Better late than never...

Every summer we have a Green family reunion. My parents and as many of my siblings as we can get together at one spot enjoy a week together. More often than not, we do this at one of our favorite childhood vacation destinations: the Oregon Coast. Last summer, we went to Lincoln City, OR and had a fantastic time. In fact, on the last day, Taylor told me that it was the best vacation he had ever had. (Admittedly, this was before our Disney cruise, but it was also after several trips to Disneyland and Disney World.) So he really does enjoy all of his aunts and uncles and cousins:) I have been meaning to blog about our trip in 2010 for almost a year now. In fact I promised to do so here. But things got crazy and I never got around to it. Until now. I figured we've got less than 3 weeks until we leave for our 2011 trip, so it's now or never!!!

On the way up to Oregon, I drove the 6 (at the time!) kids by myself. Christi flew up and thus was blessed with 48 hours of time to deep clean the house. On the way, we stopped at the home of my childhood best friend, Mikkel Nelson. He now lives in Boise, ID. Mikkel and his wife, April, are fantastic people. They have a beautiful family, and we have stayed with them several times as we've traveled to Oregon. Thanks, Mikkel!

We stayed there two nights and had a great time with them. One of the favorite activities was a trip to the local splash park. All the kids loved it. They also loved Mikkel's cute little dog. Here are some pics:




Xander with Mikkel and his dog:


Look out below!!!





Cute sunbathers:)





April was also generous enough to watch all of our kids plus her own and let Mikkel and I go out and play a round of disc golf together. I had never played before and I quite enjoyed it.

After golfing, we went back to their home and watched a movie in the back yard. They put up a big sheet on the outside of their home and used a projector to watch "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel." The kids loved it! Thanks, Mikkel and April for being such great hosts. We love you guys and hope to see you again before too long.

So there is the first part of a week-long trip. I really will add more pics and stories in the near future. But it's getting late, and Mary Tyler Moore is waiting...

Jer

15 Minutes of Fame

We love to watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. We found out yesterday that they just started building a home 15 minutes from us! So of course we had to go check it out. It's really an amazing undertaking. In addition to the property they are building on, they require acres of extra space for their equipment and volunteer tents and who knows what else. We've gone up twice so far, once in the day and once at night. At night they have dozens of generators powering huge lights so they can go at it 24/7. It's really fascinating.

Today we took the kids up to see. It is Xander's favorite show, and we were hoping he might be able to give a high 5 to Ty Pennington. No such luck today, but we may try again later. While we were there, we saw many of the volunteers in the blue shirts and white hard hats. One of these volunteers walked by us, then stopped and said: "I know you guys! I read your blog." So, I guess we've now had our 15 minutes of fame. It really was a neat experience to talk to someone we've never met, but who has been touched by our children and their stories.

So here's a shout out to Andrea from Provo. Way to help out by volunteering for this great family and their new home. And thanks for stopping to say hello:)

Jer

PS. You can read about the home makeover project here.