More Bend Pictures

Collin, Caden Bybee, Chelsea and Morgan being pulled behind the snowmobile.

Celebrating Mia's 2nd Birthday. This day is one of her first that she willingly put on her snowclothes and went outside to play. She loved sledding and even laughed when I crashed on the sled with her and white washed her face!!! She said "it's cold" and laughed. So cute!!

Pictures from Bend

Morgan, Chelsea and Cameron at the top
Brenden and Neal Bybee with Cameron after snowmobiling near Mt. Bachelor
Collin looking too cool on Dad's new snowmobile.
Morgan and Chelsea posing.
Most of the kids in the tiny hot tub at the condo.

Bend, Oregon

After way too many illnesses in our home we finally left late (after trying to leave the day before and turned around when Mia threw up) on Friday afternoon and headed down to Bend, Oregon to stay at the Bybees Condo along with the Harker family. So imagine this - a 3 bedroom condo maybe 1000sf or so, 6 adults and 13 children under the age of 9. That was our trip. The guys left Sat. morning to go snowmobiling while the kids very excitedly played together for hours!! It was nice when 2 pm finally came and we met the guys at the snow park and took the kids sledding. They are spoiled. . . never having to climb the hill themselves. They were pulled up the hill on their sleds behind the snowmobiles. WE had tons of fun and did that again the next afternoon. Saturday was the only peaceful time when we put the kids in babysitting at the club there and had dinner at Scanlons. Amazingly if you have a condo there and eat at the restaurant then the athletic club provides free babysitting while you eat (you have to feed your kids first). It was a great meal and overall I think the kids had a good time too. Afterwards we all went to ice cream before heading back to the condo. Sunday we celebrated Mias 2nd birthday. She was very happy about her cake and the Dora doll she recieved. She ate way too much junk that day and decided to throw up again that night. Luckily only once and that was the end of that. Monday the guys were off snowmobiling again. Tammy and Meredith took all the kids to the childrens museum and I stayed at the condo with Mia (worried she'd throw up again). After the guys got back the girls (Moms) left for shopping. We did not have enough time to go everywhere we wanted but managed to spend enough for one day. I love shopping in Oregon - NO TAX!!

Now we're home. Our new mattress arrived this afternoon and I'm so excited to go to bed and get a good nights rest!!!

New - almost free - Mattress

We are soooo excited. We got a king size mattress about 8 years ago and it was a good bed (Sealy posturpedic). We've loved it until recently. It had sunk some and was not so comfortable. Cameron's back has been hurting (mine some but nothing to complain about) and he went to the chiropractor a few times last month because of it. Well, after our week in Utah (Cameron really having no back pain) and then coming home and sleeping on our mattress and the pain was back. So he decided the mattress had something to do with it. He said we needed a new one. I didn't want to spend the money since I have lots of things I want like a piano, new kitchen table and a bedroom set that I'd rather put it towards. So one day he called and asked me what kind ours was and that he was pretty sure it had a 10 year warranty. I said there is NO WAY they are going to give us a new mattress for nothing. But he called the store (Northwest Mattress Center) and found out that we could get a free mattress if ours had sunk more than 1 1/2 inches in the middle. So the owner came out on Friday and it had! She said come into the store tomorrow to pick out a new bed for free! (as long as it was in the same price range). So we went today to look and we liked one of the "free" beds fine but Cameron fell in love with a better bed (I did too really) and so we paid the wholesale difference to get that one. Unfortunetly, we don't get the new bed for almost 2 weeks but it's still pretty exciting. I guess we won't be getting those other furniture needs for a while longer though. But a good night sleep on a new comfy mattress may make up for that.

Other news: Mia came home from Utah with a fever and quickly that got passed around this week to Chelsea, Collin and then Morgan. Then back to Chelsea (weird) but she's been acting the worst today even though she went to school all week. So I took her into an immediate care place suspecting she might have strep throat. Guess what . . . she does. The first for our family ever. So she gets to stay home from church again tomorrow since she'll be contagious until Monday. Hopefully no one else gets it. I don't want it!!

Back to School

I think December just flew by. After an early thanksgiving I felt like we had plenty of time to get things done before Christmas. Boy was I wrong. For the first time since Collin was born I did NOT send out Christmas cards. I didn't make any goodie plates again this year (not that anyone probably missed getting any more treats that they don't need). I love the treats but feel guilty because I'm trying to get in better shape and eating 5 cookies and 3 pieces of fudge off of a generous treat plate someone brought did not help the situation. I did way too much last minute shopping. But we did manage to have an awesome Christmas. We were able to give lots to those in need and still have more than enough for ourselves. Santa was very good to us and gave us lots of the things we asked for. Cameron and I along with Morgan all got new skis and boots. During our trip to Utah after Christmas we got to use these and they were awesome. We plan to spend as many Saturdays as possible on the slopes this winter. The girls all loved their Hannah Montana dolls and stage and the outdoor place house. Collin got way to many tractors to add to his collection. After more than a week away with my family (and a little bit of time with Cameron's brother Kips family who was also staying in Utah for vacation) we are home and trying to get settled back into normal life. I don't think any of us were ready for today. Getting up and heading back into the real world. Collin was not excited about school. Morgan was tired but the only one happy that school was starting again. Oh I guess Chelsea is also very excited but she didn't wake up until after 8am. She still has a bit of a lingering cough but other than that I think she is over her illness she got after returning home from Utah. Mia also got sick in Utah but other than a runny nose which isn't unusual for her she is over the fever part. I finally packed up the last of our Christmas decorations this morning and hopefully over the next few weeks I will get the house organized again finding spots for all of our new toys. That will be quite a job in itself. I'll have to write more later. I'm way behind for myself since I'm using this a bit like a journal. Love ya. Sorry I didn't send out a card but I loved all of the ones I received.