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!