Memorial Day Weekend

Crystal and Mike came to Oregon this weekend to visit us. They were such good sports to travel so far for a short time, and we had sooo much fun!

On Saturday we traveled down to Newport, where we saw a couple lighthouses, ate famous clam chowder at Mo's, and saw boats and lots of sea lions on the docks!








Then we traveled up near Tillamook and hiked to a big waterfall, then went to the Cape Meares Lighthouse.




Memorial Day we saw some of the sights we saw last weekend. We got to play on the beach near Astoria for quite awhile in the morning.



There were lots of seagulls and pelicans-Nate even went out and caught some fish with them!

Oregon!!

We made it to Oregon a little over a week ago. Nate enjoyed his first week of his internship at Intel. We have just been settling in. Our apartment is the biggest we have lived in, but we didn't bring very much stuff to fill it up-therefore we need lots of visitors!!

We went to the coast on Saturday! It was hard to wait even just one week to see the ocean so we ventured out even though the weather wasn't supposed to be great. It was pretty cold, but we were only rained on a little bit!



We started out by going to see the ship wreck sight in Astoria.






Then we crossed the 4 mile bridge over the mouth of the Columbia River into Washington.



We went to a couple of lighthouses in Washington (North head and Cape Disappointment.) Jessica liked the hiking backpack more than we anticipated-yay!



After that we drove down to Cannon Beach and played there for awhile. It was pretty much the best day ever!



The ocean was a little scary at first...



but Jessica got braver...



and braver.



Jessica had the time of her life on the beach! She just picked up everything in sight and ran and ran. It was pretty cold, so we kept Emily bundled up, but she seemed to enjoy it too-she was very patient with us dragging her around everywhere!

Celebrating...Easter, Nate's Birthday, Our Girls!!

We had a fun Easter this year! Jessica now knows about candy-she even got the idea that more eggs=more candy!! We were invited to an Easter egg hunt and party, so we got together with several of our friends.




Nate is now 27!! He still wants the same cake every year (chocolate with coconut/pecan frosting). I think Jessica liked it too.




Emily has discovered herself in the mirror. She seems to be pretty pleased about it too!

Utah Trip

We made an unexpected trip to Utah in order to go to Nate's Grandma Jack's funeral. Her funeral was a beautiful tribute to such a remarkable person!

We enjoyed seeing our family while we were there. I think Jessica loved having older cousins to play with, and hey-we got free babysitting!



Emily was also blessed while we were there. It was wonderful to have so many family members present.




Emily with Great Grandma Martineau.



We also got to have a "tea party" hosted by Grandma Jack!

Sisters!!

Emily is here!

That's right, Emily Jack was born Tues Jan 12 at 12:47 a.m. It was an unexpected and late night rush to the ER Monday night under potentially serious conditions, but everything turned out good in the end.

Within one hour of arriving at the hospital, Emily was removed via a quick emergency c-section. Emily had a rough first few minutes of life, but she's doing very well now, as is KayLyn.

Emily weighs 6 lbs 7 oz, and is 19" long.

We're so grateful to all those who have helped and have offered to help. We especially appreciate the prayers in our behalf.

Happy everything!

We have been doing a lot of celebrating around here lately. We had a wonderful Christmas-and Jessica even enjoyed opening presents this year!


We picked up Alden and Kira in Chicago the day after Christmas and they spent the next week with us. We saw the sights in Chicago and later traveled to Springfield and Nauvoo. We also celebrated the New Year together.



Then Jessica turned 2 and got to open more presents and eat cake!