Jenna is my little dress-up doll.

That's right, Jenna is my littlel dress-up doll. When I was young my mom made me an entire wardrobe for my My Friend Jenny doll. I LOVED to change her clothes and do her hair. Now I have my life-size Jenny doll and it's SO MUCH FUN! So I was looking on line one day and I saw these adorable dresses on ebay. They called them Pillowcase dresses. I then went and did a search on google or whatever and found instructions to make my own. They are made with just a rectangle of fabric with arm holes cut out and ribbon to fit it to their shoulders. Over the past couple of days, whenever I had a spare minute, I made one up for Jenna with little shorts to match. It's a little bit big but she's growing fast. One of the websites said that these were super cute with a turtleneck and leggings in the cooler months. Ooh, I can't wait!

Our New Van

Well, despite my stingy ways, we bought another van! It's very much like our other van except that this one has all the bells and whistles and 101,000 miles fewer. The windows are tinted, the kids have their own air vents, it has a CD player and power windows, the list goes on. We saw it here in town and traded our other van in and paid them $4600. Not too bad but I was a little unhappy about pulling out a Money Market early and losing the $88 in interest it had earned, but we paid cash and won't owe any interest so I guess it's okay. The van drives so nice. I am very happy with it. The only problem now is that it still doesn't have a name. All my other cars have shared their names with Peanuts characters. There has been a Lucy, a Peppermint Patty (Patty for short), a Linus, and a Schroeder. Now I am at a loss. I know there are other names, of course, but none of them have clicked. If you have any suggestions leave me a comment!

Are my kids spoiled, or are my kids spoiled?

At least I know my boys are spoiled. While we were at the Coast, the boys got to take a helicoptor tour of Seaside, Oregon. Henry had done it once before with Dustin but this time Jeff got to go, too. They said it was pretty neat. I've never ridden in a helicoptor...maybe next time it will be my turn!

Henry is 6!

Henry turned 6 at Fort Steven's State Park. Five years earlier, Henry turned 1 at the very same place! Since Henry's birthday is the day after Independence Day we're often camping or traveling on his special day. He doesn't seem to mind though. His

favorite restaurant is Pizza Hut so Dustin made reservations for all 25 or so of us at the local Pizza Hut for the night of the 5th. It had been a yucky rainy Oregon Coast kind of day so warming up in a Pizza place was the best part of the day. I am pretty sure his favorite gift was his new scooter and helmet from his dad. He still loves riding that thing!

The Oregon Zoo Train

Grandma Pat treated us to a day at the Oregon Zoo. It's a great zoo and I love taking the kids there. They especially love to ride the MAX train to the zoo. It's the light rail train that runs from Hillsboro to downtown Portland and beyond. When I was reading the zoo map I noticed a small paragraph that said all zoo members who ride MAX to the zoo can ride the zoo train for free! Now, if you know me, you know I love a deal and this was a deal. Taking the MAX not only saved us a parking fee at the zoo, it saved us $18 on the zoo train. It's a lovely ride up from the zoo to the Rose Gardens. (Portland is the city of Roses!) I LOVE how green everything is! The kids, of course, had a wonderful time.

You know those Jeff Foxworthy Redneck jokes...

Ok, so when I was in High School Jeff Foxworthy's Redneck jokes were pretty cool. One of those jokes went like this...

"If directions to your house include the phrase 'turn off the paved road'...you might be a redneck!"

The directions to my house DID include that phrase- UNTIL NOW!

THEY PAVED MY ROAD!

I didn't know if I would ever live to see the day that they paved it. The County has had those counter cables across the road so many times, for as long as I can remember, to see how many people use the road but I never thought they would actually do anything. I won't mention the names of any of my family members who went over the cables, backed up, went over the cables, backed up, went over the cables, backed up, etc, etc, etc!

When my parents got home from our trip to the coast it had been paved. I didn't get to actually experience it yet, as we drove to Montana straight from the campground, but I look forward to the day when I one day will feel the thrill of going down Fulton's Hill, with the wind in my hair, and no dust cloud behind me.

Mom, you now will have no excuse to why your car is dirty- be sure to use those car wash tickets!

Oregon Coast Aquarium

DeAnne's work treated us to a free trip to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. I had never been there before. It was a nice day on the coast- the sun was even shining for most of time we were there. They have one of those walk through exhibits where the fish and sharks and rays seem to be swimming all around you. That was the hit of the Aquarium. We also got to chack out the Outlet Mall in Lincoln City! Yippy!

Going to the Temple

Wow! It's been over a month since I last posted. We've been traveling! My mom and dad rode the train from Portland, OR to Shelby, MT back in June and they helped me drive the kids and I back to Portland. We had a Family Campout planned at Fort Stevens State Park and the kids and I went out a little early. Dustin met up with us later on his motorcycle. These photos here are from the first time I went to the temple with my sister. She went on her mission almost 6 years ago but we've never managed to go together. We finally did it and had a wonderful time, just the girls!