Make-up Father's & Son's Outing

Alan had a race when our ward had its Father's and Son's Outing in April so he and Spencer went on their own camp out a couple of weeks ago.  Spencer really wanted to go to the beach so they drove all the way to Tillamook.  They purposely picked a campsite right next to the playground so Spencer could play while Alan cooked.

Spencer's favorite part of the trip was throwing rocks in the river.  He could do that for hours.

They went to the beach Saturday morning, but it was so cold and windy that they only stayed for about 5 minutes.  Bummer!

After eating gigantic ice cream cones at the Cheese Factory for lunch, they headed home.  It's a good thing I wasn't there because I would have never let them eat ice cream for lunch. :)  I'm glad they can bond over junk food and out door fun though.  Those two have always been good buddies, but they've become even closer lately.  I love my two boys so much!

Preschool Graduation!

Spencer's preschool graduation celebration was last Wednesday.  We held it at a local park that had a cool water feature.  Luckily, it was a warm day.  I thought it was perfect for this age: 2 minutes of graduation and 2.5 hours of eating snacks and playing with friends in the water.

This group was definitely more challenging than last year's.  They were just wild when they all got together.  They all have such fun personalities though and they could always make me laugh.  One of the other moms made these adorable hats, complete with a tassel and 2013 pennant.  I couldn't resist two shots of these cuties.

M. is Spencer's bestie from preschool.  They are both perfectionists and have fairly similar personalities.  I'm glad that she (along with two of the other boys) will be in Spencer's kindergaren class in the fall.

Someone came up with the idea to put together a summer goodie bag for the kiddos.  This is all of the loot Spencer came home with.  Can you tell that he was happy?

It's crazy to me that we're all done with preschool.  I have to admit that I'm not very sad though.  I love to teach and miss teaching in the schools, but teaching a wild group of 7 preschoolers once every couple of months was hard.  There wasn't enough consistency to really work on behavior.  That said, I don't regret doing a co-op at all.  Spencer LOVED it.  He learned a lot and made some good friends.  I've seen the most improvement in his writing and other fine motor skills.  He had a hard time taking direction from me, but was much more willing to try at the other houses.  It was definitely worth the sacrifice on my part.

10 Years Later...

Last Thursday was Alan's and my 10th Anniversary.  What?!  I have no idea where the last decade went.  It went by so fast, but at the same time it feels like we have always been together.  

We hadn't planned to celebrate on our actual anniversary because it was a Thursday and we both had to work.  But, Spencer got invited to a last-minute birthday party that evening and we suddenly had free babysitting.  Awesome!  So Alan got out of making dinner for me and we went to Olive Garden instead.

Since we hadn't been on a substantial hike since before Spencer was born, we decided to hike Saddle Mountain on Saturday.  We dropped Spencer off at a babysitter's and headed out.  Alan had hiked Saddle Mtn. in high school, but didn't remember a whole lot about it.  We figured it would take us about 3 hours and were just about right.  I was a little worried about how my knee would handle climbing like that, but it did just fine.   

Watch out for gigantic slugs when you hike in Oregon!

This is a view of the horn of the saddle.  We thought we were almost to the top until we saw this.  The last part was quite steep and definitely the hardest.  I'm not in the best shape ever so it was challenging for me.  Not too challenging though.  It was difficult enough to make me work and give me a sense of accomplishment, but not so difficult that I wanted to quit.

The cool thing about this hike is that you can see the coast from one side of the summit and mountains from the other side.  The fog rolled in and obscured this view about two minutes after we reached the top.

This turned out to be the perfect anniversary date for us.  It was so nice to do something that we used to do together quite often.  One of my first memories of Alan is of a hike to Timpanogos Caves in UT.

Alan and I decided not to give each other anniversary gifts when we first got married because we couldn't afford it.  I decided to do something this year though since this was kind of a special anniversary.  This is what I made:

I'm going to have it printed on a canvas for our room (that's what happens when you procrastinate until two days before your anniversary!)  The words invoke a lot of memories - some good, some hard, but all of them have made our relationship what it is today.  We have grown up a lot together.  When we first got married, I couldn't fathom that our relationship could get better, but it has.  It has grown so much deeper and I imagine that it will continue to do so during the next ten years.  I'm so blessed to have such a great guy for an eternal companion.  I love you Alan!

Another Birthday Boy

Alan turned 33 on May 20th.  He knows that I don't like bowling so the only time he asks me to go is on his birthday each year.  Luckily for him, Spencer loves going so they can be bowling buddies.  Also luckily for Alan, our closest bowling alley has two-free games of bowling for kids all summer and their parents could buy a pass for $25.  You just have to rent your shoes each time you go.  Now the two of them can bowl to their hearts content all summer!  Who knows, maybe I'll even go and improve my game enough that I don't detest it anymore. :)  Anyway, we had a good time on Alan's birthday.  Spencer used the bumpers and beat me.  Just like last year.  Pathetic!

What a stud!

I got one spare.

Alan wanted to eat at Sweet Tomatoes after our game.  I think Alan likes it because it's a buffet.  I like it because it's healthy and Spencer likes it because you don't have to wait for your food and you can have every food item separated.   

Debbie gave Alan this fun camping cookbook.  These two have had a lot of fun planning the menu for their camping trip next weekend.  He also got new running shoes, snacks for his lunches and some money.  Thanks Mom's!

It wouldn't be Alan's birthday without the other half of Darwin's German chocolate birthday cake from two weeks ago.  Two weeks in the freezer does nothing to ruin the delciousness of this cake!  Happy birthday Alan!