Oregon Coast {2016}

We're home from our (10th) annual Halverson Family beach trip and I'm here to tell the tales and show the pics! This year was FAB-U-LOUS. Beautiful weather, successful crabbing, kayaking, seal watching, ultimate frisbee, board games and movies, pizza night out, tide pools, a day trip to Newport, and my first time playing "gray wolf" out on the sand dunes in the dark. (It's freaky. And FUN.) 

Off the back deck. Hellooooo Pacific!

And out the side window of our rental house... the Alsea Bay and town of Waldport.

The girl cousins... Debby, Lizzy, Maddy, Mandy, and Kendall

Crab time! My amazing in-laws make this trip happen every year. I'm so grateful for them! 

100% chance they're watching some kind of hunting clip on youtube. 

Our nephew Mark is such a good sport :)

All the cousins! This shot was an attempted recreation from this one taken in 2008...

Awwwww, just little babies back then!

All of us

Visiting Seal Rock Beach

S'mores (and for some reason the national anthem) around the campfire on our last night there.

So many more pictures but I'll restrain myself :)

Bottom line: I love family vacations because I love our family so much. These trips are PRICELESS. 

Summering along {life lately}

The kids have been on summer break for two weeks now, and things have not been more calm and relaxed hectic and chaotic!

(Celebrating the last day of school totally in sync.) 

Baseball continues on (forever and ever until I die.)

Summer league basketball has finally taken over ALL of our lives. The last two weekends in a row were 3-day tournaments and with a daughter on the team I finally had no excuse to avoid helping out down there.  (Look. I PAY MY DUES during the regular season. I like to pretend summer league isn't actually a thing and stay home and do more useful things like read and watch Netflix ;) That being said, I have to admit I really enjoyed myself. It's a fun environment!

Even more fun though is watching the African Children's Choir! They visited our church to perform on a Wednesday night and my own excitement was only surpassed by Blake's, who would join the choir in a heartbeat if they would let him. He helped entertain the front row but sitting on the floor up front and doing his best to copy every dance move they made. Don't grow up, Blake!

This is the breakfast the kids made Russ for Father's Day last Sunday. They are stepping up their game! Kendall made the apple flower (dipped in melted butter and cinnamon) while Coop cooked the bacon and eggs and Blake toasted and buttered the bread :)

We found Dory! We were all enchanted! We ate at Five Guys! It was a great Father's Day. 

And then Kendall left for team camp in Eastern Washington (at 6:30 in the morning) and I promised her I wouldn't watch When Calls the Heart without her for the next 4 days and it was VERY, VERY HARD. 

At yet another baseball game (remember: till I die), Blake decided to bring me "flowers" in the form of a whole weed bush. They were... pungent. I gave him a hug and a kiss and then made him take them far away from me. 

They came, they came! I am now a crunchy, granola, Birkenstock wearing mama! Miley approves. 

Taken at 7:08pm this week. A good sign we've been playing hard this summer! 

Next up: Halverson family beach trip! Weeeeee!

Awkward & Awesome

Awkward: 

- when your mom takes a picture of you running a relay race in girls clothes during school field day and plans on saving it for that perfect moment down the road (graduation, getting married... so many options!) SORRY NOT SORRY, COOPER.

- when your very firm and often declared anti-birkenstock stance that lasted all through the 90's and remained strong during their recent comeback suddenly crumbles and you find yourself surfing the internet till 1:00am searching for the color and style you want in your size. (Victory was found at Zappos.com. Hallelujah.)

Awesome:

- being part of this darling girl's life through college and now the start of a new career. We love you, sweetlewie xoxo

- husband's new state champion ring. It's faaaaannnncy! 

- discovering the Hallmark channel TV series When Calls the Heart on Netflix with your daughter and having nightly living room dates to watch it together after the boys are in bed. It's cheesy and predictable and WONDERFUL... we are so, so hooked.

AWESOMER:
- when Russ comes home while we are watching said show and within 2 minutes is making horrible fun of it, rolling his eyes dramatically before tuning out to watch hunting clips on his phone, but 10 minutes later we notice his phone is forgotten in his lap and he's been sucked in completely, and at the 35 minute mark suddenly HE'S CRYING and Kendall and I have to pause the episode because we are laughing so hard at him.

HE HASN'T LET US WATCH AN EPISODE WITHOUT HIM SINCE.

I love that guy.

We Anniversaried! {Year 17}

It's time for the annual anniversary report! Russ and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary yesterday with pedicures, shopping, and dinner out. It was relaxing and slow-paced and lovely. 

We had some good laughs reminiscing about our baby days...

(back when we were 15 and 17 but looked 15 and 12? Hahaha ;) 

And we marvelled at how amazingly well things have turned out for us, considering we were basically toddlers when we started dating. Or, excuse me, NOT dating, because I was not allowed to date at 15, even though the evidence of Russell pictured in every single family and life event captured in our family photos from this point on would argue otherwise.

This led to a great discussion on what we each thought we'd list as our ingredients to remaining so happily married, if some imaginary person were to ask, and here's what I came up with (off the very top of my head), and what Russ had to add... 

Me:

- being on the same page in our parenting (through taking Growing Kids classes at our church pretty continuously since our oldest was born)

- being on the same page in our finances (through going through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University...twice so far)

- being on the same page in the effort we put into our marriage (going through the Love and Respect course by Emerson Eggerich really helped, and dating and doing couch time regularly)

- being on the same page in our faith and beliefs (a huge one)

- and just having really compatible personalities

Russ:

- having great examples to follow in our parents and the way we were raised

- GOOD LOVIN'

If that's not a man vs. woman list for you, I don't know what is. Bahaha. I could add a ton more now that I've thought about it more but that's not the point. It was just fun to talk about and the bottom line is that I'm excited for the next 17 years :)

Four Grad Parties & a Wedding

June is such a sneaky month.

I'm always excited for it to come because SUMMER BREAK RULES! but I never seem to remember that it starts off with all the graduations (kindergarten! 8th grade! high school! college!), is the most popular month for weddings, is when we celebrate our own wedding anniversary and Father's Day (one week apart), and is when our boys both go to basketball camp, while baseball continues through the entire month for Cooper at the same time that Russ is busy coaching basketball summer league.

So in a nutshell, June is the month I barely see my husband and we spend ALL our money on gifts. It's so fun! ;)

Which leads me to how we spent our first weekend of June...

- One kindergarten graduation (yay, nephew Elijah!)

- One 8th grade graduation followed by a pizza party (yay, nephew Mark!)

One elk farm wedding on the first 100 degree day of the year (yay, Jake & Kim!)

One high school graduation (yay, all our beloved seniors that we have known forever!)

and 
three more graduation parties (on our second 100 degree day of the year!)

(Ashley, Kennedy, Courtney, & Jessica - all former basketball players for Russ) 

By the end of the weekend we were sweaty and penniless, but we enjoyed every moment! ;)

Next up: a 3-day basketball tournament followed by two college graduation parties and our anniversary date night. BRING IT ON.