Oregon

I realize we're comin' up on our month mark since leaving Oregon, and this post is completely random and a little difficult to follow, but I had to blog about our last week there anyway...

Lemme just start by saying that we LOVED Oregon. It was such a phenomenal place for us to be during Optometry School. There were TONS of things for us to do, gazillions of incredible people, and (minus the gloomy 7-9 months of rain) the landscape was (and is) to DIE for. Miss those moderate temperatures and all the green.

Anyway, we tried desperately those last couple weeks to squeeze as much fun into our schedule as possible. We had a list of places to go and people to see and I think we managed to get all those important things fit in. We made it a priority to hit up the Portland Temple grounds one last time with the kids...

we just sorta forgot that it was the last day of it's annual deep clean when we went...oh well. We didn't get to walk around the grounds, but we did get to see some dude scale the temple wall. Pretty cool.

Love that temple.

I stole this collage from my friend's blog. Her daughter, Reagan and my Carter were BUDDIES. Carter doesn't connect with many other kids...he's just not very social. But he sure loved this little lady. They were pals and it broke my heart to separate them.
Don't worry though, Reagan's mother happens to be one of my closest friends (a kindred spirit if I've ever met one) and so they WILL see each other again...it just won't be on a daily basis...which, frankly, is lame.
Those last couple of weeks though, we crammed in as much fun as possible with their family;
splash park & aquatic center, picnics, Out-of-this-world Pizza, water balloon fights, walks to the park, and, of course, the beach.
Here they are all loaded up in the Skinner's van. AWESOME!
Kristina is crazy strong and pulled all 6 kids to and from the beach...just kidding. But she did give them a ride from the top of the trail to the van after we spent ALL DAY lounging in the sand.

Carter and Reagan on the wagon.

And Jefferson & Jemma swimming in the river that goes down through the beach. (I think Jefferson was retrieving his shoe here.)

I think saying "goodbye" is the WORST part of moving...I'm sure that's how most feel...Jemma was not real happy about leaving all of her friends...here she is with Michelle, her bike riding buddy. Michelle actually helped Jemma gain some confidence on her own bike by teaching her to ride in circles. They went for one last bike ride the day before we left and I had to snap a picture of them. No, that's not Jemma's bike. That's Michelle's. ;)

Brandon's dad came up to drive the moving van for us. Don't know that I would have survived the drive if he hadn't...seriously. I don't do long car rides...I get WAY too groggy. So, thanks for coming Mike! And for putting up with the DiSaStEr we were living in the last few days.

Speaking of disaster...there I am...right in the middle of it.

Here's what got me through the insanity of moving:

And the extra insanity that came when Carter ended up with Strep Throat 2 days before we were pulling out. Poor kid.

kay.

Back to goodbyes. I HATE them. And I don't know that there has ever been a harder goodbye for me to say than this one.

I realize we'll always stay in touch and definitely see each other again, but I also realize that we probably won't ever be next door neighbors again. I miss you BIG time Kristina!

We spent our last night at our favorite park eating Baja Fresh and watching the kids play.

Thanks Oregon for 3 wonderful years!