CELEBRATION

WE DID IT! MBA BABY!

Here we are. It's been 2 years. Jeffrey David  has finally defeated his Goliath. This was a HUGE day for us to celebrate. This has been something Jeff has wanted for as long as we've been together (10 years) and he finally did it. It wasn't easy by all means, but I hope to say it was well worth it. I am so proud of him! Here we are as a family just before graduation!

Thanks to my Mother-in-law we got GREAT seats. We sat 3rd row from the front, and I sat on the aisle edge to get a good picture. Here is Jeff walking down with his class. He's so handsome huh?!

Jeff went through the Oregon Executive MBA program put on by UofO, OSU, and PSU. This is the picture of us at his orientation night. Look how we are smiling, we had NO idea what we were getting ourselves into. School hadn't even begun yet, but he received his books and homework assignments that night.

Here we are ready to leave for the Spouse/Graduate dinner they had at Portland City Grill which is at the top of the US Bank tower down town. I've been asking Jeff to take me there for years, so it was fun to finally go. We had a great night and it was nice to see the spouses of his classmates again.

Graduation was on a Sunday. Odd, I know. We figured since we were breaking the Sabbath by going to graduation why not do it full on and go to a bar?! We ate at Henry's Tavern down town Portland. GREAT food and atmosphere, I strongly recommend it. (no, it wasn't a crazy bar atmosphere)

Back on Valentines day weekend, I saw that costco has their Kayaks out. I bought it right away knowing that once their stock is up, they are GONE! Jeff's sister has been storing it for me at her house for 5 months. We surprised him on Father's day with his graduation gift. He was very excited! Here he is in Wallowa Lake. The day after he graduated we hit the road to go on a family camp out. We had our trailer hooked up, Kayak on top and drove 6 hours to Wallowa Lake.

The only family on my side that made it to the actual Graduation was my Grandma Robbins. Some of my extended family met up with us at Wallowa Lake to help us celebrate Jeff's Graduation. Here is our group of campers. My parents, and my sister Annette and her family. My 83 yr old Grandma came up to camp with us too. We had a great time and there will be more pictures of camping posted soon.

My trip to CALI! / Both Gma & Gpa's come to visit

So, our friends, who used to be our neighbors, moved to California in February. I had told Emy that I would come and visit in April, but with schedules and planning it ended up being May. It was just the 3 little munchkins and me. Getting there it took me 10 hours because I didn't plan things right. I ended up arriving in Sacremento at 5:30, just in time to experience beautiful California traffic. We would have made it in about 8.5-9 hours had I planned a little better. The kids traveled GREAT and we only stopped 3 times. Two FAST rest stop breaks, and 1 hour long lunch. The weather was AMAZING and welcoming. I loved their house, and got to meet their neighbors who are super nice. The kids and I had a great trip. We arrived on Thrusday night, and left early Sunday morning. Thanks guys for letting us come and crash at your place!

Here is Emy and Little Miss Clara. Clara took us to see her G-ma and G-pa and all the fun animals at their house. My favorite thing Clara would ask me is "Where are my boys?" meaning Grant and Scottie. She is too cute.

The night before one of the cows had twin babies! We were excited to see them! Here is Clara's Grandpa showing us one of the cute calfs.

Oh how we missed this little girl. It was so good to see their family and watch the kids all play.

Emy and Ben have access to a neighborhood pool so we went swimming. Here are the kids ready to go. Little Man Eli is just the most smiley and cutest little thing.

It was a hot day and the kids had a ball in the pool. Emy and I both agreed that the pool is not to be tackled alone and it's a lot easier having a second pair of hands to help.

Ben played video games with the boys. They LOVED hanging out with Ben.

Clara and the boys getting ready for bed and reading stories. We miss you guys!

G-MA and G-PA VISITS

Jeff's parents came down for the weekend. They hadn't been to our house for a while, so it was really nice having them come and visit. G-pa took the boys bird watching and, of course, to Taco Bell.

A big game of baseball outside. Lucy is even in on it. G-pa is making sure the everyone is playing fair.

G-MA and G-PA VISIT #2

My parents came up early in the month before they left on their big trip to PA. We went to a kiddy pool that the city had stocked with fish for kids to go fishing. The boys had a great time and both caught fish!

Grant and Scottie before we started fishing. Obviously I am an expert fisherwoman. I thought surely we'll get to the pool, drop the line, pull out a fish and be on our way. It didn't occur to me that the boys would have to waite for a fish to bite. I think it took us about 30-40 minutes to get our fish. Next time I'll bring a book to read. haha. j/k.

Grant caught the first one, and Scottie caught one shortly after that. Here he is holding it up, but you can't see the fish very well.

Here is Grant by the fish they caught.

Here is Scottie boy by the fish. As usual Jeff was in school that day so Mommy got the fun job of cutting off the heads and cleaning the fish. Oh how Mommy loves these boys to be willing to clean fish. Ugh. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

If you noticed, there are pictures of the kids playing games with BOTH grandparents. My boys LOVE playing games and anytime anyone comes to visit they take advantage of our visitor and get them playing some kind of game with them.

I woke up one morning to find ALL 3 little munchkins snuggled up with G-Pa.

For Grant's preschool we celebrated his birthday (which isn't until summer time). He wanted to make these candy tractors for all the kids. You can't really tell what they are, but we had fun making them!

My Birthday/Fun in the sun

We decided to have Lucy try riding our rocking/rolling horse. She wasn't too sure about it and refused to sit down. Scottie was being a good big brother and pushing her.

Davy Crocket and his coon-skin hat meets a pirate.

Happy Birthday to me. 1 more year and I'm nerdy 30!

I don't know if anyone else has noticed that it seems cake mixes/and brownie mix seems to be getting smaller and smaller. We've used the same pan and same brand for years and it bakes out smaller. Jeff made me my families traditional 24 hour cake. We decided to double the cake mixes only and see how it turned out. It was really good and large!

What's a birthday party without duck duck goose? Grant was adamant that we play duck duck goose for my "birthday Party" they'd been looking forward to the "party" all day long. Here is Lucy's turn saying "Duck, Duck"

Lucy going around the circle patting everyone's head. She thought it was SO funny.

Our first warm day in a while! We loved it. Lucy wasn't too sure about this whole grass thing, so she stayed on her blanket for a while.

Don't ask me why, but of all the bikes we have the boys fight over that little tricycle the most. Go figure.

Our HORRIBLE DAY AT THE PARK! Actually it was really a beautiful day and we stayed for a couple of hours, but we all missed Miss Clara and Emy big time that day. Riding home from the park Scottie said "Let's go to Emy's!" and Grant replied "She moved out of the country Scott." Might as well have moved out of the country. We miss our daily trips to the park Brashers!

Miss Mae enjoying her time in the swing.

March and April- Our whirlwind trip- Beware, lots of pictures :)

So we had planned to spend the week before Easter with my family in Eastern Oregon. Jeff found out he needed to work so I decided to take the 3 kids and do the 6½ hr drive myself. I was supposed to leave on a Saturday but yet again, my kids were sick. I am so SICK OF BEING SICK! It wasn't just a cold either it was a fever that lasted 6 days with a horrible cough. I couldn't take the kids with fevers! So I postponed it each day to see how my family was doing. When I gave in and cancelled on Tuesday, unpaking everything, Lucy (the last one with the fever) got better. We went all day and night without any fever and just a lingering cough. I got the suit cases back out and re-packed and we were off on Wednesday. Here are the kids excited to see G-ma an G-Pa!

When we got over Cabage Hill and onto Meachum, Grant started saying it felt like a bubble in his ear. I kept telling him to yawn and it will go away. It progressively got worse through the evening. I had waited too long and couldn't go to Urgent care, and I just couldn't bring myself to take him to the the ER for a possible ear infection. Grant and I were up until about 4:00am that night. The next day Grant had a fever and we were off to urgent care. The Doc said it was the worse ear infection he had ever seen. His ear drum was so swollen that it had 3 bumps that were folded on top of eachother. It looked like the ear drum had burst but he couldn't tell because it was so swollen and folded onto eachother. Boy do I feel like a bad mom making him stick it out until morning. We got medication and that kids slept most of the morning.

Scottie enjoyed the time with Grant asleep, he got to play with G-ma and G-pa for most of the day.

Lucy Girl and G-ma. Luc (we pronouce it Loos) loves to pose for pictures.

And finally warmed up to G-ma and G-pa.

G-pa takes Grant to the Cow sale every time we come. Scottie REALLY wanted to go last time we visited but because he wasn't potty trained he couldn't go. He remembered that and talked about getting to go to the cow sale with Grandpa because he goes potty now! Grant was sleeping off the morning with his ear infection so Scottie got to go with G-pa all by himself. He was SO excited. Riding in G-pa's truck is part of the fun.

He couldn't get away from me fast enough!

Grants new obsession. He LOVED playing the game Battleship. If anyone knows my Dad, they know he doesn't enjoy playing games, but Grant somehow suckered my Dad into playing

battleship with him a couple of times.

Growing up we traditionally did a "fun Easter" on Saturday. We would wake up and go on a candy hunt and find candy that the easter bunny had hidden all around the house. Then we would also find our easter pile of presents we got. The kids had a great time and it's fun to find candy that they missed through the day.

Miss Mae found an egg with Jelly beans and she was just fine sitting and shaking that egg for a while. Grandpa was helping her.

Lucy looking at what the Easter Bunny brought her. We had such a great visit even with it cut in half due to fevers and an urgent care visit while we were there.

It actually snowed while I was in La Grande, bad enough to close the passes. I was supposed to head to PDX on Sunday morning to pick up Jeff and be there for my new nephew Sam's blessing. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it. On Sunday morning we checked the road camera and decided to go for it. The kids and I left at around 8:30am. The kids travel best in the morning. We surprised Daddy at how fast we were. We didn't stop the whole 4 hour drive and we got to G-ma Hedgpeths at 12:30. Just in time to do an easter egg hunt at G-ma Hedgpeths. I didn't know they were doing one.

Grant with his Easter Eggs he found so G-ma Hedgpeth could make deviled eggs. He literally got out of the car and went and found these eggs with the other kids. I think he looks a bit car sick from the picture. Ha ha.

Christina decided to bless her new baby Sam on Easter Sunday at her parents house.

Here is Aunt Angie holding little Sam. He is such a sweetheart and loves to give smiles already!

Here is who was in the blessing circle, and we invited

Great-G-pa Jim (far left) to join the guys for the picture.

Here are all the Grandsons of the Hedgpeths. Christopher, Mason, Grant, Scott, and now Sam.

All the Hedgpeth Grandkids except Chase who was sleeping.

Hedgpeth Family Picture. The only one missing is Chase. He is 2 and was taking a nap. Jill is holding his picture up to represent him.

Lucy is at a picky stage right now, and has some seperation anxiety but she did let G-ma Hedgpeth hold her for a little bit. She is hamming it up for the camera.