Preparation and more waiting

The latest occurrences in our family are not very happy. We have spent the last month looking forward to being pregnant. We are excited to have children but this pregnancy was not meant to be. Katie had a miscarriage last Saturday. Although we understand that it doesn't mean we won't have any children, it was still a sad and draining experience. We are on the bounce back now however, and have the opportunity to watch Lydia, our two year old niece and Joey, our one month old nephew. This adds a little light to the house and we enjoy playing with them. Lydia will pick up or leave on the floor anything she can reach. She also refuses to eat vegetables even with the enticement of a cookie. Joey does little but look around and make little noises. He looks just like his father Mr. Nate Nevins. Other than that we are both enjoying school and do little else. So I close this.

The Beach

To end our wonderful vacation to Oregon we all headed out to the beach! We stopped in Lincoln City, stayed on the beach in a house called Festivus at Depoe Bay, and frequented the streets of the wonderful Newport bay. One of the best days was spent in Newport. Brad and I both got to pick up live crabs and then chuck them back into the bay. This old man was crabbing and every three minutes he'd pull in his load of crabs. But most of the crabs ended up being too small to keep so he'd throw them back into the water. Brad and I watched this and were fascinated with the way that the little crabs scuttled around and raised their pinchers at imposing shoes. So we walked up behind a couple crabs and nabbed them, along with wonderful pictures to remember the moment. After that we went to see the Sea Lions that hang around below the raised docks; they're huge! I really enjoyed watching their interaction. Most of the sea lions were sun tanning on floating docks. However there were two of them that were in the water, and every time these two sea lions tried to get up onto the docks to join his fellows, the others would bite and hoot and holler. It was really interesting. And after all this we had the pleasure of visiting one of our favorite restaurants, THE CHOWDER BOWL! When Brad and I got home we walked down to the beach where we flew our kites, found a dead seal, and built a small sandcastle. The next day we got to go to the aquarium where we saw the awesome crab exhibit and posed for a picture in a sharks mouth! To top the whole experience off, the last night we spent at the beach we all went down at sunset to start a fire. We roasted marshmallows to make smores and talked and laughed till late. It was perfect.

The Falls

Shortly after our return from Seattle Matthew took Brad and I on a trip to some hidden water falls. Unfortunately after we had picked up our Little Caesar's pizza to eat up there, we realized that there were tons of other people who had discovered the falls as well. After eating our pizza we headed over to the falls to get a closer look. It was great because we could walk right up under the falls and get soaking wet. It was great fun, and only a little treacherous on the slippery rocks!