NO NO BIRDIE!

Hello! It has been a couple weeks since I've posted because I've lost my camera! Sophie likes it you see. And sometimes she gets a hold of it and takes about 100 pictures. Not a problem cuz I can delete them! But, it is a problem when she hides it! And, that is what she had done and she can't remember where she has hidden it. Unfortunately, she may have hidden it in the garbage. Hmmm, how long should I wait til I get a new one? Where else can I search? Any good hiding places that you know of? I'm running out of possibilities. Well, the other day, I heard some scratching in our upstairs laundry room and thought, "Oh no! Rats!" So, I went in cautiously to investigate. It sounded like it was coming from the dryer. Hmmm, how can a rat get in my dryer? Well, after some thought and more listening I figured out that it was a bird and I thought it was stuck in the dryer hose that connected to the outside of the house. So, I pulled the dryer out (it isn't even heavy) and looked in the hose! And to my surprise I found a half made nest! The weather has been very cold and this bird had found a nice warm spot to build a nest. I may have even said yes to the poor little thing except that it is simply a MAJOR fire hazard! So, no no birdie!! Gotta go somewhere else! And it did! To my front porch. There is a cute little nest up there now! Where's a man when you need him? Oh, only in Iraq! Dave is almost half way done though so that is good! He's been down in Baghdad for the last couple weeks and will be heading back up to Mosul in a couple days! He's glad... he feels more exposed and less secure in Baghdad for some reason. Oh, and he doesn't have enough free time to work out twice a day there! Hmmm, poor guy!:) He does want to get home because he is concerned about me chasing vampires! haha. (Well, at least they aren't real) And because he misses us all as much as we miss him. He did run into one of his good friends from high school there in Baghdad! They were at church and Dave said where do I know you from. His friend Jeremy said, " I was only one of your best friends in high school!" Hmmm, he must look a lot different. Less hair, more weight, more wrinkles! Who knows!

Bella's Chevy! I Found The Set!

Well, a week later on April 8th I decided to search again for the secret location of the Twilight Movie Set!! And I found it! Wahahaha! The Nancy Drew in me kicked in a couple days before and I started investigating or rather doing a little more digging on the net. It was hard and strenuous work! After the kids were in bed, I started sleuthing and came across an article that said they would be in Saint Helens!! "Hey," I thought, " I know where St. Helens is!" So, I went to Map Quest and searched for 1st and 6th, St. Helens, WA. What showed up was a star near Mount Saint Helens. I zoomed in and all there was were trees. Hmmm, is the town well hidden in trees? So, I clicked on a hotel slogan and poked around and it was talking about Saint Helens, OR! Few! Good thing I just didn't run down to the volcano! So I get the kids and let them know that on our way down to Portland we were just going to take a small detour to find Cedric Diggory and Sharkboy! A.K.A Edward Cullen and Jacob Black. We get to Saint Helens I drive right up to where all the trailers and catering trucks and lots of the crew were. I finally decide to park because there are no signs that say I can't park. I get myself and the kids out. There are 5 Goth Girls hanging out on the corner so I ask them if they are here for Twilight and they said yes!! And then they asked me if I was a Twilight MOM and I yelled yes!! Then one of them told me that Bella and Edward were eating lunch in the tent which was only about 150 ft. from where I parked! I said, " Are you serious?" She said yeah! Then I said that is SO COOL! I got my camera and video out! Brett was in charge of the video and was a bit embarrassed! We waited for just like 5 or 10 minutes and then....NOTHING. Someone told us that somehow they left without anyone noticing! BUMMER! The Goth Girls also told me that Jacob had just finished lunch just a couple of minutes before I got there. So, I tried to get up to the set but they wouldn't let me because someone had gotten into the house (Bella's house) and took pictures of the inside! But I did get pictures of the cars!! Woohoo! That's better than a school and a Chinese restaurant! We had lots of fun! But the kids really wanted to get to the hotel so they could go swimming!Here is Bella's faded red Chevy which is perfect!!

Edward's Shiny Volvo

Chief Swan's Cruiser

Day at the Zoo

After a night of swimming and eating at Shari's we headed to the Oregon Zoo in Portland on April 9th. To tell ya the truth, I usually zoom or putter right through Portland and have never realized what a pretty and large city it is. It was really neat driving to the zoo because one minute you are in the busy city and then you go through this tunnel and wah lah! You are in the green mountains without a sign of the city and a minute later you are at the zoo. I remember telling Brett how beautiful it was there. He agreed quickly so we could talk about something else besides the beauty of the hills! The zoo is great though, and the kids asked if we could go again with Dad when he gets back. I told them that could definitely be arranged!

Monkeying Around

This is one of our favorite pictures from the zoo! Jenny took it.



















And who doesn't love zebras. They are so pretty and peaceful. Well, at least when they are grazing in the safety of a zoo. In the wild I'm not so sure!

Jenny's 9th Birthday

Jenny had a great birthday party! She had a Nancy Drew Party with lots of friends. The boys had another party to go to and they were very happy about that. The girls had a great time going on a mystery treasure hunt, playing clue, and watching the new Nancy Drew Movie! Probably her favorite gift is VIP Pet Shop animals. Nana and Aunt Megan surprised her which was fun! We had a really great weekend!

VAMPIRES, HERE I COME!

On April 1st, Sophie and I decided to go on an adventure. Well, I actually told her we were going on an adventure and she said, "OK "! I told her we were going to go find the Twilight Movie set and it was going to be lots of fun. And she said, "OK". So, just before we left Dave called and asked Sophie what she was going to do today. She said he would have to call back later because we had to go find a high lighter! She told him that a couple of times and I don't think he quite understood her. I was in the other room wondering why she wanted a high lighter because I really didn't feel like buying her a nice bright colored marking pen. So, I went in and started talking to him and told him we were heading out to find the Twilight set. Then Sophie goes, " Oh, that's right, we are going to find a Twilighter! (not a high lighter) I was laughing! So, that's what we called our adventure, "Finding a Twilighter" So, we took off a bit later than I had planned, like an hour and a half later. We drove down to Longview and Kalama which is where I knew they had been filming just a day or two before. The drive was nice, trees blooming, lots of green. So, we get to Longview and find nothing which isn't surprising because I only new about Kalama. So, after a potty break we took off for Kalama which is only 10 minutes from Longview. And well to make a long story short THIS is all I found that had anything at all to do with anything in the Twilight Series! Lovely huh? And no, I DID NOT eat lunch there!:) When I stopped to take this picture, Sophie asked if I found the Twilighter. Sadly, I had to say nope! No Twilighter today!

OK, ONE SIGNIFICANT PICTURE

So, I did actually get one legitimate picture of the high school where they filmed a lot of the outside seens. I did see a few pictures on line with Edward, Bella and others of the Cullen Family in front of the high school and this is definitely the same high school. It was really neat because it was at the top of this steep hill and the view was great. If you drive up this one road you just run right into it. So, here are those pictures!! As you can see the sky is nice and blue which means no filming outside! It needs to be raining of course! If I had been thinking, I would've gone down last week when all it did was rain and snow!

OH NO SNOW! WHERE'D SPRING GO?

Well, we have really been looking forward to Spring! The beautiful flowers in bloom, less rain, more sun and less sweaters! But to our dismay, it snowed on March 26th! Where oh where is Spring? The winters here in the Northwest are pretty gloomy and long so we are looking forward to warmer weather and heading outdoors to enjoy all the great things to do here!

Easter Sunday

Easter was great! Unless we thought about missing dad! But, the kids had fun in the morning and all they had for breakfast was candy. Oh well. We all got ready for church and I managed to get some cute pictures. Unfortunately, the weather was crummy but we had all our Easter Egg Hunts the day before when the weather was nice. I really love Easter and the magnitude of this Holiday. I'm just so blessed to know of the resurrection and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ! Really, the resurrection was the completion of the Atonement. How great to know that the resurrected Christ visited so many and let them feel the nail prints in His hands and feet. One of my favorite parts of the Book of Mormon is when the resurrected Christ visited the people on the American continent and they actually got to see the Christ whom they believed in for so long and had heard so many prophesies about that finally came to pass! How exciting that must have been! We get to see Him one day too! One of my favorite scriptures says that every need shall bow and tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ. Well, here are some pictures of my cute children!

Time for the hunt!

On March 22nd, the kids and I went to a fun Easter Egg Hunt at a local park. Needless to say, it was a mad house and the hunts only lasted for about 15 seconds but we had a good time! Nothing like scrambling around for a few candy filled eggs. I must say that Jenny was great because she saw a girl on crutches that didn't get any and gave her some of her eggs and then she found two others who didn't get any and gave them some too. What a sweetie huh? Sophie gave some of hers away too! Hmmm, I wish I could say the same about the boys! Although, they barely scraped by with just a few themselves. Well, here are some pics!





Oh, I wanted to add this one so you could read the back of Brett's t-shirt. Dave sent him this from Mosul. Having a sense of humor is good in stressful situations.