Between October and December of this year, both my parents turn 60. My brother and I (and our families) wanted to do something special and not let this important birthday slip by. So we planned a trip to Hawaii! But then we realized it would be better to go to the Oregon coast in November. 😉 And by “better” I mean “actually possible.” We had a wonderful time with just the 10 of us and we’re in one of those cheesy families where spending quality time really is the best gift.
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My niece, Kaitlyn, is 11 months old and a crawling maniac. It’s not hard to lose track of her after looking away for 4 seconds. The first night we were there, we realized she wasn’t in the room with us, but we heard her laughing. I peeked into the kitchen and saw Carson entertaining her. This vid is a little dark, but I love it because the noise in the background is very representative of the chaos that happens when we’re all together these days, and it brushes the surface of capturing Sydney’s superintense love of Baby Kaitlyn:

The other two cousins, Jack and Sydney, enjoyed some hot chocolate after being outside on a cold day. They are 6 months apart and starting to learn to play together. They are the curly-headed cousins!


Some dear friends SO graciously allowed us to stay at their personal home at the coast. They have grandkids and build this superfun swing in the back. The pictures are a little blurry, but you can see how much fun the kids had swinging between Uncle Trent and Uncle Mike.


Here’s Bapaw Roy reading to Sydney. The kids were in heaven, having 2 teacher/grandparents available and willing to read to them constantly…often the same book over and over again!

OK, this isn’t a book, but it was still cute. 🙂

Aw, classic Jojo love language. We Bunches carry all our stress and tension in our shoulders and neck. Ouch.

We even got a sunny day! Mind you, it felt like 10 degrees with the wind-chill factor, but it wasn’t RAINING!

Jojo and the colorful Birdie.

Jack in his happy place.

Kaitlyn in her gender-neutral hat, blinded by the sun.

Sydney saw this pictures and said “My Becky–me hold!”

This picture is just funny to me. I was posing for Mike while he set up the self-timer to try for a family shot. I was freezing my heinie off.
But we got one! Happy birthday, Mom & Dad! We love you!