Coop lost his 1st tooth!

It is an exciting night in the Owen household!  Cooper just lost his first tooth.  He was showing me it and I said "wiggle it a little more."  It popped right out.  :)

Starting to decorate for Christmas

As we get things put away from our vacation, we are also getting ready for Christmas.  Charlie keeps asking if we can decorate.  The kids just finished our first decoration that sits beautifully in our china cabinet.  Nanni Vicki & Boppi Brad brought a Gingerbread train to the coast, but we thought it was best to wait until we got home to work on it.  Thanks Nanni and Boppi! What a fun and yummy Christmas project.

Family Vacation to the Oregon Coast

 We took a trip to the Oregon Coast.  Megan's parents met up with us.  It has been over 12 years since our last trip to the coast with them.  They came from Boise and we met up together about halfway.  We made it to I-84 and called them and they were 3 miles behind us.  Best timing ever. :)  We stopped at Bonneville Dam on the way and Multnomah Falls.  Our trip was rainy, sunny, very windy, stormy, fun, leaky, powerless and very memorable.  Winds were recorded at up to 100 on the coast.  Kids loved running from the waves, searching for shells (and sharks teeth), and digging in the sand.  We about got blown away a couple of times as well.

 The first day we drove to Newport and went to the Oregon State Science Center. We had a great time!  We felt all the sea creatures, saw jelly fish, an octopus that they are going to be releasing within the next couple of weeks and many other sea animals.  We went to go see the sea lions on the bayfront after and ate at Mo's.  Yum!

We tried to go to Tillamook the next day, but the weather did not allow us to.  We spent the morning at the outlet mall and had fun shopping.  Lots of games were played throughout the afternoon/evening.

The next day we were able to make it to Tillamook.  We toured the cheese factory and ate ice cream.  After our tour, we went to the Air Museum.  The kids loved it!  It was a lot of fun and they enjoyed getting in the planes.  A beautiful sunny afternoon/evening without rain or wind on the beach made for a fun way to end our last day at the beach.

Glad the road home opened up again.  It was closed from trees falling.  This was an experience we will not forget. Waves came up all the way to the cement wall and over the ramp splashing Nate as he stood looking over.   We couldn't even walk on the beach during the mornings.

There are just too many photos to upload on here.  If you would like to see all the pictures please go to this link: http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?fbTitle=Oregon+Coast+Thanksgiving+2011&fbThumbURI=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kodakgallery.com%2Fimaging-site%2Fservices%2Fdoc%2F742335221507%2Fjpeg%2FBG%2F.jpg%3Fp%3D5363&_requestid=416475

Thankful for a wonderful vacation and thanks to wonderful neighbors for watching Yeager and Oreo while we were gone.  We even made it home to spend a couple of hours with Nate's family out at the farm.  We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends!

Making Lefsa

Today we learned how to make Lefsa. YUMMY! Nate's mom received the set for her birthday and brought it up with her. She taught myself, Charlie and Aunt Diane how to make it. It was a lot of fun! Charlie enjoyed flipping the lefsa with the stick and he did a great job. He would flip it, take it off and put it the warmer all by himself. He was pretty proud. It only takes a few minutes to cook. Emma enjoyed sneaking her hands into the bowls of potato/flour/whipping cream/sugar and salt. Thanks Jean for showing us how to make Lefsa today and for coming to visit for a few days. We all had a great time!

Learning how to roll out the dough.

Here is Emma after her bath. She loved having this towel wrapped around her. So cute! It fell off shortly after when she walked back to the bathroom. :)

Cub Scout Outing to University of Idaho University of Idaho Arboretum & Botanical Garden

Today we went on a 1.5 mile hike to the University of Idaho Arboretum & Botanical Garden. The boys all had a great time and so did Emma. The boys collected many leaves of different sizes and colors. We saw a bunny rabbit and about 10 ducks in the pond. The weather was a bit chilly and it started snowing as soon as we drove away.

Coop took a photo of us.

Hornet nests were all over and up in the trees.

Pack 312 and Charlie :)

Here I reminded everyone to dress warm and I forget my coat. I was going to wear this sweatshirt under my lighter coat. I stayed pretty warm. Tamra, thanks for letting us borrow the backpack.

The end of our day. Cooper is keeping the deck scraped for our cub scout committee members who will be arriving shortly.

First snowfall

Our first snowfall came early this year. Cooper was so excited that he had the day off from school the day it snowed. He went and an shoveled. It didn't last long. Charlie unfortunately had preschool.

We received Cooper's report card and he is doing very well. We are very proud of how hard he works. His strength right now is in math. Just like his daddy. :)

Charlie is having a great time in preschool. He is doing very well writing his letters, counting, he loves music, art, wood working and having fun with his friends. Here are a few pictures.....

They built bat houses. How fun!

And one picture from the beginning of the school year. These were hard to see, especially for dad. I think he is growing out of this stage. Charlie has just always liked pretty things. Notice how it is the boys dressed up and not the girls. I can't help but giggle.

One of Charlie's teachers told us that the other day at worship he said, "God is love, he loves you very much." I think that is how it went. And he spread out his arms while he said it. :)