A few words about the following posts

I'm playing Catch-up. Seriously. There several new posts below. The week of Easter was super busy and we crammed a lot into it. We weren't together for most of the week. Cassidy and Kayla stayed in Washington while Shannon, Brian and Brogan drove to Utah for Uncle Paul's wedding.

Everyone had a great time in their respective locations. The girls were spoiled by their Grandma Harmon, who stayed with them and treated them to multiple fun outings and dining out. They had such a great time and we appreciated the comfort of knowing that our girls were safe and cared for by family. A huge Thank You goes out to her and my other siblings who entertained the girls in our absence. We love you.

Now...feel free to check out what we've been up to....

Easter Egg Hunt

Hippity Hoppity...the Easter Bunny came to town and deposited about a million (it seemed) little plastic eggs all over Grandpa and Grandma Harmon's yard...and inside the house too. We had a wonderful egg hunt with cousins on Easter Sunday.

Brogan

Cassidy

Kayla

Zoey

The Girls

Brogan's spoils.

An unexpected find

During our LONG drive home from Utah we stopped in Baker City, Oregon at what we suspected was just a "hole in the wall" truck stop. We were in for a BIG surprise. We discovered SUMPTER JUNCTION. It looks like an ordinary little trailer shaped dive, to be honest, on the OUTSIDE. But, it is a little boys dream come true once you step inside the doors. There is a train theme and running all around the joint is an electric train. It literally travels the length of the entire facility from top to bottom. They have it arranged so that no matter where you are sitting, the train will eventually pass you. I don't know if you can imagine the extreme JOY Brogan felt the first (and every) time the train rushed passed him in the booth

I think BOTH boys enjoyed themselves and we WILL be stopping again every time we make the trip from WA to UT. The food was great, the prices were fair, and the Trains were amazing. 2 very enthusiastic thumbs up.

Park, Park, Baby

Utah knows how to do parks right! Everywhere we went there were new and exciting ones to explore and enjoy. This is the highlights from one of our several trips to a park to burn off extra energy.

Brian holding Madeline and Shannon holding Brogan

Carrie on a familiar instrument...all that time at SPS playing percussion paid off while entertaining the little ones.

(Above) Just look at those cheeks! Don't you just wanna kiss 'em? Her daddy does (below).

We had a marvelous visit! Thank you for hosting us!

Utah...again

We find ourselves driving to Utah quite frequently during our time out West. It's 12 hours one way. A LONNNNG drive. This last trip was for a VERY special purpose though. Our friend, Paul, got married. We've known Paul since he was 12. He has been called "Uncle Paul" since Cassidy was old enough to talk. He married a sweet, charming, beautiful girl named Lindsey on Friday, April 22nd in the Salt Lake City Temple. It was lovely. It was also the first time we had been inside the SLC temple. What an experience. We were honored to be there for this big moment. We didn't take our camera to the wedding or the reception because we figured there would be enough people walking around taking pictures...we know we ended up in a few, so we hope to see them someday. It was beautiful.

We were able to snag this photo of the 3 of us after a yummy lunch at The Lion House.

Brogan and Daddy standing with the SLC temple in the background.

We were also able to visit lots of family while we were in town. The photo above may very well be one of my favorite pictures ever. It isn't perfect, but this is my Grandpa Harvey. He is a remarkable individual and Brogan loved him the moment he set eyes on him. He spent a lot of time curled up in his lap reading stories, getting tickled, listening to jokes and just bonding. It was quite a special moment for me.

And this lovely lady is Miss Madeline (above), the daughter of Carrie and Peter (Brian's youngest sister). She is just a gem and she LOVES to watch other little kids. Brogan was happy to entertain. Brogan was playing with some of her soft blocks and she reached over to grab one...he curled around it protectively...we are still working on the sharing thing (below).

We enjoyed every moment (with exception to a few scary storms we ran into while driving to UT) and look forward to returning again in May to celebrate Carrie's graduation from Med School. Hooray for being so close to family!

EGGGGSTRA COLORFUL

The cousins got together on Monday, April 18th to color easter eggs. We scored when we found these "no spill" egg coloring kits. Highly recommended but be warned that if the color does spill, it will stain. :)

(ABOVE) Brogan, Cassidy and Abby take a turn coloring some of the eggs

(ABOVE) Jack making a blue egg and a charming little face. CUTE!

The boys showing off the final product

And the girls too.

So much fun!

Kiss Me...I'm Irish (sort of)

Last year Cassidy had to do a report on the country where her ancestors came from. She chose to cover the paternal SCHROYER side of the family that year. This year, since we are in Washington with the HARMON side of the family, she decided to represent her maternal ancestors. IRELAND!

Cassidy worked SO hard on this "Sandwich Board". It talks about the influences of Ireland today like: St. Patrick's Day, Potatoes, and The Arts (U2, Enya, Riverdance, etc). She then memorized a speech that was a brief overview of the sandwich board. She gave this speech on Wednesday, April 20th, at 11am (just about 1 hour before mom and dad left with Brogan for a long drive to Utah). Her speech was 2 and a half minutes long. She did SUCH a good job and we are SO proud of her. I have a video of it and might post it later, but for now, we just wanted to take a minute to tell you about how amazing she is. Public speaking terrifies her, but she was so brave and she didn't say "ummm" or any of those other common fillers you hear during speeches. She spoke clearly and looked confident. SO WONDERFUL. Later that week, on Friday, she got to march in a Multi-cultural parade downtown wearing her cute little sandwich board. It was even on TV! Way to go sweet Cassidy!

Haunted Legos!

We made a lego police station today.

"Why are there twenty pairs of legs just standing on the roof?"

"Those are GHOSTS! Their tops are invisible!"

"And the guys in the tower, will they be okay?"

"Yes. They have a worker, a space man, AND a ninja, so they win!"

"Awesome."

Easter Shirts!

Our beloved Tracey of Sam's Town Designs (check it out on Etsy) sent us these Easter shirts for the kids. The girls say "My Peeps" and the boys say "Chick Magnet."

Spring Break Wrap Up continued

Brogan plays hard at whatever he's doing right up to the point where he falls asleep.

I like the little Lego triumvirate watching him.

As part of "Take Your Daughter to War*" day Kayla joined daddy for another round of Firefight in Halo. We teamed up with two other gamers and successfully fought off 400+ bad guys in fifteen minutes. Not only did KK dispatch the final bad guy of the match, she did it with style!

I'm so proud!

*You can check out Take Your Daughter to War Day here:

http://www.theonion.com/video/army-holds-annual-bring-your-daughter-to-war-day,14218/

I was just kidding.

I don't need a special day to bring KK to battle.

Spring Break Wrap Up

With the kids off from school this week we used the time to attend a Portland Winterhawks playoff game at the Rose Garden (thanks Grandpa!).

We also made another trip to J J Jumps, this time with cousins Abby and Jack.

Brogan (and Daddy) climb up...

Brogan and Abby slide down.

Daddy is the tall one.

And on Saturday the boys got haircuts.

It was time.

Brogan was a big fan of the barber shop we found: popcorn, lollipops, your own tv screen, and a back massage when you're done. Nice!

Treasure Hunting never gets old

About 11 years ago, Brian planned a birthday extravaganza for me that has yet to be matched. He was living on Nantucket Island and I was on the West Coast. I went to visit him on this island for my birthday. He had spent several weeks (maybe months) getting ready for my visit and the birthday we would celebrate while together. He made treasure chests and literally buried them all around the island. We spent a day together following a map and digging up treasure. It was amazing and romantic. Is it any wonder I married the guy a year later? Well, a lot has changed since then. We've added 3 amazing kids to the mix and we are currently living on the West Coast. It seemed appropriate that we have a birthday treasure hunt here as well. And so, on Saturday morning we bundled up the kids and went to Lacamas Lake to hunt for treasure. This is a photo of us consulting the map:

Here we are looking for a new clue. Brian had made flowers out of duck tape and hidden them in tree hollows. Cass helped hide them, so she had a slight advantage and tried really hard not to tell us where they were.
We had to walk across a few bridges, and over a dam...this had Brogan captivated.
At the very last flower we also found some pretty new silver ear rings. I'm wearing them in this photo, but my hair is covering them up. Trust me, they're beautiful.
Don't I have the sweetest hubby ever? And some pretty great kids too! I'm pretty blessed and SO grateful for my life and the chance I have to share it with these incredible individuals. They are my true Treasures and the ones I hope to keep forever.

NOW it's her birthday!

The kids are feeling better so today we celebrate Shannons -**REDACTED**- Birthday!

She awoke to find this on her pillow...

And the rest of the celebration is underway, more information later on.

**A special note from Shan regarding these flowers: Just in case you can't tell (and miss the hint from Brian), they are made of duck tape! How amazing is it that I get flowers that will last forever, never need to be watered, and are hand made with love? I know. I know. I'm one VERY lucky girl. And SOOOO in love with this man!