Our first visitors

My brother Aaron was our first visitor but he was only able to stay for a few hours while he was in town for work.  Next we had Craig's parents come in town.  We are so grateful they took the drive to come and visit!  They came on Monday and left the following Monday.  A week to visit is just not enough time although we did do some fun things.  They got in late Monday so we fed them some dinner (my potato soup) and then we walked down to Albertsons for a few things.  Jaycee rode her bike the whole time!  Tuesday we were going to go to Mt. St. Helens ( you can see it from our house) but Craig forgot he had work meetings so we hung out at home and then he got off early so we could go check out a new SUV.  That took a little longer than we wanted but walked away empty handed.  I was a little sad.  We went to pita pit for dinner then hopped over to a yogurt factory for dessert.  It was nice to have a low-key relaxing day.  Wednesday Craig was able to work a little in the morning and then we drove 1 1/2 hours to the north end of Mt. St. Helens to Johnston's Observatory.  This is the part of the mountain where the lava came over and you can see the chunk of mountain it took out.  It was so neat!  I loved learning the history and seeing what the blast did back in 1980.  We were there for a quite a while and got to learn and see elk and even got a penny for Aimee---hehe.  We left and was starving so we stopped in the canyon at a little restaurant for dinner.  It was very tasty.  It was a fun day and we had lots of talking and laughing.

 We stopped first at the learning center.  In the pic you can see the mt in the background and you can see what looks like a river but it's actually where all the lava flowed down the mountain.

 There are lots of elk down in the valley and Jaycee was so lucky to get a picture by one of them he he

 Aw....our little family

 

Here's a pic I got from online of Mt. St. Helens before the 1980 explosion

Here's is the after taken from the observatory.  You can see how it blew off the top and spilled over the side and killed everything!

 Bug

 The group at the observatory

Thursday we had a late start to the day thanks to Geico (ugh-never go through geico!) and had plans to go to the coast.  Well when we got to the beach it was freezing and so windy.  Phyllis didn't even get out of the truck.  Jaycee cried cuz the wind was blowing the sand on her legs.  It just was bad.  But it's all about memories and we had so much fun in the car ride there.  We were laughing so hard at one point.  I love that!  We stopped in Astoria for a yummy dinner of halibut, prawns, prime rib and clam chowder.  Mmmm...we love fish right on the coast.  The ride home was so quick.  I felt bad the weather didn't cooperate but it was still fun to drive right on the beach and to see the beautiful country that we call home.

The past two days were so filled with things so this day was a laid back day and shopping to do.  I took the parentals to the mall and we walked around, shopped and once again laughed so hard....Phyllis wouldn't go down the escalator.  It was so funny.  Oh and Phyllis got a smart phone and Larry got a new flip phone.  We left there and drove them about 15 minutes to see where Craig worked.  We didn't get there until about 6 and then we hung out there while trying to learn the new phones.  We decided it was past dinner so we made a quick decision to go to a Mongolian restaurant in Gresham...it was SOOO good!  I had a fun drive home with Phyllis and loved that we got to talk and I got to learn so much about her.  Thanks for the ride :) 

Saturday Craig and I headed back to the dealership to pick up our new ride!  Yay!  Craig's parents went shopping while we did all the paperwork.  Then we spent the rest of the day cutting down fruit trees in the backyard and eating pizza and talking.  It was so nice to have laid back days and visiting.  We were all so tired that we didn't even stay up late to watch a movie, but it was a filled week. 

Sunday we went to church and they got to see our stomping grounds a little bit.  Our ward was packed on Sunday and the testimony meeting was fabulous.  It even went over 25 minutes!  We skipped out on classes and came back home for a walk to the duck pond and then made them a yummy bbq chicken dinner.  We just hung out and wished so bad they could stay for a few more days.  

The girls in their new outfits from Grandma & papa.  When we were at the store we asked Jaycee what she wanted and she told us a skirt.  Then I saw this little dress for Hadi and fell in love.  Thanks for the new outfits!  They sure do love each other

 My little baby!  She got 2 new teeth this past week and so we are all smiles now.  Oh and she no longer will wear headbands; she rips them right off.

 *Jaycee playing with my camera again*  Hi Hadley

 Hadi is so close to crawling.  I bet by the end of this week she'll be cruising.  She does this funny thing that she'll get on her back feet and then drop to her knees and go.

 *Jaycee playing again*

 *Jaycee*  This is Milly. 

 *Jaycee got a good pic of grandpa's Sunday afternoon nap*

 *Jaycee taking a pic of her little buddy*

 *Silly Mom*

 *Grandma & Pa-Pa*

Monday morning they had to head to Boise for the night.  Looking back of the week I think of so many fun memories and how much our family loved having them here.  I hope they had a fun time and can't wait to see them again!  We love you guys