More from the Northwest...

Day 4

August 8

Battleground Washington is right across the Columbia River from Portland Oregon so we spent a lot of time there.  Portland is known as the City of Roses, there are even roses growing along the side of the freeway.  So of course we had to visit the Rose Gardens.

This is a spectacular place with roses as far as the eye can see.  The wonderful smell is apparent as soon as you walk through the gate.  Each rose is labeled throughout the garden. 

We went to this amazing park to let the all the kids play and let the parents relax.  But I think the parents ended up playing just as much.

Indie loves a good swing.  Don't worry I "wet oned" her hands after.

This is my cousin Meagan going down the slide with her kids Jackson, Bennett and Wilohm.  It was hysterical.

Afterwards Ellynn and Jason took us to downtown Portland to walk along the waterfront.

That night we went to Cory and Meagan's beautiful home for a delicious dinner.  And talk about an amazing view...you can see Mount St. Helens from their house.

Day 5

August 9

Saturday morning Geof, Tony and I went for a run in Battleground.  We weren't quite sure how to react to all that oxygen.  Brooke and her kids got packed up and headed to California to start their new life.  We decided to head in to Portland and go to the original Spaghetti Factory.

It is a really unique building with a purple roof and tons of windows so you dine with a fantastic view of the Willamette River.

Afterwards we took a walk along the river.

Seriously everywhere we went there were tons of rivers and lakes with trails all along them.  There were always people out walking or biking.  It is awesome.

This is Tony's signature move and the kids were getting in on the action.

We found a park with the only remaining teeter-totters in the world.  Just kidding but I haven't been on one in ages.  It really starts to hurt your inner thighs after a while.  I can see why they have been removed from a lot of parks, we had a few close calls.

This is my new favorite picture of my babies.

Day 6

August 10

Their ward doesn't meet until 3 p.m. so we had some time to kill before church.  We walked around Lewisville Park.

And then played at a park.

Couldn't you just eat her with a spoon?  I swear Hazel is adorable.

That evening we had a delicious dinner of fresh salmon, broccoli salad, roasted potatoes, garlic bread and sushi for an appetizer.  It was awesome.  We had family home evening and then snuggled down for some Olympics.  It doesn't get much better than that.

Until tomorrow...

Washington or bust...

On a whim, we decided take a road trip to Washington to visit my cousins.  Tony's schedule recently changed so he now works 7 days in a row and then has 7 days off.  He also finished up a summer class he has been taking so we thought we would take advantage of this time and take a much needed break. 

Day 1

August 5

The plan was to leave right after work on Tuesday but we didn't actually get out the door until 8 p.m.  Our goal was to make it to Boise so after 4 hours of driving we pulled in at midnight.  We didn't want to spend a lot of money on a hotel we would only actually be in for 9 hours so we checked into the Econo Lodge which turned out to be a dive.  I think the quote of the day was, "that better be marinara sauce," when Tony saw some questionable red substance on the comforter.  Classic.  Also classic, the height of this shower head.

Day 2

August 6

We took off at 9 a.m. after enjoying our continental breakfast of toast that we toasted ourselves.  The next 7 hours are a blur, no I'm kidding, Indie actually did surprisingly well.  We borrowed Alicia's "big girl" car seat and she just chilled.

We stopped at Multnomah Falls on our way in.  What an amazing place, it was just the beginning of our budding romance with the Northwest.

We finally arrived at Aunt LeAnne's at about 4 p.m. and made ourselves at home.  That evening we headed to Battleground Lake for dinner and a swim.

Little friends June, Indie and Sawyer.

This is a horrible picture but this is the most incredible place.  It is a caldera lake that is surrounded by a thick forest.  One of my most favorite parts of  this trip was swimming across this beautiful lake.

Day 3

August 7

Early Thursday morning LeAnne, Brookie, Tony and I went to the Portland Temple for a session.  What a beautiful place.  They even have a room where families can take wedding pictures indoors because of the rain.

What would a trip to Washington be without a visit to Burgerville?  Walla walla onion rings, raspberry shakes and Tillamook cheeseburgers...Hello.

That afternoon we went to Lake Merwin, yet another fabulous place.

We found a secret cove perfect for cliff jumping.

Tony and Ind were just hanging out on LeAnne's deck that has a perfect view of the valley.

To be continued...

It's like Christmas in July...

About a month before we got married Tony and I went to RC Willey to buy a mattress.  We had no other choice, we needed a coffin I mean a bed, so we were going to bite the bullet.  As the salesperson was typing in our information we got a phone call from Tony's aunt Mindy.  She told us her friends were getting rid of their king size mattress and were wondering if we wanted it...ummm yeah.  We told the salesperson to scratch that and took off to pick up our free little beauty.  I use those words loosely because in reality that mattress had seen better days but beggars can't be choosers.  We truly did appreciate it and the fact we wouldn't be going into debt before we even tied the knot.  

It has served us well over the last six years but lately it has gotten to the point where I could barely snuggle up to Tony over the huge ridge in the center so we both got lost in our own little body impressions.  After many a restless night and many many months of saying we were just going to buy a new mattress, we finally did it.  We took some of Uncle Sam's tax return and headed to a little furniture warehouse in Layton that we had been referred to by two different people.  We tested every mattress there and finally decided on the perfect one.  The guy told us it would be there in three weeks and we were delighted when he called two days later to say it was already in.  He delivered it July 21st and this mattress really is a beauty.

It took us a few nights to get use to the firmness because we were use to our "little pile of straw" as Tony refers to it.  Now we are both sleeping like babies, or should I say like one year olds, because we all know babies don't sleep through the night...I think they should change that saying.

Here's the redneckish part.  We put our old mattress out in the front yard with a "free" sign on it and someone took it.  I just couldn't see taking it to the dump if some poor person could get some use out of it.  Pay it forward I always say.

So here's to finally getting a good nights rest.

Girls Camp...

Yesterday I was able to spend the day up at Heber Valley Camp for our Stake Girls Camp.  It was a great day filled with humanitarian projects, certification olympics, mafia (a fun game the girls play), skits, campfire, good food and great girls.  

Don't you think,

this is what Maddie will look like in 9 years?...

Maybe it's just me, but even when I was showing Tony all my pictures he said it looked like Mad before I asked who he thought it looked like.  We had to help the girls put together a skit based off a Mormon Ad.  The group was made up of about 20 girls from different wards and about 90% of them were hyper little beehives which made it interesting.  This little ham wanted to be the main girl in the skit.  At one point I asked her name and she said, "Well my name is Paige but in the skit my name is Kelly."  It was hilarious because we didn't even use names in the skit.  She really got into character.

The campground was absolutely beautiful and huge too.  There were over 3,500 people there throughout the different campgrounds and I didn't see any of them.

This little guy was literally 5 feet away and he wasn't even scared of us.  They say the animals up there act differently due to the fact it is a dedicated area.  There really was a wonderful feeling there and I felt the Spirit strongly all day.

I am so glad I was able to spend the day with these amazing girls and leaders.  I love, love, love my calling right now.  I can only hope that I am having the same positive influence on these girls that my amazing leaders had on me.

Family, isn't it about time...

On Sunday July 2oth my cousins were in town for a quick visit so we made the evening into a Stevenson/Beecher reunion.

This was our first time meeting little Sawyer and Indie loved him immediately.

Mindi taking a picture of me taking a picture of her.  We know a good picture when we see it, right girl.

I told Tony my only job was to bring the chips and the dessert and he said his only job was to make sure all the kids liked him...

Mission Accomplished

Hazel was entertaining Ind for me and doing a darn good job of it, but moments after this photo was taken they both took a nose dive.

Look at these cute little bugs...

Thanks for making the detour and coming to visit.  

Hopefully my plan will work out and we will see you very soon.

Two for Tuesday...

Favorite album right now...

Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends

by Coldplay

They've done it again, another spectacular collection of songs.  We could (and we do) listen to it over and over.  Every song is awesome.

Check out the song Lost! it is my favorite.

See you in November boys.

Oh and Gwynie, if you could be there too that would be great.  Allie and I would love to see you with Apple and Moses with their little head phones on.

Au Revoir for now...

Every summer for years Tony has watched the Tour de France and much to his delight he has got me hooked as well.  It has become a part of our summer.  Sadly, the tour ended yesterday after 21 days of racing over 2,2oo miles.

It can be so intense especially the last few kilometers.  And after 3 weeks of watching and hearing all their background stories, you really get to know the bikers and want certain ones to win.

During every stage there are a few wrecks which, I feel bad saying this, can be exciting too.  This year a guy hit a road sign and his bike got about 8 feet of air, I'm not kidding.

They race through a beautiful part of the world and the scenery is phenomenal, the best part is they end up in Paris.

We love the announcers Phil Ligget, Paul Sherwen and Bob Roll.

Plus you get to see all the crazies.

Viva le Tour.