Its not easy being green

Here are a few of our little green Oregon friends. One of them has a perfect copper colored heart on its head so we named him Valentino. They are so funny, and get so excited when we are going to feed them.. They wait by the " magic hole " I know, a little weird, but I love frogs! :) ( i know, the scale hasnt moved yet! )

Empty nest !

Ok, so Im not quite sure what to do with myself! I had all these great ideas of things I could do since I will have both kids in school now. (( sigh )) But Im not liking this! Everyone says " oh arent you excited to have the whole day to yourself " Actually NO, Im not! Jaden is in 5th grade so by now Im used to him being gone, I still look forward to when he comes home though, I miss him! Brynlee is always around! Following me everywhere. What am I going to do when its lunch time and I dont have to make her something? :( I think I might go back and get her! Would that be bad? Or maybe Ill just go play with horses by myself or make Steve play my littlest petshop with me! Just kidding, they both were excited to go to school today. I walked Brynlee in to her class and met her teacher, she is awesome. Jade on the other hand just took off and lined up with his friends. Im glad he is comfortable, but I at least wanted a hug! I did get an " I love you Mom " from him though. If you listen to the words to the first song on my blog, it is perfect for how Im feeling.
So with it being the first day of school, it means the start of me getting back to trying to get to my goal weight. I have all the time in the world to exercise now, and Im planning on starting Curves just to kick start it. I do better with a set plan. I started my day with a Yummy ( not ) Isagenix shake and Im really determined to get back to it. It really bothers me that I never made my weight watchers goal, and even though I have to loose some to get back where I left on on that, IM GOING TO DO IT! So that is what the little weight loss ticker is. I thought maybe if I knew people were going to see that maybe it would help. So feel free to say comments like " why isnt the ticker moving ? " Or " I dont think the ticker is moving " Or " When is it going to start moving Jen ? " I would really appreciate the motivation! Gotta go find something to do! :)

The little bird on my blog

If you are wondering what the little bird icon is on here, it is for donations to a family that has had a terrible thing happen.The Mother and Father of 4 were in an airplane crash and are severely injured and badly burned. I stumbled across the story from a friends blog who is friends with the family, and although I dont know them personally, it has really affected me, and wanted to spread the word and hopefully help in some little way. Here is the link:  http://cjanerun.com/ to the girl that was injured sister's blog. She is always updating on their condition and its really touching to read and has inspired me to be a better, brighter person and be thankful for what I have, and not worry about what I dont have. The way she is taking over and taking in her sisters kids is so angel like and It makes me really appreciate my family, I know they would do the same for me.

WOW!

OK, I was going to ease up a little on the blogging, but I just have to say that the Jack Johnson concert last night was AMAZING! He is the best! It was a perfect night, there was a light breeze blowing, and he sounded so good! What more can you ask for? I didnt think I could like him anymore than I already did, but I was wrong! I LOVE HIM! :) Thanks for getting me the tickets Steve and for going with me! I had a BLAST!

just cause......

We watched my friends little girl the other day and had her in the backyard taking pictures of her, then I noticed how cute Bryn looked sitting there! Love that look! Love you sis!

Seattle

Ok, this is the last post about our trip. Our last stop was Seattle. We went to a Mariners game and it was such a nice day. The Blue Angels were doing a show in Seattle and we could see them flying right over the filed. I love the ballpark, it is so neat! And they have yummy food! My favorite is the shiskaberries! YUM! They are white chocolate and milk chocolate covered strawberries on a kabob! OH MY ......

Father of the Bride

My Brother was pretty much glowing the whole day! My favorite part of the reception was when they danced! They danced to the song My Wish, and it was so touching! I love these pics of them. What a cute Dad!

Off to Washington

First we went to see my Brothers new house, it is such an awesome house, in a really neat secluded area. Im so happy for him! :) The kids fell in love with their dog Duke! What a cute dog! We spent the night there,and then headed to Bellingham for the wedding. The reception was at the hotel we stayed at so that made it nice. The wedding was so beautiful and so touching to see my brother walk his daughter down the aisle. She looked stunning! The reception was a blast, great food and lots of dancing

Love Lighthouses!

We got to see 4 new lighthouses on this trip, Port Reyes was my favorite out of the new ones. It was incredible. What is awesome is one of the neatest one is sooo close to the house in Oregon! How lucky!
Port Reyes..CA
Point Arena... CA
Trinidad Head... Trinidad, CA
Coquille River... Bandon, Oregon

And of course my very favorite Heceta Head, not far from the house.

WaTcH oUt FoR HoBbItS!

Hobbit trail is another favorite thing we do! It is a fun hike, so green and secluded.There are cool mushrooms everywhere and icky HUGE slugs! The whole way down we joke about there being Hobbits that live in the forest, and they eat the slugs and mushrooms. Jaden hides from us and pretends to be a hobbit and jumps out at us. The trail leads you to the most amazing beach, and there is hardly ever many people there. When the tide is low there are starfish, every different color. It is so neat there, and a must every time we go! Its cute because even though the kids think we are joking about the Hobbits I dont think they are quite sure, especially Bryn.

Go Jump In a Lake!

Honeyman Lake is one of the kids favorite things to do when we are in Oregon. It is such a pretty place, with a great lake where the kids can actually get in, not like the freezing ocean! We rented paddle boats and spent an hour out on the lake, it was so much fun! Steve and Jaden caught salamanders and Brynlee fell in love with them, she didnt want to let them go. Jaden finally talked Steve into getting in the lake, what a trooper you are Dad! And they had fun swimming out to the dock and jumping off. Such a gorgeous day it was!

We like Giraffes! :)

That night we stayed in a really nice hotel with 2 rooms, the kids had their own beds which made it nice! There was a really nice pool and hot tub, so after we went to dinner at the cheesecake factory we swam and sat in the hot tub. That morning they wanted to swim again and then we were off to drive the coast, on our way to Oregon. We took highway 1 instead of 101 and even though it was really pretty, it was a LONG and winding road. It was worth it though, it was really pretty and we got to see one of the neatest lighthouses we have ever seen. Steve just saw a sign saying lighthouse so he turned off, 2 hours later and after hiking what it said was the same as a 30 story building, we were off again! But it was way worth the detour, it was an AMAZING lighthouse and view. We stopped at restaurant called Redwood Grill for dinner, and it was way good! The best clam chowder ever! By then we were into the Redwoods and saw HUGE trees just from the road and even drove through one! :) We drove until 2 in the morning, trying to find somewhere to stay along the coast was impossible! We seriously stopped at 30 places! At one of them the guy told Steve about some cabins that might be available, so we went there, desperate! The cabins were more like shacks, and I got the giggles when we pulled up! We had to wake the lady up and she came out in her robe and showed Steve the cabin.. I was laughing so hard cause I could see him inside there with her and the look on his face was priceless! Then in the window I see this huge giraffe painting and a little stuffed parrot hanging in the closet and that was it, I was done. We hurried and just went to bed and were out of there first thing! The pictures wont do it justice! But at least I got a good laugh about it. What made it worse I think was we had just stayed at an awesome place and then we down graded! :) Finally we made it to Oregon, we stopped in Bandon and ate lunch and went to see the lighthouse there, Jaden was dying to get to Yachats, so we didnt spend too much time sightseeing! As we drove up Greenhill Dr, we see my Mom sitting on the bench in the yard and my cute Dad doing what he loves most, working in the yard, making it look up to his standards. So fun to finally be there, heaven. We went first thing down the the beach and walked around and then to our favorite restaurant, The Drift Inn for dinner. They have live music and the best bleu cheese ever! YUM! I couldnt wait to crawl in to the most comfortable bed there! It is awesome to sleep in the cool air and hear the ocean roaring. WE LOVE YACHATS!