navidad video

thanks to luke and lauren for putting together those videos for christmas. it is like a little time capsule for us to watch and kind of summarize the past year.
i don't know if it will last but makenzie loves to watch the christmas video. when we first got it in the mail, cherisse put it in and before it had been played once makenzie was saying that she wanted to go papa's house. cherisse asked her if she wanted to go down and see grandma down in san Diego, but she insisted that she wanted to go and see poopy papa at his house. she wanted to go right then and there. hop in the car and drive to Oregon. drive up there not realizing the distance that needed to be traveled. cherisse asked her if i could take her when i got home, and she said that i could come up later. thanks. i guess she did not want to miss going up to Oregon. so after all of our travels during the christmas break a good impression has been left on makenzie of Oregon and heathfield lane. she also mentioned when i finally got back that she did want to see tank and damon, sorry joel.

smiths @ the coast

cheese

here is the trip that we took up to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. After leaving Lincoln City we headed up north on the 101 toward Tillamook and drove through a couple of small towns including Cloverdale.
you walk in through the gift shop, well for those that did not go on this adventure with us and did not participate, or have not been there. then you go inside to look at the machines and factory. they were in there cutting the cheese and putting it into bags. there were a few displays upstairs and from that vantage point you could look down to where they were moving the cheese around on conveyor belts, cutting it, weighing it and so on. it was then back down stairs for some samples. at the end of the self guided tour they have the squeeky cheese that you can sample. if you did not end up going through that line twice then you need to checked. the kids were not too interested in the cheese as they were the other sweet treats that were ready to be gobbled up. the favorite of all was the ice cream that had makenzie and makenna in a race to see who could put that thing down first. ethan was not to be out done and would not let that cone leave the 2 foot radius from his mouth or his alarm would sound.

the oregon coast is not a beach

so here are some pictures that i found from our trip to the coast. those who could not make it i hope that seagulls come to your bed in the middle of the day and poop on your pillow.
what is better than the Oregon coast, besides any beach in Hawaii. you know that it is a coast and not the beach because there is no stripping down to any bathing suit nor getting any sun.
it was raining the whole way out to the coast and back for that matter but we pulled into this beach, roads end state recreation site, and the rain stopped. i think that was the only break in the rain all day long. so we walked around on the damp beach and tried to keep the kids dry.
Rachel kept falling down and she did not have a change of clothes so, not really how bout makenzie and Ethan. i only say this because Cherisse and i were one to one with them and Makenna was doubled up as nanna was in the car with Ashton. Luke was a little mopey but i think that was only because he missed his lady. like usual the parking lot was full of seagulls, no bread maybe next time. not much to do on the Oregon coast except walk around and take some pictures.
i would say overall it was a fun trip. we then headed up north after making the pilgrimaged to the Oregon coast outlets. hitting up the norm, gap, old navy, quiksilver, dress barn, and Columbia. (one of those does not belong, which one is it.) i think Lauren had a fun time. Rachel and Emily had a good time. i think that mom was a little bummed that we did not take her up on her deal for some safeway gas, and then held her debt card hostage for the remainder of the trip. did not make it to Mo's, but i am sure that was good like usual.

happy new year

we have been all over the west and our trip is about 2 more states from being done. it all started out thursday morning, before christmas to head up to oregon. hit up san fran and saw the highlights and then made our way through the snow and up to t-town.
i hope that you all had a great new year and we had a blast at christmas being there in oregon. hopefully we can all meet up at the end of november to enjoy some turkey, gossip, trash talking and hanging out.

less than 2 weeks to go

so as it looks now this might be one of the last christmas' that we are all together, knock on wood that i don't jink it. less than 2 weeks to go and we will all be sipping egg nog in Oregon. any predictions on a white christmas on heathfield lane or are we going to be freezing cold with a hint of fog on the 25th. so everyone has their lists in and we are done with our gift shopping for the most part.
some things to look forward to:

• food
• seeing everyone
• watching the kids play, makenna, makenzie, damon, ethan, joel, ashton, rachel, and emily
• scenery
• and so on