Oregon

Mialee and Maggie

Abigail

Nike-Belle and Jakeeeee

Abby and Eli--our reason for going to Oregon

Trouble AKA JJ AKA Jesse

JJ and Kiella

Joe and Abigail

Abby and Shanee

We took a whirlwind trip to Oregon this past weekend.  It was a lot of fun--as usual.  The perfect balance of playing and talking and sitting and sleeping and even exercising!  My nephew, Eli, agreed to come stay with us for a couple of days before we took him home.  I don't think my children will ever get over having him here.  He is seriously the sweetest, nicest kid you will ever meet.  He entertained my children for hours and when I stumbled upon him and Aiddie playing in the sandbox together my heart nearly melted right out of my chest.  It's times like these that I contemplate kidnapping my nephews.  I want my girls to know what it's like to have an older brother and they never will.  But alas, Eli had to go home and get ready to go on his mission...

We went to Oregon to attend Eli taking out his endowments and Abby getting baptized.  Most of Shanee's kids are right between years of mine, but somehow Jake and Nikell ended up in the same grade.  Jake is also rather sweet and he tends to tug at my heartstrings too.  I tried to talk him into coming home with me, but he wouldn't.  And then there's J.J.  I have never had so much fun watching a kid in my life.  Him and Kiella alternated kissing and hugging and then Kiella running for her life.  I watched that kid uproot the same plant 27 times while I was there, successfully drench 5 cousins with the hose, sneak several snacks, and bring all the inside toys outside and all the outside toys inside (usually by method of throwing or driving).  He captured my heart too, in the end.  Who couldn't love those blue eyes? 

One of my favorite pictures is the one of Joe and Abby.  Joe is one of my all-time favorite people ever.  He has an unsquashable optimism that we could all benefit from.  He drives his mother wildly crazy while he happily does whatever task he is assigned while managing to do about 5 other things simultaneously.  He accompanied the cousins on his guitar while they sang at the baptism and I giggled the whole time Shanee was trying to help him learn his part.  I especially love how he is sneaking a peak at me when I took his and Abby's picture--he was supposed to be smiling to someone else's camera.

It was a fast trip and I always come home wishing my big sis' lived so much closer...