Life in Oregon

Okay, so who wouldn't love living here, when you live only 25-30 minutes from this? Plus at least 10-15 other waterfalls. We spent Memorial Day hiking not far from our apartment and it was Breathtaking! Our Crazy Tayson! Boys will be boys. If you didn't know, Tayson LOVES waterfalls! He has ever since we went to Yellowstone last summer. The only thing he has on his wall in his bedroom is a large poster of a waterfall in Yellowstone. We took him to a gift shop in Yellowstone, and all he wanted was a poster and postcards of waterfalls. Talk about easy souvenir shopping. So of course we stopped by Silver Falls Lodge and he requested yet another postcard to add to his waterfall collection.

A hallow tree trunk that the boys had fun climbing into for a picture.

The boys and I while hiking. Tayson hiked the entire time, and Camden, almost the entire time. They were quite the troopers. We only went probably 2 1/2- 3 miles of the 9 mile hike, but for two little guys, that was just long enough.

The Friday after we got here we went to the A.C. Gilbert Discovery Center (or something like that). Basically a children's Museum, with a couple old houses full of different rooms (bubble room, grocery store, etc) and a massive playground outside in the middle. With the Biggest tube slide Tayson had ever seen. He even went down it (not a huge surprise considering he is our fearless child however).

The boys favorite room of course was the bubble room. Check out this last picture if you click on it to enlarge it, you will see the excitement on Camden's face after popping a bubble over and over again.

The Saturday after we arrived, we went with my sister-in-law and niece to the Iris Festival. It was a LONG parade, and the boys were getting restless until they saw THIS! The "BIGGEST Monster Truck I ever did saw." (Tayson's words). The boys were in Heaven! It made the entire parade and wait worth it to see this near the end. They LOVE monster trucks.

Well, needless to say, so far we LOVE IT HERE! When we first arrived it was sunny and hot for about 5 days (95 degrees), but since then it has cooled down and we have had the opportunity to experience a little of Oregon's rainy days. Its been pretty enjoyable so far. It rained a little while we were hiking, but it isn't a bothersome rain, more of a mist. We LOVE our apartment, and Brady just got his bike fixed (after 3 years) and Tayson is LOVING going on bike rides with Daddy. He waits all day for Brady to get home to go. Just around the apartment complex for now, but he is quite the little rider. Just got to keep him focused on watching where he is going, rather than turning his head around to say hi or to look at something. AHHH! It is so nice to have Brady come home from work and not have hours of homework and studying each night. The bummer is that in order to get an Oregon drivers license you have to take the written test again. Brady was SO disappointed to hear that after he just finished studying and taking his boards. He has no desire to take anymore TESTS! Oh well. Sorry it took so long for me to get pictures up, thanks for the push Brit! I'll try to be better. Our problem is that Brady got a new camera for graduation because he wants to get into photography, but now he is the one taking pictures, etc, so I then had to wait for him to get his programs up and running and the pictures downloaded. I know I have pics of the boys just hanging out around our apartment complex, but I can't find our other camera. I'll keep looking.

We've Arrived in OR and Brady Passed the Exam!!!

No pictures yet, but thought I would let everyone know we have arrived in Oregon safely and Brady found out Wednesday morning while driving through Oregon that he officially PASSED his Boards! What a relief! Talk about a stress reducer. There was such a dramatic change in his stress level when he received the news. My Dad was a HUGE help with our move and we are TRULY grateful for all he did for us, as well as all both my parents did the three weeks we were in Utah (we were sick just about the ENTIRE time). At first I thought I was just cheated out of my three weeks in Utah as I didn't get to see many family and friends due to sickness, but then I realized I needed to look at it differently. If we had to be sick for three weeks somewhere, I couldn't have asked for a better place. My parents and sisters were such an amazing help with the boys, I didn't have to worry about cooking dinner, etc. Tayson fortunately stayed healthy up until 2 days before we left when he got a sore throat for a few days (probably some viral thing). We have finally gotten well (just the residual cough left over from Bronchitis that the rest of us had). It feels SO GOOD to be healthy! It also feels SO GOOD to finally be settling in to our new apartment. We slept in our own bed for the first time in 5 months on Wednesday night. We finally feel like we are Home! The boys seem to love it here too which is wonderful. As we got near our exit I began to get nervous as to what we would see as we drove to our apartment complex. I never saw any pictures of the inside of the apartment and we didn't know much about the area so I was worried whether or not we had chosen a good place. What a relief to arrive at a beautiful apartment complex, AMAZING apartment (10 times better than we had imagined - so much space, especially cupboards, etc), safe neighborhood, etc. We feel VERY BLESSED these past few months in finding a great job, amazing apartment, and most of all that Brady was able to pass his boards and get his license in time to begin working this coming Monday. We will post pictures soon. We are grateful to my brother and sister-in-law too, as they have been a huge help when we have needed to know where things are around here, and my sister-in-law took the boys one day so we could unpack. The boys are having fun getting to know their cousin Ainsleigh who they haven't spent much time with as they have always been out of state except for short visits. Cam and Ains are exactly 2 weeks apart, though she is much smaller than he is. We are so excited for the Adventures that lie ahead! Hope all is well with everyone else!

Dancing Machines

My little sister took this video of the boys dancing in her bedroom shortly after we arrived in Utah. I didn't know they had it in them. Check them out. They've got quite the moves. I couldn't stop laughing. Also quick update: Brady is finally scheduled to take the long dreaded boards on Tuesday. We will then begin our drive to the beautiful Northwest that afternoon. AHHHHHH I can't believe it is really happening. Now if we could just get over this bronchitis going around and hopefully we would be able to get some stuff done in preparation for the move.

He Graduated!!!

Congrats Hun!! The moment finally came! We are happy to annouce that Brady graduated with his doctorate of Physical Therapy on Thursday and Friday last week (though he still has his boards looming over his head). It is hard to believe we finally made it to this point. It was exciting and sad at the same time, because he has gone to school with these same people all three years and has made such great friendships with a lot of them over that time, and now everyone is moving different places. It is so nice to finally be finished though. The boys are sure excited that Daddy doesn't have to go to school anymore, though I don't know that they realize daddy will have to start working now in place of school, but at least there will be no more homework at night.

Brady's PT class - Hooding Ceremony
Brady being hooded

Both sets of parents and Brady's siblings

Very good friends of ours, Scott and Cielita. Brady and Cielita graduated together. They have been so wonderful to us and love our boys so much. Tayson especially LOVES them. He and Scott are good Buddies. We've had a lot of great memories made with these two.

One of our Future graduates

Rough week - one Very sick child

This is the main reason I am just now catching up on blogging. For five days straight, I basically sat in my parents recliner holding Camden. He got Rotovirus (at least that is what the doctors think it was). He vomited all night long, every ten minutes last saturday night, and then continued vomitting, though not as often for the next four days. One day he had a fever of 104 to go along with it all (fortunately tythenol took care of it). At one point the first night after giving him a bath the first time he vomitted (warning this is gross), he then sat on the toilet for about half an hour vomitting and having diarhea at the exact same time. How do you explain to a two year old why he is vomitting in a bowl and pooping in the toilet all at the same time? He got very dehydrated and the doctor was about to send us to the ER for an IV if a zophran tablet did not help. Fortunately it worked for a day and he could finally get some fluid in him. We went to Brady's hooding ceremony and then that night he got sick again. The next morning my sister (she's an RN), told us to go ahead and try one more half of a zophran tablet that the doctor gave us in case he started vomitting again. It finally kicked it so he could get some more fluids in. Fortunately that was the end of it. He could barely stand all week and shook when he did because his little body was so weak. He's a skinny kid, but got even skinnier. Fortunately his energy level is great now and he is happy and fine. I was told there is a vaccine for rotovirus, but no one ever told me that when Camden was little. I guess most insurances don't cover it or are just now starting to cover it. I guess it is a three dose series by mouth, but has to be started within the first 6 months of life. My recommendation is to get it for your child. I guess A LOT of infants and toddlers are hospitalized with this. We came close, but got very lucky. Lets just say, our future children will be getting the vaccine. I would like to avoid this ever happening with another child if I can help it. This is the sickest either of our children have ever been before.

Making memories on the farm again

Good to be back on the farm

So in awe at the fire Papa made on the farm. So excited to start roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. As a child we did this all the time, so it is so fun to be back up here letting our kids experience the fun. They had a blast (well for the most part -see last three pics)
Getting ready to have a weenie roast (roast hot dogs) on the Farm.
My neice Peyton and her daddy came up too. The boys love being back and playing with her. She's changed a lot since we were last here.
Tayson rolling his eyes at being told he couldn't get too close to the fire. He rolls his eyes a lot lately. OH BOY
Showing just how dirty he got while eating a smore

I had to post these last three pics to show that my children do have their moments that they throw fits or have meltdowns. I don't even remember what started this for Camden, but when I pulled out the camera to take a picture, he got SO UPSET and kept trying to hit the camera away. I just had to laugh, because it isn't really like him to do this, but with all the changes going on the past 5 months, he and Tayson have their moments lately where they are starting to act out. I don't blame them, but also hope once we settle down in Oregon, they will grow out of it again.

Good to be back, for a short while at least

We finally made it back to good old Utah on April 21st, also Happy Birthday to Brady that day! it is so nice to be back with family, and the kids are so excited to be able to play in Nana and Papa's backyard again. They sure missed it.



Tayson playing football with Daddy in Nana and Papa's basement. One of his very favorite things to do.