Hair!!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I do try to do Jessica's hair-although you've never seen it done. She won't have anything to do with it. Occasionally she will ask me to braid her hair, but she usually loses interest after the first braid and pulls it out while I'm trying to do the second. The best luck I have had is when I do her hair while she is watching a show. One time we even made it through the show and to the grocery store-we lost her hair ties somewhere in the grocery store. Sometimes I want to cry when I get done and she looks so cute, but alas she pulls it right back out!




If I try to put 1 or 2 bows in, she insists that I put all her bows in her hair, but that also lasts only a few seconds.



A picture of both of us in braids before........



I chopped my hair off!
I haven't had my hair short in a long time. Hopefully it will be fun and Emily won't get her little fingers wrapped in it as often! I donated 10 inches to Locks of Love, which I've wanted to do, so that was nice. I'm still trying to learn how to do it though.




In case any of you were wondering about the socks on Jessica's hands in a couple of the previous pictures. Ever since we checked out Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss, Jessica has decided she is the fox in socks and goes around with socks on her hands and feet all day (except for meal times, and when I think it is worth insisting she take them off in public!-it wasn't worth it the other day at the grocery store and hey I guess it kept her hands free of germs...) She sure has a style of her own.
I love being a mom!!!!!!!!!

Oregon Zoo

Last Saturday we went to the Oregon Zoo in Portland. We had a lot of fun, I guess too much to take many pictures! Jessica liked seeing the animals, especially the "Tiggers". Still, she seemed even more fascinated finding sticks to hold!



We also got to ride the train through "Washington Park" which is basically a forest. Jessica really liked riding through the woods and seeing the steam engine, but it was too loud for Emily. She cried most of the trip, especially went we went into a tunnel! Good thing we remembered to take a picture before we rode.

Oceanside

Last weekend we visited the Tillamook cheese factory and got to look through windows at workers cutting huge blocks of cheese. We also got to sample cheese, and even though we were there around 9 AM we were all feeling up to eating some ice cream. It was so good especially with their delicious waffle cones made right there!

Afterward we went to Oceanside to see a new beach-which of course was very beautiful. We even got to walk through a tunnel to access another beach on the other side of a huge rock!

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!