Where to even begin? No idea.

Let's begin at the very beginning...a very good place to start.  WRONG!!!  We will start at the end (actually the present) and work our way back through the past 5ish months.

Daphne and I went to Linder Farms with her preschool class today.  END OF AN ERA.  I've gone with all my kids for preschool, and it's all over.  She had fun, was jumping and running and sliding and chatting with friends.  Pretty good time.  Side note:  I took scissors to my hair starting Friday night through Sunday.  I just didn't like my hair cut...see picture below, and though I'm no pro, I will rock bangs for a while now I think.  Something exciting needs to happen as I grow my hair out.  Daphne is very impatient about the process.  I remember wanting my mom to have long hair when I was little for me to play with and style.  I'm trying, DG, I'm trying.  I'm even taking biotin and singing to it.

I had to put this picture in just because it gives me the warmest of fuzzies and lots of excitement about the coming year.  The children were gathered in my room talking about this and that after church on Sunday.  They are magnificent in their quirky, why, how, what in the world ways.  I look forward to stepping it up in how we approach family time on the sabbath and other days of the week, in taking more time to teach them because I want them to have rock solid testimonies show that when their faith shakers come, they say, nope, sorry Satan, and can keep going, through hardship, through mistakes and heartache and repentance and the calm times and happy times when it is so easy to get distracted or mix up your priorities.

Then we have creepy cat.  The cats became obsessed with my shoe area of our closet last week.  I pulled out every bag and box and nothing suspicious.  Maybe I stepped in some catnip or maybe Piper could just hear spiders in the floorboards.  No idea, but she looked at me like I was invading her room and not vice-versa when I caught her in this photo.

Bucket list item.  Family bike ride.  We were missing Lucas, but I figure take them a time or two without him so we can work out the kinks.  If we don't work out some kinks, he may never come with us again.

And it went pretty well.

Mostly well.

The first half went really well.

But time was limited before I had to work and on the way back 2 little souls got so, so tired and hungry and they nearly died.  Wolves might have been chasing us.  Shawn's bike might have been too small.  He may have only eaten a donut and a few meals so far that day and, yep, it was pretty much the end.

Until it wasn't and we all made it home.  Keep in mind I had to make 2 trips to the river and 2 trips back with all the bikes and children that I own and love, respectively.

Said haircut.  Like the color is darker and different, plus highlights.  That part's okay, but last time I got sidebangs I loved it.  This time they were all on one side, none on the other and with my hair back (I almost always have mom hair due to cooking and cleaning and don't care), it looked like poof on one side and severe on the other.  So snippety, snippety.  I felt maybe like 1% Brittney Spears as I chopped away at 12:30 a.m. one night.  Is this a good idea?  But I like my bangs.  I like how they make my eyes a feature and make me look quite different and maybe a bit younger.  Fingers crossed.

Not that I'm afraid of getting old...

And Lily's got all these fun birthdays to look forward to.  She also got her patriarchal blessing around her birthday.  One of THE most spiritual experiences in my life, certainly more spiritual than receiving mine.  I could feel God's love for her.  I could feel the Savior's love for her, and I have no doubt they were there through the presence of the Holy Ghost.  I need to remember that day and that blessing when I get eye rolls and drama and it's the end of the world and general displeasure.  Because this girl is amazing, has always been amazing and has so much potential and so much to look forward too.  How did I get to be her mom???

And the day of Lily's birthday was Wagon's Ho.  I did this for Lily's class and loved it, so I came back for more.  (Sorry Matthew, mommy loves you.)

Lucas went on a guy's trip to SLC and it was great to have a break until waiting for him to get back on Sunday was torture and so I took all willing souls to my happy river place (WHICH SOME MONSTERS HAVE BEEN LITTERING IN.  WHY??????).  They were totes adorbs playing and enjoying.  Lily and I did have to have a discussion about how me feeling zen while lying on a tree trunk looking at sky and tree branches is a-ok even though her zen is splashing in water.  We all have our own zens.  Respect the zen.  Respect it.

Shawn watching those water skater bugs, dozens of them.  Wheee.















Matt moved up a rank in scouts.  I truly don't see Eagle in our future, but I see a boy who is learning a lot and I see a troop who takes the time to treat him with respect even though they could care less about the book he read or the facts he knows.  They are really into sports and being active.  Matt is really into not that stuff, but he has learned so much about horsing around and pranks and jokes and including and being included despite everyone being very different, and it makes me proud of those guys and proud of him.

Daphne's first day of preschool.  She was ready.  Her favorite little school friend right now is Adeline.  And she just loves school, even though she is very tired afterward.  Teacher Diane is the best.  That woman is so full of love and has touched so many lives.  Glad Daphne gets to be a part of her class this year.

Look at that look of utter satisfaction.  Daddy's girl.  I love her face.

And I love that she conquered bike riding.  We went from both of us thinking she (let's be honest, it's a team effort) wasn't going to make it happen this summer, to her thinking she couldn't, to her being proud she could sort of do stuff, to her being able to do EVERYTHING and hold her own on that greenbelt ride with her tiny-diameter tires.  She is a rockstar.  Fashionistas can be super tough and strong, definitely not just a pretty face.

And this, this would be me.  I had to do a profile picture for my EdTech 202 class...20 pictures later.  It was a rough first week and then it's been okay ever since.  I can do this.  I can do this well...mostly.

Last hurrah of floating DeMeyer for the summer.  So glad we got to share it with some of the best friends ever.  I do not want them to move.  I do not want them to move.  Such great parents and such great kids.  Wherever they live, their neighbors are lucky because they are friendly to EVERYONE and not superficial friendly, legitimately care.  I love them very much even though I'm not a woman who rocks at expressing her feelings to non-family members.

At 7th grade registration, Matthew happened upon a free old library book shelf.

This one's just because.  You're welcome.

Aunt JaNiece let us borrow her hotel pool for a few days.  I enjoyed the wonderful early morning time we had to walk and talk along the river, despite the smoke from so many range fires and despite the sleep deprivation.  Precious time.  I look forward to any chance she has to come.

We spent a lot of time at DeMeyer this summer between ditch time and bike practice.

Visited ye olde alma mater and BAM with the kids as we needed to visit an art museum for matt's merit badge.

Oh Shawn.  It was his birthday and his present to himself was stitches right when we were about to light the candles and sing.  Cake was delayed as they went to urgent care.  Staples.  Blech.  What a trooper though.  He is a tough boy.  He just made the best of it.

And 3 days before that, we celebrated 17 years together.  Probably deserves it's own post.  Maybe some day.  I do need to write about marriage but that will take some thought coalescing.

Love when Lily is big sister extraordinaire.

We had our small town Fourth of July fabulousness (with no misguided car driving practice ideas on my part and thus a safe sane trip).

Extra special this time, we rode THE GHOST TRAIN.  Shawn's dreams fulfilled, pretty much.  Dirt the Cat was a delight as we toured the engine house afterward.

And the beginning of the trip meant time with Lucas's dad, Grandpa Terry.

Which involved feeding ducks.

And I always love the time the kids get with Grandma and Grandpa (and the thought they put into this special time we have...it means everything) and Sam and Jon and J.T.  The best all around.

READING IS LIFE.  At least in this house.  Along with the little ones, I learned that like my river (and other) walks, recreational reading is soul-giving to me.  I'm trying to eke out time for that but I really laid it on thick this summer before I started school.  Yes.  I laid it on thick.

Below:  A phone but still reading, right?  RIGHT?

The raspberry bushes I didn't have to work for thanks to the neighbors.  Just grew right into our yard and they were delicious.  I hope even more grow next year.

Swim lessons.  If we took swim lessons as hard as I made them practice bikes, maybe we'd having swimming superstars.  GOALS.

Matt's half at Red Robin.

My mom.  There's another post.  I helped clean her apartment this spring and summer, and now she has moved into a care center where she got rehabilitated after, apparently, having a stroke we missed months ago.  I'm glad she's doing better and has a social life and yet I miss having longer conversations with her.  It will be good to visit her next month with Lucas and the kids.

Ben photo as there appears to be a shortage of those.  He's always running around doing who knows what..in mostly entertaining non-criminal ways.

Lucas's decided (with good reason) we needed MORE DISHES and so he got a set of service of 12 and silverware set service of 16.  It's the little things.

Beginning of the summer, still flooding fun of river walks.

Daphne playing Nerf guns at Jump Time with her beau.

And how this all started was with an extra wet spring (which turned into an outrageously dry summer) with a plethora of rainbows and dancing in the rain for these 3 amigos.

I am going to try to be more religious about posting here.  It is good to look back and see growth and thought processes and good and bad and ugly (some of my rants).

Oregon Coast!!! *Contented sigh*

Way back in April...

I started to do a huge catch-up post and then realized I never touched upon this.  I had full intentions of going back to Oregon for probably the last 10 years.  But my how life has happened in all its glory and gory, until, finally, nothing sabotaged us and Lucas gave the go ahead.  I ogled Vacasa houses.  We spent what was probably for the kids a very boring few hours one Saturday looking online and trying to pick our favorite with everyone's preferences being taken into account.  This trip was extra special as it was just us, our 7 people, going on a vacation, not visiting family or due to business or anything else.  We just went on a vacation for the heck of it.  (BTW, I was a total packing and planning guru.  Made a complete but flexible agenda for each day and even diagrammed packing the car.  Lucas was proud.)

 Because no one's schedule but our own mattered we didn't leave at 4 a.m. like originally planned, so we had our lateish lunch break at Multnomah Falls.  I was a little bummed we couldn't hike up due to the devastating fire 2 summers ago, but it was still pretty neat.  We even saw some sort of crane hanging out in the creek below the falls.

 Below.  Oh, below.  It was windy and cold and the thrill of introducing my kids to the ocean for the first time left me not 100% prepared for when a wave pulled all the sand out from under Shawn's feet, causing him to fall and get soaked.  This is him smiling between whimpers.  Thankfully, as it was our first time on the beach together, Lucas took him on a secret mission so that the rest of us could enjoy the beach and we didn't have to go right back to our rental house (that was a first too) after only 10-15 minutes of play.  What was the secret you may ask?  They got a delicious burger and a soda from a food stand and ate it in the warm car.  One-on-one dad time can heal many hurts.

 I want to remember Daphne on the beach chanting, "Shell, shell, shell," and being very silly about the incoming waves even though she was 30 feet up the beach.  She had seen what happened to Shawn after all.  The children were prolific shell hunters, and they cared not how whole the shell was.  We couldn't help but let them enjoy.  We even brought them all ALL home.  Shards of shells, crab parts and all.  Very uncharacteristic.

 We don't take our kids out to eat much, but we did a couple of times while at the coast.  They did pretty well, although Lucas didn't really appreciated it when I said to the waitress, "We don't get out much."  It made it sound like we were quite back-woodsy, in retrospect, though I didn't mean that at all.  Haha.

 We went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.  The kids liked it but I don't think they quite knew what to do with all that information and all those exhibits.

After the aquarium, ever so ambitious, we decided to try to get to Heceta Head before driving back north.  On a map, north to Rockaway Beach didn't look that far, but the coast is not an interstate which is a straight shoot at 80 mph.  We may have had a low fuel gauge on the way to Heceta and someone may have freaked out, making the other someone a little disappointed.  So though the kids played at the beach, there was no lighthouse hike.  We tensely drove even farther south to Florence to gas up...and get ice cream.  We figured we'd drive home for dinner.  Haha.  And I drove, and I drove and I drove....I also drove some more.  And the them from Gilligan's Island played over and over in my ahead, and Lucas and I may have sung it every time we saw we still had miles to go before we got 'home' on the dark curvy slow highways.  A 3-hour tour, a 3-hour tour.  We got home late, and yet, for 2 people who can be a bit type A with each other, it was really quite the lark.  We laughed and when a kid complained or asked how much longer from the back seat, we laughed some more.  We didn't have dinner that night.  We fell into bed, but it was a good day.

 Anyone who knows Matt will not be surprised that his favorite thing at the Oregon Coast was being at the house.  He and Lucas puzzling warmed my heart pretty well.  There were plenty of games and puzzles, and, bless them, a record player.  THAT WAS SERIOUSLY FUN.  Luckily, Matt's dreams came true the next day when Ben was sick.  The kids stayed home and watched way too much cable (VACATION) while Lucas and I drove into Tillamook to get supplies.  We head to go to the cheese factory temporary visitors' center all by our lonesome.  Burgers and ice cream.  Yum.  Yum.  Who knew we'd get a few mini-dates in on the trip.  It was incredibly wonderful.  We even snuck in a sunset by ourselves.  Don't feel sorry for the kids.  They did alright.  Trust me.

 Did I mention we watched a movie every night.  It was a fun little tradition all cuddled up together.  A luxury we don't have too much at home, especially on week nights when I work or on-call weeks when Lucas is often not available.

 Then there was Lucas's birthday!!!  We decided to head north which, thankfully, involved much less driving than south.  Lucas learned he's not a fan of Seaside.  I learned I may never get to see Hug Point at low tide again.  Talking about the gods conspiring against me.  This time it was the Portland weekender gods, despite all my best laid plans.  Below you will see Shawn who decided he did not like the carousel, refused to ride a horse or other animal, sat on the bench and looked grumpy the whole time.  It was hilarious, I tell you.

 Lily mustache you a question.

 Why did the chicken cross the road?  Or better yet, too bad, Lucas has the picture and I can't access it right now.  Why did Ben wear his newly-acquired chicken hat, stand on a 4-foot tall column, squat, flap his wings, and bock, bock, bock before jumping, all while other tourists gave side glances like we maybe had lost it?

 Because he's Ben, of course!!!

 Sneaky sunset.  Teeheehee.

 Above is DG at the Astoria column.  She was throwing a tantrum, but it was so adorable, I just took pictures.  Not the effect she was going for.  She looked like a mini sasquatch the way the wind blew her hair around and she stalked back and forth.  Lucas and Matt opted out of the column.  Heights!  But the rest of us went up and threw our balsam wood fliers down.  We ate at Mo's.  Matt had a lot of chowder on this trip.  Then we celebrated Lucas with strawberry shortcake once we got home.  Great fantastic day for a very lovable, hard working guy.

Our last day was neat because we went to sacrament meeting in the little meetinghouse (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) just a couple of blocks down the road from our rental house.  I'd never been to a church building like it before, not even a chapel, but the people were friendly, and I heard one of the best talks I've ever heard.  Even the kids were amazed by the life-story of the speaker.  He was from Switzerland, I believe, and I journaled it so don't think I'll share it here.

After sacrament meeting, we met my college friend Melissa at the beach.  How wonderful she and her husband were to take time out of their full lives to come spend the afternoon with us.  The beach got a bit too windy and uncomfortable so back to our rental we went.  We just chatted and chatted.  The kids played really well all together, and it was really a perfect afternoon.  Including Melissa's cookies.  Her engineering approach to improving the recipe clearly had paid off.

That night I made my first bread (bowls) away from home.  I was worried about sea level but it all went fine, and, what else?  CLAM CHOWDER.

 So fabulous being gathered around that table with our family.  That home was just perfect for our vacation, I tell you.

 It also had an air hockey table and ping-pong and toys and....

 And since it was a fully sunny sunset, we had to let the kids enjoy playing at the beach on our last night.  This is how memories are made.

 Lily could have spent forever on the beach.

 The next day, we had to, sob, sob, go home, but on the way, we drove way out of our way to go to the Silver Falls State Park and I'm so glad.  Consider walking under a waterfall officially checked off Lily's bucket list.  And more family hiking practice checked off mine.  The kids did great, but I will say it was a bit warmer than we expected and the last part of our hike was uphill, a lot of uphill.  Luckily, Lucas helped me not be too ambitious and we kept to the shorter trail.

I love my little (big) family more than anything.  Every decision I make has them at the heart of it.  And it was an honor to be able to be with my family on this trip, introduce them to lots of new things, and see their faces as they took it all in.  They are mine.  They have crazy hair.  They are beautiful, and I want to be with them forever.  I will go through anything to be with them forever.