Happy Birthday Nama!

Hi Mom! This is our Happy Birthday card to you & we hope you like it! We wanted to send you something that you'd like that was hand crafted from the girls. These first two videos are from Natalie & Katelyn.

Now, you'll need to visit this blog in order to view the videos b/c we can't send them to you. (We plan to keep each video posted for about 1 week.)

Any questions?? just let us know.

Also - did you know you can post comments onto the blog? Tricia can explain & teach you how.
Again, Happy Birthday! We are looking forward to seeing you at Thanksgiving here in OR!

Love, Darren Tricia & the girls

wedding=Party!

This is confusing--do I write or post photos first? I can't get the writing to match up with the photos. however, I am determined to get some photos of my sister JJ's wedding to Zach(and Alex his son) It was a great weekend party at the Newell's! It was wonderful to meet Zach's family and to see so many friends and of course our awesome family that always supports us!!! Even aunt Dixie who has been very sick suprised us by showing up!(well it was supposed to be a suprise-way to go steve :) I must admit that it was a bit stressful as I made the wedding cake for them and it was a first. It wasn't perfect but it was gone so I was glad people enjoyed it. Now I will post more photos and I don't know where they will turn up.

Summer

This Labor Day it was PERFECT at the coast! Here we are enjoying the coast.

Next some friends helping Taylor look like a mermaid--Ben and Natalie were all covered up at one time.

In preparation for our aunt jj's wedding, the s dressedup and played wedding when some friends came over.

Natalie was up to her regular activity--getting into things.

Darren's new employer had a great employee picnic. They had booths that the s won these wonderful hats at(of course you can't have just one but each child must keep their own!)

camping

Although we didn't spend all of our time in the sand, we spent a lot of our time there and here are some shots of hiking up dinasaur. We had quite the group of kids and they were just great. I think that is one of the best things about camping--freedom!!! I remember it as a kid and I watch my kids as they relish their freedom and move around in packs or in twos as they play.

This is one of my favorite shots as Taylor carries Ben after the long hike .
The group at the top. What a view--that is the ocean.
Hannah and Emily showing off their splits in the sand
first hill to the top
Natalie, Tyler(screaming) and Aunt Jen at the fireside
playing in the road is so much fun

Memorial Day camping

In the following photos we are at the beach with friends and family. It was cloudy and the wind was COLD. Katelyn was the only one from our family that braved the ocean as she tried to skim board(I think that is what it is called)and by the end she was half wet. We dug holes, built a sand castle and explored caves. It is so nice to be at the ocean!

Jonas suprise

This video is self explanitory. Beth and Grandma bought tickets for the girls to go to the Jonas Brothers concert in Portland and we decided it would be fun to tell them since we were together. We had them sing a Jonas Brothers song and then told them they might sing it better if they heard them in person.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

memorial weekend

Ok so I have to remember to put things in backwards so that you see them in the right order. The photos are in backwards order but we started by walking to lake cleawox. It was like a parade --we walked, rode, and finally made it to the lake where we played in the sand/water, fished(more shots on Newell's blog), and canoed. Then we went to the ocean after lunch and naps. Here it was like an umberella of clouds that just hung there and boy was that wind cold--but NO rain!