This has been a fun and busy week having Logan home.

Tuesday evening. Jim, Logan and I went to the temple. Clark was too tired from working and he had Logan had gone golfing in the afternoon so he stayed home and went to bed since he had to get up at 3:30 a.m. the next morning.

This was a big dance week for Tessa - she had ballet Tuesday through Saturday with four performances. She is one tired girl!

Wednesday night was the end of the year choir concert. The Women's Chorus last number was 'I Like Being a Girl".

We all went but Clark snuck out after Tessa's choir sang. It is tradition that the last song of the last concert of the year is Irish Blessing - all alumni in attendance are invited to participate.

It was fun to see the 3 kids up there on stage singing together.

On Thursday it was a nice sunny day and Logan turned on the TV to see that all three main channels had stopped programming and were running a severe weather warning. There was a big wind/thunder/possible tornado storm coming our way. We looked outside and saw the sunshine and laughed. Within five minutes the storm moved in and we had major winds.

The winds were so hard they lifted the umbrella up out of our patio table and brought it crashing town - totally crushing the glass tabletop.

It was quite a mess to clean up. The storm only lasted 30 minutes or so but it sure made a mess! Guess we'll believe them next time!

Thursday morning Logan and I took a little trip down to the NW 23rd area and the Pearl. We had lunch at our favorite pizza place - Escape from NY Pizza - yum!!

We then went in search of the best cupcake in Portland - we visted 3 cupcake bakeries in Portland. I am going to do a fun post on the bakeries on http://www.yourhomebasedmom.com/ so you will have to check it out there in a few days.

We found some fun and unusual cupcakes. The lavender lime were my least favorite - they tasted like we just bit into a bunch of lavender! But the Blueberry and Cream was yummy as were all of the others. We discovered that the little cupcake bakery just a few blocks from our house was as good as the fancier ones downtown in the Pearl area!

Cupcakes Jones down in the Pearl had the most unique flavors - S'mores with homemade marshmallow and graham cracker on top, creme brulee with some carmelized sugar on top and a few other fun ones!

We brought them all home and then had a taste testing party - this is all that was left!

Thursday evening we all went to Tessa's ballet recital. - will post pictures and videos of that in another post.

Friday Jim and Logan headed up to Seattle where Jim had an appointment and then they went to a Mariner's game - arriving home at 2 a.m. Tessa had another ballet performance and Cali worked and went to a friend's birthday party.

Saturday was such a busy day it deserves its own blog post - stay tuned!

Logan goes back to Provo tomorrow and I am already missing him.

It's Always Better When We're Together

I love that Jack Johnson song...."It's Always Better When We're Together"

That has been my theme song this last week with all the kids home. I love having to fix twice as much food as usual!

We invited Grandma and Grandpa Best over for Sunday dinner - it's always better when we're together!

Fortunately for the rest of us Logan didn't take all the food! Per his request we had Flank Steak, herb roasted potatoes, asparagus, salad and Cali made rolls! Dinner was a Lemon Truffle Pie - yum!

There are always some fun and silly faces when I pull the camera out....But we eventually got a good one...

And then Tessa had to make sure that Jim's hair looked good for the photo...

And she saw a few hairs that were out of place - needed a closer look.

Let me see if I can't fix that for you....

There - that's better! What would we do without Tessa!

Tessa does Pot

Last week when Jim returned home from a business trip I had to inform him that Tessa had done pot - and she had done it with the help from our neighbor! You should have seen the look on his face.

I very quickly told him that it was actually a Neti Pot! No worries

Tessa was having lots of sinus/allergies problems so we decided to try the Neti Pot - our neighbor swears by it! We had to go next door so Kaitie could show Tessa how to do it.

She was a little scared at first!

For those of you unfamiliar with how a Neti pot works - it looks like a little tea pot. You just lay the spout of the pot inside your nostril.

Then you just tip your head to the side and the pot and viola! Water with a little salt added is now running out the other nostril!

Tessa got it to work. Her first experience with Pot was successful!! Makes a mother proud!

It is suppose to be great for keeping your sinus' cleared out. The doctor recommended that Tessa do it daily to keep her sinus' clear.

The next day she tried it again but she was so swollen and congested she couldn't get the water to come out the other side. Off to the doctor for a prescription to get the swelling down!

Eagle Creek Hike

We are enjoying another Perfect Portland Weekend. Not only is the weather perfect but what makes it even more perfect is that our whole family is home!

Logan arrived home Thursday night with Jim who had been in Salt Lake on business. Life around our house is always just a little louder and a little more exciting when Logan is home.

Friday the boys and I made a trip to the AAA store to get some maps, electric converters etc. for Clark and his European adventure. We also went to the Columbia Employee Store where Clark got a great new backpack for his two week backpacking through Europe adventure and a couple of pairs of lightweight, quick drying shorts.

Saturday we decided to head out to the Gorge again for another hike. This time we went to Eagle Creek which is a beautiful and MUCH easier hike than last week's hike to Dog Mountain!

Clark was working and Tessa had an all day ballet rehearsal so just Jim, Logan, Cali and I went.

The hike has incline but nothing compared to last week.

Quite a bit of the hike is narrow and along the edge of a cliff. Fortunately they have put in metal wire handrails to hold onto!

There are several beautiful waterfalls along the way.

And a few places where you actually cross over water.

The path got quite rocky in parts.

About 4.5 miles up we stopped for lunch. Logan had packed us a nice lunch.

We were tired and ready to turn around and head back down when talking to another hiker we realized Tunnel Falls was just about another 1.7 miles up a head. We figured we were so close we needed to go see it as we had never hiked this far up before.

Although it added almost 4 more miles to the hike round trip we were glad we went!

Tunnel Falls is aptly named because there is a tunnel that goes behind the falls.

We ran into a group of Scouts from our ward who were also hiking. They were a mile or two behind us. When we saw them at church today they told us they had seen a BEAR on the way down - yes a real live BEAR had crossed the path right in front of them!

So glad we weren't hiking with them!!

We were pretty hot and tired by the time we made it back to the car - it was a 12 mile round trip hike. We were ready for some cool refreshment so we headed down the road to Cascade Locks to a little drive in - Logan wanted ice cream.

He ordered a large cone - the thing was HUGE!! I am so glad I got a small!!

He ate the whole thing too!!