Endlessly entertained... or not

‎"You are here on earth for a divine purpose. It is not to be endlessly entertained or to be constantly in full pursuit of pleasure. You are here to be tried, to prove yourself so that you can receive the additional blessings God has for you"
(Richard G. Scott)


When you put it this way I might even stop complaining and comparing myself to others. Sure, I can strive to be better but if I am not endlessly entertained I will be OK. Everyone has trials and if not now they will come surely later. 


I totally am working on enjoying my life the way it is, and even though it could totally improve in many ways it can also get worse, much, much worse. I hope to pass the tests that come my way and learn to be a better person through it all. 

Camping, a funeral and Walla Walla, again

I really can't seem to stay put. I love to travel. I wanted to go do something fun with dad this summer and I know how much he loves camping. Also the first mission president that served in Romania lost his wife to brain cancer and we knew that her funeral was going to happen Saturday (we left Thursday) and it was relatively close to us here in our state. I loved this couple, the Morreys. They were so wonderful to everyone in Romanian and really set the good work for missionary work over there.

So we camped for two nights and then hurried over to Richland, WA to the funeral and then on to Walla Walla to stay overnight with Mike and Noel. Only overnight turned into two nights because we had too much fun. The kids got along great and delighted in swimming in their pool all day long.

Camping was great. We first stopped over near a lake and as soon as we got out of the car got swarmed with mosquitoes. OMG! They were horrible so we left in search of another place that was recommended to us near a river this time.
Turns out the place we went to didn't have mosquitoes but little annoying flies but that wasn't so bad. We found a spot next to the little river with a little beach next to our camp and this place was completely FREE. Sure no showers, just an outhouse and no running water. The mosquito place was $20 a night. I am so glad we went on.
We ate amazing food, hiked the beautiful mountains nearby, had a big fire and star gazed at night. It was so relaxing. We are definitely going back there. The place is called Teanaway.

It was fun taking photos with my dad's point and shoot camera. It's a good one.

The good moments of these two. Don't worry, there is probably more bickering going on in real life than kisses but they do love each other.

The fire wood was super dry and we got a nice fire going. It was warm even at night. Mom loved that.

Dad, the engineer likes to construct things. He put his knife to work and did this cool little mill. My kids were mesmerized and so were the slew of other kids in the campground. It just kept going and going. Growing up my parents hiked a ton with us and my dad always did something fun like this. He would carve little planes, and other fun things for us. What a fun childhood I had. I love my parents.

The water was really shallow so I wasn't scared it would take my kids away so it was nice to let them play there without being too scared.

There were lots of families there with lots of kids and the people next to us were very friendly and invited my kids over to paint rocks. What a fun activity and nice not to worry too much about the mess. 

 A little waterfall. The hike from here was a pretty long one so we just went up as much as we could before the kids started whining. We didn't bring much food with us so it was a good thing we took it easy and then went to make our yummy food. Oh,  and we saw mountain goats. They were far up but we could still see them fairly well. Apparently they are aggressive so I am glad they were far from us.

 I think I found my blue bell flowers. Dacian now keeps saying: Here's mommy where he sees flowers or here's daddy when he sees a hawk soaring above.

 Eating mici, the Romanian caseless sausages. We had a feast.

 The Palmers at the funeral. They were another couple who we love. They also served in Romania and we were so surprised to see them there. They have lived in the same ward with he Morreys for a long, long time.

 Elder Leavitt was the only missionary who could make it to the funeral. He lives fairly close to us. It was fun to hang out together.

 Here we all are. President Morrey is right next to my dad. He looked so thin and frail. A sweet, sweet man. He was so happy we were there and was so kind to us.

 Walla Walla Shakespeare Festival. We saw MacBeth one night. Pretty cool! Do you like how Shakespeare's collar spells Walla Walla?

 Noel I think loved having my parents there. We had so am much fun together. She was brave enough even to take my mom driving. I was in the back seating having heart attack after heart attack. She is a driver's ed instructor with a break on her side so she was very much at ease. Not me. I am so glad she took my mom though to give my mom some courage and excitement for wanting to learn how to drive. The reason she is not driving yet I feel is because of me or my dad. We are too scared to go out with her. I can't imagine one day having to do this with my kids. I don't have the guts but I am glad I have a sister in law I can ship them too. :)

Picture taken from the car. It was getting so green and pretty the closer we got to Seattle. It was also getting foggier, darker, rainier and colder. :) 

Oregon Coast-Yachats-Part 3

Told you this was a dream vacation. I feel so happy and so blessed. I only wished I learned to be this happy when fall comes around too. I love fall but I HATE rain since we get so much of it in this area. I never hated rain until I came here. I am convinced it's the rain and the cloudy days that make me depressed. I am also convinced I am getting medical help this time around. Also I am thinking on buying one of those lights.

But back to the dream...

After I got back from DC on Wednesday night (July 20th) I thought I had a day to do laundry and pack some more. Well... Wrong. Shane surprised me with a hotel in Portaland and we left early on Thursday. We packed real quick and left and got there in plenty time for swimming at the hotel and just relaxing and having dinner. 

This made our trip the next day to the coast a lot shorter. This way we were able to stop along the way a little and see the beautiful ocean. 

Our destination was Yachats in Central Oregon Coast. It was cheaper to vacation there. Shane's brother Mike and his family came too. They were celebrating their 15th anniversary and it so happened that the house we rented was next door to their hotel they stayed at so many years ago. 

Our house was nice, full of the most unmatching knick knacks I have even seen but it had everything we needed for cooking anything we wanted, and it had tons of beds, futons that even more families could have stayed there. 

So aside from the family reunion this was really Shane's vacation too. It was fun to have all of us there and Mike and Noel. 

We explored lots of tide pools, lots of beaches, sand dunes, ate at Mo's, danced and did Karaoke and just plain had a lot of fun. It was relaxing. Just what I needed after a big tour of DC. The kids were happy playing on the beach and being chased by waves. The water was frigid so I wished a little we were in SoCal but oh well, one can't have it all. 

We flew kites and jumped and got a thousand pictures and even saw a whale on our last day there. 

How I wish we stayed longer than 3 nights. 

After Oregon we had a family reunion/memorial for my step father in law's dad and went to Vancouver BC. That was also a lot of fun. We saw fireworks there for some contest,  They had different countries show their talents on different nights and we got lucky and saw China's fireworks. Probably the best I have even seen. also Vancouver, BC is just a beautiful city. This time I left my camera behind. I had had enough and I have no point and shoot. I work backwards I tell you. 

Also we want to go camping. My dad hasn't had any fun this summer. He babysat my kids when mom and I were in DC and Shane at work, took care of my dog and it's only fair to take him somewhere so we are planning a camping trip soon. Shane has to work so I guess I will have them all to myself. 

With all these trips none of my initial summer plans happened but I can't really say I regret it. No major cleaning has been done, no garage sale, no major dejunking. I always think I get to be a stay at home mom during the summer and experience what most moms get to do all year long but instead it's just a vacation, a little  longer than it is for most and for that I am so grateful and the reason why I love my job and don't see changing  it any time soon. 

And an amazing thing that can't be forgotten. My Lavinia is binkie free. Yeah, about time. She was so obsessed with that thing. She lost it in Canada while going on the dune buggy and that was the last I had. It was a tought adjustment. Actually she lost it right before the camping trip which  might explain why she was so whinny there. Either way, I am happy she's fine now and her teeth are even going back in like the dentist said they would. Phew, I am glad that's done. Now to potty training. It's such a pain. I thought I had the summer to do it but with being gone that was obviously not on my list. I hope to report with success in a few weeks. 

So that's it folks! I am happy! I love summer! Now I have to take my son school shopping. I have a little kindergartener here soon. Can't believe it but he's so READY!

 Isn't the coast so beautiful? I love the ocean wherever it is though.

 Noel took this picture and I love it.

 Mike, Noel, Alexis

 His kite is strong enough to pull him up in the air. Haha!

 Ariel is her middle name so she loved being a little mermaid.

 The octopus

Shane, the funny man 

 My beautiful niece, Alexis

 Alexis and I went on a walk and took pictures of each other. She took this one.

 She made me one too many cakes.

 M, N, A, L foot prints and more haha

 Our family. Look at how small my girl is. She is lighter than the youngest Sanders grandchild  and Zeke is a year and a half younger than her.

 Mike, Noel, Alexis, Logan

 Dacian

 Look at those waves- they were so big and strong

 Run for your life

 Dacian and Alexis were best buds and spent a lot of time together building castles

This was a very warm little river that was dumping into the ocean so the kids loved being there. 

 One of the tidepools

 Holding a star fish. There were hundreds there.

 Spouting horn-the water would go under the rock and go up a little tunnel and spout water up like a geizer. It was really tall and pretty cool.

 We found some coins in the sand.

 Me jumping at sunset

 Happy Anniversary Mike and Noel

 Alexis and I

 We went to a cool science center in Newport. The octopus was one of their bigger attractions.

 The house we stayed at had a nice sun room

Noel is the ghost of the lighthouse we visited. The haunted lighthouse.

 Not our castle but just pretending it's hours

 Family picture

And here's the whale. You could see if when I zoom in but I don't know how to save it all zoomed in so just trust me. See the water jet going up? 

I know this is a lot of pictures but this is nothing really compared to how many I took.