Bryn Is 9!!

This little cutie turned nine and we had several days of celebrating! Bryn had her birthday planned out in great detail and we followed it to a tee. Bryn at nine years old is still an absolute joy. She has the sunniest disposition. She is always in a good mood. She is cheerful and helpful. She is kind and friendly to everyone. She is an absolute sweetheart. I know those teen years are coming so I am going to enjoy every minute of her sweetness!!

Bryn's birthday was on a school day this year. She woke up to her room decorated by Ailey who did such a cute job! She had balloons, donuts, and chocolate milk from daddy too. As per our tradition she got to have a fast food lunch delivered to her at school. This year she requested Taco Bell. She wanted two bean burritos and a slushy. Done! Her classmates knew that I was coming and as they all filed past me headed to the lunch room it was so cute to see how excited they were for her!!

She was pretty excited and happy too!!

At school she got birthday surprises from her teacher Mr. O. The class sang Happy Birthday to her and she got a birthday sticker and new pair of sunglasses from the office. She loved it!

After school she had a busy day with Bloomsday Training at her school and then she came home really briefly before she headed over to the high school for track.

This is her first year running track and she is LOVING it!! Her XC coach for the past two years is also her track coach this year so that makes it really nice. He pushes her hard especially now that she is older. Bryn doesn't seem to mind it a bit and she is listening to him and doing so great!! It took her a couple of practices to change things from how you run XC to how you run track...like sprinting. Her coach is always yelling...NOW IS THE TIME YOU SPRINT!! Ha ha!

We had a super crazy day on her birthday. Everyone was gone until late that night with after school activities but Bryn came home that night to lots of texts, phone calls, and birthday packages. She was so excited and she got to make a late night wish too.

Earlier in the week Reilly took Bryn out for her birthday. They went and got pedicures and out to eat. Reilly asked Bryn to pick a restaurant and she picked Taco Bell!! Ha ha! She's a cheap date. Bryn had a fantastic time with her big sister all to herself!!

Brynnie-Johnson's-Day-O-Fun was the Saturday after her actual birthday. We had to be up bright and early because Ailey had dance team tryouts and Bryn had her very first track meet. It was super exciting!!

Before the meet trying to stay warm!!

Bryn's cheering section!!

And...cheering we did!! She absolutely KILLED IT at her very first track meet!! She ran the 4 x 400 relay, the 100 meter dash, and did javelin. She did SO AWESOME!!

Her team won the 4 x 400 relay. She had a big lead her entire lap. It was so exciting to watch her shine. She was so worried about the meet because she is used to pacing herself for distance running and so to basically sprint the entire time is a new concept for her but she did absolutely fantastic. See the video below:



Then she WON the 100 meter dash!! We didn't even film it because we were screaming so loud and jumping up and down!! It was super exciting. Not a bad first track meet!!

After the meet we said goodbye to Kameron who had to go to work and hello to Reilly who met up with us. We continued on with Bryn's day of fun. The next stop was the mall...and her very favorite store Build-a-Bear. One of the gifts that she wanted was a new bear from there. Wish granted. We have spent a lot of money over the years with three girls who have all loved stuffed animals and loved this store!!

So many to choose from! :)

Success!! A fluffy pink bear dressed in a pink cheerleading outfit that Bryn named Rose. She also got a scent for her bear...sugar n' sparkles...Rose smells really good!

Then we were off to Coeur d' Alene. Bryn wanted to go to our favorite sushi restaurant for lunch. Done and done! This girl has good taste!

I think she gets it from her parents!! No Chuck E. Cheese this year.

After that we had some shopping to do.... the candy store and the toy store.

Bryn got the winning gumball and got a free sack of candy!! How lucky was that? Then we were off to the CDA resort to walk the board walk.

Just a little chilly!!

Then to Dockside for Bryn's favorite Gooeys...enormous sundaes!! They were fantastic!! Bryn picked out the Strawberry Shortcake (our family favorite), the Strawberry Lemonade (also good), and the Chocolate obsession. Whoa... it was a good thing that the next item on her list was hiking. We needed it!!

By that point the sun was coming out and it started to warm up. It turned into a beautiful afternoon.

This girl was super nervous all day waiting to hear if she made the high school dance team. It was a good thing that we kept her busy and distracted all day. :) More on that later. That night Bryn got Mommy and Daddy all to herself!! It was a very fun day with our girl.

The next day we had our family birthday dinner for Bryn after church. (Bryn's favorite color is purple.) She picked her special birthday meal: salad bar, tempura shrimp, Dr.Pepper, and she requested Texas sheet cake for her birthday cake.

Ailey decorated her cake. Cute!

After dinner Bryn got to pick out what we were going to do that evening. She picked a marathon game of My Little Ponies Monopoly!! The whole family played for hours and with great gusto with The Greatest Showman soundtrack playing on repeat and a lot of Maroon Five. Bryn was the DJ. There was some crazy dancing and lip syncing going on too!!

Happy Birthday Darling Girl!! 

We love you very much!!

Oregon 2018

Tyler and I took a quick trip to Portland and the Oregon Coast this last weekend. Our kids were out of school on Spring Break. We didn't do a family trip because most of our kids were busy with work and even Bryn started Track during spring break so it wasn't ideal for a big family trip. But...Tyler and I were able to head out for a weekend getaway!! Kind of an early anniversary celebration. Our anniversary is in a few weeks. We left super early in the morning on Friday and came back home late on Sunday night. It actually worked out perfectly. We had a blast!!

It is always so fun to head out on a road trip!!

We brought our cargo trailer so that it could also be a buying trip for Sisters Creed. Farm Chicks is coming up fast. I am so glad that we brought it because we found some awesome furniture pieces and a bunch of other great things for the show. I am so excited!!

Once we got into town we headed straight to IKEA. I had a list of things that I needed to get for our house and I also needed to pick up four big rugs for our booth for Sisters Creed. It is always fun to meander through IKEA and to stop and eat those delicious pink cream cakes with marzipan. I love them!!

Then we stopped at a few more of our favorite haunts to look for furniture and vintage items. We found a bunch more things. It really turned out to be a great buying trip for Sisters Creed!!

Then we checked into our hotel and relaxed!! This trip we didn't have a big itinerary like we usually do. We had already done most of our buying and had found a ton of things prior to checking into our hotel. Unheard of!! So it was really nice to just be able to relax and to do what we wanted to do when we wanted to do it. The weather was beautiful. Sunny and in the 70s. It was fantastic!!

For dinner Tyler had one request...Chinese food. We do not have good Chinese food here in Spokane. It is awful and we have tried every single place possible. I really miss the days of living in Salt Lake and where we had awesome Chinese delivery. We found a Chinese restaurant that had been highly recommended in Beaverton and we crossed our fingers that it would be good. Wow....it was absolutely amazing. We gorged. We had two appetizers and two huge entrees and we were in food heaven. It was so good!! In fact it was so delicious that we ate Chinese food twice while we were in town!! After our late dinner we headed back to our hotel and slept in late the next morning! Delightful.

So happy to have eaten the best Chinese food that I have had in years...and so stuffed!!

We have a favorite french bakery/restaurant that we love in Portland and we were so excited to see that they had opened another location right near our hotel. We headed over for breakfast. You cannot believe how amazing the bread, pastries, croissants, macarons, tarts, and cakes are. We had to have some of each!!

The passion fruit macarons are my very favorite things!! I cleaned them out two days in a row. We also discovered a few new favorites....their purple cake that was a coconut cake with passion fruit filling and lime mousse covered in a black currant glaze. It was amazing!! And...then we discovered the chocolate and almond croissants. The world's best croissants that were stuffed full of BOTH chocolate AND marzipan. OH.MY.GOODNESS!! We went back for those two days in a row too!!



After that we decided to head to the coast. The weather had turned rainy and windy. There were reports of high winds at the ocean but we were undaunted. We headed for the beach with our rain gear ready to go.



First we went to Seaside. There were so many cute shops and places to see but the rain was really coming down and the streets were super crowded with people. We went shopping at the outlets and Tyler was really hoping to find some awesome Helly Hansen gear but they didn't have anything good in his size. Too bad. Then we decided to drive on to Cannon Beach. By the time we got there the rain and wind were unbelievable. The winds were over 50 miles per hour.



Before we went out on the beach we stopped at one of our favorite places to get some lunch while we watched the storm and the sea rage outside the windows.

Nothing like a some delicious clam chowder on a cold and rainy day...and incredible seafood too!

And then we went out on the beach:

We weren't the only crazy ones out there either!! Despite the terrible weather it was still stunningly beautiful!

Just a *little bit* windy!! :)

Then we decided to go check out the old abandoned Terrible Tilly Lighthouse aka the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse but a tree had come down and they closed off the road so we decided to go see an old shipwreck instead. The remains of the Peter Iredale are 100 + years old. It was built in 1890 and ran aground in 1906. 112 years ago.

We stopped to walk down to the beach to check it out. The rain was torrential. The wind was so strong that I could barely walk and the sand was flying everywhere. Tyler got out of the car and got right back in and said that he was done. Not me. I struggled down to the beach to get a better look.

Trying to get closer to the wreckage I had to walk sideways and the wind was blowing me so hard and the waves were crashing over my feet. I couldn't see anything due to the blowing sand and rain. I barely got this picture and this video. It was bedlam!!

And then...the true *excitement* began!! I got lost!! And... I blame Tyler!!

Next are a series of videos from my Instastories with my attempts to explain what happened... to our children:















Okay...so probably not the best idea to be out hiking around on the beach in a raging storm. Somehow I got *blown* farther down the beach than I thought I was and literally couldn't remember which bluff I had come down from. Plus...Tyler took off to a different location although he claims he could see me the whole time. Yeah, right. I started climbing back up to the bluff that I thought I had come down from and the wind was so strong that I could barely move let alone make it up to the top. I was starting to panic at that point. Plus, it also seemed like going back up was a lot steeper than it was coming down. Which was true because I was in the wrong location. Then when I got to the top and saw that there was no Tyler and that it looked completely different from where I previously had been and I couldn't see anything that looked familiar...true panic set in. I was trying to figure out my location but with the crazy wind, rain, and blowing sand I couldn't see anything!! I tried to use my phone to call Tyler but my screen was wet and my fingers were wet and so my iphone wouldn't work. As I was stumbling aimlessly around in full panic mode...Tyler came racing up the bluff to my rescue. He claims that he always knew where I was...but he looked very relieved to see me!! I was BEYOND happy to see him!! Life is always an adventure!!

After my traumatic experience we looked around Cannon Beach for awhile and then went back to Seaside to do some more shopping.

Look what else we saw... I don't know if you can handle the excitement of this:



Later that evening we drove back to our hotel and ate Chinese food again only this time...IN OUR BED!! It was awesome!! A perfect ending to an exciting day!!

The next morning we had plans to meet up with my cousin Paul and his family. So, of course, we got up early and went back to our favorite french bakery for more treats to take to Paul and Whitney's and to get some for the road. Ha ha!! Paul and Whitney are a lot of fun and we try to see them every time we are in town. Last year when we were in town Whitney was pregnant and so this time we got to meet cute little Quinn. I have been dying to get my hands on her!! She is adorable and kissable and darling Zoey is the cutest big sister ever!! We got in a lot of snuggles and kisses on those juicy baby cheeks!!

Quinn is just the absolute sweetest and she let us hold and maul her and kiss and kiss and kiss her cheeks. Oh man, babies are the sweetest!! Zoey entertained us and was a pure delight as always and Paul and Whitney fed us well!!

It really doesn't get better than having a cousin who is a professional chef and who cooks for you!!

We had the most delicious brunch with corned beef hash, eggs, fruit, and filled croissants. It was so nice to visit with them and to pretty much laugh the entire time!!

That afternoon we did a little bit more shopping on our way out of Portland and out of Oregon as we headed home to our kids. When we pulled into the driveway at around 9 pm even Reilly was there. She was spending the night. It is always fun to head out of town and it is always so nice to return home...especially to kids who seemed genuinely happy to see us!! It was such a great weekend and a great end to Spring Break!!