Railroads Day Race

Grace ran in her first 1K race this morning! She has been quite the runner ever since she was very young, so this seemed like the perfect event for her. She did awesome and ran the whole way! I was so proud of my little runner (who clearly takes after her daddy in this area and NOT her mommy! )

All set for the race to start And they're off! Grace's good friend, Julia, ran with her.
Coming into the finish line!

She is quite proud of her metal...even if it doesn't really show in this picture. :)She had quite the cheering section. All 4 of her grandparents were there to root her on.
Finisher!

Goofing off with Julia...even after running that far, that both still had TONS of energy.

Visiting some random raccoon

After the race, we had close to 2 hours to wait for the parade to begin, so we walked to a near bye park for some playtime.
Walking back to the parade...these two cuties were still holding hands!

Our crew getting ready for the parade to start

Cheering for the parade participants

The parade was long but had a very small town feeling. The kids LOVED collecting all the candy that was thrown their way. (And eating it!)

What a fun day!! Grace is already asking when she can run her next race. Anyone up for the Salmon Days 1K??

Back to the Beach!

We had such a great time on our annual vacation to the Oregon Coast. We headed back to Neskowin, the little beach town that I have been visiting since I was Grace's age, with my parents and my brother and sister and their families. It was a lot of people and a lot of fun!!

We all had fun playing on the beach...even when the weather didn't quite cooperate.

I had never noticed how much Charlie sticks his tongue out until I was going through the pictures from the trip. I cracked up at how often his little tongue found it's way into the pictures!

We stayed in a beautiful beach house that we have been lucky enough to rent for 3 years now. It belongs to a friend of a friend, and it's a real privilege to get to stay in such plush accommodations! There are two red chairs in the upstairs family room that Kate and I named the "magic chairs." They were the perfect spot for taking pictures because they had amazing light AND they spin. It was pretty easy to bribe the kids into sitting still for a picture with the promise of a few spins in the chair. We made pretty much everyone sit in the "magic chairs" at some point...

It wasn't so magic for Hudson, I guess! :) (Although he did LOVE spinning in these!)

For the past 3 years, my mom has planned a game for the grown-ups to play in the evenings once the kids are in bed. The basic premise is she asks us questions about ourselves, and we get paid for answering them. At the end of the week, we have an auction and spend our hard earned play money on all kinds of good stuff!

It can get a little competitive...check out Kate eyeing Ryan's stash.

But mostly, it's just lots of fun bonding time!

A family picture of our little family...

and the big family...

It was such a fun week of not doing much other than spending time together. Sweet Grace cried for much of the first half hour of our trip home because she already missed everyone, especially Jacob. (Who she always calls "MY cousin Jacob.") I really treasured the time with all of our family and loved watching my kids grow closer to their aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents.

Thanks Mom and Dad for another amazing week of memories!!

Welcome Parker!

We are so excited to welcome our newest niece and cousin, Parker Madison. She was born to Jeff's brother, Ryan, and his wife, Lindsay, early Sunday morning. She is such a tiny peanut weighing in at just 4 pounds, 7 ounces. (That's almost exactly half of what Charlie weighed at birth!) As you can see, she is absolutely beautiful.