh, well....

I did better with giving him this 25 ft measuring tape. He was happy about this gift. You can see a piece of Casey's birthday cake on the plate Ashley is holding.

We had a grand time that evening playing Guitar Hero. It was so fun - I wish we could have done it for longer. Nate did a great job of singing. I even took a turn at singing Taylor Swift's song, "You Belong With Me." I love that song and her other song, "Love Story." Casey emailed me the songs and I've been listening to them as I blog this morning! (Thanks Casey!)

We all had a great time celebrating Casey's birthday and appreciate all the time Jenna put into cooking. I know she was up early that day making preparations and probably the last to bed that night with the little boys. That's a really good wife.

Fabulous Food at the Family Reunion (June 2010)

We had lunch one day at Mo's in Newport. The kids all got sharks on their straws with their cups of water. It was great entertainment for the kids to play with their sharks. Weston was having a great time with his. (You can see Elijah in the background.)

One morning Adalei, Brielle, Paisley and Weston were enjoying a container of blueberries. They all LOVE blueberries so it was quite fun watching them eating as fast as they could so they could get more. As the oldest, Adalei managed to hang on to the container and probably got the most.

Jenna made french toast with strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast on Casey's birthday. It was divine! We all enjoyed it very much.

This is a picture of us at the spaghetti feed the night before Nate's marathon. I thought the spaghetti sauce was really good. Nate paid for our dinner which cost $21 for the family - that was a great deal! Thanks Nate!

The night before we left I made a yummy peanut butter chocolate fondue. We dipped angel food cake, cookies, strawberries, bananas, apples, and graham crackers. It was delicious! Bananas were our favorite. I should have brought some pretzels too. I love the fondue pot and decided that I want to try a new fondue recipe for each family get together. (Thanks to Jason and Ashley for giving me the fondue pot.)

Ashley made these scrumptious kabobs - chicken, red/yellow/green peppers, onion, zucchini, and pineapple. It was a very yummy meal.

Jason and Nate did a great job getting the food to and from the barbecue grill and grilling it to perfection!

(This picture is a little out of place. I meant to have it next to the spaghetti feed group picture. ) Nate was feeding Elijah and Adalei was posing for this picture. It was great to see Nate so happy and excited for his race which was the following morning.

Views of Newport, Oregon (June 2010)

I love the Oregon coast. It is so beautiful and peaceful.

In some of the pictures you can tell it was misty and I loved that. It reminded me of the California coast in the mornings.

It is just great to be able to live so close to the ocean and to enjoy it often.

I was here this month for our annual family reunion with my family.

My prior visit to Newport was last year with my friend John and his wife. John unexpectedly passed away last weekend. I will miss him. He did a significant amount of family history work for me. I am so grateful to him for that gift.

I made a quilt!

This quilt has quite the story - My grandmother who passed away 20 yrs ago made the blocks of quilt squares. My mother has had the quilt squares all this time and hasn't made the quilt. So, mom gave me the squares about 18 months ago. (I have to interject that one week after my mom gave me the quilt squares she called to see if I had the quilt made! Well, it took me a bit longer than that!) A few months ago my friend Sheila invited me to come do projects with her so I took the quilt squares to try to decide how to make a quilt out of them. Sheila gave me the pastel fabric that is between the quilt squares. Her mother had given her the fabric years prior before she passed away. Anyhow, I just started putting the quilt together without a plan or measuring it. When I got done with the top, I was shocked to realize that the quilt top fit perfectly on a twin size blanket. That blue blanket became the quilt backing. It is nice and warm since the blanket is a fleece blanket. My grandmother made these quilt squares out of fabric used for her dresses. This quilt looks better than the picture portrays but it's not a beautiful quilt. It does have sentimental qualities. I think this is all I have that came from my grandmother.

My Hero Mitt Romney

Today was a special day for me - I attended the Washington State Republican Party Convention. Mitt Romney was the keynote speaker. He gave an excellent speech and I was thrilled to be sitting in the 4th row, front & center. The only thing better would have been to shake his hand but security was much too tight for that. At least I was close enough to take this picture with my cell phone.