Trip to Portland

We went to Portland for Labor Day to visit JR's brother and wife and their new baby Conner. Congrats to Ron and Britney! It was great to see family and it made me wish we lived closer to them. Luke and Brooke sure do love their cousins. We went to the Portland Zoo and rode their amazing train ride. We also did some swimming at the hotel which was probably the high-light for the kids. We did alot of visiting with family and eating yummy food. Thanks again to Britney for hosting all of us. Here are a few pictures of the adventures we had.


Here is Britney and her new baby boy Conner. He was such a good baby. I don't think I ever heard him cry. The blessing was beautiful and it was such a neat experience to have it at your home. You and Ron are going to be such good parents. Congrats again!


Here are Megan and JR's younger brother Aaron who also live up in Oregon. It was good to see them. Too bad their little boy Ryan wasn't in the picture. I got one of him below though. We celebrated Aaron's 30th birthday while we were there. Happy Birthday Aaron!


Here are all the cousins watching a movie. (Oh, except for Conner) We just had to throw Caitlynn on the couch,the rest of them were already situated. It was funny to see them all snuggled on the couch without us prompting them. Too bad I can't remember what movie it was that got their attention. It would have helped for the Halloween picture below.


Here is Luke and his cousin Hunter riding the amazing train at the Portland Zoo. The kids had such a fun time on the train ride-it was beautiful! (FYI-Luke and Hunter are almost exactly one year apart-Luke is just huge compared to everyone his age). If you look behind them, you can see Uncle Brad(Christi's husband)in the striped orange and white shirt. It was funny trying to get all of the Edwards packed onto the same train ride. We did it-and it was totally worth it!


Here are J.R. and Caitlynn checking out a sea lion I think. Caitlynn was so intrigued by the glass surrounding the aquariums. She kept touching it expecting it to be wet. It was cute to see how scared/excited she got when the sea lions or penguins would swim up to her.


Grandpa Paul and Grandma Karen with Luke and Brooke.


Me and Caitlynn having a fun time.


Grandpa Paul and Caitlynn hit it off great! This was the first time Grandpa Paul had seen Caitlynn. She loved to play with his glasses and he didn't seem to mind.


Here is our Halloween picture. Christi and I decided at the last minute to do a cousin picture. So we ran to Target at 9pm the night before to grab some shirts. It was so hard trying to coordinate shirts for all the grand kids ages 1 month to 6 years. So here is the final product. I like the pumpkin (Conner) in the middle the best. What we do for memories.


Our family had such a fun time!!! Too bad we couldn't stay longer. Hopefully we'll see some of you at Christmas.

Busy Season for Blogging?????

Not only is it college football season (Go Blue) but it is also busy season!! I have tried to back-post some of our summer adventures but every time I think of downloading all of the pictures, I get stuck. So I finally went through and picked out some pictures to post and when I tried to post them, the blogger monster won't let me. Is anyone else having trouble posting pictures??? Anyway, it still isn't a good excuse to not post our summer fun(I still haven't posted pictures of our Disneyland trip we took over 2 years ago)but it sure is driving me crazy!!
So instead of posting about our summer fun, I will do a family update-with no pictures of course.
(I got it to upload finally!!!!!)


So, we will start off with Luke starting 1st grade. He loves it! He gets to ride his scooter to school with the neighbor kids most days and he thinks his teacher Mrs. B is pretty cool. He has lost another bottom tooth and thinks both of his top two teeth are loose. He is learning to read more and more each day and his favorite books are the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series. His favorite thing to do at recess is play basketball. So, we signed him up for after school basketball on Wednesdays and he does very well. He is growing up quickly and I am enjoying his company more and more-surprisingly. I like to ask him how his day went after school and hear him talk about himself and his friends. He is growing up too fast.




Brooke is doing Joy School with five other kids this year. (any other crazy joy school moms out there?) This means that I teach one week and have all six kids at my house and then we rotate houses and teachers. I think the program is really superb and Brooke and her friends are really enjoying it. I just finished my week and I am pooped! But hey, it is free and I have the next five weeks to recover :0 Brooke is also doing Ballet on Wednesdays and then lots of play dates in the afternoons. She also loves to read books to herself, play joy school with Caitlynn(its really funny when she gets mad that Caitlynn just isn't "playing the right way"). She loves to wear dresses and is getting tired of waiting for her hair to grow out. She is learning to finally ride a bike-with training wheels mind you. She also can't wait until her Birthday in December.





Caitlynn used to be such a doll...now she is getting a mind of her own and she is definitely going to be very head-strong. She wants to be with Luke and Brooke wherever they are and will go to crazy lengths to get there. She is more coordinated than she should be and I am getting sick of finding her in the toilets and trash and falling down the steps outside. She loves to "ride" the tricycle and be outside at all times. She's still a daddy's girl and will sit and giggle with him at night. He tries to keep her awake later than I like but that's OK b/c she usually sleeps in until 8:30. Caitlynn has 4 teeth now but we can see two more popping through. She loves to take baths and have books read to her. She can say "dadda and momma" now. I can't believe how fast this year has gone by because her birthday is only a couple of weeks away.
Well, besides Joy School, I am staying pretty busy with my calling in the Young Women. I am the Laurel Advisor and there is alot of work that goes into this new calling. There's teaching, meetings and the weekly activities. It keeps me busy! I am still loving our neighborhood and can't believe how nice the weather is down here. I try to take JR lunch most days just to say hello and I am making new friends at church. I am wishing I had an extra hour in the day(preferably the early morning before anyone wakes up)just to get caught up. But all in all, life is good right now.
JR is sitting right next to me telling me that he has to work on Saturday and then will be out of town the first week in October. So, that basically sums up his life. He works alot and when he isn't working, he is home with the family resting or playing(and sometimes yelling) with the kids. We are mostly grateful for his job at this time and happy to be close to his work. It is so nice to have him so close to home.
So we have been one busy family. Wish me luck getting my summer stuff posted up before the holidays arrive...they are just around the corner you know!!
Love
Me

J.R. and Ronna's weekend gettaway at the Queen Victoria Hotel (aka Love Shack)

Since Uncle CJ was here to babysit, JR and I decided to get away for the weekend. I chose a bed and breakfast called the Queen Victoria hotel in Downtown SFO. It was so fun to have the night away to ourselves. The hotel was beautiful and we had a cozy fireplace in our room.
Here is a picture of the side of the hotel. I forgot to snap a picture of the front but it was gorgeous!

Here is our room with the cozy fireplace. (BTW I love antiques)

Here are a few pictures of the lobby and sitting room where you could get your tea and biscuits at 4:00 sharp! (We missed it darn it but I did get some yummy hot chocolate later that night!)



Later that night we wondered around Fillmore street in the city and saw some cute little shops. I saw this fun place called Bittersweet Chocolate Cafe and of course we had to stop.

They had these yummy chocolate "tiles" that I have seen at a few different other spots in the city so I HAD to get some. We chose the "Burnt Caramel with Sea Salt". It was divine.

JR and I had done some research on Yelp and found a yummy seafood restaurant we wanted to try. Here is JR with his Fish and Chips. They were huge and we thought they were the best we've had.

I ordered the Stuffed Lobster Roll but I thought it was a little overpriced. But all in all, the place got four stars. Too bad I can't remember the name of it!

The next morning we slept in and then went over to the farmer's market at the ferry building. It was really fun, but I forgot to take more pictures. We had such a fun time and I have decided that we should do these weekends more often. Too bad we don't have free babysitting anymore. Thanks again CJ. Can't wait to do it again next year!

P.S. As a side note. The reason we called it the "Love Shack" was because as we were leaving, Luke and Brooke asked where we were going and since they love staying in hotels so much, I didn't want to say that was what we were doing. So, I said that daddy and mommy were going to stay at the "Love Shack." They didn't think anything of it and so there was no big deal when we left. Well later that night, our neighbor came over(who happens to be in our ward) and he asked where JR and I were. Luke said "Oh, they went to the Love Shack for the night." He thought that was so funny so he emailed me the song on YouTube and told me all about it on Sunday. Let's just say, I was a little embarrassed.

Fairyland

In June we went to Fairyland in Oakland. We were picking up Uncle CJ that afternoon so we thought we would go that morning and check it out. Well, as you can see from the pictures, the kids had a great time even though it was clearly built in the fifty's and needed updated in the worst way. But, it was very cheap and the kids thought it was really cool that they got to unlock the storys with their "keys" and hear a small part of each fairytale. Definately something to check out with your kids if you ever are in Oakland.

Here they are unlocking the story "Three Billy Goats Gruff". Of coarse the keys were an extra cost. But totally worth it I guess since it entertained even my six year old.

Here we are at the entrance. This is actually taken after we were leaving and Luke clearly isn't happy. He wanted to get something from the gift shop and I had told him "no". That is the reason for the grumpy face.

Who doesn't love a carosel ride?



And here we are on the Jolly Trolly. Caitlynn even enjoyed the ride so Luke tried to take a picture of her and I. Hence the bluriness.

They had this really fun tunnel that had all of these musical instruments that the kids could run through and play. Also it had this really cool mural painted of all of the pixies throughout the tunnel. This was one of our favorite spots.



Here we are at the Peter Pan spot. The kids had fun climbing Captain Hook's Ship.



The Alice and Wonderland one was also a fav. They had this card maze that the kids had to run through. Got me excited for the new movie coming out in December.

Here we are listening to Old Mother Goose...

...Little Miss Muppet...

...and finally in the whale's mouth for Pinochio.

Russian River June 09

For the past three years our good friends have invited us to go to their family's cabin up in Sonoma County in Healdsburg (we like to call it Russian River). We have so much fun and the weather is always perfect. We go up on a Friday afternoon and usually take the kids to the adorable candy store downtown for some treats that night. Then after the kids go to sleep the grown-ups play some fun board games until one of us falls asleep. The next morning, Jason and JR go golfing and then Jenny and I go shopping at all of the cute overpriced boutiques. We grab lunch and then meet the guys and kids at the river for the rest of the afternoon. It is so fun and we always have a great time. Thanks Halls for creating such a great tradition for our family. We miss you guys already!!!