Hood to Coast Run

Yeah, I know! This post is a long time coming. Sorry, but sometimes life just goes too fast to have time to slow down and rewrite about it:) However, I'm excited to share some fun stories. Last November Travis was asked if he wanted to run the Hood to Coast with some co-workers and after much deliberation he decided he was in. The Hood to Coast run is the largest relay race in the world. There are over 1000 teams and each team has 12 people. They start running at the top of Mount Hood and finishes in Seaside Oregon, and each person has 3 legs anywhere from 4-8 miles. It's intense, crazy, hard on your body, and looks like so much fun:)

We all went down to cheer daddy on and grandma even came to help mommy out with the kids. On Friday morning Travis met the rest of his team for breakfast and they talked about the race and what to expect. Then shortly after, the first half of the team got in a van and drove up to Mount Hood and started the race around 2:00pm. Travis was the second person in the relay so he ran around 3:00. All of his legs were about 5.5 miles each. He was mostly running downhill and was so pumped ran quite quickly. After the 6th person ran their leg, his van went down into Portland and grabbed dinner at a friends and a few hours of sleep. Then at 10:00pm they were up again to start the next leg. Travis ran through downtown Portland at midnight! He said that leg was the hardest because he was already so tired and then his body is screaming at him to go to sleep. After his van finished, they parked at a stopping point and they actually all layed out their sleeping bags in a field and got a few hours of sleep. At around 9:00am Travis ran his last leg and we were there to cheer him in at the end! He was exhausted, but he did the whole thing without stopping and pushed his body more than he thought it could ever go.

We were all so proud of him and inspired by amazing people we saw running the race. We saw a blind man running with a leader, a woman who was in remission from breast cancer, and a man who had a prosthetic leg. We saw skinny runner-built men sprinting their whole legs, and larger women who were walking. It was so inspiring! The race finished in Seaside Oregon and Travis' whole team ran over the finish line. They all ran 197 miles together in a little over 24 hours. It was amazing! Since then, we have been inspired to run more races, why not? They are fun, they are healthy, they push our bodies, the training is a great way to force workouts, and it's such an amazing sense of accomplishment when you cross over that finish line! Way to go Travis!

The kids, grandma and I had a fun time while daddy was running too. We took a trip to the Portland zoo, took the kids swimming and got to cheer daddy on which was definitely the best part. The worst part was when we were on side roads trying to meet up with daddy and Peyton got car sick and threw up all over the car:( It was yucky! Luckily I had grandma there to help me, but I never wish that upon any mom ever! I loved that the kids got to watch daddy do this important feat in his life. Hopefully they'll remember how daddy is able to push himself and do anything he puts his mind to. After he was done with the race, I asked him if he was going to do it again next year and he couldn't answer me. He said he's so glad he did it once and will see if he wants to do it again. Although, last week he asked if I wanted to join him next year....:)

He did it!

His team running over the finish line

Cheering daddy in after his last run

Brayden was so excited to hold this sign for daddy!

Monster Jam

Friends and cousins watching him open all his cool presents.

I accidentally got fake-out candles. He was so confused as to why they wouldn't go out. Ooops:)

The big moment!

The Monster Truck jam race

The happy birthday boy eating his dinner

The cake!

Brayden just turned 5!!! We can't believe it! Our little man is not so little anymore:( He has been saying for 2 years that he wanted a monster truck birthday party so this time we made it happen. He was so excited about it he could barely handle it. I made a monster jam cake that was one of the easier cakes I've done, but it was so cute and he loved it. We had our friends and family over. The kids decorated cookies that were in the shape tires and used brown frosting and sprinkles to make muddy tires. Then we ate pizza and salad for dinner. After that daddy was in charge of the games and we played throw the ball into the tire, and we actually had a little monster truck course that the kids got to race on. It was really cute. After that we opened presents and had cake. It was a successful party and Brayden felt so special. At one point I was worried because I really didn't have any more planned activities for the kids to do, but then I looked around and realized they were doing awesome. They were all just playing together, racing monsters trucks and just enjoying being outside and running. It was a really fun party and a success I think! Brayden we are so proud to call you our son and feel lucky that God gave us the important job of being your mommy and daddy. You are already showing godly character in many things and for that we are thankful. We hope you know how loved you are because words cannot express. Happy Birthday little man!

Hawaii vacation!

Sisters!

The kids already love them, but they love them even more now!

Beautiful Hawaiian baby

THE BEST BREAKFAST EVER!

Date night

Ready to go snorkeling

The kids at Dragon's Teeth (old lava)

At the Fish Market in Paia

Black Rock baby!

Fun night with the Nevils

Hula Grill

Black Rock

The view from our room

Daddy playing in the sand with the kids.

My view reading a book

We all made fruit loop necklaces

We just got back from Maui a few weeks ago and we are all already having withdrawls from it!! We decided to go to Maui this year for a lot of reasons. But the main ones were we wanted a family friendly location, and we wanted to go somewhere where it's easy to relax. Maui fit that perfectly. With Travis having school all June and July, it was such a treat to have August free and he worked extra hard so we could go on vacation, thanks babe. Our Maui vacation in one word= perfect!!
We didn't know what to expect with the kids flying because it had been so long since either of them had flown anywhere, but praise Jesus, they both did amazing on the flights. They slept, and besides Peyton getting a little antsy, they did great. Getting to Maui was so exciting for us because we were excited to see our best friends there! The Nevil family had already been on Maui for 5 days and our trips overlapped by a few days. It was so fun to hang out with them in paradise. We had dinner with them, checked out each other's hotels, and had a full fun day at Black Rock snorkeling, swimming, and hanging on the beach. We realized after that that we are destined to vacation together more in the future because we had so much fun!
The next day my sister Desi and her husband Jimmy joined us (they had gone to Ohau for a few days). We had such a blast with them. We went and checked out the town of Paia and ate at the Fish Market and got some yummy gelato, we went to the beach where they learned how to snorkel and Travis and I got a chance to snorkel together, we went to another beach where we sat and jumped the waves for a long time, and even another beach where we did more snorkeling and played at the beach. We went out for many yummy dinners, sat by the pool every afternoon and relaxed, and played fun games at night. Travis and I got a date night where we went to dinner, did some shopping and went to see a Magic show which was really fun! We went running on the beach, ate breakfast on the beach (white chocolate macadamia nut pancakes were sooooo delicious, easily my favorite meal there!). We also went to check out the town of Kehei and found a hole in the wall Italian restaurant that was amazing and so authentic. Every night we would watch the sunset and sit in awe of God's creation!
The kids LOVED Maui and are still talking about it now. Their favorite parts were going down the water slide at the hotel (Peyton would even go by herself!), going to the beach, Peyton loved to sit in the sand for hours and play, and Brayden loved to play in the waves, they loved hanging out with uncle Jimmy and Titi Desi, and loved anytime they got to go swimming. For the most part they did a great job even after we wore them out everyday.
My favorite parts were hanging out with people we love, and spending hours at the beach. This trip was definitely a full circle moment for us in that the first time we went, we were alone with no children and it was amazing, last time we went Brayden was a year and half and hated the sand, but we still had an amazing time, this time we obviously had the kids and it was amazing. Bottom line I don't know how you can't not have fun in Maui! We're so thankful that God blessed us with this trip. We came back feeling refreshed, rested, relaxed, and so in awe of God's creation. We will have these memories forever!

On a side note: Since we got back Peyton will get her shoes on, get her purse, her baby and her blanket and stand by the door. I ask her "where are you going, " she answers "to Hawaii." :)

Children's Museum

I think here Travis is having way more fun than the kids:)

The cool ball sucker thing:)

Brayden being a vet

She didn't want to leave this place

She is a nurse taking are of the baby!

We've had a weird summer with daddy being at school so much so we really cherished 4th of July weekend when Travis had time off of school and work. We decided to go to the Olympia Children's museum for the day. We were all VERY impressed with it. A lot more activities to do than the Tacoma one. We had a great time together as a family and I even had to pry daddy away from the toys at times. I think the pictures speak for themselves, we can't wait to go back.

Fun times at the zoo

This was right before Peyton is screaming "Oh Elephant" song:)

You can't really see the babies, but they are in there

We were all pretty impressed with the Walrus!!

I'll be the first to admit that I was sad when school was done in June. Don't get me wrong I love Brayden but I also love my schedule that I had during school hours and it was very nice to just have Peyton alone sometimes. I wasn't sure if we had anything exciting to do this summer, and was scared of the possibility of getting bored. Once I realized that I'm in charge of our activities this summer, we can all sleep in, and there are plenty of fun things to do around here, I'm sad that school starts again so soon! One of our favorite things we've done this summer is go to the zoo. One day we went with our MOPS group and my mom and nephews joined us, and the second time Travis took the day off and we went with my mom and nephews again. It's been so fun to see the kids love the animals. On our first trip the highlight was hanging out with the Walrus. The trainer was feeding him and had him do a lot of tricks and the kids were right up to the glass to watch the whole 10 minute encounter. They got to ask questions, give some commands, and even got splashed a bit by the Walrus himself. They loved that experience and still talk about it today. The second time we went the highlight was seeing the baby tiger cubs. They were so cute and fluffy!! They were just jumping around, wrestling with each other and practicing pouncing on their mother. The kids just couldn't get enough of the babies and we couldn't either. Going to the zoo is a great reminder of God's amazing creation!

Travis' Birthday Part 2

Ok, I've been meaning to finish this post for a long time, but life has just gotten away from me lately. So, here I am writing about Travis' birthday in August:) To finish his birthday celebrations we had a big family dinner and dessert. I made strawberry pie (which I think turned out yummy:). On the actual day of his birthday I told Travis that we had dinner plans. He had no idea what we had planned for him:) We dropped off the kids and drove up to a random house, he was so confused!!! We walked in and I had planned a cooking class for his birthday. I could tell he wasn't sure at first, but as some of our friends started showing up he realized what a great night it would be. It was a great experience and something we definitely want to do again! There is a business called Kali's Kitchen and she does the cooking classes right out of her house. We all got to handle different parts of the menu I had chosen which was actually 5 different appetizers and a drink. We made peach iced tea with peach vodka in it, guacamole sliders, crunchy chicken bake, polenta rounds served with a bean mixture on top, and even steak pinwheels. One of my favorite recipes was dessert- Mexican fondue chocolate served with coconut donuts!!!! It was such a fun night with our friends. I hope Travis felt loved for his 30th Birthday, I had a great time planning it!!!

Our fun friends!

Avocado sliders (there is avocado in the middle of them!)

Strawberry pie!

Travis' Birthday Part 1

Down by the river

At the "campfire" it was fun watching the stars come out!

Beautiful!

On our treasure hunt

I was mad there was no cake:)

Travis turned 30 on June 21st and I wanted to have a fun celebration for him. I decided with his crazy school schedule, it would be great for us to get away for a night and reconnect. All Travis knew is that he needed to take off work Monday and the rest he was clueless to. On Saturday night I gave him a card that told him what time to be ready, what to pack (even hiking boots), and that was it. He was very curious but had no idea what I had up my sleeve. On Sunday morning grandma arrived at our place and we handed off our kids to her and were off. Still Travis doesn't know where we are going, I'm just telling him where to drive to. Once we get onto highway 18 Travis figured out we were going to Cle Elum to Suncadia Resort!!! We stopped in North Bend for lunch and some shopping at the Nike Outlet and then we were off to the resort. As soon as we drove onto the property I knew this was the best decision I could have made to celebrate his birthday. It was amazingly beautiful!!! We were able to check in early and then we decided to go Geocaching(a GPS treasure hunt) around the resort which was one of the activities they offer. It was really fun and Travis was excited because he found a new hobby to do. We spend the afternoon at the pool because the weather was amazing. We had a fancy dinner out at the resort and had a fun night making smores by the fire pits the hotel puts on for you (they are gas). In the morning we went on a 2 mile hike down to the river and it was beautiful. This place was the perfect get-a-way for us. A little outside adventure for Travis, yet not camping for me:)
After we checked out I had another surprise for Travis. Again he didn't know where we were driving to as I gave directions. We ended up at a horse ranch so we could go riding together. I was nervous because my experience with horses is minimal, but it was the perfect thing to do together and something we will never forget. It was a great weekend away and we can't wait to go back to Suncadia again. Happy Birthday Travis!

I I had the horse that she usually puts the little kids on:)