I'm so glad I got this picture after our makeover night, don't we look lovely? This is my awesome presidency in young women's. Me, Kelly, Kirsten and Lisa. Shortly after this picture was taken, Lisa (my super human secretary) was released. I have to admit, I had a really hard time with losing her. In our church, there are several different callings or jobs that help the ward to function. The bishopric of the ward (consisting of a bishop and his two counselors) are in charge of keeping those positions filled so that the ward keeps on moving along. They pray for guidance and take extending a calling seriously. Then callings are extended - the bishop invites the person to accept a calling - and because there are so many jobs and so many people in a ward, it is very dynamic. No one stays in a ward calling for more than a few years at the most. There is constant shifting around - which works out great to keep people from burning out. It also allows us to grow, get to know different people, develop new skills, overcome new challenges, etc.
So, Lisa's time was up. She was needed elsewhere. I was a bit whiny about losing her and will miss seeing her as often. I am grateful for her example, organization and creativity. She is an amazing person! We'll miss you Lisa!
Kaitlin and I got a little silly with our makeup and tried blue eyeliner on our lips. What do you think?
Sarah getting all tied in knots at our yoga night.
Kaitlin was a great yoga girl. Look at that flexibility! I was feeling pretty cocky that I was keeping up with everyone until I almost fell on my face getting up from one position.
Sarah and Shaina must have had too much blood rush to their heads during yoga. They ended up with towel diapers. (o: Needless to say, our yoga class had a lot more giggling than meditation and breathing than your boring old "normal" classes.
We did a family photo session together at the park in the neighborhood - above are a couple funny shots. We had a few tense moments at the beginning as I got all set up and realized I have never used the self-timer on my new camera. It took a while to figure out the right combination of buttons to get to that option. We did a funny trick to get the kids to look at the camera - since no one was behind it once I clicked the button. I put one of the kids shoes on top of the camera and they thought this was funny and all fought to have a turn with their shoe on the camera. Who knew?
Sweet little Sammy - I love his big brown eyes.
My siblings doing what they do best - goofing off! (o: That's "our" house in the background. The Cuckoo's Nest. Very appropriate for my family! (o:
Sarah and Collin bonded a lot on this trip! (o: What cute buddies.
As always, my girls LOVE to be with aunt Chrissy.
Everyone loves aunt Chrissy!
We took turns making meals. One night, Russ treated us with his Margharitas after dinner. (Virgin, of course - we are already nutty enough minus alcohol - although, I wonder what it would be like to see Andy a little tipsy - it's probably better we don't go there!)
Our firepit in the backyard was tons of fun, but the smoke was hard on the old eyes. I don't remember if Sarah or Andy came up with this idea, but it worked well and was definitely a good Kodak moment!
We love visiting the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. The kids loved it!
Nat swimming with the jellyfish. (o:
I love sea animals - they are so fascinating. I think the kids thought so too.
Cute. Waiting for some food at a restaraunt in Newport.
Danny is a hoot! I love this kid. I "played" checkers with him. Although his version was much different than any version I've played. I rarely got a turn and most of the pieces were fighting each other. (o: I think Danny won.
A prickley purple sea urchin.
Tidepooling is so much fun, but this time around there were a bazillion flies all over. Sarah is smiling for this picture, but she was miserable and very freaked out with the swarms of flies. I've never had this problem tide-pooling before. Not sure what makes it better/worse. 
I'm kind of cringing too - you can see one fly on my leg, but there are seriously hundreds all over you just can't really see them in the pictures. Between that and Angela freaking out that the ocean was going to "get her" this was not the most relaxing tide-pooling adventure!
Rachel, Danny and Kaleb exploring the front yard of Captain's Quarters. Our other beach house.
I have a series of about 20 pictures like this with various expressions. Funny kids! This is all the cousins together.
Chris thought our waiter was cute, so I snapped a picture of them "together". My cousin Megan and I used to do these sorts of pictures a lot. He he.
The girls in front of Mo's with their sparkley treasures grandma bought them.
On the way home, we stopped at the Tillamook Air Museum. We'd never been there before. It was huge! The boys had a lot of fun. (o:
Walking along Cannon Beach "downtown" - I love this town.
And, of course, we HAVE to make time for Camp 18. We went home this way just so we could go to Camp 18. (o: They had a big enough table for all of us to sit together. As you can see, Natalie has creative ways to entertain herself at restaraunts.
A fun shot of grandma and grandpa with all the grandkids! Uncle Russy was doing some pretty entertaining moves behind me to get the kids to laugh. I need to hire him!
