***Life is good right now. I'm not feeling the anxiety\excitement of 'going back to school' because Maren's too young, and I'm not a student anymore. If feels good to not be in or out of our routine, because nothing is really going to change for us as summer comes to a close. Living is So. California is awesome because it's summer for much of the year!

When my sister and sister-in-laws started having kiddos and staying at home, I would look at their lives and think,"oh boy, I can't wait until I can take my kids to story time at the local library, then to the park, then home to play with dolls and do finger painting." I was excited to be 'home' with kids, but still have fun adventures that I get to plan. Now that I'm in that
position, it's been fun- and challenging too, to plan things for Maren and I to do. Some days we have too much free time, and some days we have no free time. I can always tell around 8:30pm if I ran around too much that day by how much energy I have left! This is a really good stage in life though for me right now.

Maren is getting her first tooth! Actually, she's getting 2! Bottom row, jagged tops, coming in loud and clear:) Here's a picture of Andy's best friend and his wife who were vacationing from Idaho. Maren went right to Clint and found him very intriguing! (She hardly goes to ANYONE) It was great to see them.

I sent this picture below to Andy at work yesterday to make sure he had a good day like I was having. Looking at her smile and seeing that she is laughing from her belly makes me laugh when I look at it too.

That's about all for us. After church on Sunday, a boy in our class handed Andy a note that read,"I'm sorry Brother and Sister Hall." He was apologizing for being 'overly energetic' in class and sharing time. He's one of our favorites in that class, and probably knows more about the gospel than Andy and I put together:) Funny though, huh?!

Sweeet Summertime

Ain't summer great? Her shirt describes it the best-summers are sweet. I love the weather and the fun atmosphere at nighttime.
While we were out of town, Maren had her 1 year birthday. Do we really have a 1 year old?? AHH! She is really fun right now. Here are some flowers next door to us, which she squeals at every time we go by.

A few highlights from the life of a 1 year old girl:
-You are crawling all over. In fact, you'd rather crawl over us than go around:)
-You like to empty anything from it's original bag\box. Crayons, my makeup, puzzle pieces(new one today), Uno cards, etc.
-You say,'what is it'? while pointing at something-and sometimes nothing. Other than Dadaaa and Mommmma, these were your first words...we must say this a ton!
-You prefer mom and dad over anyone else. You like babysitters after about the first 20 minutes. (sorry girls!)
-You love bath time and lotion time.
-You squeeze your stuffed animals until they can't breathe. In fact, you fold your body over them b\c you love them so much. This is really cute:)
-You are generally happy, and when you're not you're patient w\ mom and dad as they lose their sanity.
-You enjoy running w\ mommy, air rides with daddy, and crawling up and down stairs.
-As far as food goes, you'll eat anything that includes pasta, pasta, and pasta. (ok, you like fruits, a few crackers, nutrigrain bars, and apple juice\water). You recently started liking your first veggie-carrots.
-You're 50%tile for weight and heigth.
-You tickle us with your little fingers moving back and forth while saying,"diggle-diggle-diggle".
-You have a few hairs coming in, even enough for a small clip in front! (wahoo)
-You make us so happy.

Oregon Coast '09

Why is this underlined? lol. Anyways, we had a great trip. My family has a reunion every 2 years in the beautiful state of Oregon. This year my entire family was there, and we just had a blast. Here are some highlights...

Here's a view from Cape Mears lighthouse. This is about 25 minutes from Rockaway Beach(where we stay).

We went up to Cannon beach to ride these awesome bikes. When my bro's and sis and I were younger, we'd rent these and cruise around for hours. This is the first time in a long time that we've been on them again. They were so fun. They even had a trailer for Maren to ride in.

And here's our whole crew. Our cousins\aunts & uncles stayed in a different beach house b\c we've gotten so big, but here's all of my fam. (minus my dad-the photographer). 14 1\3 kids, and 12 adults!! It was so fun being together, especially at night when all the kids were asleep. We'd stay up and talk, laugh and eat Tillamook ice cream.

Haystack rock in Cannon beach. (Let's give a shout-out to where Goonies was filmed:)

Here's part of the cove at Oswald beach. This is probably my favorite part of our trip each time. It's a huge cove that you hike down into, and there are a lot of starfish and neat places to walk around.

Part of the family at Oswald.

Thanks to my bro Chad and his wife Sherry, we packed Maren around in this. She loved being so close to Andy's hair, ears and neck:) (Andy-you look handsome in this pict!)

Purple, orange starfish.

The grandkids all took turns spending time with my mom and dad. They all adore my parents, it's so fun to see that relationship.

Here's some of us at the 'Octupus tree' at Cape Mears. This tree is over 250 years old, and it never got a trunk, only lots of legs that look like octupus legs!

I really like lighthouses, and this one is not in service right now, but still cool to see.

Here's 2 of my neices- Audrey and Breanne. They could be seen like this the whole trip. They loved being able to spend so much time together. They arranged a performance for us one night that was similar to HS musical(I think)...it was really cute!

There's many cool views along the coast like this one.

Here's a picture from off the deck at our beach house. Each morning we'd go running and it was foggy, but burned off later in the morning.

Out the window from the drive from Portland to Tillamook.

This cool train was built by my dad's cousin. The kids all loved it, and Maren and I are in the front of the ranger.

My Grandpa's brother in law and my Grandpa.

Here's part of the farm where we had the reunion. It was beautiful out there. Before our flight on Friday, we drove to the Portland temple. It was at the end of a neighborhood covered in trees and shrubs.

Thanks to Mom and Dad, Grandpa and everyone else who planned to make this trip a memorable one. It's just the best being with family!!