My new favorite quote...

"Martin Luther King walked so that Barack Obama could run," said one boy. "Barack Obama ran so that all children could fly," added another, standing a few feet away from the first African-American ever elected president.

This was said at a morning church service in Washington D.C. where children recalled the life of Martin Luther King Jr.   and Barack Obama and his family attended services.

The Oregon Coast

We loaded up and headed to the Oregon Coast yesterday.  Ty and I haven't been to the coast for 8 years.  The last time we went there, he proposed to me on the beach.  It was a little chilly down on the beach, so we didn't spend too much time there, just enough to get some pictures.  We drove down the coast and stopped in Garibaldi where Alex saw some trains.  She is fascinated by trains, so we let her climb on them and took some pictures.  It was a beautiful trip and we can't wait to go back.

Oh how life changes....

Ty and I have always wanted to live in Oregon.  We have sacrificed the last 3 and half years living in places like Missouri and Illinois so our dream could come true.  We recently moved to Oregon  on New Years Eve.  We arrived to very wet weather, but were excited to finally be here.  We are in a small 900 square foot apartment with very minimal furnishings, anxiously awaiting the call from our realtor that we have an offer on our house in Illinois.

The journey here has been an interesting one.  We loaded up two adults, two kids, two cats, a boat and a truck and headed out  at 3 a.m. a few days before Thanksgiving.  We made it to Idaho where we spent Thanksgiving with family.  From there Ty travelled during the week and the kids and I were living with my parents.  I know all the grandparents were glad to have the kids around so much (even though it meant they lost some sleep!).  The cats are having a grand time exploring the acres of land owned by Ty's dad.  Christmas came early in Idaho and we went over to my parent's house and had tamales and rice and beans for dinner.  Oh and there was Marie Callendar pies for dessert, YUM!!  The kids opened lots of presents.   For Christmas we drove down to Utah.  We made a snap decision to leave earlier than planned due to storms and it proved to be a good decision...it snowed the whole next day-the day we were going to travel.  We spent the next week with Ty's family.  Alex was very excited for Santa to come and set out cookies and milk for him.  She was so excited to open more presents.  We then drove back up to Idaho for a couple of days.  We made another snap decision to leave on New Years Eve due to snow storms and since we couldn't find one of our cats (she showed up 30 minutes after we left) we left them in Idaho.

So that's how our life has played out for the last couple of months.  Below are some pictures from the holidays.