Playing Dress-Up and Soccer

I think every familie's pets have to go through the torture of being dressed up. I think our dogs have gotten so use to it over the years that they've learned not to fight it. Gunner doesn't particularly like to be dressed up but he tolerates it. But Tank on the other hand doesn't just not fight it, he helps you dress him because he loves to dress up in his tutu and pink headband. When you get them out, he actually ducks his head as if he is trying to help put them on. Did you catch that our dogs happen to be HE'S?

Gunner also likes to watch television. If you haven't noticed, there are a ton of animal commercials. Gunner even knows these commercials by their music or sounds. If he's somewhere in the house other than my bedroom, he'll hear the music of his favorite commercial and come running up onto the bed. When I leave the house I leave the tv turned on for the dogs to watch. When I come home and go into my bedroom, you can guarantee Gunner wants to play a game of "challenge" for the remote control. He gets this look in his eyes and crouches down like he wants to pounce and this is his way of saying, "On your mark, get set......" and then we both lunge for the remote. Since we are probably on our 4th remote this year, you can guess who wins the challenge. BTW, The Animal Planet Rocks!

We went and watched Daxton in his first soccer game tonight. He plays for the Silver Sharks. He did really well and even scored a goal. It's so much fun to watch the kids when they are this little. I think they have more fun socializing with each other than actually playing the sport. It was cute to see them congratulate the other team players after the game, I'm sure not even knowing or caring if they won the game or not.

Back to School Then and Now!

Taylir her 9th grade year, Colton his 8th grade year and Kylie her BIG Senior Year.

Carson his 6th grade year. He's not in the picture with the other 3 since the Jr. High and High School start so much earlier than the elementary.

I thought it would be fun to see what the kids looked like the first day of school 6 years ago. This was our first year together as a family. This was the only time that our four younger kids would be in the same school at the same time EVER! Kylie was in 6th grade, Taylir 3rd, Colton 2nd and Carson Kindergarten. The girls can't believe they actually consented to letting me dress them the same. This picture doesn't show it, but the boys actually had all matching clothes for that year too, Kindergarten didn't actually start this day but I wanted Carson in the picture for memory sake. I use to dress the girls in matching clothes/hair along with the boys for that whole year.....Back then I thought it was cute and the kids liked it too.....now I don't think they agree!!

Later that day we had dinner at Doug and Kristi's house to celebrate Kylie's birthday


Kylie opening up her new video camera from all of us and a box of Milk Duds from Daxton

Even Kylie's Sunday School teachers remembered her birthday.....how awesome is that?! I think this is the first time she has ever received flowers! Of course Ky had to have a funny picture along with a serious one.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYLIE!

17 YEARS AGO AT 3:48 PM AT THE ELLIOTT HOSPITAL IN MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE WEIGHING IN AT 8 POUNDS 5 OUNCES AND 19 INCHES LONG, KYLIE MADE HER DEBUT!! SHE HAS MADE US SO HAPPY ALL THESE YEARS AND WE ARE PROUD OF THE YOUNG LADY SHE HAS BECOME............HAPPY BIRTHDAY KY KY!!!!!

Last night we had a pre-birthday party since Mark was leaving for Oregon and would be gone today. Kylie got to blow out the candles from her favorite birthday cake, Skor Bar Cake. She also had her favorite meal, Pepper Steak for dinner. Tonight we are going to Doug and Kristi's for some more birthday partying.

We are Home!

We made it back home from our wonderful adventure in Oregon. We left Oregon Thursday morning at about 5:30 am and drove the 5th wheel straight through, arriving home at 8:00 pm. Not too bad timing pulling a big load. It felt good walking through the doors to our "sprawling mansion". 5 weeks of living in the confined space of our 5th wheel made even our small house feel huge! Even the dogs were excited to run around the yard and reclaim their territory.

The ride home was the most comfortable for Tank who just layed across anybody who was in the back seat.

Waiting for us back home was our new little Will, our first grandbaby. What an absolutely beautiful baby!! I'm not just saying that because he's ours, he really is beautiful! He is 3 weeks old today and a little over 10 pounds. Brandt and Elyse brought him over for a little family welcome home party we had last night. Grandma Garrison was able to be there too. She is here visiting because her mom, Grandma Brinkerhoff isn't doing too well and we don't think she will be with us much longer. Mark and I actually visited her tonight and she has really gone down hill quickly since we saw her last before leaving for Oregon. What an amazing woman she is and what a wonderful life she has lived these past 94 years. She is a wonderful example for our children to look up to. As much as we will be sad to see her leave this life, we look forward to her reuniting with Grandpa Richardson who passed away nearly 30 years ago. What a wonderful reunion in heaven that will be!!



Along with getting to see little Will, we were able to see our other new little one, our grandpuppy Diesel. He is Kortney and Chase's Great Dane. He is 13 weeks old and already huge but will get even bigger.....up to around 180 pounds of love!! It was great seeing Kortney again.....I love that girl!! I am so thankful for her and the relationship that her and I have. (Love you 2 Chase!)


Before our little party Friday evening we were able to go watch Carson in his first football game of the season. It was actually just a scrimage but it was against a team that hasn't lost in 3 years. Carson is the running back and does a fantastic job. His team won 8 touchdowns to 2, with Carson making 4 of the touchdowns. I'm pretty excited for the season and love watching my little Carsy Boy play. It's still hard watching when he gets tackled and boys falling or piling on him. Luckily he's pretty fast and avoids too many of those.....brag brag!!! :) We got to see Daxton and Jett at the game too. I had really missed them and gave them big hugs and kisses. Kristi said that Jett had been pretty fussy with no nap but he sat with us the whole game and smiled and giggled with us. Dax was having fun playing with Diesel. Dax is sleeping over again tonight, along with last night. He has been entertaining us all day! Jett is home with his daddy while Kristi is flying tonight.



Mark has to leave us tomorrow and fly back to Oregon. It will be strange having him away from us again. We got so use to being all together for those 5 weeks. I guess we will have to get ourselves back into our routine. With school starting Monday I'm sure it won't take long. The kids are pretty excited to get back to their friends but I'm not too sure about the homework thing. We've boughten several new outfits and they look darling in them. I'll have to take pictures of the BIG first day back, which is also Kylie's birthday. She's not too excited about her birthday being on the first day of school but oh well, we'll have to make it special for her.

We are Home!

We made it back home safe and sound in just 14-hours. It was so sad to see that the further we drove away from Oregon the less and less green it got. As we drove into the valley though, it was home! I think we'll just consider both places as home.

Our first full day home we were able to finally meet our new grandbaby, Will. What a beautiful baby he is. I know we are prejudice being the grandparents and all, but he really is a beautiful baby. His hair is wild and awesome!! We had a pizza party at our home with the kids and Grandma Garrison Friday evening and we all passed him around. We also went to Carson's first scrimage football game before the party and watched as Carson led his team to a "win" with him making 5 of their 8 touchdowns.....way to go Carson!!!

We also got to see how much Diesel had grown....he's our grandpuppy. He is a great dane and is suppose to grow to weigh about 180 pounds. He's already huge! Kortney and Chase are so cute with him and they have already taught him how to shake, sit, lay down and rollover. Tank doesn't like him though. We think he feels replaced by Diesel, since Chase and Kortney use to dote on him so much. Gunner likes him though, but probably in a way that isn't so good to tell you about. (Gunner was never neutered :)

Today we are having lunch with Grammy and Papa who are here tending Isabella, Kris and Steve's little dog, who didn't get to go on vacation with them to a "no pets" cabin up in Yellowstone. We have Daxton with us who was happy that we are finally home. He slept over and is spending the day with us. It was so good to see him and little Jetters again. I was so happy to see that Jett didn't forget who we were. He sat with us at the football game and smiled and laughed the whole time. I just love those two boys!

We are happy to be home and get back to our normal lives. School starts Monday morning and I think we're ready. The kids are actually anxious to start. They really missed their friends and are more excited to see them than the homework I'm sure. Mark will be with us until tomorrow evening then he has to go back to Oregon without us. It will be hard adjusting back to being separated again. We loved being all together. I'm sure we'll handle it like we did all last year though, just fine. We will look forward to our weekends with him that is for sure!!

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Try this and see which princess you are!


You Are Cinderella!

Dignified and hard working. With a gentle and soft-spoken manner you have something many people don't. Patience. Even through the moments of heartbreak you're still able to hold onto all of your hopes and dreams. Bide your time; your dream will come true.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

I got this off my sister Kris's blog and couldn't resisit....I love Disney Princesses. I'm not sure I match with Cinderella though.....ME, a soft spoken manner and patient????? I do have my "Prince Charming" though and we're already living our "Happily Ever After". Sorry to get so sappy, but it's true! Try this and see who you are.

By the way, we're heading home to Utah in 5 hours at 3 am Oregon time. Guess we better get some sleep. Thank you to all of you here in Oregon who have made our trip so memorable. We have made so many new friends - I'm sure you all know who you are. We have had a wonderful time and have made lasting memories here as a family. Until we meet again!!!!!!

We are down to our last week here in Oregon..........boo hoo!!!!!! We are having a hard time swallowing that our summer adventure is coming to an end and school is right around the corner. In a way it will be nice getting back home and our lives there, but we hate leaving here. We really have enjoyed ourselves and have grown very fond of Oregon.

The kids have loved going to work with Mark and playing hide and seek in the mattress warehouse. They literally run and run all day and wear themselves out.

Colton in the maze of mattresses

Pallet Jacks are fun to ride the kids tell me!

Kylie still wide awake and Taylir sound asleep on the floor in Mark's office

While the kids are at work with Mark, I stay behind and read Breaking Dawn, the final book from the Twilight series. I'm about 100 pages from the end. Kylie of course is finished with it and Taylir is not too far from finishing herself. We went to a Twilight Party the night before the book came out - It was at one of the St. Helens girls' house that we met when we were here over Spring Break on the movie set of the book. Her name is Rochelle and she is awesome and knows how to throw a party! She had her whole house decorated in red and black (twilight colors) We played a Twilight version of Jeopardy, ate Twilight themed food and made t-shirts for "Team Edward" or "Team Jacob" that we wore to Barnes and Noble where we stood in line with 1,000 other eager Twilight fans to purchase the book. We have really loved getting to know the whole bunch of St. Helens girls.

Taylir has been training with the St. Helens Cross Country Team 3 mornings a week while we've been here. She's even made a few friends!! I knew that she needed to keep up with her running while here, being that she is missing all of her practices back home. Since I have to drive her to the school in the morning, me and Kylie decided that we would jog around the track while we wait for her. It's pretty exhilerating breathing in the cool, crip air of Oregon first thing in the morning. We will miss the temperature and fresh air here. We've had 60-s and 70's the majority of the time we've been here and haven't had any rain until last night while we were sleeping. Oregon summers are awesome!! I don't know if we'll be able to handle the dry 100's heat of Utah's August.

Tonight I had the kids go take pictures of the llamas across the street from our campground. Every time I take the dogs out potty the llamas come to the fence and stare at us and then make a funny noise like they are laughing at us. We've nicknamed them "The Laughing Llamas". It's so funny to sit and watch them stare and "laugh" at us. We took Tank over to see them up close tonight and the llamas weren't as brave as they made themselves out to be....they backed up and went the other direction. Guess they are only interested in the dogs from a distance.

Life in the trailer hasn't been that rough. We did better than I thought we would in the crowded space. I think this experience has been wonderful and it will be a memory that the kids will have forever. What a fantastic Summer!!!!!

We are having a blast here in Oregon! We're even getting pretty good with navigating ourselves around everywhere. The park we're camped in has been great and we've enjoyed getting to know Donna the camp host. She has been so kind and has looked out for us in such a caring way.



We have taken the kids and dogs to Fort Stevens State Park to play in the ocean. It was a bit chilly but they had so much fun running in the waves with the dogs chasing after them. On our ride home we took a scenic drive so Mark could show them some waterfalls he knew of. What a beautiful state this is!




We've gotten a close up look at an emergency room in Portland. While Mark was getting ready for work the other morning, he hit his head on a metal brace on our trailer awning and split his head open. Normally, back home we would have just drove 2 minutes up the street to Tri-City Medical Clinic, but here in Scappoose/St. Helens, the urgent care clinic doesn't open until noon. We had to drive over Cornelius Pass and into Portland to St. Vincents Hospital. His head got all put back together and is healing nicely.



These are pictures we took at a park we had a picnic at with Kirk and Gina and their kids Today the kids said they were having so much fun and didn't want to go home. We have a little less than two weeks left and it will be back home and back to school. I guess it will be nice to have our schedule back and "normal" life, but we sure have enjoyed this awesome experience so far!!!