The good, the bad, and the ugly

When I went to pick up Jenna today, there were three things waiting for me:

The Good
One of the teachers left a note saying "Jenna fell asleep all by herself without a teacher". I didn't know this had been a problem, but good for you Jenna!

The Bad
There were two accident reports waiting for me. The first one said that Jenna had been playing with some blocks when another child hit her on the head with one. Ouch!

The Ugly
The second accident report said Jenna had been playing in a bucket (huh? Why was she playing in a bucket?) when it tipped over. They said she bit her lip, but I think it was a lot more than that. Both lips are fat and there is a cut in her mouth. It looks pretty painful, but Jenna hasn't complained at all tonight.

The picture is not that great. Jenna wanted to play with the camera so I had to act quick. The cut on her nose is from last week when she took a child's shoe and they hit her with a train track.

Date Night & Day

Last night Jenna and I had a date night. We went out for ice cream, then we went to dinner (I know, wrong order, but who cares?). We went to the dollar store to see if I could spoil her, but unfortunately it was the worst dollar store I have ever been to so we left empty handed. We came home and watched Hannah Montana then went out to Wal-Mart to just wander around. Jenna loved to play with all of the toys and screamed when we left. We came home and played with toys and ate candy the rest of the night. It was so much fun to spend the evening with her.

Today, Joel and I had our quarterly date. It all started with our insurance guy coming over and talking to us about our policies. We then dropped Jenna off at G&G Harrison's and headed to a matinee. We went and saw The Dark Knight. It was a really good movie, but I had a hard time concentrating after about an hour and a half because I had to go to the bathroom so badly. I toughed it out for the next hour of the movie and by the time it ended I was just shaking I had to go so bad. I know you wanted to know that. Anyway, we went for a quick bite to eat at JCWs and went and picked up Jenna. She did not want to leave. She was just having too much fun.

I had fun spending a couple of hours with Joel. We were saying how we needed to do that more often, so if any of you out there would like to babysit, just let us know (just so you know, we are really cheap, so I wouldn't plan on getting paid :)).

Vacation: Tuesday - Saturday

So Joel posted our slide show that didn't turn out that great. You've seen most of our pictures now, but don't know much about them. So here is what we did the rest of our trip to Oregon.

Tuesday

Tuesday was a busy day full of all kind of "shishies" (fish). We went to the OSU marine center or whatever it was called. They had all kinds of fish exhibits and fish you could touch. Later, we went to the aquarium. They were having an exhibit called "Oddwater" with all kinds of unusual fish and other sea life. It was a lot of fun and very interesting. For dinner, everyone got together at the beach for a weiny roast.

Izzy teaching Jenna about the fish
Petting the sharks at the aquarium

These things were creepy. Jenna thought they were funny. She wouldn't stop laughing.
Jenna's first trip to the beach
Joel showing her the water. The water came up to her and she freaked out. I don't blame her because it was ice cold.
All of the reunion attendees.


Wednesday

We went up to a lighthouse but couldn't go in. Jenna wasn't tall enough to climb the stairs and they wouldn't let us carry her. We walked around the back side of the lighthouse and saw these rocks that were covered with birds. They were making the most awful sound and it was just deafening. The ones that couldn't make it onto the rocks were hanging out in the water below.

They looked like little penguins.
Afterwards, we went down to this cobble stone beach and watched the seals sunbathe on some rocks out in the ocean.
After awhile, Jeremy, Hillary and Izzy came down and joined us. Jenna and Izzy loved throwing the rocks.
Later that night, the Harrison's all went out to dinner together. The restaurant had a little treasure chest full of toys that kids could choose from. Jenna and Izzy picked out these glasses as their first toy of many. Aren't they cute?
I love this picture

Thursday

On Thursday Joel and I packed up and headed to Portland. The reunion had ended the night before and our vacation was just beginning. Jami and Leslie had told us about some waterfalls somewhere on our way to Portland, so we decided to make a pit stop there and spend some time. They were way out in the middle of nowhere, but they were beautiful. There were 7 of them, but we only stopped at two. We stopped at a little river to swim for a little bit, then continued to Portland. We spent the rest of the evening just lounging around in our hotel.

The South Falls were beautiful. If you look close, you can see that there is a path to hike down and behind the falls.
Friday

Before we left on our trip, Joel was hesitant to stay in Portland for a few extra days saying that there was nothing to do there. Once we got there, though, he found out how much there was to do and see that we wish we would have stayed longer. Since we had limited time, we went to Mt Saint Helens. This took most of the day, but was a beautiful drive and very interesting. The whole area around the volcano was free to get into until you got to the final lookout area. Then it was $8 a person to get into the visitors center and to a really good look out area. We didn't want to spend that so we were just hanging out outside of the visitors center looking around when a park ranger came out of the building to give a demonstration to the "Junior Rangers" who had paid the $8. We were able to stand in the back of the crowd and learn the history of the volcano. It was really interesting. Jenna slept through the whole thing. She sure was a trooper with all of the driving we did. Anyway, after we were done there it was getting late and traffic was thickening, so we went down to Lake Oswego and walked around the temple. All Jenna wanted to do was get in the fountain and pick the flowers. There was a group of girls walking around waiting for a sealing to get over and they kept taking pictures of me and Jenna. Kind of creepy. We started talking to them and asked them why and they said they just thought she was cute. Weird.

Saturday

On Saturday we packed up and got ready to go home. We then headed out for a drive along the Columbia River. Talk about gorgeous! Since we were limited on time, we only made two quick stops. We stopped at Multnomah Falls and the Bonneville Dam. The falls are 700 feet tall and there is a little bridge you can hike up to and look out over them. The Dam is the second largest in the US (I think). We were going to go on a little tour to see how the dam generates electricity, but Jenna got bored, so we ducked out early. Before we ducked out, a squirrel came right up to her. She loved it. She kept calling it a kitty. It was cute. After our drive, we spent an hour or so at the outlet mall. It wasn't that great, but nice to get out and walk around. Then, for lunch we went to Popeye's Chicken. This was one of my favorite restaurants when we lived in Texas, so I always make Joel go there whenever we find one. Very yummy and very bad for you.

(Those are not my shoes in the picture in case you were wondering)

Oregon Slide Show

Some of the captions can be hard to read....sorry about that.

Trip to Oregon - Sunday and Monday

This last week we went to Oregon for a family reunion and a few days of relaxation. We had a ton of fun and did lots of stuff. Since I don't have a lot of time to scrapbook lately, I am going to post a lot of our pictures here so that when I do have time to scrapbook I will remember what all of the pictures are. Just a warning: it was cold and windy, so we don't look all that great in a lot of these pictures.

We spent Sunday through Wednesday in Newport. We had a house on Yaquina Bay with some of the Harrison Family. Below is a map of where Newport is in Oregon.

It was Jenna's first time on a plane. Here she is getting ready to board. She did so well. She fell asleep as soon as we took off and woke up as soon as wed landed. This was the only picture we took on Sunday. We spent the afternoon driving around Newport waiting for the rest of the Harrison's to arrive, then getting settled in.
Monday we went to breakfast with the whole family then explored downtown. We went to the docks and into the little shops along the road. We also went to the beach and sand dunes. It was FREEZING! We didn't stay long. We went to Uncle Ken's rental house for dinner and karaoke. I was really surprised that people actually did the karaoke. It was fun.

The Harrison's at the dock with Yaquina Bay Bridge behind us.

Jenna wouldn't touch the starfish. There was a fisherman who caught it and let us play with it for a little while.

Chasing the birds.

Jenna and her cousin Isabelle had so much fun together! They could crack each other up just by looking at each other.
Checking out the "shishies" (fish)

The sand dunes sure were sandy!

Well, that was Sunday and Monday. I will bore you with the rest of our vacation later in the week.

4th of July

On the 4th of July we went down to Canyon View park to have a BBQ with my family. My entire family was there, plus some cousins, one aunt, one uncle, and one grandma. It was a lot of fun. We sat around and talked, ate, played on the playground, blew bubbles, and played with water balloons. We had a pavillion so it was not so hot. I felt bad for some of those people sitting out in the hot, hot sun.

Later that night, Joel and I went over to the junior high to watch the fireworks. Pleasant Grove does a really good job. They lasted about 15-20 minutes. We were sitting pretty much right underneath them. Jenna refused to sit with us. She had to sit with Grandpa Harrison. She just loves him. She sat there and pointed the entire time. She had no facial expression at all. I am not sure if she was freaked out or having fun.

Getting ready for a picture with all the grandkids.

All the grandkids (except Brendon who wasn't there yet).
Cute stuff!
That's a lot of food!
I don't think Jenna or Spencer knew what to think of each other.
A momentous occassion! Jenna is holding Grandpa's hand! How cute!
Jenna's first time on the big kid swings. Not that she was too little, we just never tried.
She did really well.
The Harrison Family. Mom took the picture while I was talking, so I look a little goofy.
Mom really wanted to take a picture of the poison ivy sign.
Unfortunately there was a tree in front of it so I am all hunched over. Oh well.
Jenna's favorite toy all day was the water jug. She probably dumped half of it on herself. Thanks Uncle Kyle for teaching her how.
Cutest kid ever!

How do kids do this?

This is the second or third time Jenna has fallen asleep during dinner. I am not sure how kids can do this. Look--she even still has food in her hands. I put her down on the couch and she clutched that roll during her entire nap. Weirdo.

A visit fom Jill

My sister, Jill, and her family came into town this last week for a quick visit. It's been over a year and a half since I have seen her and I don't know how long it's been since I have seen her family. It was really good to see them.

They came in Saturday afternoon and that night everyone went to Mom & Dad's for pizza and visiting. Here are a few pictures I took. (I just realized that most of them are of Jenna. I really need to expand my horizons, huh?)

For some reason, Mom and Dad have a shuffle board court in their backyard. The kids had a blast pretending to play. Here are Jenna and Spencer playing.

Kyle teasing Spencer. Spencer isn't quite sure what to think.

Mom trying to put Jenna to work raking the yard.

"Here is some dirt. Isn't this fun?"

Caitlyn played with Jenna for a little while so Joel and I could visit.

Later in the week we also got together at Kyle's house for more food and talking. He bought us all Famous Dave's for dinner and we sat around in his backyard to visit and play. His backyard is perfect for that type of thing. I vote we go to his house more often :) I didn't get any pictures there, but we all had a lot of fun.