Really long post....

Darci and I went to Oregon to visit for a week. Merrill came for the weekend and we all went to the Oregon State Fair. We did lots of stuff, it was fun.

Grandma reading to her grandkids

Darci and Wyatt eating breakfast. Wyatt slept over at grandma's. These two are best friends, as long as Wyatt doesn't get in Darci's face too much.

At the fair in the little petting zoo. The goats were running around chasing each other and running into the other animals and people, including me in the pic above.

Video of Darci in the petting zoo thing. Those goats where all over the place. One came pretty close to running into Darci, and another tried to eat my coat.

Wyatt riding the track. He is so good. Everyone comments at how impressed they are that he rides the track so well at only age 2.

Darci on Wyatt's run bike

Yummy ice cream

It was her first ice cream cone, she loved it

They love the carousel!

Grandma made this little house for the kids

This was the house before she put the wrapping paper over it, and Wyatt wanted her to come inside with him. Silly Grandma ;)

Roasting marshmallows in Grandma and Grandpas fire pit.

Little Easton, isn't he just the cutest!

Sorry this pic is blurry, but I thought it was cute.

So worn out from her week at Grandma's, she fell asleep while eating lunch.

Playing the recorder. She got it on the first try.

Riding the little motorcycle with Grandpa, so fun!

These next pics are at the Gilbert House, Discovery Village, a little children's museum in Salem.

This room was set up like a store, they had little baskets and shopping carts for the kids to walk around and "shop" there was a little cash register too, it was cute. they have fun picking out their food. Darci picked out: a Banana, carrot, apple, strawberry, bread, canned corn and peas, and some salt.

This was a big "stomach" that the kids could crawl in and play with the little balls. Darci did not want to get out, I had to crawl in there and drag her out.

The jungle room

The dinosaur slide

The shadow room. There was this big screen, and a little light projector thing that shined on you and displayed your shadow outlined in color. Way cool

Huge rocking Chair

Darci loved the swings

This stuff was in the back of the museum. Such an awesome play area! It was huge!

This thing was cool, it was like a maze with steps and ladders going everywhere, and 3 tube slides, one started at the top, it was intense and Darci and Wyatt loved it.

Wyatt "catching" Me and Darci coming out of the slide.

They loved this car thing

Mommy's little helper

Lately Darci is always trying to copy the things we do. So when I am cleaning or doing laundry she is right there with me "helping". Last night after I did the dishes and ran the dishwasher, I opened the dishwasher to get a cup. And inside was one of Darci's toys. Too cute!

She kept wrapping the towels around her.

She climbs on the dishwasher and pulls the dishes out, sometimes she hands them to me.

Every time I get out the swiffer, she has to have it, so I shortened it and she is now the designated swiffer sweeper.

Other videos:



She keeps wanting to drink from my cup, but she hasn't figured out how to drink from a straw yet. But the other day she learned how to blow in the straw to make bubbles. Now every time she sees my cup she wants it so that she can blow bubbles.


She has mastered climbing on to the couch. I have no idea how she learned to do it this way. She pushes with her feet against one couch and pulls her self up from the other couch onto the table. Crazy girl.

another post below

Anniversary weekend!

On the 17th was our 3 year Anniversary! We were able to celebrate by driving down to Oregon, my mom watched Darci for a couple days (Thanks Mom) and Merrill and I went to the Oregon Coast. We drove threw Tillamook, and stopped at the cheese factory (of course). We got some squeaky cheese (which Merrill ate all of it, I got one), and some Marionberry Cheesecake fudge. And we also got some ice cream, YUMMY! Then we went to Lincoln City were we stayed in a beach house owned by friends of my parents, Thank You Petersons!!
First thing we did when we got there was go to Mo's, for a late lunch. Usually a great place to eat at the beach.... Not this time, I got sick. The food was good, but as soon as we left I got a stomach ache, so we went to get me some meds, and went to the house, and there I stayed on the couch the rest of the day. Then the next day the beach was foggy and cold. we still had fun, it was just good to get away and relax. I only got a couple pictures of the water and such.

really big bear kite thing

You can see the fog over the water. It was like that everywhere, you couldn't see anything.

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Before we went to the beach we hung out with my family for a day. Merrill went golfing with my dad. And My mom, Capri and I took the kids to Enchanted Forest (a place we liked to go to as kids). Wyatt and Darci had a lot of fun.

Isn't that just the cutest picture. Looking in the little cottage. I can't remember what was in it, I think just some dressed up animals.

Grandma took them through the rabbit hole (its supposed to be from Alice and wonderland)

Darci coming through the last part of the Rabbit hole, it was a little down hill and she came running down and fell just before she got to me. Don't worry, she was fine.

The end of the rabbit hole.

Humpty Dumpty's wall!

Going in the witches mouth, Wyatt did not like that.

This is the crooked house (There was a crooked man...... And they all lived together in a little crooked house)

I think we got some more pictures that are on Capri's camera.
There was the big slide in the shoe (There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children, she didn't know what to do......)

And Lots of other little things revolving around nursery rhymes.

Swimming at Grandma's to cool off after.

Family Reunion

Last weekend we had a Family Reunion, on my Dad's side, all his brothers and sisters and their families, and my Grandma Bird. It was at this place called Ensign Ranch in Washington off I-90, it's another one of those LDS owned camps. I didn't take a lot of pictures, just got some from one day, which we did a lot that day. It started out with a 7:00 tee time. There were supposed to be quite a few of us golfing, but it ended up being just me, and my parents, my uncle Blake, and My cousins Shelby and Travis. It was a hard course, but very pretty. Lots of hills and trees.

My dad (can't remember which hole this was). We all had great hits of the tee, Mom got par, I got a double bogey, which was good compared to the rest of the holes.

There was this slip n' slide/water slide thing that they had made for the camp, its just a big hill with plastic over it and water spraying on it. We headed over there after golf, its right next to the lodge basically, but Darci was so tired, she fell asleep while we were walking to it. So we set her up a little shaded spot to sleep...

I woke her up to go down the slide, but she never really fully woke up.

All the guys getting ready to go down in a line to "sling shot" someone.

This is the sling shot. They all hook together and then let go of the last guy and he shoots down the slide.

Darci finally woke up enough that she had fun going down the slide. We took her down a few times before and she just sat the with her "half asleep look". But before lunch we got her to smile when we took her down. YAY!!

Darci on Wyatt's run bike

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A bunch of us decided to float the river. Merrill parked his truck a couple miles down the river. There were 13 of us that went, plus Darci and Wyatt. Randy and Wyatt were in a little raft and the rest of us in tubes. Darci liked it for the first couple minutes, she sat on my lap looking around. But she was super tired, so she started to get a little fussy, and then after a few minutes more she fell asleep. She was asleep pretty much the whole time, but woke up and got super fussy after a while, so we switched with Randy and Wyatt and got in the raft and Merrill got in also to help paddle. Even with Darci, it was a great time!

My nephew Wyatt fell asleep standing with his head on the chair while we all ate dinner after the super long fun day!

Darci's first camping trip

We went on our first camping trip of the year this past weekend. And it was Darci's first camping trip ever. I was a little worried how she was going to be cause she has been teething and real fussy, and has NOT been sleeping well. And to my surprise she did GREAT! And she loved it! She didn't want to go to sleep but she never cried the whole time, even when she fell on her face in the bark.
We went to this place called Cascade Park. Its owned by the LDS church and is very family friendly. We camped in the grass, so it was a great place for Darci to run around. And there was a couple little playgrounds and a zip-line and a little river. We went with 4 other couples that also had little kids. It was a lot of fun. Here are some pics and videos.

Sittin' in her little chair by the campfire eating her gold fish crackers.

Merrill finishing off the cobbler (which was sooo yummy, it was our first time using our dutch oven, we made a blackberry/raspberry/boysenberry cobbler, YUM)

Running around, eating snacks, and helping set up the tent.

OK, here is a video that is hilarious. Although if you are Grandma Calder you will not think it is so funny. Watch what happens at the end. Everyone there could not stop laughing. And just so you know before you watch it, she did not get hurt, she didn't cry or anything, she is one tough little girl.....

She loves the slide, Merrill had let her go down by herself before and she just dropped down the end on her bum, but this time her foot caught before she could get to her bum.

There was this little sand area block off right next to the water. I set Darci down in it with the other kids and she had a blast. They dug a hole and got to some water and Darci splashed around and got sand everywhere. It was so fun to watch her. Then Merrill just dunked her in the water to clean her off.

Here is a video of her splashing in the little hole. she got soaked on her front from splashing. And her bum was soaked and cover in sand.



When we were all done in the sand it was around 3 and she had not taken a nap, so we got her all cleaned up and put her in the tent, and she was out..

We had such a fun weekend, and we are going camping again this next weekend (in lodges and campers) for a family reunion and we are excited. Especially now that we know how much Darci likes it all. YAY!!!