What's Up?

We had a great time in California for Thanksgiving this year. Thanks to Karen and Dave, Ken and Steph, and Mom Harper for putting on a great feast! It was so nice with Beth and Chad, Kevin and Andrea, and Tyler there to join us. We had a great dinner (and it was even served on time, amazing!) We had a great time visiting and playing games afterwards with everyone. Then the next day was shop, shop, shop! The young ones and Karen and kids, went to San Francisco later in the day and that night. They had a great time and enjoyed the sights. Thanks to all for a great weekend and great hospitality! Then we drove back to Salt Lake City with both of our vehicles and Dennis took off for Arizona. He spent the first week down there getting acquainted with his new job and I stayed in Utah. We are both going to be going down there tommorrow for a week of house hunting and warm weather!

Hope all had a great Thanksgiving and are looking forward to the Christmas holidays. Don't know if Christmas Cards will be going out this year or not, but will really try. Now, back to work!

Things I'm Going to Miss in Portland

As I am typing this, the movers are here packing everything up to be put in storage in Phoenix. Dennis and I have been very busy trying to get all the last minute things done here before we move. One of my favorite things to do here, has been to go down to the Saturday Market in downtown Portland. We usually walk down from the Lloyd Center Mall across the river and then take the MAX back. Here is some of the pictures of our last trip.

This is the steel bridge that we walk over to get to the market. The MAX and cars and the train also all go over this bridge. It raises in the center when the large ships go out to the Columbia river and to the ocean. The second picture is off part of the Saturday Market, it is usually packed with people, fun items for sale, food, and some interesting entertainment.

This is me with my favorite find at the market, I love these baskets! They are made in Africa and a native sells them here at the market and sends the money back to the people there (so he says) They are the best baskets and so strong and beautiful colors. Dennis has to wait everytime while I decide which one I want.
No meaningful experience of Portland is complete until you ride the MAX trains. They are always packed with people (at least I think some of them are people). Very, very interesting!

I also wanted to post a picture of the view of MT. Hood from the area, but it has been cloudy for the last week or so, so you can't see it. On a clear day you can see Mt. Hood towering above the skyline with a touch of snow on the top. It is so beautiful! Sometimes you can even see Mt. Adams in Washington and Mt. St. Helens in Washington. I will really miss that view! I will just have to get out and see Phoenix area when we get settled there. Goodbye rain and hello sunshine!

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY, DYLAN!!!!

My oldest Grandchild, Dylan, turned 6 on Saturday, November 8th. He shares his birthday with his Mom, Lisa. Dylan has started kindergarten and is really enjoying school. He is so smart and has a memory that is great! He had a rocky start when he was born and spent many days in the hospital. He has had 4 different operations before he was even 2 years old. He is strong and healthy now and you would never know what a hard time he had when he came to this earth.


Dylan is a great big brother and watches over his brothers Brock and Kaden. He loves to play and read and has many friends. He has the most tender heart, and can get his feelings hurt very easily. He loves to go to the football games with his mom and dad, even though, I think he is more for the Utes instead of the Cougars.


He had a great birthday in Salt Lake; going to the BYU game, going to Chuck E. Cheeses, going bowling and loosing his very first tooth! I feel so bad that we missed all of this fun, but Beth posted on her blog, pictures of all the fun things that they did.

Next year we will live close enough to celebrate with him and I can't wait.

This picture is one Beth took of the three boys a year and a half ago. Aren't they the cutest!

Happy Birthday, Dylan!

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY LISA!!!!

Last Saturday, November 8th, was Erik's wife Lisa's 26th Birthday. We were out of town so this is a little late, but better late than never. We have known Lisa most all her life, since they lived right next door to us in Draper. I was with Lisa all through Young Womans', many camps, and get togethers. She was there when Erik left on his mission to Bolivia and came over to the house as a friend and neighbor to say goodbye. At the time, Dennis' Dad was there and he really liked Lisa and told us that Erik should marry her when he got back. Little did we know then, but Dad knew what he was talking about and Erik and Lisa started dating and were married after he came home from his mission. Sadly enough, though, Dennis's Dad passed away just before Erik came home and never got to see them married. Although, we know he was with us when they were married. Lisa is a fun person to be

around and gives the best hugs ever. She is the mom of 3 great boys and keeps plenty busy with that. She is a great addition to our family and we love her tons! I hope you had a great birthday Lisa and had some fun!

BIG CHANGES ONCE AGAIN!!!!

After a year here in Oregon, we have absolutely loved it, but another change is in the works. The end of November we will be packing up the house again and moving to sun, palm trees, and did I say sun; We are moving to Phoenix, Arizona. Dennis has an incredible opportunity to go to work for a solar company in Arizona. He will be the Director of Development and will have an office in Tempe, Arizona. He starts his job there on December 1st, so we are moving everything out of Oregon before Thanksgiving and then driving to Salt Lake and then he will fly out of Salt Lake to Arizona on the 1st and I will hang out in Utah for a while. We will spend December and January, back and forth between Arizona and Utah. Our furniture from here will go to Phoenix and be put in storage until we find a house down there. We will really miss the Northwest and all the fun things to do here and all the trees, ocean, and water. After 13 days of rain here though, the sun it looking better and better. My blogging may go by the wayside for awhile, while we get settled into the new job and new area, but I will try to keep up. We are looking forward to being closer to our family, and hopefully they will come and visit us now ( they will have to if they want to go boating, as the boat is coming with us this time). See you all soon!

Time to Vote!!!! or (Yes, it's almost over!)

My friend, Kim, sent me this and I thought it was so cute, just had to post it and give you a laugh on this election day. I know some may be sad, or mad tonight when the winner is announced, but remember, at least we got to vote for who we wanted to lead our Country. I for one will be glad when this is all over and settled. I am a little fearful for our country under one of the candidates, but hopefully, he will do the best he can for all people and not just an elect few. Whoever it is I hope that they will turn to God for guidance and help in leading this great country of ours. You can't go wrong if you have his help! Happy Voting Day!

Do You Remember?

For years, every summer,we would pack the kids in the suburban and head to the Oregon Coast for some camping and fun. This was our favorite spot to go. This is Charleston. It is outside of Coos Bay, OR. The kids loved to go crabbing on these docks behind me. The day we went there, there were lots of people crabbing along the docks, and sea lions in the water looking for some free fish.

This is the little gift store, Kinnie's, that the kids would go to whenever we were there. It is right next to the laundromat that I would spend time in. I can't believe it, but the same lady that was there all those years ago is still there at Kinnie's. The picture on the right is of Sunset Beach. We spent a lot of time here, playing in the water, and on low tide, climbing these rocks around the point to find starfish left in the tidepools. The kids tried to take some home one year, boy did that stink up the trailer! We were there at high tide, so we could not walk around the point, but we did hike up the hill from the picnic area and walked out to the top of the point.

The waves hitting the rocks out in the ocean were wicked! The spray from them would even come and spray us up on the point. It was beautiful! This is the picture of the lighthouse, Cape Arago, across the bay. It was a beautiful day, about 69 degrees out and sunny. We loved it!!

After sunset bay, we went up the coast to head back to Portland and home. We stopped at this view point and saw (and heard) all these sea lions on the shore and rocks trying to stay away from the pounding surf. They were so loud!

I felt bad for the ones that would get swept back into the water and have to try to get to shore

again.

We had a great weekend and really enjoyed visiting places that we went to as a family years ago. We would love to have all the kids come up here next year and go to all the places we used to go to. We have a great time remembering our time with the kids up here. Even tried to get Kevin another of his favorite hoodie from the Basin Bait and Tackle store, but they have changed them now and I knew Kevin would not wear one with a big smiling crab on it! Erik, Kevin, Beth and Tyler do you remember this?

I Humbly Accept the Nomination!!!!!!

My friend Lisa McIntyre nominated me for the BFF Blog Award. It is my very first blog award! Imagine my excitement as my name appeared in the BFF catagory. I humbly accept this award and will wear it? with pride. Now I get to nominate 5 other people, 4 have to be followers of your blog and 1 be new and live in another area. You have to link back to whoever gave you the award. So Here's my nominations:

1. Lisa McIntyre, she has been my best friend from Las Vegas since we were 12. We shared alot while growing up in Vegas and had many fun times doing it! I love to hear about her family and cute grandkids now. she is at mcintyrebabies.blogspot.com . She has a great blog and had wonderful family recipes on it.

2.Karen Mosher, at dandkmosher.blogspot.com. Karen is my sister-in-law and has always been so much fun. She is a great mother to Haley and Jason and a great example to me. She is very creative and artistic.

3.Lisa Boynton, at muchadoaboutbbunch.blogspot.com. Lisa is another friend from High School. We met during High School and became good friends, we hung out alot, went to dances, talked about boyfriends, etc. She now lives in Bountiful, Utah and we have connected and enjoy learning about each others families through blogging. Lisa is very talented musically. She loves to sing and does a good job of it.

4. Beth Evans, at ilikeicecreamonhotdays.blogspot.com. Beth is my one and only daughter. She is married and is working as a Title Officer in Utah. She is the one who got me started on blogging and who answers any questions that I have. She is very talented, loves to cook, and can make very cute cards and scrapbooking.(Even though she has no time for it now).

I have a very short blog list that I go to, so this will have to do, but feel free to do the 5 blogging friends on your post. I did not nominate Andrea or Lisa, so Beth would have someone to nominate, or Karen. Anyway, I will try to post the BFF (Blogging Friends Forever) Card that goes with this, but not sure if it will work or not, have never used anything but my own pictures for the blog, so we will see. Woooo Hoooo!!! I finally did it!

Sun, Surf and The Great Outdoors!!!!

Last Weekend was absolutely gorgeous here! Dennis and I headed for the coast on Saturday for a little hiking and color. The trees here are wonderful, amongst all the pine trees are yellows, reds, oranges, and still some green. I tried to get a picture out the car window while driving, so this isn't the best. We are a little over an hour from the coast so it was a great drive. I espcially love the trees that are yellow, some orange and turning red. They are absolutely beautiful! We headed to Seaside first and stopped to have an Elephant Ear, they are the best! It's a wheat scone with whatever topping you want on it, I personally like just the cinnamon and sugar. I have not had one for years, so it was great! Then we went hiking on the Cape Falcon trail, south of Cannon Beach. Here is Dennis at the beginning of the trail. Do not tell him you saw this, he hates that I take pictures of him to put on the blog! The hike was 6 miles long, along the coast and in through the forrest. It was really muddy in spots throughout the trail. I so nicely was trying to jump over one mud puddle and ended up falling on my hands and knees in it, so after cleaning up at the nearby stream, we proceeded on. (Notice the muddy knees on the jeans). At the end of the trail you come out on the Coast. It was beautiful there and so sunny. We are getting pretty good at this hiking thing (except for the falling). On Friday we found another hiking trail inside of Portland City. It was a 5 mile long trail with many other trail that go off of it. (We did not even get lost this time). It is actually a State Park with 28 acres of trails, streams, etc. They say in the winter you can see the salmon spanning in the streams.

Back, to the hike, Saturday, there was a lookout where we could see this beach below us called Short Sand Beach. This is where all the surfers go, there were so many surfers in the water catching a few waves, it was great to watch! I never knew it was even there, since you have to hike down to the beach from the highway. Anyway, I great weekend with lots of fun and exploring. Love this fall weather here!

PHOTO TAG!!!!!!

My friend Lisa B. did this tag and I that it was pretty fun to do so here goes:

Find the 4th file of photos in your picture file, choose the 4th picture in that file, then write a blog about it.

I had nothing as cute as Lisa's, but this was a vehicle that was at an old car show in Seaside, Oregon on the coast that we went to. They were having a parade of all the cars and I loved this old bus. It could really carry alot of people in it. We actually went to the show again this year, but this was taken last year at the same show. There are a lot of cars that are in this show, it is probably the best old car show that I have ever seen, surly the largest.

Okay, now I tag everyone else. Go find it!

Eight is Great!!!!

I was tagged by my friend Lisa M. so here goes!

8 TV shows I love to watch:

1. Dancing with the Stars
2. American Idol
3. 20/20
4. Any movies on Hallmark Channel
5. Deal or No Deal
6. Don't Forget the Lyrics
7. Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader?
8. Biggest Loser
(Pretty sad list, huh?)

8 of my favorite Restaurants:

1. Sweet Tomatoes
2. Bajio's
3. Seven Feathers Buffet on Mon. or Tuesday (they have lobster tails cheap!)
4. Mo's
5. Cheesecake Factory
6. Todai
7. Cafe Rio
8. Jake's

8 things I am looking forward to:

1. Christmas
2. Thanksgiving
3. Going to Disneyland
4. Retirement
5. More Grandkids
6. Summer
7. Going to Hawaii
8. Spending time with my family

8 Things I did yesterday:

1. Did Laundry
2. Walked around park
3. Read
4. Crochet
5. Cut curtains for a large humanitarian project in our Stake
6. Blogged
7. Paid Bills
8. Talked to Tyler

8 Things on my Wish List:

1. Get the elections over and have McCain win!
2. See my Grandkids and Kids more
3. Take whole family on a great vacation
4. To buy a house here in Oregon
5. Go camping and fishing more
6. Retirement
7. Have each of my 4 children doing well spiritually and financially
8. Have family come and visit us here in Oregon

8 People I tag:
1. Karen
2. Beth
3. Andrea
4. Erik and Lisa
5. Lisa B.
6. Jessie
7. Judy
8. Kim

Okay, I did it, now it's your turn!

New Discovery in Portland!!!!

Dennis and I decided Saturday (since it was such a nice sunny day in Portland) to go on a hike. We went to Washington Park, which is where the zoo, childrens museum, timber museum, and the hoyt arboretum all are. There is a 4-mile hike through the park that looked really good. We set off and were having a wonderful time hiking along the trails, and trying to decide which trail we should stay on. It was beautiful in the woods, great views, lots of different trees that they have identified, bamboo, redwoods, cedars, etc. After we had hiked for about 3 miles, we took a wrong trail and ended up in another park next to Washington Park. We hiked up another, steeper, trail and ended up at this great old mansion that you can go through. We asked around, and finally ended up going back the way we came until we reached another map telling us which way we should have gone. We had hiked another 2.4 miles out of our way! By this time we were starving and I had some good blisters working on both feet. We ate our granola bar and got back on the right trail and headed back to the car. We ended up going a total of 6.4 miles on our hike. It was so pretty there in the park! Dennis and I are great for getting lost!

This was our map and if you look real hard, you will see trails everywhere. We had actually ended up off the map in the top right corner when we got lost. Note: Never just follow other hikers unless you know where they are going to. We had a great time. My feet will be back to normal in a few days and we want to tackle this trail again and get it right and hike the 4 miles. It is a very popular place to hike, lots of people on the trail (except where we went the wrong way, and then it was only us and another couple that we followed, should have been first clue).

Come visit us in Portland and we will take you on this great hike (the 4 mile one).

Apple Harvest Festival

Dad and I spent the weekend in Fortuna, California with Mom Harper and Annie, Lily, and other family there. We went to the annual Apple Harvest Festival in Fortuna. The weather was rainy off and on, but stayed pretty nice most of the day. They have food, and booths along main street, hayrides, and other items at the park. We were there last year and had a good time. This year not as many people were there with their booths because of the rain. We still had fun visiting with Annie and Lily and their families. We got apples from Annie's tree and some from Lily's apple tree. Now the work begins if I can find my recipe for applesauce. We love to go there and visit and always have a good time. Driving through the redwoods was absolutely beautiful. Along the road was orange needles from the trees and it was so pretty down the center of the road and along each side. There was a surfing competition in Crescent City that had quite a few people there in wetsuits and with surf boards. With the storms the waves were pretty big. Had a great time in all and wished you all could be there.

Dennis and I went to the waterfront in Portland and took a picture of this ship. It was used in the Pirates of the Carribean Movie. It was the inceptor ship in the first movie (at least I think it was the first movie). Was fun to go on the ship and look around.

Kaden is 2!!!!

Kaden was born October 5, 2006 in Sandy, Utah. He has always been such a happy baby and a happy little boy. He has the deepest voice and is always talking about something. He is so happy go lucky and is always smiling. He likes his brothers, (even though he likes to tease them and get them in trouble), his dog and his Dad. He is happy just playing by himself and having Mom all to himself while Dylan and Brock are at school. He loves to have someone read him a book. I feel bad we were not there for Kaden's birthday party. We love him dearly and miss him much. Happy Birthday, Kaden!
This was Kaden last year on his birthday. He has grown so much! He sure loved his cake. Luckily, Kaden is not a picky eater. He will eat most anything. We love you, Kaden!

HAPPY 28TH BIRTHDAY, KEVIN!!!!!

Today is Kevin's 28th birthday. He is my second child and second son. Kevin weighed 9 lbs. 2 oz. and was very, very long. He was born a year and 20 days after Erik, so many times when they were growing up, people thought they were twins (even though they looked nothing alike)

Kevin has always been tall and very blonde with his blue eyes. He has always been very athletic and loved football, basketball, baseball and lacrosse. He played all of these during his growing up years and high school. He ended up being the tallest of all the boys at 6 foot 4 inches tall. He has always had a happy personality, but

not as outgoing as Erik. This picture is of his 18th birhtday (10 years ago). Kevin has had several nicknames throughout the years a few being: The Weasel, Weez, and Lucky. While playing football, Kevin was quarterback and Receiver. He had more moves and was very successful in getting touchdowns. Hence the name Weasel. Weez is just the shortened version of Weasel. Kevin has always been the Lucky one. He could find money lying around anywhere. Erik would work so hard for his money and Kevin would just go out and find it. Hard to teach a child to work when he is that lucky.

Kevin has always been a sports fanatic. He loved the San Francisco 49ers in football with Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. He loved the Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan. (Sorry Utah Jazz).

He has always been a great brother and friend to Erik, Beth and Tyler. Beth and Kevin became really good friends when they carpooled to High School together. While they were young, you could never put Kevin and Beth in the same room together, because they would fight. Thank goodness they grew out of that! Kevin married Andrea several years ago. They have no children yet, (but we can always hope it will be soon). He is working in commercial real estate with Coldwell Bankers and renting our house in Utah until theirs closes and they can find another one. Have a happy birthday, Kevin, we love you and miss you tons!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANDREA!

Happy 25th Birthday, Andrea! Yes, today is Andrea's birthday.

We just came back from Utah and visiting with the kids and spending the weekend with everyone on the lake. We had so much fun visiting with everybody and being able to be together as a family.

Andrea tried wakeboarding this time in Lake Mead and was able to get up, stay up and inspired me to try again (and again, and again) to try to get up. She did such a good job of it. I was finally able to get up (for a while) on the wakeboard. Thanks Andrea for the inspiration!

We are so glad to have Andrea in our family. She is so much fun and so kind to everybody. She keeps most of us looking good, by doing our hair. (Some of us need all the help wecan get!) She is so funny and so fun to be around. She owes me big time, since I saved her from the g i a n t spider that was about to attack her.

Here are a few pictures of Andrea (Annie). I hope you have a great birthday and are able to go and do something fun. Think of me as you are eating your Cold Stone, Cookies and Cream Birthday Cake. Love you lots !

Happy Birthday, Erik!

Today is Erik's 29th birthday. I just had to put a cute baby picture of him on here. He was our first child. Always happy and always singing. He continued that all his life. Erik will break out in song at any time and any where. He actually has a good singing voice and is not inhibited at all.

Erik was always a good baby and always was a good big brother to Kevin, Beth and later Tyler. He was his Grandpa Harper's grandson and he idolized his Grandpa. He and Grandpa were the most alike, some say he even looks quite a bit like him (especially now with the bald head)

Erik loved baseball, football and basketball while growing up, but his favorite obsession was his '68 mustang he got when he was 16. He worked on restoring it and loved to drive it everywhere. Rhonda, was her name. He had her while he was on his mission to Bolivia and she was waiting for him when he came home. He finally sold her, with much sadness, after he was married.

Erik is very talented with everything he does. He is a hard worker and a great dad. He has 3 sons and does alot with them. He can make friends whereever he goes, just like his grandpa, except now he can speak spanish and has even more friends.

I hope you have a great birthday, Erik. We can't wait to celebrate with you when we come down this week.

Here is a flashback picture of your 19th birthday just before your mission and the other is a current one taken last December. Have a Happy Brithday, Erik! Love ya!

Don't You Wish You Were Here?

Dennis and I had a great weekend! Saturday we went to Seaside, Oregon to one of the biggest car shows (old cars) that I have ever been too. They had over 500 cars there and they were great! Dennis, of course, was going crazy over many of them. We hit this show last year when we were visiting Oregon and could not believe the cars. It was fun this year to walk around Seaside (they close off the main street, several parking lots and side streets) and see what was there.

The above car was one really cool one there, very expensive! Has a wooden boat rear end. There also was this cute truck pulling this great trailer.

If anyone is looking for a birthday, Christmas, or any old reason present for Dennis; he would gladly take this Wagon. He really likes the nomads! There were several there to drool over. Don't say I 've never given you any hints now.

Because Seaside is on the Coast, they also had a kite competition on the beach going on. It was a very overcast (foggy) day at the beach, but they had some great kites! The Nemo and dad kite was HUGE! It had to be about 12 feet in length and just about as fat. Fun to see all the kites being flown. (sorry I have tried everything I know to get the pictures to intersperse throughout the type, but can not do it. Have called Beth, Andrea and Karen for help, but no one home so,this is how you get it. Maybe next blog)

Labor Day Weekend

Okay, I did it again! Labor Day Weekend we went to California to spend it with Dennis' Mom. I flew down so I could get me free ticket on Southwest, and Dennis drove down on Thursday night. On Wednesday, when I got there, I went with Karen, Jason, Haley, and Mom to the Oakland Temple where they had a special exhibit in the Visitors Center. It was sculptures done by a woman who had just started sculpting. They were incredible! They were all about the Saviors life and one was life sized of the Savior. He had his hands reaching out to you and you were able to put your hand in his. What an incredible experience that was. It was kind of emotional too, to realize that you will someday be able to do that when you see him again face to face.

It was also fun to go to the Oakland Temple Grounds. That was where 30 years ago Dennis and I were Married. It is still a beautiful Temple with a great view of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. What a fun day. Thanks Karen for seeing the advertisement about the exhibit. We spent one day driving to Jenner by the Sea, and stopped at all the fun places along the way. One was Sebastopol. We went to a farmer's market they had there. It was a fun day and not too crowded for Labor Day weekend. The rest of the weekend we relaxed and Dennis did some work on his Mom's house. Oh, did I mention that it was hot? It was 106 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It cooled off to the 90s on Sunday and Monday. We love to go to California!

I've Been Tagged

Oh my gosh, my first tag! Beth, tagged me on this so I will try to do it.

3 Current Goals

1. To lose weight (Traveling, Age and Moving has really done me in)
2. To make a Quilt (I have always wanted to do one, even took some classes, but have not had the time to make one yet.)
3. To get into geneology. I would love to get going on this!

3 Current Obsessions

1. Reading, I love, love, love to read!
2. Traveling with Dennis, We love to explore all of Oregon; especially the coast
3. Sewing and Crocheting, I guess that is not current, but ongoing.

3 Fears

1. Losing a Family member
2. Getting really sick myself
3. Economy

3 Random Facts

1. I really miss not seeing my kids and Grandkids all the time.
2. I get emotional really easy. (Dennis can't believe the things that make me tear up)
3. I really like living in Oregon, except for not having any family up here.

Okay, Beth, I did it. I guess I can tag everyone else now.
Consider Yourself tagged!

Here Goes!!!

I am so going to do this. Beth set up this blog for Dennis and I and I have yet to really put something on it. So I am going to do it now. Dennis is in Utah right now and I am here in Oregon by myself. He is having dinner with whatever kids are available and able to tonight. I am going to have a friend over to make bracelets and magnet boards. I know it really sounds like fun! We have been here in Oregon now for about 9 months going on 10. We absolutely love it here, even though none of our kids have been to visit . Hopefully after seeing some of these fun pictures, they will want to come up. The top was taken at Newport, Oregon down by the Wax Museum. There are also ones of the redwoods when we went hiking there, haystack rock; down by Cannon Beach, the famous bridge going over to Long Beach, WAshington, Crater Lake and the fun we had down at Jason's baptism with the grandkids. We are hoping this is making you all so jealous that you will want to book your flights right now to come visit. Maybe it would help if it was bright and sunny on all those beach days; but don't you worry, they say it is the best at the beach in September and October. Sorry for all the pictures, but once I got the hang of it (thanks Erik!) I just could not pick just one. Next lesson will be how to put them throughout the text. Now send me some replies!