My Boy....JACO!

(Jaco with his AMAZING teacher whom we love, Mrs McDonald)

It is so humbling to be a mother. Then throw in a child like Jaco and the humilty is extreme! I could not be more proud of my boy. He is now officially done with elementary school and he completed 5th grade with a bang!(Jaco messing around with Josh and Ian)

Jaco has participated in our districts strings program for the last two years. Not only has he learned how to play the violin very well, but he now can read music and has learned quite a bit of theory. In fact, he and one other student are the only two who completed the theory book his class was working in this year. Being a musician myself, it brings me so much joy to have my son appreciate good music and love playing it!
The 5th graders at our school, get to go on a great field trip to mark their completion of elementary school. Both Justin and I were able to go with Jaco on a jet boat ride on Monday June 14th.

The weather forecast for the day was sunny and warm but it was quite chilly on the boat because it was going quite fast, and the driver seemed to LOVE doing everything in his power to soak his passengers! I think Jaco had fun in between shivering and huddling in his sweatshirt. I know Justin and I had a lot of fun!

After the boat ride, we all went to a nearby park for a barbecue and field games. By then the forecast came true and we all warmed up and even got a little sunburned.(Jaco and Ian aka David and Goliath except these two really like each other...I Promise they do!)

(The entire 5th grade class)

Tuesday the 15th, was the school talent show. Jaco and his Rubik's buddy Anson put together a routine where they solved their cubes together while dancing, joking, and throwing the cubes around. It was definitely an original act and they both did a fantastic job.

Wednesday June 16th was the last day of school. They had the school award assembly and the 5th grade graduation. (receiving his diploma from Mrs McDonald)

This is where my boy cleaned house! I think the only award he did not earn was for perfect or near perfect attendance. Jaco was so happy because he was given a trophy for his win in the school spelling bee. Plus he received a certificate for his work in the strings class and on it was a special seal because he completed the theory book. He also walked away with the Presidential Outstanding Academic Excellence award for scoring above average in the state testing of math, reading, and science. Jaco loves to read. He received a certificate for the most Accelerated Reader points earned. Most kids earned up to 100 points. Jaco earned 408 AR points! And then of course he got a certificate for graduating from 5th grade.I think the highlight of the week for Jaco was being asked out by a girl. I remember those "young" crushes and it has been pretty cute to see him so excited. Of course he knows he is not allowed to date until he is 16. I think it is funny to hear the phrase "Will you go out with me?" even though you can't really go out. Brings back so many memories! For instance, I really liked a boy from my neighborhood in 4th grade. I asked him out and he said he would "go out with me" if I could beat him in a race. Just so you know, his legs were twice as long as mine and there was really no hope for me! He was nice and let me try 3 times to beat him but I guess it was not meant to be.(Reilly is the lucky lady)

I am so proud of Jaco. He can be a trial sometimes, like when his meds (he takes medication for ADHD and it works like a charm!) wear off but really, he is a great kid. He doesn't fight me on homework or reading, he loves to learn, he is so handsome, and I just LOVE him!

Columbia River Gorge

Are you surprised that we took another last minute road trip? I'm not!

This time we headed north to the Columbia River Gorge. The Columbia river is huge and borders Washington and Oregon. Of course we had to take the scenic route so we were privileged with spectacular views of Mt Hood, Mt Jefferson, The Three Sisters, Mt Adams and all sorts of valleys, trees, streams, and rivers. Oregon really has to be the most beautiful state!

Once we made it to our destination, we lucked out and had a chance to go on a boat to see the gorge in all it's glory. The kids LOVED it and really hope we can get a boat of our own someday! They each got a turn to "drive" and thought that was the coolest thing ever!

Then we decided to go check out Multnomah falls. It is the nations second largest year round waterfall. We ate dinner at the restaurant near the base of the falls and then decided to hike up to the top! Daddy tried to talk us out of going all the way to the top after finding out there were 11 switchbacks, but for once the kids, even Jaco really wanted to go, so daddy lost and up the mountain we went. It was really steep and a great workout! Care Bear got carried a little but she did really good as did the other two. We promised a snow cone at the bottom of the hike and boy did we have some ticked off kids when we made it back down and found out the snack shack had closed just a few minutes before!

I think the highlight of the trip for the kids was sleeping at a hotel. They LOVE hotels! They especially enjoyed the great continental breakfast, the elevators, and the electronic key! Simple entertainment!

The drive home was long and the kids were done with the car, but we made it back in one piece and we still love each other so it was totally worth it!

Preschool Graduate!

My baby is growing up. I can not believe she will be 5 in about 2 months and will be starting kindergarten. Let me say it again, my BABY is growing up!

Tonight she graduated from her preschool. I loved the program we did. We started off with 6 families and we all took 2 week turns teaching the kiddos. We ended with 4 families because 2 moved away. Care Bear loved going to school, especially Tuesdays which were show and tell days. She has been the only girl for the last few weeks and she was a little diva compared to those boys!

In the last 9 months, Care Bear has learned to recognize most of her ABC's, she can recite the Pledge of Allegiance, she can count to 30 minus #15 for some reason, she can count back words from 10 on down, she can write her own name, she knows the days of the week, and she can recognize numbers 1-10.

Last week her teacher Carey asked all the kids what they wanted to be when they grow up. All 3 boys chose fire men and Miss Care Bear said she wants to be Mary Santiago. Who??? It is a character played by Selina Gomez in the movie "Another Cinderella Story". Care Bear watches this movie at least once a day! She tries to do the dance moves and knows all the songs. I laughed so hard when Carey told me this. Oh yeah, Care Bear also said she wants to build houses. Figure that one out! I guess I should know by now that nothing Miss Care Bear says or does should surprise me! The girl was popping wheelies on her 2 wheeler the other day and trying to see how long she could go with no hands. Thank goodness only a couple of seconds! Let me remind you, she is still 4 years old!!!

This is one of the cupcakes I made for our graduation party. I think they turned out so cute! The hat is a flattened Starburst sitting on a giant gumdrop. The tassel is a strip from a fruit roll up cut with scissors.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had the best long weekend ever hanging out with great friends and exploring this amazing world which was created for us and is protected by soldiers I am so thankful for!

We started Saturday morning by going to the local parade. Jaco was in the parade this year playing his violin! It was fun to watch him.We left the parade as soon as Jaco was done so we could hit the road and drive to the coast to go camping with our neighbors and friends the Bruners. We had beautiful weather Saturday. The ocean was green with blue skies above and almost no wind. It was the first time I have ever seen the Oregon coast so clear and warm!We had a big barbecue feast Saturday night with a variety of salads, corn on the cob, watermelon, steak, ribs, and garlic bread. YUM! And of course we had smores before bed! Breakfast Sunday morning was cooked over the fire and very unhealthy but oh so good!


The kids played while we chatted and cleaned up camp. The Bruners have kids very similiar in age to our kids so they all have a ball together.

We headed north before lunch to explore some more. We stopped at Pistol River because we were told it is a good place to find sand dollars. It is a beautiful beach with lots of soft sand and very few rocks. La-La was actually quite disappointed with the lack of rocks because she loves to find crabs! Daddy, Jaco, and Care Bear played in the sand while La-La, Cody and I went hunting for a perfect sand dollar. We walked and walked and found lots of pieces but no whole dollars. Then I saw what looked like a perfect circle laying in the sand and I hoped it was what I thought it was. I picked it up and one of my dreams came true! I have always wanted to find my own perfect sand dollar and I finally did it! La-La was so excited! She said it is good luck so we both wished into the dollar.

After cleaning off as much sand as possible, we loaded back into the van and kept going north to see our friends the Davis's who used to live by us but moved to Coos Bay in February. As we drove, the sun started to disappear and the ocean turned gray again. Still pretty but not as spectacular. Once we made it to Coos Bay, we packed up some food and headed to the beach. We lit a fire in the sand and roasted hot dogs and smellows. Fun but a little tricky to keep the sand off the food! I had to cook Care Bear 3 dogs because she dropped the first two!

We stayed up late Sunday night and of course the kids all woke up early Monday morning but we had lots of playing still to do so it was all good! After breakfast, we headed to the beach for low tide and finally La-La got her crab finding fix! Care Bear loved getting kissies from the sea anenome. At first she was scared but then she decided it was fun to have her finger hugged by a sea critter. She ran from one tide pool to the next yelling "Kissies, more kissies!"

Jaco is not into finding sea life but he was perfectly content digging in the sand. He made his own tide pool which turned out quite handy when it came time to let all the crabs go that Connor and La-La had collected.

After a quick clothing change, (I must say that I thought I had done so well packing this trip by bringing minimal clothes. For once I could have actually brought more! We had to do several loads of laundry due to the constant wet sandy beach clothes) we went to the Davis's church building for a Memorial Day barbeque. It was supposed to be at the beach but it was a wet drizzly day. Once our bellies were full of more yummy food, we went back to Brooke's house.

Justin and Mike Davis took La-La, Paige, and Connor crabbing while the rest of us rested and Care Bear took a much needed nap.

La-La was a little intimidated by the huge crabs but she had the time of her life. There are rules to crabbing: No female dungeness, any size rock crabs, but the male dungeness crabs have to be 5 3/4" across the back. According to these rules, crabbing on Monday was not a success. They caught some huge females but had to throw them back.

No crabs for dinner, but we had collected several mussels earlier in the day so we (when I say we, I do not include myself...yuck!) had those for dinner with some barbequed chicken, potatoes, corn, baked beans, and ice-cream for dessert. The big boys went off to play while the rest of us tidied up and put kids to bed.

Technically our weekend should have ended and we should have gone home to reality but why end a good thing if you don't have to?! Justin didn't work Tuesday so we opted to skip school and stay one more day to play. Mike did have to go back to work so the rest of us tried one more shot at crabbing. We went to a pier and threw two baskets in. A few minutes later and we had crabs! We weren't able to keep them all according to the rules but we still walked away with about 8 legal crabs.

I tried my hand at pulling in a net and it had one crab and 3 strange looking sea stars. I looked it up and I am pretty sure they were sunflower sea stars. We tried to get them up to the pier but all three fell off too quickly.

Justin and La-La stayed out crabbing for a couple more hours while the rest of us decided it was too cold and windy so we went home to eat lunch and pack up.


Mike came home for lunch right as Justin and La-La got back. Mike showed Justin how to prepare the crabs for eating. It was really gross and kind of violent! Those poor crabs had no chance! Then we boiled the legs and had a crab feast. I chose not to participate because it smelled so fishy! La-La loved it and did pretty good at getting the meat out. Justin did convince me to at least try it which I did and it tasted just like it smelled; GROSS!

Once we had the crab mess cleaned up and found all our gear, we sadly packed up and headed home. It was such a fun trip!

I experienced so many firsts. First time to see the Oregon coast without clouds and wind. First time to find a sand dollar whole and complete. First time to build a fire on the beach. First time to go crabbing and then to learn what to do with the crabs once you catch them. Jaco and Care Bear had a lot of fun but this kind of adventure is truly what La-La LOVES! She was not afraid of anything and was up to try anything. She ate mussels and crab legs and turned over every rock she could find just to pick up the little crabs.