Baby Thomas #4

I'm slow on getting this on the blog but we are excited to announce that Thomas baby #4 is in the oven and is due on January 2nd. We also already know the sex and it is a BOY! We are really excited at our house especially Gordon and Talmage to be adding another boy to the family.

I'm feeling great and the baby is doing great so things are just great! We look forward to meet our boy after Christmas!

Mount St. Helen's

We have been waiting for about a year for the perfect timing to visit Mount St. Helens; by perfect timing I mean a clear day so we could have a wonderful view of the mountain. Their are many visitor centers but the two we visited were The Learning Center and Johnston Ridge Observatory.

The Learning Center was really great visitor center with a lot of hands on things for the kids to do. The view of the mountain was also very beautiful and you could see the remains of the mud slide in the valley below even after 31 years. Their was also beautiful wild flowers everywhere.

We enjoyed all of the different videos on what happened on the day of the eruption; it was really fascinating. At Johnston Ridge you are in the monument of Mount St. Helens and so everything is untouched and left as it was the day of the eruption. It is fascinating to see stumps where trees were blown off and all the logs on the ground just dotting the ground. We attended a great lecture about what happened on the day of the eruption and then the kids were able to attend a Jr. Ranger program where they learned a lot about volcanoes. We had a really great day!

Well, this was the end of our visit with Layne and Sarah and their family. We were really sad to see them go but we loved the time we had being with them.

The whole crew.

Talmage at the helicopter; a favorite spot of all the kids.

Talmage and the eagle talon.

Audrey all dress up.

The view of Mount St. Helens from The Learning Center.

Jensen Family

Thomas family

Cute Talmage

Adalyn hiding

Waiting for instructions on having a lava race during the Jr. Ranger class.

Emily, Jessica, Jake, Talmage, Audrey, and Josh.

Jr. Rangers

Cannon Beach with the Jensens

We had the most amazing beach day ever at Cannon Beach with the Jensen's. The weather was warm and sunny I actually got in my swimsuit and it wasn't really windy which really is amazing. We had a great time playing in the water, digging in the sand; sand castles were made but destroyed before cameras could capture their greatness. We also saw the tide pools around Haystack rock at low tide which was really neat. Mainly we saw star fish and anemones but some crabs were spotted too.

For dinner we had a fire on the beach and roaster hot dogs and smores; it was a tasty dinner with a little sand to make it beach authentic. We had a great day on the beach and it was fun to spend the day with cousins in the sunshine.

Adalyn playing in the sand; she had so much fun in the sand and was covered head to toe. The swimsuit she is wearing is still covered in sand after many washings.

Talmage and Isaac had so much fun building dams in the sand; this is what they did most of their day. We had a hard time pulling them away from their dam for dinner and smores; such fun.

Emily, Josh, Jake, and Jessica

Strolling through the water.

Adalyn and Claire; I love their cute chubby bodies. These two were so cute the whole visit; they just loved playing in the kitchen at our house and just being together.

Isaac and Talmage

Isaac and Talmage running in the water.

I put this picture in because Layne is in it; I don't have many pictures of him.

Jack, Josh, and Emily

A pretty starfish.

Audrey and Adalyn with star fish at the tide pools. The wind picked up at the tide pools and everyone was freezing and unprepared.

Sarah and Angela

The Girls

Gordon and Audrey

Adalyn roasting hot dogs with her Daddy

The Crew roasting hot dogs

International Rose Garden

One evening of the Layne Jensen family visit we went to the International Rose Garden. I didn't even know that this place existed so I was glad that Layne and Sarah discovered it and we were able to see a new part of Portland. Anyway, the Rose Garden was beautiful I think it is about 4 acres in the middle of downtown Portland. Portland is called the "City of Roses" so I guess it is fitting they have an amazing rose garden. We all commented that my Grandma Turner would have loved this place; she had a beautiful rose garden of her own.

When we first got there their was a concert by some gypsy band and we had fun dancing around for a little bit; the little kids thought it was a blast the teenagers not so much. Then after the concert we enjoyed all of the roses; the aroma in the air was amazing. The kids had a great time but soon found a new activity besides smelling the roses they enjoyed which was sliding down the rails. The night was beautiful and we had a wonderful time together and then enjoyed ice cream with raspberries the Jensen's had picked at a farm earlier that day; yummy.

Lovely purple roses.

Beautiful

The Crew

Isaac and Talmage

Most of the girls.

Beautiful Jessica

Most of the crew.

Jake taking a break.

Sarah and Claire

The sliding begins....

...and continues.....

...even head first.

Layne and Sarah

10th Anniversary

Wow, Gordon and I have been married 10 years now; how the time flies! Well, my husband treated me to a wonderful getaway to Long Beach, WA. We had a lovely drive to Long Beach and it reminded us of the road trip we took on our honeymoon so many years ago; it is so nice to be in the car alone with no kid interruptions. We stayed in a really nice hotel on the beach and it was beautiful and we had an amazing view of the beach from our room.

The hotel we were staying at had bikes we could borrow so that was our transportation around town; which was really fun. We had a lovely dinner at 42nd St Restaurant and then hit the local grocery store for snacks and a Red Box. Then we ended the night with a relaxing walk on the beach and watched our wedding video that Gordon had updated to my surprise. We had an amazing time together; thanks to all of Gordon planning. I'm so lucky to have the wonderful husband that I do; he is so good to me and I love him so much. Thanks sweety for a memorable 10 years together and many more to come. I <3 U.

The view from our room.

Our room

Where we ate a delicious dinner.

Me and my bike.

My handsome husband.

The view of our hotel from the beach.