Groovin' to the Tunes

Ethan is dancing to music, even though you can't really hear the music in the video. It's just background music at the restaurant and he loved it.

More from the Family Pictures

Ethan was being hilarious during the family pictures... and probably a little bit frustrating for the photographer, but he was such a good boy for most of the time. I enlarged my favorite picture of him from the bunch so you could enjoy it too. I also added one of my favs of the whole family.

Where Did October Go??

I am finally Posting! I don't know what happened to October, it just disapeared without anything in particular happening and so there were no posts... because nothing really happened. You should all be greatful that I wasn't updating you on what Regis and Kelly talked about on their show for that day. :) We went back to Utah for a whirlwind 36 hour trip. Steve's brother had his Farewell and so we went home for that and some family pictures before he leaves for two years. Here are some of the pictures...

Tomatoe Farmer

Fun in a Tub

It was tricky to set up camp while Ethan was up because he wanted nothing more than to get down and crawl after being in the car all day... our solution was to let him play in this bin, which worked for a little bit... I think the video is 30 seconds? That's probably about how long it worked.

My Name is Claire and as far as you remember this is attempt #1

If you guys watch heroes, our vacation attempt felt a little bit like the cheerleaders attempts... only probably without the tissue regeneration. Our plan was to go down to Redwood National Park in Northern California and camp there for a few days, and then drive up the coast camping a few nights on our way home. I had the whole thing figured out, everything we were going to see, where we were going to camp, what we were going to eat, the roads we were going to take... you get the point. (In my Dad's words, there is nothing obsessive compulsive about being organized :) Anyway, I have to go back to before the trip... our car had been shifting hard in the mornings before it warmed up. Steve thought it needed a transmission oil change, so he went and got the oil and changed it. He says there there is a magnet involved in the process and that it was covered with shards of metal, which is not good. But we thought that the oil change would fix the problem and decided to go on our vacation anyway. The drive down to the Redwoods was pretty uneventful, we pulled into our campsite at about 5:00 and set up camp and made dinner and started a campfire and put Ethan to bed. Ethan didn't want to go to sleep, but he finally fell asleep, and stayed asleep for about three hours, about when we went to bed. After that he woke up about every hour. We tried everything we could think of, changing what he was sleeping in (we tried the car seat, the bin rigged out to be a crib, the diaper changing pad, and finally ended up with him just sleeping in our sleeping bags) we tried feeding him (Steve had to get out and make a bottle every hour because you can't keep bottles in your tent because it's bear country and you have to keep all food or scented items in the bear box or in your car) we tried rocking and humming... you name it, we tried it. I felt so bad for our fellow campers, and I was totally frustrated with the whole "camping experience" by the time morning came. In the morning Steve checked the oil and it was all the way gone... also not a good thing. So I suggested that the only thing we could do in our situation was drive to the nearest town, buy some oil and fill it up. We google texted a walmart and went there and filled the car with oil. Since we had driven so far, and were there, we decided to see somethings and then drive home. We went down hwy 101 and stopped at some of the State parks and we did a pretty little hike called fern canyon and we saw elk, and drove through a tree, all the while stopping to check and fill the oil every hour or so. This continued as we made the 6 hour drive back home, stopping about every hour, finding it almost empty, and adding more oil... needless to say, it was much longer than a six hour drive on the way back. But we made it home in one piece, took the car into the shop early the next morning and waited to hear what the problem was. Our transmission needed to be replaced, which, as an answer to many prayers, was covered under our warranty, even though it was two months past the warranty date. We were sure blessed that whole vacation, even though it didn't turn out quite like we had hoped or planned. We got our car back 2 days later and everything is working out just great. I don't know when we'll attempt camping again... it will probably be a very long time. This is the Northern California Coast, we stopped to put Ethan's feet in the water.

This is our car driving through a tree... how cool is that. I realized after that I wasn't in the car because I was taking the picture, so I didn't actually get to drive through the tree, and we didn't have time to go back once I realized that. I will just have to pretend that I did, since you can't actually see who is in the car.

This tree is called Big Tree... it's a very original name. If you look closely you can see Steve and Ethan at the bottom of the tree on the left edge of it. This helps to put into perspective how big Big Tree really is :)

Driving down 101 we came across a huge herd of Elk just hanging out, it almost felt like we were at Yellowstone.

This is Fern Canyon, it was a really pretty hike that we did during our short stay at the Redwoods, and also the last thing that we did at our stay at the Redwoods, we finished this hike and drove on home.

Family Fun

Steve's family came to visit us for a weekend so that his brother could go through the temple here in Oregon. Friday we went for a hike to Elowah Falls and McCord Creek Falls. It was a really beautiful hike, and it was nice to get out and do something in nature before the rainy season started (blasted rain). We also went to the outlet mall and played Nintendo and just hung out.

Saturday morning we went to the temple, it was so wonderful to be there all together. I look forward to the day when all of my siblings have gone through the temple and we can be there together, and also for the day (very very far away) when my own children will get that opportunity. What a wonderful thing that we get to have eternal families, and that we know how important families are in Heavenly Father's plan. It was too bad that Steve's family didn't get to stay longer, they left bright and early Sunday morning, but we do get to see them again soon for Michael's farewell.