Horses

Garrett's primary teacher is very generous with her horses.  She invites people to come and ride her horses all of the time and anyone who has horses knows how much work they are.  The kids walked the horses from the pasture to the barn, brushed them, saddled them and then got to ride.  After being led around for a little while Mason and Sierra rode on their own.  Then Garrett thought he should be allowed to do the same.  They all loved it and Garrett tried to hide his smile but everyone could tell how much he loved it. 

Sierra

Sierra Kate the 7th Grader

School 2014

It has been a few weeks of school and we are starting to settle into our school routine again.  Sierra is in 7th Grade and keeps me up to date on who is dating who.  She thinks it's a waste of time to be "dating" at this age and rolls her eyes at it (which I am so glad about.)  Mason is the big shot around Elementary School as a 5th Grader this year.  Allie is in 3rd grade and lucked out getting all of her friends in her class this year.  Garrett started full day Kindergarten which was harder for me than him at the beginning.  He seems to enjoy it, especially riding the bus.

It's hard to believe how much my kids are growing and changing.  I love them so much and am very lucky they are all mine.

Hot Air Balloons

We woke up pretty early on this summer day to go see the Art and Air Festival.  We walked around to see the balloons go from flat to full and then into the air.  It's a pretty amazing process but the idea of going up into a hot air balloon makes me nervous. 

Cousins

Summer brings sunshine and cousins to Corvallis.  These guys have a lot of fun swimming, jumping on the trampoline, eating good food at Grandma's house, playing games with Grandpa and having sleepovers.  We love cousins!

Gold Butte

Eric and I celebrated 15 years of marriage this August.  We were married August 13th, 1999 in the Oakland California Temple.  We spent a few days together at the Gold Butte Lookout Tower.  Gold Butte is an old fire lookout tower that can be reserved for a night.  It is a short hike to the top with an amazing view of beautiful Oregon mountains.  It was such a relaxing trip and a perfect way to spend a few summer days together. 

Utah

We took part of our summer vacation and drove to Utah.  We stopped in Ontario, OR for a night and found a cool park and ate at a gross Mexican restaurant.  Next we headed to Holladay to stay with the Malfatto family.  Ezra turned one and Krista, Eric and Sierra learned to do some pretty high platform jumping.  We also spent time in the beautiful Cottonwood Canyon.  Eric ran and biked and the cousins had a great time together. Allie had Ezra on her hip for most of the four days we were there and Garrett enjoyed tea parties with Lola.

Next stop was a tour of the BYU campus on the golf carts and a trip to the newly remodeled Bean Museum.  Both were really fun.  Taking a trip down memory lane at BYU is always a treat.  Eric also took the older kids to check out the bookstore and the Clyde building where Eric spent a lot of his BYU days.

Next stop was Spanish Fork for our Chittock family reunion.  We all met up at Lesley's house for food, "minute to win it" and swimming.  The highlight was the BYU Men's Soccer Team game on the 4th of July.  After the game we went onto the field to watch the fireworks. 

It was such a good trip we just might return to Utah again someday.