They live in Arizona where it is dry and hot and sunny ALL THE TIME! They enjoy really, really hot, HOT, HOT summers and very lovely winters.
We were so excited that they were coming! The kids asked for about a week and a half before they came if tomorrow they would be here and if the answer was no, if it would be the day after tomorrow or the day after that.
We naturally wanted to show them a great time and we had all these ideas and plans...
AND then our fabulous blue sky, dry winter that we had been enjoying most of November and ALL of December decided to change and remind us why most people dread the Northwest in the winter time. The forecast for the weekend:rain/showers/possibly snow. Temperature: super cold.
Oh well.
We still did have a fun time (hopefully they did too). I'm sure Emily "LOVED" being woken up bright and early EVERY morning by kids that go from 0 to 60 in hyper mode. (We "LOVE" it too). :)
Regardless of the bitter weather conditions these are some of the things we did do.
Friday night, we had my parents join all of us for dinner at the Macaroni Grill to tell them what gender our baby #4 was going to be. (We didn't take any pictures). But it was fun to have them unwrap several layers of alternating blue and pink paper to get to the final container which held a "little sister" onesie. :)
Due to a forecast of snow at the tail end of the weekend we decided to head to the beach on Saturday with a pit stop at Camp 18.
Most people from Northwest Oregon know what Camp 18 is but if you don't or haven't been, it really is a must see.
If not for anything else, the HOMEMADE CINNAMON ROLLS!
Yes that is one roll and it was so yummy good! :)
The beach at Seaside proved to be freezing. And yet there were still two people there in shorts...I don't get it. Weird, weird Oregonians. :)
Isn't she so cute? I kind of love her. :)
I love this picture of the girlys!
I was hoping to get a decent picture of Wes and myself that weekend since I don't think we have a recent one but this will have to do for now.
I love that Jared was running around drawing long lines in the sand. I spent countless time at the beach doing the same exact thing when I was a kid. It was so fun to see the designs you could make. It's like a giant drawing board!
The cool guys.
At the "End of the Trail" the Lewis and Clark Statue.
It was seriously so cold on the beach and the wind didn't help matters.
I think Emily was just happy to see the beach (poor deprived Arizona child) but I'm sure she would have enjoyed it more in the warm summer sun that eventually graces us around August. :)
After a few minutes we headed to the Candyman store (they have 170 different flavors of Salt water Taffy) to get yummy candy and then on to the carousel ride.
It was good that we went to the beach when we did.
We woke up Sunday morning and were greeted with a thin layer of snow on the ground! I love snow! I thought living in Bountiful, Utah would have changed my feelings about it since it is there pretty much all winter. But I still love it! Yay for snow! :)
Jared playing his harmonica in the snow. I'm sure our neighbors loved that. ;)
Then Monday (our last day with them) rolled around. It was still cold and still kind of snowing so we decided to go to the World Forestry Center. I've never been there but have wondered about it every time I've gone to the zoo or the Children's Museum since it is in the same parking lot. I'm glad we went. (And for those in the area, Wednesdays this year they have $3.00 admission days.)
This is the inside of a tree trunk. Jared wanted me to take this picture.
Then of course Novalee being the little sister that she is followed him inside. She then looked to her right and gave the biggest girl scream ever when she saw centipeds in the bark. Kind of serves her right for trying to bug her brother. :)
The family "rafting" down the rapids.
Sadie driving the logging tractor.
This was pretty cool. They had this place where kids could plant tree starts. My dad works for the Oregon State Forestry and I have seen him plant countless starter trees, so it was neat to see that at the Forestry Center they have a hands on learning center of something my dad does on a regular basis for his work.
For the grand finale the "kids" (Emily included) took a lift up into the canopy to hear and see the different wildlife that lives in the forest canopy.
And that was it. After lunch the visiting Crockett's headed to the airport and we local Crockett's headed home.
It was probably a good thing they didn't hang around another day since we woke up the next morning to this.
Thanks for coming to visit, it was so fun to have you here!
(Officially the end of the longest post ever.)
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