Guess That Goo!!

Any ideas where on earth that glob of goo is from?? I almost passed out when I saw it. Some things should not be shared, so I'm sorry for that.....but then I thought maybe it would be helpful just in case anyone else is having the same problem!!!! :)

My front loading washer was having a difficult time draining. Not having a washer or dryer functioning properly is like having a toothache. It's the most terrible predicament. Dirty laundry just keeps happening, they just keep wearing clothes, it never stops......AHHHHHGGGG!!!

Today my washer went half-way through it's cycle and then just stopped.....wouldn't drain no matter how nicely I spoke to it. I told Scott, my "fix anything guy" then I left the room. Not too long after, he came downstairs with something wrapped in a towel. When he unfolded the towel, I nearly lost my lunch. I was so proud of him. I knew he would fix it, I had no doubts. Besides, he knows that I get really crabby when the laundry starts to stack up!

And now since I haven't posted anything for a few days, I thought I would have a little contest. The first person to correctly count the change from the pile of goo will win!! What's the prize? The money, of course!! Or maybe we should play "I Spy"! I will list the items in the goo and you have to find them in the pile! Or maybe we should just move on to something less gross. I would be embarrassed to tell you some of the things we found in this pile.

For Sale!

So much for getting my posts caught up.......We listed our home for sale on Wednesday and today we had our first showing......and they LOVED it!!!!! Someone else is coming in the morning, so needless to say my days have been spent cleaning and then cleaning some more.

We went on an amazing hike on Tuesday with the Ball family. We did the Fort to Coast hike in Warrenton. We thought it was a 5 mile hike but it turns out it was a 6 1/2 mile hike! It was intense! It was a beautiful day, the weather was perfect!

I hope to have some time in the next couple of days to post a few pictures.

I'm Soooooo Tired!!!!

We went on an awesome 6 1/2 mile hike today with the Ball family! But now I'm sooooo tired I will post pics and more about it tomorrow!

My bed is calling...........

Just Wondering.......

Ok, I just have to ask: Does anyone else have a shoe rack like this??? I'm guessing probably not. I think it's pure genius!! It holds most of our shoes. I keep mine in my closet and Scott only has a handful of his shoes on there but otherwise all of the kiddos shoes are there!

Pretty crazy, I know but when there are this many of us........

Well, hope you survived reading all about our vacation last week....whew, I know. This week should be pretty *normal*. Three boys will be attending football camp at Glencoe, I'm hoping to take Sabrina in to get her driver's permit, we are going to the beach one day, grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, feeding a small army, shuttling people here and there......yep, just another week in paradise!!

And That's A Wrap!

Goodbye cute little deer by our house!

Kiddos climbing on rocks at Cline Falls!

Getting lunch ready!

Some of my laundry for the next week!

Sunday morning we woke up and pulled our sore, tired bodies out of bed to head into Redmond and go to church. We attended the same building that I went to as a child. It's a cute little building and many of the old-timers are still there. My 6th grade teacher still attends there and was very surprised to see us. It was fun to see people from my childhood and I think we made it out without making too many interruptions to their quiet, little meeting. Isaiah did poke Savannah in the eye with the keys and she made it known quite well that it hurt....a lot.

We went back to the house and began the process of loading everything back up in the van and cleaning up the place a bit. We went over to Cline Falls and ate our sandwich's for lunch and then headed over Mt. Hood to go home. All the way through Redmond, Terrebonne, Madras and Warm Springs, I was pointing out old memories and telling the kids things from when I was a child there. Levi asked at one point if I was going to tell stories the whole way home.......I might Levi, I just might I told him.

Central Oregon held a lot of great memories from my childhood. Many of those memories came from doing things with my grandparents. I didn't have a perfect childhood but we definitely put the "fun" in dysfunctional!! Ha ha ha.........

Anyway, then we came home and lived happily ever after! Ok, really we came home, unloaded and I started laundry that took me until last night to catch up on! But it was worth it! Five days worth of memories.....priceless.

Day 4!

Mostly smiles on everyone! They were a little wary anticipating the hike!

Oh yeah, and the other two in the family!


Maybe 20 minutes into the hike. Not so happy faces on some.

Someone was coming up the trail behind us and we all had to turn and look!

Here we are. Thank goodness you can't smell the sweat or see the dirt mixing with the sweat that was covering our legs!

At the top!!!

Again, this time with Scott in the picture!

She carried that bouquet all the way up!!!

Levi feeding the chipmunks out of his hand. They were taking the food right from our fingers!

And then back to the pool to clean off!! Just kidding, we washed up before we headed to the pool!

Wait for it.....

there it is!!!!!

"Man, that was freezing!!!!"

Hanging in the kiddie pool, where the water was much warmer!!!

Today was the day I was most looking forward to: The day we were to climb Black Butte!!!!!

My children and husband have heard the story a million times. When I was around 10 years old we lived in Redmond. One Saturday our family decided to climb Black Butte. We drove to Black Butte, parked our car on the side of the road, got out and started climbing.....straight up the Butte! We climbed and we climbed, for what I remember as being approx. 6 hours. We went through the brush and trees, got cut up and scratched and finally at almost the top, we stumbled upon a "trail" with a group of people walking along, laughing and talking.

THERE WAS A TRAIL???????? WHO KNEW?????? NOT US!!!!! I remember being so overwhelmed that we had just drug ourselves up the side of this mammoth *Butte* only to come up on this trail. We went the last 15-20 minutes or so on the trail to the top. As we got ready to go back down, I remember my parents asking which way we should go down: the way we came up or the trail? I'm sure it was my pesky brothers who said we should go the same way we came up and that's exactly what we did!

The memory that stays in my head is that it took us almost as long to go down as it did to come up! About 4 hours is what I remember. When we got down, we had no idea what direction our car was since we didn't go up and down in a straight line. We finally found it and headed home.

Fast forward to present day! We found the trail to hike! That was good news but the bad news is, it was still a very grueling hike!!! Almost immediately our children started grumbling. They were tired, it was too hard, it was too hot, they wanted to go back, why did we have to do this anyway......oh yes, I had to laugh. It was everything I remember telling my parents 20 years ago! But I didn't have any sympathy for them, we were on a trail for crying out loud!!!!!

I just kept telling them how good they were doing, how strong they were, what an amazing sense of accomplishment they were going to have when they reached the top. They knew what I was talking about. As we were driving there, they could see the Butte, looming in the distance. It is huge! The hike is a 3.6 mile loop. You gain 1600 feet in elevation! That's no small potatoes in my book!!!

The sweat dripped down our heads, faces, shirts, etc. The 3 of us that carried babies on our backs felt it even more. Most of the time, Scott also had Talli on his shoulders as well as Isaiah on his back. We couldn't take much water because no one wanted to lug their water bottles up the hill. We took a couple that we could hook on the backpacks. We took no food (except a couple of pancakes to feed the chipmunks) but had lunch waiting for us in the van.

When we finally reached the top, I was so proud of my family! Hiking Black Butte is no small achievement. It's something to be proud of, especially for the little ones! Many of the websites say that the trail is too much for children and not recommended for them at all.

Coming down was almost as hard as going up! It's killer on your thighs and feet. A few of the kids ran down. Those of us with a baby on our back did no running, except for Scott occasionally. Sabrina ended up carrying Talisha down most of the way, while she slept! Izzy slept, as did Jasmine. Must have been something about that rhythmic loping down the hill that put them to sleep.

Thank goodness Sisters, Oregon has a McDonald's. We stopped and got ice cream cones for everyone! Then we headed back to the house, got cleaned up the best we could and hit the pool!

We felt the pain of the mountain for the next few days after our hike. Our muscles screamed with every step we took. But it was a good scream!

Watch out Black Butte, we may come again!

Day 3!

Reindeer Farm!!!

They have some CrAzY antlers!!

Checking out those Reindeer!

Is that cool or what???

So many amazing structures!

This is one of my favorites!!

Couldn't get that pesky peacock to move!!

Very cool!

He had way too much time on his hands!!! Who would build something like this????

Simply amazing!

Cute little house!

That little house is balancing on that little spindly thing underneath it!

A girl and her gnome...it's a beautiful thing.

Love this picture!!

And this one!

How cute is this?

We call him The Bird Man!

The cemetery.

At my grandparents home.


Friday morning we got up and again, made lunches. Then we headed out to one of my favorite childhood places: Peterson's Rock Garden! I love that place! Still do!

This is the most quirky yet fascinating art display anyone could ever see in the Northwest. The garden contains four acres of all kinds of structures built merely from local rocks mortared together. There are castles, replicas of historic buildings, miniature bridges, terraces, towers, lagoons, monuments, light houses, fountains, and more. We also enjoyed the tranquility of the area, which is beautifully landscaped with lily ponds and picnic tables, lush gardens and small streams. Wildlife such as ducks, chicken, cats, and peacocks roam free around the property.


The structures and statues were created by Denmark immigrant Rasmus Peterson. In 1906, Peterson had settled in Redmond where he began his life as a farmer. The Cascade Mountains have seen a lot of volcanic activity, making this area a lush museum of rare and beautiful stones. Peterson started collecting rocks within an 85-mile radius of his home as a hobby. Some of his common finds include Oregon agates, petrified wood, obsidian, malachite, thunder egg, and jasper.

Over the years, Peterson's rock collection grew enormous. He finally used his collection to build monuments, bridges and miniature buildings in 1935. It instantly started attracting attention until in 1950, the place opened as the Peterson Rock Garden, spanning four acres around Peterson's farmhouse.

We spent a couple of hours there, roaming the grounds and then finally eating out lunch there.

When we left the rock gardens, we headed into Redmond. I wanted to stop by the cemetery where my grandfather is buried. I have never been back since the funeral, almost 18 years ago.

We also stopped by their home that they moved into back in 1980. My grandmother still lives there by recently went to Colorado to live with my Aunt for awhile, so she wasn't there.

After that we headed over to the Reindeer Farm!!! Real, live Reindeer!!!! We're still trying to convince Levi that they are real! He doesn't believe us. He's just sure it goes along with the whole Santa scheme......so funny.

We headed back to the house for a yummy dinner and then Scott took the older kids to the Sports complex to play basketball while the little ones all hit the sack!!

Day 2!

Heading into the cave...sorry, terrible lighting on the picture.

At the end where I was no longer going to be crawling. I could stand here if I bent over a bit.

Waiting for the others to come back.

All of the crew, squished in the teeny, tiny spot, just before the end of the cave!


Thursday morning we woke up and made sack lunches for everyone. We headed to Bend to the Lava Caves! I had been there as a child once or twice but no one else had! Boy, were they in for a treat!!!!

It's quite a hike down into the depths of the cave. We had a couple little ones that were not really sure about going into the dark. We stopped at the entrance and rented 3 lanterns. I had Jasmine on my back, Sam had Savannah on her back and Scott had Isaiah.

The temperature in the cave is a constant 45 degrees. Thankfully we had thought to grab every one's sweatshirts, even though the temperature outside was much warmer. The cave is approximately 7000 feet long. So just about 1.3 miles. It's amazing how long that feels like when you are walking in a dark cave!!

The cave is pretty open, with the *ceiling* pretty far up there. There was a sign inside that said it was 50 feet thick (the distance between the roof of the cave to the ground above us)!!

There were spots where the sides and the ceiling were suddenly right next to us and I felt very claustrophobic. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, the ceiling dropped to the point where we were on our hands and knees, crawling through the dark.

It finally got to a point just before the end where we were going to be crawling for quite a ways and then on a slither on our stomachs to the end. I decided to stop there and wait for the others. Scott took Izzy off his back and they crawled together. Everyone went except for Talisha, Savannah, Jasmine, Thomas and I. We waited, hunched over for about 15 minutes, while the others went to the end.

Coming out at the opening again felt like Heaven! Our eyes adjusted to the light, we were hit by a blast of hot air and we huffed and puffed our way back up the hill to civilization!

I don't think they will forget that memory for a long time! Everyone had a great time......and a great workout!!!

We went back to our *home*, put babies down for naps while Scott took the older kids swimming. Later after we ate dinner, Sam, Sabrina and I took the Talisha, Savannah and Isaiah to the pool. They had a great time!!

What a day!!!!!

A Break In Vacation Posts.......

I got this clip from my cousin's blog! It's amazing!!! I am one of those people who can be deeply touched by good music. It strikes a chord within my soul and gives me an energy like nothing else can. Watch this clip and enjoy the amazing talent! It's long (8 mins.)but sooooo worth it!!!

Day 1!

We took out the front bench seat in the van to squeeze all of our stuff in! Doesn't everyone look happy to be here!! Ha Ha!!

How many kids can we fit on a tube? There's 4!! No, we didn't pull them like that. We were anchored in a swimming area!

Scott and Izzy! He took Savannah and Talisha out as well! They had a great time!!

She loved sitting in the driver's seat with daddy!

Loving this day!!!

Everyone had their life preserver on! Even cute baby Jazz!!

Sabrina waiting for her ride!!

Levi in the middle of trying to do something "tricky"! He was pretty proud of himself for standing up on the tube while speeding along!!

I think this is Thomas.......

Driving the boat!

Kicking back, enjoying the scenery!!

Now a few pictures from the house that we stayed in! It was a Tuscany inspired home, that was very open and spacious!

This was on the dining room wall. The room had a huge table that sat 12!

A shot of the Master bathroom!

A sitting area off the kitchen!

View from the deck!

Tuesday night Scott got home from Denver around 9 from a business trip. We discussed what we wanted to do for the next few days and made a plan. We finally got to bed just before midnight. We got up early Wednesday morning and started packing. We finally got out of the house around 10 that morning. Our first stop was Detroit Lake! We rented a pontoon boat for the afternoon!

The weather was perfect! Beautiful blue skies were all that we could see! The last time we rented a boat at Detroit Lake, Talisha was a baby (we think, or maybe it was Savannah......no pretty sure it was Talisha.....anyway) and the kids have been asking when we could do that again.

Everyone had plenty of turns on the tube, getting pulled around the lake. I think Tanner's highlight of the day was stopping at the floating bathrooms in the middle of the lake. He just thought that was "soooo cool"!!

When we finally finished our boating adventure, we headed into Eagle Crest Resort in Redmond. We had found a beautiful, huge home to rent for the rest of the week! Usually when we go someplace, we stay at a hotel and end up getting at least 2 rooms. It's expensive to have to do that but with this many people we don't have much choice. So when we considered renting a home, it just made sense. Especially when we found one that was big enough for our crew!!!