Cannon Beach, OR

For the Fourth of July, We packed up our car and headed to Washington! I went to Washington with Abbigail back in January, but Drew hadn't been since Thanksgiving and we decided that was too long! We left after work on Wednesday and stayed through Sunday. It was the best. We are all so spoiled when we go to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Abbi was the center of attention (like always), I'm pretty sure she is going to have some attention withdrawals now that we are back home. 

We enjoyed 4 days of relaxing, eating out, shopping and spending time with family. It was great! On Thursday though, Abbigail was acting a little off and everytime she had to pee (TMI?) she would scream! Something wasn't right. Thank goodness for modern medicine and doctors. We took her to one of the urgent care places, they took a urine sample and told us she had some kind of UTI. How do babies even get those? Anyways, the prescribed an antibiotic and aside from the fever that came along with the infection, she was feeling back to her normal self by Friday morning. Hallelujah! 

Abbigail's schedule was kinda messed up from the one hour time change. She was up at 5:30am every morning, which made for one tired Mama. But that also made for a tired baby and so for the Fourth of July we put her to bed at 8:00 and called it a night! Please tell me we aren't the only lame ones? But right outside my parent's window, people were setting off some pretty great fireworks, so we did enjoy quite the fireworks show without even leaving the house. It was perfect. 

*** Also, I blame this on the pregnancy, but Saturday night rolled around and I realized I hadn't taken a single picture! I was so upset. But trust me when I tell you we had a great time and can't wait to go back! 

Sunday Morning came and we decided we didn't want to be done vacationing. Driving back home and going back to work just seemed so blah. Can I get an Amen? It took a while to convince Drew (a whole 30 seconds), but then we decided to drive over to Portland to visit his sister Janelle and her husband Jacob. They are kind of the best! 

We got to their house and went swimming, played card games and Abbi really enjoyed coloring on their back door with window markers. I guess maybe I should invest in some of those. We convinced Janelle that work was for Lame-O's and she took work off for the next day. Jacob was a little more stubborn. Something about work is important and he couldn't miss. Darn you Jacob for being responsible! 

We woke up Monday morning and made plans to head to the Oregon Coast for a little day trip. Drew realized one of his contacts had torn and he didn't have any back up glasses. Luckily Janelle's eye doctor saved the day and gave Drew a couple pairs of new contacts. They were awesome! After Drew put his new contacts in, we headed to the beach...

Our day at the beach could not have been more perfect! We ate lunch at a little diner that sat right on the ocean! It was gorgeous! It was 65 degrees outside and overcast! It actually felt great, but we didn't pack a single jacket as we werent planning on heading over this way. So darn it, we had to go buy some! :) 

Drew said he would just "Man up" whatever that means, but Abbi and I both got some new jackets that said Cannon Beach on them! We had so much fun going into all the little shops. They had a chocolate cafe and a candy store! It's safe to say that Abbigail ate more candy that day than she had her whole life, but she wasn't complaining. I guess that's what happens when fun Aunt Janelle is in charge! 

Last year, when we were at the coast, Abbigail really liked playing in the sand, but hated the water. This year was totally different. She still loved playing in the sand, but she also loved playing in the water, chasing seagulls, and finding treasure (shells) in the sand. She is a little beach babe, that's for sure! We stayed for a few hours, but Abbi would have been happy there all night too! After splashing/sitting/practically lying in the ocean, Abbi was pretty wet. (Note to Self: Next time we go to the coast, bring an extra pair of clothes for the baby and toddler!) We stripped her down, tried to get as much sand out of her diaper as we could and wrapped her in a dry blanket. I think we wore her out. And with that, we headed back to Jacob and Janelle's to pack up all of our things and get ready for our long drive back home!

We had the best time! Thanks to Jacob and Janelle for letting us invade their place on such short notice. We sure love you guys! 

Cam & Kenna!

Back in March, (I know, still playing catch-up) My brother Cameron and his cute wife McKenna came to visit us! We always love seeing those two. While they were here we went to Shoshone Falls. The canyon was absolutely stunning, the waterfalls were pretty and they had the cutest little park that Abbi just loved playing at. 

I'm not sure why she was so grouchy, but unless she had "kitty" with her at all times, she wasn't happy with anyone! So, Kitty went with her EVERYWHERE that day. Abbi and Kitty especially enjoyed playing on the swings with Aunt Kenna and going down the slide! 

After the park we did a little shopping. It's just about impossible for me to go into Twin Falls and NOT stop at Target. (Curse you, you beautiful store!) So we went to Target and also to the DI. We found some good treasures. Cameron saw a practically brand new game of Scategories for only a couple bucks. Don't you love when that happens? So of course, when we were done shopping we went home to play Scategories. 

For dinner, we went to this pizza parlor here in Kimberly. From the outside, it doesn't look like much, but we had heard good things about it, so we went for it! It was the best pizza I'd ever had! SOO Delicious! It was small, and the people were so kind and personable. We so enjoyed it! 

We had so much fun with Aunt Kenna and Uncle Cam! Come back soon guys! 

Donkey Basketball

It's Friday Afternoon. Drew comes home from work and announces "Tonight is Donkey Basketball and I think we should go!" I grew up in a city of 60,000 people. I had 800 kids in my graduating class and we never, never, ever had a thing called "donkey basketball". I was sure Drew was pulling my leg. I thought for sure this was one of those times where he was teasing me and after he had convinced me it was real, he would come back a couple hours later and say, I was totally kidding, I can't believe you fell for it kind times. After two hours, I finally told him I would believe it when I see it. We first we to dinner at this cute, local pizza buffet. I gave it a thumbs up, plus it had a little photo booth there so of course we took advantage of it! 

After dinner, we drove over to the gym. We walked in, heard some kids say "Hi Brother Wright!" (I love when he gets recognized around town by his students.) We found our seats and a few minutes later they brought the donkeys in. 

You guys, this was probably the funniest (most funny?) thing I have seen in a long time! They rode donkeys and played basketball. It was nuts! Some donkeys wouldn't move, other donkeys booked it down the court it was hilarious! Abbigail was entertained the whole time! She thought the donkeys were horses. We tried teaching her donkeys say "hee-haw" but she was pretty content with a neigh. She yelled, laughed, cheered, clapped! Sitting on the bleachers wasn't good enough for her. She wanted to be right up against the railing, so she could really see what was going on. She's a hoot. 

^^ Failed Family Photo ^^

Long story short: Donkey Basketball IS a real thing and if you ever get the chance to go to a game, GO! It's root tootin good time! 

Dear Abbi: Social Media.

Right now, you are 13 months old. You are sassy and cute and loud and BUSY and I love you A LOT! You and I spend all of our time together! It's the best! You are very independent and you like to learn things on your own at your own pace. But today I want to teach you an important lesson about the internet and social media. You see, I (your mommy) like social media. I have for a while and I probably spend too much time on it. It's fun to post pictures and update friends and family on what's going on in our life. 

But listen closely! Once you post a picture, status, tweet, blog post, etc online it stays there. FOREVER! When you get into Middle School and High School you will go to parties and football games and sometimes put on crazy 80's workout clothes and record yourself dancing. (you think you're really good but looking back you realize you look like you just walked through a giant spider web and you're freaking out trying to get it off.) It's really fun, I KNOW! But FYI, a delete button exists on EVERY camera. You do not have to post every single picture you take on Facebook or Instagram. If you do, you might regret it later. Just to prove a point, here are some embarrassing picture I have posted on the internet in the past years...

Yes, you are seeing this right. I am hugging a giant garbage can. 

Reason #874 you shouldn't whine, someone might take a picture and catch you in the act.

Long story short, think before you post things online.

XOXO, Mom

P.S. If you'd like to comment you can either log in with Facebook or take 60 whole seconds and register with Disquis. Using this system will make it 30X easier to reply to you when you comment on my blog. :) And i like to reply to people it makes me and them feel good!

Oregon Coast: Part 2.

The moment we pulled up to the beach house, I opened the car door and could immediately smell and hear the ocean. I knew I was in my happy place. I am familiar with the Oregon Coast. I went often growing up and I have loved it for some time. 

The beach house my parents' rented was perfect. It was only a minute walk to the beach and it was a dream. There were basically two houses attached. Some slept in the larger house, and we (along with my younger siblings and Grandma) slept in the smaller house. But, we spent the day with everyone else and hung out in the big house. It was a big group of people and quite the party!

Not too long after we arrived, we all put on our matching shirts (parents made for the trip) and headed over to the beach to take pictures! Oh the weather was PERFECT! (all weekend actually.) If you're familiar with the coast at all, you know usually the weathers requires long pants, and sweatshirts. It was 75 degrees and sunny! You couldn't have asked for better weather!

As soon as Abbi saw the ocean, she started pointing saying "wow" and "ooooh". She LOVED it (from a distance.) She never did warm up to the temperature of the ocean. We took our traditional siblings jumping picture, introduced Abbigail to the ocean and soaked it all in.

Oh it was wonderful! After spending a little time at the beach, we headed into Tillamook. In Tillamook, we went to the farmers market and the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It was so much fun! I love going to farmers markets! They are always so colorful and full of personality! I just adore them!

... and I just adore the Cheese Factory as well! I've been quite a few times before this, and Drew and I went when we were on our honeymoon. ( actually this trip brought back a lot of memories from our honeymoon!) At the Cheese Factory, we went on the tour, sampled cheese, at incredible ice cream, and ate lunch at the cute cafe there. {my camera died right as we arrived, so all the pictures from here were from my sister's iphone. Thanks Savannah!

The next day we spent a lot of time at the beach! It was so perfect! The weather was warm enough we could put our swimsuits on and play in the water! So awesome! Again, Abbi didn't like the water, but she LOVED the sand and searching for cool rocks! So she had a good time..

After the beach, some of us went to go see a lighthouse! It was a smaller lighthouse, but still so fun to visit! We also went on a little hike to go see the "Octopus Tree". That was fun too! Except, on the way back down, Abbi tripped and got her first fat lip. Poor girl! She is really tough, and didn't cry for too long, but her lip was fat for a couple days!

After our fun day, we went back to the beach house, ate some dinner and sat on the deck where we had an awesome view of the beach. My Dad played some guitar and Abbigail danced! She loves music!

The next morning we packed up our bags and got ready for our long drive back home! We tried to get one last family picture before we left, but Abbi wouldn't exactly cooperate. So we blew bubbles at her... and it still didn't work. Little Stinker! 

We had SOOOO much fun at the Oregon Coast! A little vacation was just what we were needing and it was perfect! Thanks Mom & Dad! You guys are the best! Can't wait till we can see you again!