It's here again!

What would July be without the Tour de France! Jared and I have been huge fans since the early-Lance Armstrong days. We even upgraded our cable just so that we could watch the Tour a few years ago. (The Melrose Place re-runs were an added bonus, but I digress). Due to all the doping scandals of the last few years, there is no favorite in this years Tour. It's anyone's race! Versus has 4 hours of coverage each day, and it is a huge time committment to watch it all. Fortunately, we can use our DVR and fast forward to the last bit to watch the finish of each stage. I'm sure we'll watch more on the weekends. If you haven't checked it out in awhile, or if you have 4 hours to spare, tune into to Versus each morning;(The commentators are a hoot as well). You should know there are 2 new American teams this year too! Go Team Columbia!

One of my favorite shows!

I have to share one of my new obsessions with you.  It is a show called 'Flipping Out' on Bravo.  It is a reality show about this guy, Jeff Lewis, who is a real estate investor who buys houses, remodels them and resells them.  He is very good at what he does, but he also has OCD.  It makes for some very funny situations.  I really like it because I find 'flipping houses' really interesting and I guess I can relate to the guy in a very slight way. You know the basic everyone is imcompetent but me kind of way. (Note: sarcasm!)  It is on Tuesday nights.  I don't know what time since I always just watch it on DVR when I get around to it.  You should have seen the episode in which his assistant forgot to order 'no onions' on his salad.  It was hilarious!
Check out the clip below (pause the music player on the right sidebar):

Basement update

Sheetrock is being hung as we speak!  CAN NOT WAIT!  Yes, I know I'm a nerd for even taking this picture, but cut me some slack; I'm excited!

My favorite Jedi

Chandler chose The Empire Strikes Back (don't ask me why) for his movie from the library last week.  I guess he's half Jared, so that explains it.  I caught him pretending to be Luke while he watched it and just had to grab the camera.  He was making the light saber sounds and swinging his light saber.  I wonder what was going through his mind.  "I'm going to defeat Darth Vader!" or something like that.  It was hilarious to watch.  I guess you had to be there...

HFR 2008 on the beautiful Oregon coast

We returned last week from an 8-day family reunion/vacation with our Hemmert Family. About half of the family flew and the rest drove out to Oregon. We were fortunate enough to be in the flying group. As our kids were fighting on the way to the airport, we realized that there was no way we could make the 13-hour drive if we couldn't even make it 1 hour to the airport without problems. Our VERY lively 2-year old made the flight very troublesome for his parents. It was about as bad as you can imagine. Not staying in his seat, screaming, kicking the seat of the "not-so-friendly" passenger in front of us. But alas, we made it. After picking up our rental car, we made the 2 1/2 hour drive out to the coast. We stayed in a great rental house in Lincoln city. Check it out here. It should be noted that this was a LARGE family gathering. Jared's parents, all of his 5 siblings, spouses and grandkids. 14 adults and 14 children. Of the 14 children, the youngest 11 are all boys, and the oldest boy is 7! It felt like about 30 boys.
Our first full day was Sunday, Father's Day, so we just hung around the house and relaxed. It was nice after all of the travelling the day before. Monday, we headed towards Tillamook. Our first stop was Oceanside. (see above pictures). We played on the beach and collected shells and rocks. There is this little cave through the rock that leads to another side of the beach. It was really cool. Chandler froze, which is why he is wearing 2 of his own coats and one of Jared's in the pictures.
Our next stop was a short hike to the 'Octopus' tree. There is also a lighthouse there that we got to go to the top of. Very pretty! After this, we were all starving so we had lunch at the Tillamook Cheese factory. We got to see cheese and ice cream being made there. Sorry, no pictures, though.
We next stopped at Cape Lookout. More beaching. Preston, of course, found a stick to terrorize some of the other cousins. After a very fun, exhausting day, we headed home. Note Chandler's quote on the right-side bar. This applies here.
The next day was 'picture day.' Reese Christensen, a Provo photographer accompanied us to Oregon and took family pictures on the beach. He also spent the 'Tillamook' day with us and took a bunch of candid shots. I'm sure I'll be able to post some of those at some point. It was quite an adventure with so many people and kids. After the formal pictures were done, we enjoyed hanging around the beach. My boys found some microscopic shrimp on the beach and enjoyed watching them in a cup for awhile.

These pictures were taken around the house. Each family had a night to do a devotional. For Joyce's night, all of the kids were given cowboy or pioneer garb and she told them an old pioneer legend of 'Injun Joe.' The top middle picture is of the wind shelter that was built early on when it was quite windy. We flew kites and had a couple of illegal bonfires on the beach as well. On Wednesday, we headed to Silver Falls and went on a hike. It was so beautiful hiking in the lush green forest and past multiple water falls. The boys did pretty good and only had to be carried briefly at the end. We had a picnic lunch by the river and then headed to the Aerospace museum in McMinnville.
This is where the 'Spruce Goose' is housed. It was Howard Hughes' enormous airplane that is featured in the movie, Aviator. You can tell from the pictures how enormous it is. There are also tons of other aircrafts and space stuff there. There was even some tanks outside. Yes, it was boy heaven! After another exhausting day of sight seeing we had another home day filled with lots of crafts for the kids and multiple trips to the outlets for the grown ups. Note: No Sales Tax in Oregon!
Friday, we went to Newport and visited a really cool aquarium there. The boys loved it. The picture of Preston with a glare is in a fish tank that you can crawl under and it is open in the middle so that the fish swim right by your face. Above is also some crazy spider crabs, a shark jaw and a little play area. We also got to stop at another lighthouse on the way home.

Saturday morning, a bunch of us participated in a 5k that was held on the beach in Lincoln city. After an exhausting week, I had decided just to walk it with some of the others who were going to walk, but then Jared decided to join us and decided that he was going to run. So I said to myself, "If Jared's going to run, so am I!" (For those of you who are unfamiliar, Jared's had many health problems and is not a runner). We stayed together and ran and walked our way through it. Jared even got 2nd in his age group! Matt got third in their age group! Don't ask how many were in their age group. (3) Wynn got first in his age group! Don't ask how many were in his age group. (1) The best part was the raffle after the race in which all registered family members walked away with prizes. Yes, it is a small race, but it was a lot of fun.

Staying with everyone was a lot of fun. It probably won't happen again for at least a couple of more years. Thanks, everyone, for being patient with us and our kids! Above is a video of Devin teaching Preston about the 'Secret of Silence.' He uses this to move things with his mind. You probably figured out that the 'Secret of Silence' is the antithesis of Preston's high-pitched scream. Video courtesy of Julie. Thanks!

Funny sayings from Oregon

After a long day of sight-seeing in Oregon, we arrived at another beach, and Chandler threw a bit of a fit. Trying to get him out of the car, I said, "Come on, Chandler, it will be fun." He replied with, "I told you! No More Fun!"

"I don't like Julie! I'm going to throw up on her!" Preston was upset after his aunt, Julie, screamed when Preston had two rocks in his hands, arms raised at his younger cousin, Mason. This really is naughty behavior, but is kind of funny since no one got hurt. If you knew what a sensitive gag-reflex Preston has, you would watch out--he probably could do it.

Happy World Blood Donors Day!

Today is World Blood Donor Day. Don't worry I didn't get you anything either. I am a BIG believer in Blood donation, so I thought this was a good opportunity to encourage anyone and EVERYONE who is eligible to donate. I am the coveted O-negative blood type, so I am harrassed into donating every 13 weeks. It is a good and important thing to do, but before you congratulate me too much, you should know it's really all about...

The Lorna Doones and juice!
Call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE to schedule your appointment to donate!