More of May

May 17

Today was spent finishing our bedroom--we decided to take the treadmill out of our room and move it downstairs to the office.  That freed up a nice big corner of our room for our new chair.  After that, we decided to go shoe shopping for sandals, flip flops and some new church shoes for the kids.

 This is Lydia and Maggie trying on sunglasses while we were helping the younger kids with their shoes.  These two are so funny.  One day they are best friends and the next they are constantly fighting.  I guess this was one of their good days.  Typical sisters.

 After shoe shopping, we stopped at Subway for lunch.  Garrett started being silly and was building 'the world's longest straw'.  It was actually quite funny. 

 Everyone wanted a turn to drink out of the straw...

 All except Maggie...she was utterly embarrassed!

 Back at home...the sweat band buddies

 Noah's started this new thing where he gives himself bunny ears.  It's pretty funny!

silly faces

Later in the evening, Maggie had a Dance Festival Dress Rehearsal.  I went to volunteer with whatever they needed help with.  This is some of our stake practicing the Cotton Eyed Joe.

 Maggie and her good friend Emma taking a break.

All of the stake practicing

May 22

Noah's preschool was having a bike rodeo that afternoon.  It was so cute!  Each of the classmates brought their bikes or tricycles to ride around the parking lot.  He loves riding his bike, so he thought this was so cool!

May 24

They have an awesome bike trail close to us that starts in the town of Banks. It runs out to the town of Vernonia and the trail is 21 miles long.  We've wanted to ride bikes on this trail for a long time, but we couldn't since most of our kids couldn't ride bikes.  But now that they all can, we decided to give it a try.  We didn't go the whole 21 miles...my kids tire easily.  But, we had a lot of fun!

 It was quite a sight getting all those bikes on our bike rack.  We had 5 bikes on there--the youngest bikes were in the back of the suburban

 a beautiful view of the bridge

 Not the best picture, but it does show how pretty it is there. 

trying to take a picture with your phone while riding is kinda tricky.  But I guess it turned out ok.

 stopping for a snack

 ready to get rolling again.

what a view!

May 26

Memorial Day

We didn't do any big celebrating today.  We didn't even bbq.  Garrett power washed the driveway and back patio, and I was busy scanning pictures onto my computer.  Later that afternoon, Jim and Georgia came over because Jim was going to help Garrett clear out some of the brush in our backyard.  It was quite the chore!

Grandma brought over some yummy watermelon and this girl had about 10 pieces!

May 30

I don't have any pictures but that night, I convinced the older girls to start watching Rocky with me.  So, we watched Rocky 1.  It was kind of slow and the girls thought it was weird.  But I kept telling them that it gets better.  So we watched through Rocky 4 over the next 2 weekends.  Maggie thought it was ok, but Lydia was totally into it.  She was so into the fights--jumping up and cheering--just like we used to do as kids when we watched it.  It was so fun!  I grew up on Rocky so it was fun to share it with my kids. 

May 31

 Garrett took all the kids over to his parents house (except Maggie) to help plant seeds in their garden. 

Maggie and I went with the YW on a hike.  It was for camp certification and they were required to go on a 5 mile hike.  We went on a beautiful hike up to Pittock Mansion in Portland.  I've always wanted to go there and go on a tour of the mansion.  We didn't go inside today, just hiked there.  So, now I really want to go back to see inside.   The picture above is all the YW and leaders right before we started hiking. 

 It was so pretty and such a nice hike. 

We stopped to rest at this stone house out in the middle of nowhere.  According to the internet, "it was built as a rest station with bathrooms and running water in the 1930s as a WPA project. It suffered from repeated vandalism, and during the Columbus storm of 1962 resulted in severe damage to the plumbing and the roof. The city decided not repair the building, and instead removed all the fixtures, doors and roof. All that remains is the stone framework."

a picture from the side.

 After hiking for an hour and 20 minutes, we got to the top.  And what a fantastic view we saw!  It was cloudy in the distance, so we couldn't see Mt. Hood, but it was gorgeous!

 Everyone brought a sack lunch to eat, so we ate out on the lawn looking out over the city. 
Rachel, Maggie and Emma.

 Pittock Mansion

 Our lovely young women

Heading back down the trail.  2 1/2 miles up and 2 1/2 miles down.  It was such a lovely day--I really enjoyed it. 

One last group photo

We stopped for milkshakes afterwards at the Skyline Restaurant.  So good.  I had my usual favorite--Peanut butter and banana and it was to die for!

And that was the month of May.