Tire Blow Out Video

If you'd like to see how the girl's entertained themselves while the boys changed the tire - watch this! And yes it was windy!

Provo

We spent Monday and Tuesday in Provo.

After arriving Sunday evening we dropped all of Cali's stuff off at her apartment and then made a stop at Clark's to deliver his things.

Because Jim was also working while we were there we stayed at a hotel.

Monday we went to the bookstore and got Cali's books bought and then took her to the grocery store to stock her kitchen. She is excited to be living with three of her good friends and floormates from last year.

One of the highlights of a trip to Provo is a stop at Cafe Rio - yum!!

Monday was a big day.

Cali started her sophomore year at BYU!

Clark started his Senior year!

On Tuesday Clark took Tessa with him to his Personal Finance class. It was a big class of 300 people. During the class the teacher asked if there were any 16 year olds in the class - they were talking about how Ben Franklin figured out at the age 16 how much he had to save to be able to have the amount of money he would need when he retired to live on the rest of his life.

Clark pointed out to the teacher that his sister was 16 and the teacher directed his entire lecture right to Tessa! She even took notes!

Monday was also a big day for Logan - he started his first day of work!

Here he is looking all handsome by his new car!

He stayed with us at the hotel as he had moved out of his apartment. He is moving in with his buddies Lane and Mark into a townhouse that Mark bought but it wasn't ready yet.

One of the things we love most about going to Utah is getting to see all the Wilkes cousins!

Monday night Uncle David treated us all to dinner in honor of Jim's birthday. We ate at a yummy new place - Guru's.

We were able to see Addy who had fallen and broken her arm a few days ago.

Logan also brought his friend Jenesse to dinner so that we could meet her. I figured they were both pretty brave to bring her to a gathering of lots of Wilkes for her first introduction!

We loved meeting her and getting to know her a little. I even got permission to share a picture of the two of them here on the blog!

Jenesse is from Glendora, California and it ends up we have a mutual friend - one of my CM friends!

Tuesday, Tricia, Emily, Tessa and I made a trip to Tai Pan and then out to lunch. Tuesday we had dinner with all the kids at Brick Oven Pizza. Logan and Jenesse had been out boating on Utah Lake and the boat had broken down. We were glad they got towed in in time to join us for dinner.

We have left half of our family in Provo - we miss them already. Tessa is having to readjust to being the only child at home - she misses her siblings, especially her sister.

We arrived home safe and sound Tuesday night!

Provo Bound Road Trip

We got up early Sunday morning to start our 13 hour car trip to Provo.

The car was filled to the brim with Cali and Clark's college stuff and the five of us (me, Jim, Logan, Cali and Tessa)

I started out the trip stuck in the backseat right in the middle with not a whole lot of leg room. Tessa traded with me part way there - still in the back seat but a little more room!

The trip was fairly uneventful until we crossed over the Utah border from Idaho. I thought we were actually still in No Where Idaho but really once you leave the beauty of Oregon it all looks the same - flat, brown and barren!

Cali was driving - going almost 85 miles an hour. Please remember we were in Utah where you are allowed to drive 75 miles per hour on the freeway. The car began to shake, rattle and roll! Fortunately Cali was calm and got the car over to the side of the road without a problem.

Jim got out and looked around the car and didn't see anything so he got behind the wheel and pulled out again. The car started shaking immediately so he pulled over again. This time he looked under the car and saw that the back tire had blown out on the inside!

We have had the Suburban for 10 years and never had to use the spare so we weren't sure if it even had air in it or if it was full size. Fortunately for us it was full size and had air.

Because the car was full to the brim we had to unpack about half of it to access the spare tire.

Did I mention the wind was blowing about 100 mph (not really but it was blowing hard)!!

The girls got a little crazy while the boys were changing the tire!
Cali thought maybe we should hitchhike into town!

Wouldn't you stop for that sad face?!Our big strong men made quick work of changing the tire and we were on our way again within 30 minutes.The spare tire was a little low so we were only 8 miles from Snowville so we stopped there to fill it up with air! We arrived safely in Provo that evening!

CJ's Wedding

We decided to wait and drive to Provo at the last minute (the day before school started) so we could attend the wedding of one of our favorite people - CJ Reid.

CJ or Carolyn is the drama director at the high school and has been a very special person in our lives - especially Logan, Cali and Tessa.

She and Jackson (who we love) were married Saturday evening at Pennisula Park in North Portland.

The weather had been rather iffy Friday and Saturday during the day and since the wedding was outside we all were a little worried and said a few extra prayers. But the weather gods were listening and it ended up being a beautiful evening!

The bride was beautiful and the groom so handsome! It was so tender to see Jackson's eyes fill with tears as CJ walked down the aisle!

The reception was held at the Arcadia Ballroom in North Portland - a beautiful venue. The food was yummy too!

Many of CJ's former students were at the wedding. It was fun to see so many kids that Logan and Cali had gone to school with. Only former students were invited so Tessa was the only current student invited - she felt pretty special!

All of the students sang Seasons of Love at the reception.

I tried to get a cute picture of the kids all dressed up for the wedding and this is what I got....

Finally, I got a decent one....

Cali wore the cute dress we found at Anthropologie - Someone had just returned it. The dress was originally $250.00 and was marked down to $50.00.

The vintage pink crinoline we had bought at the Barn House looked so cute under the dress.

Congratulations CJ and Jackson!!

Fun Week - Home Together!

We have enjoyed having the two boys home this week - even if all of us were only home together for two days.

After we picked up Logan from the airport on Tuesday we tried a fun new place in SE Portland - the Waffle Window. It is just that a window that serves waffles. But these are not ordinary waffles - they are amazing waffles. You can see more photos of it on my new blog - www.homebasedportland.com

We had such a hard deciding which ones to order that the three of us ordered 4 different ones!

We enjoyed it so much we decided we needed to stop again - this time was Friday on the way to drop Clark off at the airport on his way back to Provo.

We picked Clark up Tuesday night from the airport. Jim was in Seattle on business Tuesday and Wednesday.

Wednesday the whole family spent the day in Seattle.

Thursday was high school registration for Tessa and driver's ed. We then had a family picture taken - I figured it was the last time all of us would be home together until Christmas since we are planning on going to Utah for Thanksgiving so I needed to take advantage of everyone being home!

Friday, Clark returned to Provo and we worked on getting Cali packed up to head back too.

Saturday Jim worked around the house and Logan, the girls and I headed down to Saturday's Market. Logan wanted to get some photographs of Portland to hang in his new office. He got some great ones - one of the Made In Oregon sign since he was made in Oregon, one of Multnomah Falls, the Gorge and Mt. Hood. I had given him a framed picture of Cannon Beach as a congratulations on your first job present so his Oregon roots will be well represented in his new office.!

We of course had to enjoy some yummy market fare while we were there. All of us chose gyros - yum

Cali's friend Brittany joined us at Saturday's Market

A fun week with the family!