Some Vacation Pictures in Las Vegas and Missouri

Here are some pictures from part of our vacation this summer. We stayed at my parent's house in Las Vegas for a week and a half and had fun hanging out with my parents and Melanie and Joe. My cute niece Cali at a water park we went to in Jefferson City, Missouri. We were in Missouri for two weeks. We stayed at my sister's house in Jefferson City. Cali and Skye playing together. I love my nieces! We saw the Dolly Parton Dixie Stampede. It was a dinner with a show and we had a good time as a family.
Dane, Cali, Kyra & Skye We stayed in a condo in Branson, Missouri and had fun walking around and swimming in the pool. Here's my dad-the proud Grandpa. Having fun in the hotel room. I feel sorry for the people underneath us because those kids had a lot of energy!

When we went to Las Vegas we went to Mt. Charleston for a day and we went hiking and had a picnic. It was nice to escape the heat. It was over a 100 degrees each day in Las Vegas.We went to a theme park called Silver Dollar City in Branson and we rode this roller coaster over and over. We also went to Six Flags in St. Louis.



Sheldon and I went to the top of the St. Louis arch. It was an amazing view. Here we are in Missouri singing High School Musical Karaoke. We love to party! Spending time with my parents in Las Vegas. They always made us such yummy food. We did a lot more stuff on our vacation but I thought I would at least post a few pictures of some fun stuff we did.

Update

So yes we are on week 4 of our 6 week vacation and we have been loving every minute of it. By the end of our vacation we will have been in Missouri, Utah, Nevada, & California. It's great to be able to be with our families and just kick back and relax. After a long school year it's nice to have a long summer break. We have been staying up late and sleeping in. I love vacation time! And we are especially lucky that Sheldon gets such a nice long summer this year. This is the only year he will get such a long break. When Sheldon starts his second year he will go straight through until graduation.

I am posting this link to a blog that is pretty funny. It basically makes fun of LDS girls and their blogs-so it is essentially making fun of me, but I have to say I like the sarcasim. After a while it gets pretty annoying but it is good for a laugh.

http://seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com/

So Fun

Top 10 Reasons to Visit us in Oregon!!!

I was talking to my sister yesterday and she said she might come and visit us here in Oregon. Just to persuade her and anyone else for that matter who is thinking about coming to visit us I created a top 10 list of reasons why you should get on that plane and come to see us. We have only had a few visitors here in Oregon and you don't even know what your missing-so see below to become more informed.

#10

McMennamins Grand Lodge has free frisbee golf, a movie theater that lets you order dinner and eat it while watching the movie, and free use of the hot tub for students. This is a very fun place to spend an afternoon!

#9

Tilamook Ice Cream is so delicious and you can try all different varieties. I dream about this ice cream. You can visit the Tilamook Factory and get free cheese samples and see how they make their dairy products. You can also order grilled cheese sandwiches and ice cream to your heart's content. Delicious!

#8

Oregon Fruit & Produce

Oregon has the best fresh fruit. Right now is the berry season and the berries grow wild. You can pick as many as you want. Other top picks of fruits and vegetables are peaches, cherries, and corn. Yummy!

#7

Oregon has a beautiful coastline. You can spend days and days exploring the coast and having fun on the beach. This is a picture of Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach-you might recognize it from the movie Goonies.

#6

Oregon has amazing national forests with a million bagillion hiking trails and places to camp.

#5

Oregon has amazingly beautiful waterfalls. This is Multnomah Falls not far from Portland.

#4

Henry Hagg Lake is only 15 minutes away from our house and we love to have picnics there. It's gorgeous. Look down below at the bottom of our blog for a picture of us at the lake.

#3

Oregon has so many lighthouses along the coast. It is fun to explore them and some of them you can climb to the top for a beautiful view.

#2

Portland is such a fun city. Here is a view of Portland with Mt. Hood in the background. Portland has so many things to do and see and you can even go skiing or snowboarding on Mt. Hood.

#1

Oregon has such gorgeous flowers. In the spring tulips and daffodils bloomed and now roses are blooming. Our backyard was full of flowers-it seems like most of the bushes and trees bloomed into beautiful blossoms. So beautiful!

Last but not least, you get to come and see us!

People I Can't Wait to See on our Missouri Family Vacation!

My sister Natalie & her daughter Cali! (Hubby Thomas will be in Colorado selling pest control so we won't see him on the vacation) My parents!!My sister Heather and her family-Chad is her husband and her kids are Kyra, Skye, & Dane.

Melanie, my sister, & Joe, her husband, will be in Las Vegas and not on the family vacation. We'll miss you.

SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am all done with school! I can't believe I made it through the year. I am not going to lie, this school year was difficult. But now it's all over and I am going to enjoy my summer break. I go back to work in August this time teaching a 4th grade class. I am very optimistic next year is going to be much better.

Through the whirlwind of busyness I forgot to post some of the family birthdays. So here is a tribute to some of my favorite people on their birthdays. :)


Happy Birthday to our adorable niece Kaleigh! We love you and can't wait to see you!
Happy Birthday to my sista Melanie. I love you so much! See you soon.

Half Way

One field day done and one more left! I am half way there!

I Need a Break!

Have you ever been so busy you feel like your head is going to explode? Well that is seriously how I am feeling right now. I only have one more week of school left until summer break and I have so much to do. I am in charge of two field days at the different schools I teach at, I have to prepare for a substitute for one day next week since I will be doing field day at one school and won't be able to teach at the school I am supposed to be at, I have to enter grades for the students I teach, I am helping put on a baby shower for my friend Megan tomorrow, trying to clean/organize our house before we leave on vacation & pack, and I am helping prepare for mutual night next week. Talk about busy. I need a break.

I am so lucky right now because Sheldon is cleaning our entire house top to bottom and even shampooing the carpet. He is doing the deep cleaning like cleaning out the fridge, cleaning the blinds, etc. I didn't even ask him. He took the project on himself. I am so happy he is doing this for me and that is one thing I can take off of my long list of things to do. Thank you Sheldon!

Is it next week yet???

Backyard

Now that Sheldon is done with school for the summer he has gone to work in our backyard. He has taken a rototiller to the entire backyard and has been removing tree stump after tree stump. We have been having a bonfire in our backyard burning all of them. We are planning on planting grass, some flowers, and a garden. I love our backyard! I also threw in some pictures of some of the beautiful flowers that are blooming on our trees and bushes. It's incredible here in the northwest.

Mother's Day

I wanted to post about Mother's Day and how much I love my mom! Thanks mom for everything you have done and sacrificed for my well being. I love our weekly chats on the phone and text message conversations. I wish we could live closer together. I am excited to see you in a few weeks. Thanks for all you do and the mom that you are! I love you!

Happy Birthday Jared!

Happy birthday Jared! I think you are 29 but I might be wrong. You're a great husband and father and we miss you guys. We can't wait to meet our new niece!

Happy 25th Natalie!

Happy birthday Natalie! You are an awesome, beautiful, adorable, way cool sista! I hope you enjoy your 25th year of life and know that I love you very much. You're a great mom and an inspiration to me.

Spring in Oregon

Spring in Oregon is so beautiful. Everywhere we go it seems that flowers are blooming from every tree or bush. Here are some pictures of flowers from our yard. I love looking at them everyday!