Do you wanna blow a couple vacation days sleeping on the ground outside?

So, my super awesome parents gave us their old 4 person tent at the beginning of the summer and Eric and I finally had a chance to use it this past weekend! It was a beautiful but slightly disastrous experience. Haha. So first off, I started the trip feeling pretty stressed out because I took it upon myself to do all the things. I can be a little bit of an overachiever so for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to make three different types of overnight oats for us to eat Saturday morning as well as making pizza from scratch for dinner and packing up everything for the trip by myself all while trying to watch our super rambunctious little man in the 2 hours between when I got home from work and when we were planning on leaving for our trip. Yeah, I obviously need to take our apostles' advice a little more and SIMPLIFY my life. 

Anyway, once Eric got home from work we realized that the air mattress we were planning on taking (because I'm what Jim Gaffigan calls "indoorsy" and am much more into glamping than camping) did not have a foot or battery operated pump. So Eric called Fred Meyer and they assured him that they had both a battery operated pump as well as an adapter for the car to allow a regular AC plug to be plugged in. So we got everything loaded up and hit up Fred Meyer on the way to the campsite- oh and in all the hustle and bustle promptly forgot our new camping chairs that we had bought specifically for this weekend- facepalm! Anyway, once we got to the store we realized that the battery pump would not fit our air mattress so we elected for the (super expensive!) car adapter instead. 

We had expected Levi to sleep most of the drive up to the campsite because we didn't end up leaving until after 7 and it was an hour and a half drive. Alas, little man decided to show off his stubborn side and instead of sleeping thought it would be a good idea to scream, cry and whine intermittently throughout the whole drive. Needless to say, this did not help my stress levels. 

Once we got out to the area we wanted to camp in (Alder Glen) we found that we had arrived too late and all of the campsites were taken. I had a momentary freak out moment because it was starting to get dark and we needed to find a place and pitch our tent! Thankfully, I had seen a promising looking meadow near the road not far from Alder Glen. So we turned the car around and after a quick inspection revealed a fire pit already in place, set to work setting up our tent. Eric and I got it up quickly but then realized that the air mattress would not fit through the door once inflated so we would need to carry our tent close enough to the car that the cord for the mattress would fit out the door and into the car. This also necessitated moving our car to as close as possible to the clearing we were in. Upon doing so, I noticed a quite clear "no camping" sign displayed. Awesome. Well, it was quickly getting dark so we just threw caution to the wind and decided it was worth it to risk the fine. Yep, that's our version of living dangerously. 

Anway, the task then commenced of us awkwardly carrying our set up tent over the rocks and bushes in the gathering darkness till we could perch it near enough to the car for the cord to reach. Meanwhile, Levi had decided he had definitely had enough of this whole being in the car thing and was crying, "mama! dada! mama! dada!" repeatedly. I think it was around this point where I told Eric that I hated camping. Haha. Once, plugged in the air mattress started to inflate for about 3 seconds and then quit. We tried again. Nothing. We tried again. Again nothing. We turned the car off and on. Nothing. It was not going to work. So then I, the glamper, had to face the prospect of sleeping on the ground with literally no padding. Again awesome. But it was late, little man desperately needed to go to bed, and I wasn't about to repack everything we had already dragged out into the clearing and make the 1.5 hour drive home. So we precariously carried our tent back out into the clearing and made a bed inside with as many of the blankets underneath us as possible without freezing with nothing on top of us. I then got bubba ready for bed, and while I was in the middle of that, our lantern suddenly and spontaneously broke. Like the light didn't just go off, but like pieces literally fell off the lantern! Haha. At this point, I started really wanting to bust out some strong curse words and wondered if there was some force that really did not want us to camp this weekend. It occurred to me briefly that I was acting exactly like Laman and Lemuel and murmuring a lot and that doing so was not helping the situation any. This helped me kind of buck up and look on the bright side, at least a little :). 

So yeah, to make a long story short, Levi did end up going to sleep fine (after somewhat lengthy persuading) and sleeping through the night and Eric and I did get to build a beautiful campfire and make some perfect s'mores. We couldn't see the stars despite being in the perfect little clearing because of the cloud and smoke cover from the wildfires up in BC. But it was such a nice retreat from the extreme heat that we had been facing up here in Tualatin every day for the past week. And the air smelled so nice and fresh (well aside from our campfire smoke!). And I actually ended up sleeping better than I expected with so little padding between us and the ground. I woke up a lot and had to move around a ton because rocks but at least I didn't stay awake long. And in the morning it was so great to wake up together as a family out in our peaceful little clearing with the sound of the creek right nearby. 

Levi was thrilled to wake up right next to us. He was like "Dada? Dada!" with a huge smile on his face.

Eric likes to copy whatever Levi is doing when they take pictures. Love my cute boys!

Saturday was a much more relaxing and beautiful day than our crazy Friday night had been. We ate our delicious overnight oats, packed things up and then spent some time down by the creek just being together as a family and skipping (or in Levi's case) throwing rocks in the creek. It was so gorgeous and peaceful, and Levi loved being free to just explore outside. So after spending the morning exploring and hanging out by the creek, we decided to head home and let Levi nap in the car on the way. And this time, he actually did :)

Our perfect little clearing. So much more private than the campground would have been anyway! 

Levi is really into rocks.

Carrying around the broken, useless lantern. (thankfully Eric was able to return it and get a refund)

Levi had so much fun throwing rocks in the creek! Kept him entertained for a long time and he kept doing this little happy dance. Also isn't this one of the most lovely places ever!?! 

4 planes, 3 states, and 2 amazing families in 1 crazy awesome month!

Well, this summer has certainly flown by and the blog got left behind in the dust a bit so I've got some catching up to do! Sorry in advance for the long post but this has really been such an awesome past 6 weeks so I really feel the need to document it so that I can remember it in the future.

Anyway, where I had left off, I had not yet been to Boston. So yeah, that happened. Haha. I went to Boston with my friend Lori and her husband Nate for the APTA NEXT conference. It was a really good experience. I learned a ton, got to have access to tons of resources which I am still parsing my way through, got to catch up with Lori and explore Boston a little bit. The first night of the conference we lucked out too because Sail Boston days was going on so we got to tour a tall sailing ship for free! That was pretty epic. I love seeing all the old sailing ships. For some reason, they remind me of when I was a youth and would read books that involved sailing. I loved getting caught up in the world of another time and place. Also they remind me of that time we got to tour the Mayflower replica when I was like 12. So good family memories. Anyway, so that was cool.

 Lori and I also took one of our lunch breaks at the conference to walk down to the Boston Children's museum to buy a book for Levi. There were so many cute shirts and toys there it was so hard to settle on what to get him! But the book I ended up with is pretty cool because it is basically like a count your way through Boston book. It has things like 8 Boston marathon runners and 9 ducklings. So that's fun. Other than that we mostly just spent time learning and getting fired up with what's new in the world of physical therapy right now! It was inspiring to see so many other young clinicians and hear some awesome ideas about where physical therapy is heading in the future. I wish that the messages could have been shared with all the thousands of clinicians out there who were not at the conference. I mean, I feel like those of us who were there were those who are excited and ready to embrace change for the better and the future of our profession but there are some other clinicians out there who are set in their ways and may not be using best practices and I wish we could just provide more continuity of care across our profession and all rise together.

South Boston where the conference center was.

Boston temple :)

Anyway, so Boston was cool except for missing my boys. But it was ok because a couple days after I came home we got to go as a family and visit my family in California! I always love visiting my family but this time was extra special because my good friend Lauren got married so I got to go to her bachelorette party and then sealing. I am so proud of her for the choices that she has made so that she can now be starting her own eternal family. It was so special to get to be there for that, and I really felt the spirit strongly.

Bridal party at the Oakland Temple

Also the trip to California was extra fun because my brother Eric brought home his girlfriend Natacia so I got to meet her for the first time. They seem so good together and it makes me so happy to see him so happy!

Levi playing at the park of the elementary school I went to as a kid!

Ps I totally got those play shoes for him at a garage sale that very day for like $1 #winning

He rocks grandma's sunglasses!

Cutest boys on 4th of July!!

Anyway, so California was a blast. Then we came home and were back for a couple weeks and then headed off to Colorado for Eric's big family reunion! We all got to stay together at a huge cabin up in Winter Park Colorado which is kind of in the middle of nowhere but so beautiful! There were aspen trees and wildflowers all around the cabin and views of the surrounding mountains and valleys and it was just gorgeous.

Levi absolutely refused to ride in the stroller so he walked or was carried on Dad's shoulders the whole hike!

And I absolutely loved all of us getting to be together! It was so fun to see Levi start to interact with his cousins a bit and chase them around.

Hyrum and Levi anxiously awaiting Papi to come to the door

Levi is looking up at Papi in this picture. Soo cute!

Measuring spoons and bowls were the favorite toys of the trip. Love this picture of Anson, Evan and Hyrum!

And I got to snuggle new baby Benjamin (Greta's new baby) a lot and catch up with all my awesome sisters in law.

Sweet baby Ben 

Each family was in charge of two meals during the trip so we ate like kings literally every meal. I honestly was super impressed at the time and effort that went into all the food and how delicious it all was! And it was sooo nice to only have to cook twice the entire week! Talk about a vacation! Haha.

Levi loved all the good food too!

Anyway, we mostly just hung out at the cabin and went for walks/hikes in the surrounding area but on Monday we all went to the ski resort which was cool. We got to ride the Alpine slide which was so fun and had amazing views and Levi and his other little cousins had fun at the bounce house.

It almost looks like Levi is shoulder pressing this bar and Eric is spotting him haha

In the afternoon, Nona watched Levi back at the cabin so that Eric and I could go on the Alpine slide.

In the evenings we had fun playing games with the family and watching American Ninja Warrior. Eric and I may just have to start watching that on our own because it kind of got me hooked. Haha. Anyway, I will miss Eric's family a lot now that we won't see them again for a while. We actually aren't even sure when we will be back in Texas because our holiday plans are kind of up in the air right now partially because... I got a new job!!

That's right, I got a job for Newberg School District! It happened so fast that it's still a little bit surreal to me. The week before we went to Colorado, a recruiter for one of the staffing agencies I work with emailed me that there was an opening at the school district and that it was a 0.8 position but was I interested? I told her I was but only if we could negotiate for a 0.4 or 0.6 instead. The recruiter encouraged me to to do the interview anyway and she would see what she could do from there. Anyway so I agreed to do a phone interview in Colorado on Tuesday. And I was mostly thinking of it more like just practice because I really didn't think they would split the position. So I didn't even really do much to prepare for the interview! But then when I was on the phone with the interviewer she suggested that they were considering splitting the position into two 0.4 positions and would I be interested in that? So I told her that would actually be perfect for me! So we finished up the interview and she told me they would get back to me within the next day or two. But then less than an hour later, my recruiter called me and told me the district was offering me the position! I was shocked and told her I needed a day to think about it. So Eric and I took some time and discussed it as a family and prayed about it and eventually I decided to accept the job even though I was slightly terrified as I have never worked in a school before and felt like I don't know anything! We just realized that an opportunity like this doesn't come around every day and it would be a great chance for me to get my foot in the door in pediatrics and learn a ton. And I will basically have a built in mentor because the lady who is taking the other 0.4 position is experienced in schools so I will definitely be relying on her a bit to mentor me as I explore this whole new world of school therapy. I know that I will probably mess some things up in the beginning but I can't just pass this up because I'm scared. I know that I need to take a leap of faith and just do my best and it will be a great learning experience. So yeah, I start August 14th and I'm already getting ready reading over things from the pediatric APTA section and talking to my friend who has worked as a school PT. I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable about things but still pretty nervous. :)

Also, Eric and I have decided that now would be a good time to make a change for our childcare. We've decided to switch to a daycare center. It will save us a TON of money which is definitely enticing but also we feel like Levi would enjoy being around more kids and having a bit more structure to his day. Also with a daycare center we would be able to spend more time together as a family because Eric and I would be able to both leave for work at the same time so Eric would be able to get home earlier in the evening. So I've been calling around to a lot of places and I've got four tours to go to this week. Unfortunately, most of them have somewhat long wait lists (like November to Januaryish) but one place does have an opening now! So hopefully we like that place when we go check it out!

So yeah, lots of good changes and excitement happening around here. I've got two more weeks left of my old job and Eric and I are planning on taking Levi camping this weekend! And then my sister and parents are coming up here in a couple weeks so we've still got lots to look forward to. Sometimes I look at all the fun things that are happening and I can barely believe that this is our life. I feel so blessed to have such a great family and such a bright future ahead of us.

Here are some other random pictures of our life here at home over the last 6 weeks. As you can see, we spend a LOT of time at the park :)

Someone left our bathroom door open so Levi had a lot of fun taking all the toilet paper off the roll. He was sooo proud of himself haha.

Levi showing off that he can fit an entire half a banana in his mouth at once!

Levi's new favorite thing is to "drive" my car. He will often throw a little fit if I put him into the car without letting him drive for a while first!

Playing at the park with our friend Lincoln

And our other friend Liam. All these L named baby boys!

One of the Saturdays we were home we went to the Robinhood festival in Sherwood. We tried out a petting zoo with Levi but he was a little terrified of the animals and refused to touch any of them or let us put him down! But he wanted to stay close to them and watch them. 

Levi takes driving very seriously haha

He beelines it for any water at any park we go to!

I just love my silly boy!

Father's Day Photos

So we took some family photos of ourselves back in June but I didn't get around to posting them until now. Thank you crazy summer! Haha stay tuned for the next blog post for an update on all that! But until then, here are some super cute pictures of my beautiful little family. Gosh I love my boys!!