Awesome Trip Home

I spent a good portion of the month of June home in Spokane. Cameron and I were originally only going for 10 days since we would both be working, but since I was not working anymore we quickly changed my flight plans so that I left 10 days earlier than Cameron. We hated being apart for that long, but I was going crazy just hanging around our house when I could be hanging out with family at home. It worked out pretty well since Cameron had to work a ton in order to get the time off. I flew home on June 8th and he stayed and worked until he flew into Spokane on June 17th. While I was there before Cameron came, I was given a great baby shower by two of my aunts. It was a ton of fun and we had a great turnout. I also got to spend a lot of time just hanging out, running errands, going to lunch etc with my mom which was fun. I saw my sister play softball, visited other family and just got to relax and be home.

The cake at the baby shower. It was so cute and matched all the cups, plates, napkins etc. I thought I had a picture of the whole food table, but we had cake, a delicious vegetable pizza, and my favorite...fruit pizza. It was all really good and I think everyone enjoyed it.

Part of the room during the shower. I will have to get more pictures from everyone else because most of the ones I have are blurry. Thanks so much to everyone who came and helped!

Cameron came and a couple days after that we were off to his family's reunion on the Oregon coast. It would not be a typical family vacation with us along if we did not have some car problems( refer to both our family vacations last summer). We got a couple hours into the supposed-to-be 8 hour road trip when the car that Cameron, Scott and I were in got a flat tire. We pulled over and called the other car full of people who came back and waited for us to get it changed. We drove with the spare until the next town and stopped to have a new tire put on. This wasn't too much of an inconvenience since it was about lunch time anyway. We grabbed some lunch and some frozen yogurt, got the new tire and were on our way just an hour or so behind schedule.

Scott getting ready to put on the spare

Not sure

Cameron showing how close his dad came to hitting us when he pulled over to "help" (;

Ready to go!

We got back on the road for a few more hours when we needed to stop for Cameron's dad to make a business call. We stopped at a little park and all got out while he made the call. on the way out of town we made a really quick stop at a store to get a couple things and were on our way again. Well, we didn't even make it out of town before the suburban(the OTHER car, not the one who had already had the flat tire) stalled right in the middle of the intersection. Some random nice people came and helped push it to the other side of the street and into a parking lot. After sitting for a minute, it started and sounded fine so we thought it was just some fuke thing. We got back on the road long enough to make it about two hundred yards down the freeway before it died again. They tried to get off at the nearest exit, but it was an uphill exit and it couldn't make it all the way off!

The boys jumped out to try to push it the rest of the way UP the ramp. Not happening.

Trying to figure out what to do next

Still thinking and trying to get it started again.

It finally started again, but this time we didn't want to risk getting back on the freeway. We drove to the nearest car dealership to see if they could tell what was wrong. After looking at it, they said the fuel pump was out and needed to be replaced, but they were closing so they couldn't even start it till the next morning and it would take several hours. This was BAD news because the family reunion had already started and family pictures were scheduled to be taken early the next morning. While Cameron's parents decided what to do, we all camped out at the dealership. The idea was thrown out that they should just buy a new car since they weren't going to have any kids at home and they had wanted to sell the suburban anyway. So, for the next 3-4 hours all the kids camped out at the dealership trying to keep ourselves occupied while the parents shopped around for a new vehicle. They went to several different dealerships and talked through several other possibilities, but in the end they ended up buying a new Yukon. By this time it was about 9 so we stopped at a good mexican restaurant, ate quickly and got back on the road.

Hanging out at a table in the car dealership

Hanging out outside the car dealership... Katelyn was SUCH a patient baby through it all.

the new Yukon

Once back on the road things were going smoothly and we were just hours from our destination when not once, but TWICE (within 10 minutes of each other by the way)they were pulled over in the Yukon for having a tail light out! They didn't get a ticket either time, but it slowed us down a bit more and by that time it was around midnight and we were all very anxious to just get to bed. We pulled into the beach house around 1am and went straight to bed. It was a ROUGH(but humorous) first day of the vacation, but we were there and ready to have fun with the family.The next three days were spent with fun activities including hanging out at the beach, beach soccer, going crabbing, swimming, playing four square,going mini-golfing, playing lots of games, watching world cup, great food and just spending time with family. It was a TON of fun and Cameron and I are already looking forward to the next one in two years!

The two beach houses that we were in for the week. That's the ocean you can see through the two houses.

One of many meals

The line to get into the four square game. They are all wearing black shirts and jeans because this was shortly after family pictures were taken.

Scott in action

The room Cameron and I stayed in. The houses were huge and really nice.

The beach soccer game. Several casualties, but they all say it was worth it.

Cameron at the batting cage

Tyler at the batting cage

Nicole and Cameron Mini-golfing

Sean, Nicole and Tyler

Gathering to play Family Feud

The view of the ocean out the windows of one of the houses

Some good relaxing going on

Making sand mermaids out of Hannah and Hayley

My REALLY REALLY swollen feet out on the beach

Family Feud!

Teams on Family Feud

One of the head-to-head questions in the family feud game.

"Name a mission served by a member of the green family"

Scott

Crabbing

Cameron's photography skills

Scott licking the starfish

The loot!

Melia, Cory, Stefani

Eating the crabs

Loading up on the last day

Scott and Cameron

The boys

Tyler,Scott, Sean, and Cameron
Looking over the bridge where we stopped for a picnic on our way to visit more family in Eugene,OR.
The place we stopped to eat. Great seafood

Nicole and I
Me and Cameron
A lighthouse we stopped to check out
Everyone on the way up to see the lighthouse
We went on a little hike to see some really cool waterfalls.

I stuck my swollen feet in the FREEZING water to see if it helped
Cameron's photography skills again

Nicole and Katelyn on the hike

Brothers and their wives
The cousins

Cameron and I both had an awesome time in Spokane and on the coast. It was great to be with family and get to see everyone before the baby comes. We were sad to come back to Cleveland, but also glad to be back in our own routine and at our own house, in our own bed etc. Now we are just spending these last few weeks before my due date getting everything ready. I made several lists on the plane ride back of things we still need to buy or do before he comes. Cameron is back to work so I am just trying to get some of those things done. I think we are going to try to make a trip out to Kirtland sometime this week, so I will post on that if we make it out there!

A Week Off

Last weekend Cameron worked Friday,Saturday and Sunday nights and this weekend he is working the same shifts. It somewhat stinks that i'm hanging out alone the whole weekend, BUT it did mean that he had Monday-Friday OFF! I didn't have to work this week(or ever again, since they already found a full-time replacement for me at the dentist office and didn't bother to tell me until about an hour before I was supposed to be there Monday...nice, I know). So I am back to having no job and not a lot to keep me busy. At least it is sunny and warm out now so I can walk to the library or a few different stores that are close if I want. The other plus side of not working is that Cameron won't have to worry about taking the bus downtown if we work on the same days anymore. Anyway, since I didn't have work and Cameron had the whole week off we had a good time just hanging out together and doing a few fun things as well.

We (and when I say "we" I mean Cameron), spent one of the nice days working in the yard...Mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, and planting some more flowers. Here is Cameron hard at work.

Our pretty back yard

This is how I spent the day outside...watching Cameron work, trying to get some sun on my nasty white legs, and reading Tuesdays with Morrie for the third time.

The next day we took a walk down to the awesome Metro parks by our house. The Metro parks are like a big Central park and Centennial Trail in one. They are over fifty miles long and do a big loop around the city of Cleveland. They have hiking and biking trails, places to fish and camp and have picnics, and lost of just big open park space. We walked for a bit on some of the trails and then remembered a little cafe place that is part of one of the golf courses in the park. We decided to stop for lunch and check it out. The prices were really reasonable and the food was great.

This is my meal. I got the BLT with a berry smoothie, it was delicious.

Here is Cameron's. He got the Polynesian salad with a berry smoothie also.

Waiting for the food and laughing at the funny things some elderly gentlemen were saying as they waited for their Tee-time.

This is me, looking oh-so pregnant, on our walk back after lunch

Thursday we headed down to an Indians baseball game. We totally missed the boat on going to a Cav's game, which would have been fun, but we'll try to go next season.

Good seats right behind home plate

Progressive Field...next time we will go to a night game. I hear the fireworks are awesome.

Us after the game. It was a really warm and sunny day. Oh, and we are now official fans with our t-shirts to support the team.

And last but not least... I took this picture this morning. Cameron's work is just minutes from an AWESOME and huge market that has everything you could want. I especially love the delicious fruit assortment and it is cheaper than at a grocery store. Anyway, Cameron surprised me today and stopped by the market on his way home. He got a 1/4 of a watermelon, some grapes, strawberries, a chocolate covered pretzel and a chocolate covered strawberry. He blamed the chocolates on his work buddy. He said he forced him to try them and they were good so he brought me some. It was a great surprise, I am always glad to have fresh fruit on hand.

We had a great week and enjoyed just hanging out and spending more time together. Sometimes I feel a bit spoiled to have such large amounts of time off like that, but then we go back to the LONG 12-hour night shifts,(which are really like working somewhere around 20 hours since Cameron has to sleep at some point. So he works for the 12-hour shift and then comes home and has to sleep for a good 8 hours during the middle of the day. He usually works at least two nights in a row, so he gets home from one shift, goes straight to bed, gets up in time to shower and run out the door for the next shift) and I don't feel so bad.

I had to throw this in here too. The baby has been kicking like crazy lately, but I have never been able to document it. I just happened to have my phone by me the other day when I was obviously annoying him by having my hand resting on my stomach as I was watching a movie. The best kicks are right at the beginning so watch close!

Our First Visitors!

This past weekend we had our very first visitors to see us out in Cleveland. Tyler, Nicole, and Katelyn were headed to Arizona from Boston for the summer, so it was conveniently on their way to stop by. They got in Thursday evening. We ordered some pizza and just hung out until Tyler's dad flew in around 11pm. Early Friday morning Tyler and his dad got in the car and started driving to Arizona. They drove 16 hours a day and made it all the way there in just two days, crazy. Meanwhile, we got to have Nicole and Katelyn spend the weekend with us, then they flew to Arizona on Monday.

Here are some fun pictures from the weekend:

Katelyn just hanging out Friday morning.

Friday afternoon we decided to venture out and go check out Little Italy in downtown Cleveland. After looking around for a bit we stopped for lunch at some good-looking restaurant, I don't remember what it was called. Cameron had spaghetti and meatballs. He said it was the best he had ever had. Nicole and I both had different kinds of ravioli and that was really good as well.

Cameron with his spaghetti and meatballs.

Katelyn after eating her carrots.

After eating lunch, we found a delicious-looking bakery that we had to stop at.

Katelyn REALLY wanted to be eating our Gelato and mousse, that's why Cameron is having to hold her back from grabbing it in this picture.

Cameron with his cannoli.

Dancing around with uncle Cameron later that day.

After her bath...look at those adorable little cheeks!

Saturday was pretty cold and rainy so our plans of doing something outside were shot. We decided to head over to the rec center that we belong to. It has a really fun pool just for kids. There was a lazy river, slides, and toys. Katelyn was obviously too young for most of that, but really enjoyed just floating around and kicking her feet in her baby raft.

Drying off in her robe

Saturday night after we had put Katelyn to bed we decided it would be fun to make pizza for dinner. We have our individual pizza pans which were perfect since we all like different toppings.

Here is Cameron rolling the dough. We made it in our bread maker which made it really easy and was way good dough.

Nicole starting to make her pizza

Just before going in the oven

Nicole and I with our pizza creations

Sunday was Mother's Day and Cameron woke me up said there was breakfast waiting for me downstairs. He had gotten up extra early and made a big breakfast for Nicole and I. He made eggs, bacon, pancakes, juice and fruit. He also had a cute little place setting for both Nicole and me. He had picked flowers from out yard and wrote nice notes to each of us. It was a great surprise and fun to have Nicole there for it also.

Katelyn loved uncle Cameron

Happy girl

Nicole packing to leave the next morning ):

I had to include a picture of all the awesome gifts that Tyler and Nicole brought as well. They got the baby two cute pairs of pj's, a big set of cloth diapers, some ring toys, and an adorable little outfit with kaki shorts and a super cute striped shirt. They also gave us their car seat which was SO SO nice. We can't thank you guys enough, we love all of it!

We were so sad when we had to take them to the airport to leave Monday morning. We had such a fun weekend and loved having them here. We can't wait to hang out again when we go home in June and to the family reunion. Thanks for coming!!!