Out and About

On a beautiful Saturday in February we decided to take the kis to walk around the Portland Temple grounds.  On our road trips we always try to at least catch a glimpse of every temple we are currently near so we figured it would probably be a good idea to actually visit our local temple.  The kids loved it.  It was beautiful weather, some flowers were blooming, and it was just a very nice experience.  I enjoyed walking around the outside too, I don't do that very often when I am there.  The kids especially loved all the pools of water and the fountains.

See!  The sun is so bright and beautiful we couldn't even get a good picture of us!  What a problem to have!

This is one of my very favorite pictures of Darcy so I threw it in too.  Though she has lost the perma-grin she had as a baby which earned her the nickname "my sunshine baby," when it breaks through it takes my breath away with love for this sweet, difficult, head-strong little child of God.

We also went to the LDS bookstore next door and bought Drew her first scriptures, engraved and everything!  She ended up getting what SHE wanted, not what I wanted her to want, but they are very nice.  They were supposed to be a gift at her baptism in a few weeks but we gave them to her early since her teacher at church requested they bring scriptures every week to class.  I am glad they have already been put to good use!

On the flip side, on a very wet, cold day in February which happened to be President's Day so the kids were out of school, I was crazy enough to take all 4 kids to Seaside by myself for the day.  We went to the aquarium where they actually had a dead squid after I had assured Darcy all trip long that there would not be a squid there.  For some reason she is afraid of squid.  Must have had a bad experience with one before?  She was actually OK with it since it was dead and in a glass case.

We had fun at the aquarium, got ice cream cones, took an obligatory picture at the Welcome to Seaside sign for mom, and took a ride on the carousel.  When I tried to get Bree off that thing she threw such a fit!  The entire place was looking at her.  I couldn't get her out of there fast enough.  Welcome terrible twos!  On the way home as all 4 kids were asleep I took a detour to visit my old stomping grounds of Naselle, WA.  It was different for me this time.  Before when I would "go home" my parents still lived there so we were still making new memories there.  This time it was all reliving memories of my childhood, which was kind of weird and caught me off guard.  It was nice to see the town again and remember.