Brighton Lily

We got Brighton's pictures taken at Eric Cable Photograpy and he was so great! He talked to her about princesses and ballerinas the whole time and captured her so well. We love these pictures!

Welcome to Oregon Lex!

So my sister Alexis is starting her PhD this fall at Oregon State. Woo-hoo! That means she will just be an hour and a half away for the next three years. We are so excited to have her so close! My parents drove up to help her move in so we got to spend a few days with them too. As always, it was so great to see them!

We had fun at the Oregon State game (even though they lost) and Bri was a trooper (even though she's not much of a football fan).

Brighton LOVES her grandparents! She hasn't stopped talking about them since they left. Come back soon! We miss you!

My parents brought down my bike and Brighton thinks it is the greatest thing in the world that the grownups in her life can ride bikes with her now.

Lexi turned 26 yesterday! Brighton insisted the cake be orange (Lexi's favorite color), she also made her an orange card with orange stickers, picked out these lovely birthday hats, which have an orange stripe on them, and some balloons (she made sure a couple of them had orange on them as well). She's also been talking about an orangey, sparkly, fancy dress that she was going give Lex for quite some time. For those of you who know my sister, you know she is really into sparkly things...and fancy dresses. We never did find the perfect sparkly orange dress. Sorry to disappoint Lex. Maybe next year.

As soon as one person's birthday ends, Brighton asks whose is next and begins the party planning immediately. She has been pumped for Lex's orange themed b-day since Don's Spiderman party was over a month ago. This girl LOVES birthdays! So if anyone needs a good party planner, you know who to call.

Camping in the Rain

Over Labor Day weekend, we met up with Bren, Megh, Ellie, and Cameron in Crescent City for a little camping trip. It was a little crazy with all of the rain, but we still had a great time together! Growing up we always camped far away from civilization with no running water in sight. This camping trip, however, was just outside of town at a KOA campground. Not quite the quiet serenity you get when you are secluded in the mountains somewhere, but with little kids, camping with a "K" wasn't so bad. It was nice to have a playground within sight of our campsite and potties near by. :)

Brighton loves her cousin Ellie and they had a blast playing princesses and fairies. All of our clothing changed colors, got polka dotted, and striped quite a few times by the fairies and their stick magic wands. Gotta love three year old imaginations. Brighton loves to change Don's clothes into PINK. She thinks it is so hilarious. Sometimes she even makes his clothes sparkley...even more hilarious. Gotta love her three year old sense of humor.







One day when it was pouring rain on us, we got in the car and drove to Brookings, where it was 75 degrees and sunny so we did get to play on a sunny beach after all!

Happy Birthday Don!

Today is Don's 32nd birthday. Happy Birthday Hun! Brighton was a great helper in preparing for his birthday. She helped me pick out and wrap all of his presents. She got him Hercules because "boys like that movie." She then hid all of the presents in the closet of her playroom so Daddy wouldn't open them before his "birffday." She even wrapped her necklaces around the door knobs of the closet to serve as locks. She went with me to the party store to get balloons and was adamant that we get all of the Spiderman decorations because she thought that Daddy would LOVE them. How could I say no? So Don got a Spiderman themed birthday. Just what every 32 year old man wants...whether they are willing to admit it or not.

So Don and I went out last night to celebrate and we celebrated today with french toast for breakfast, presents, Don's birthday dinner of choice--Hamburgers, and of course, Cold Stone birthday cake. Yummm. It was a pretty low key day, but we had fun. Brighton gets so excited about birthdays and it makes it more fun for everybody else.

We love you Dad! You are our favorite guy in the whole world! Happy Birthday!

Mammoth Creek

We had a great time in Mammoth last week! Here are some of the highlights...

Hiking in Bryce Canyon, horseback riding, playing on the slip n' slide, curling up with Jane Austen on the deck and listening to the stream and the humming birds, girls day of shopping, boys day fishing in the Boulders, kite flying, playing cards when the kids were asleep, resting, playing, talking, laughing, reconnecting.

It was so fun to be with my family last week. We had everyone there except for Lex. One of these years our schedules will ALL align. We missed you Lexi Lou!

The kids got along so well and would run off and entertain themselves for hours at a time. It was so great! We all got some good quality time with each other and I miss everybody already! Thanks for the fun week Lewis fam!






This was so classic. Brighton and Don went out to the shop, turned barbie room, to play. We heard Brighton singing at the top of her little lungs and peeked in to find this.





We had a great time horseback riding and the kids loved it. You'll notice there are no pictures of my hubby in this segment. He was bucked off a horse named Satan, that's right, Satan, when he was younger and would go nowhere near these harmless, tame animals. :)

Grandpa and Coop playin' a little one on one with Brighton dancing on the sidelines.