Airhart Reunion: Cannon Beach

On Monday morning, we woke up early (normal for us) to drive out to Cannon Beach. We stopped at the gas station by our house. It was so old school with full-service and everything (I later found out from my dad that all gas stations are that way in Oregon because apparently it is illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon. Weird.). 

The drive out there was beautiful and our girls were amazing this whole week at driving in the car.

We had to go down a series of stairs to get to the beach because the coast in Oregon is so steep.

We finally made it to Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock

Our cute girls.

Cambry was so excited to be at the beach despite the 60-degree weather. She just ran all over the place. She is definitely our beach babe.

Airhart Reunion: Sunday

Sunday, we were still on Eastern time, so we took another early morning walk in the orchard.

29 weeks!

We went to sacrament. Then we just took it easy and loafed around the house on Sunday. I don't know how many times in the trip that we would find Vienna in random places watching "Dora" on the tablet. One time, Hadley came up to Joslyn and said that Vienna wanted to watch the Dora on the tablet. Hadley wasn't familiar with out tablet and didn't know how to get it on. So, Joslyn told Hadley to give it to Vienna and she could put it on. Hadley was astonished when Vienna had a Dora up and playing in 10 seconds. That girl is dangerous with technology.

They had a sweet playhouse and some swings in the backyard that the kids loved. At first, the girls wouldn't go down the slide without help, but with Browen and Crosby's help the girls gathered the courage and learned to go down by themselves. Cousins are great.

We tie-dyed our reunion shirts in the evening in the rain.

Airhart Reunion: Riverfront Park

We had a blast on the Columbia River beach. We met up with our friends from BYU, the Goodriches.  It was great to catch up with them. We haven't seen them in almost 3 years! We realized too late that we didn't get a pic with all of us together.

Here's Cambry and James splashing around and building sand castles.

Devin found this log, and he and the girls took a little ride on it. Despite all their faces, they really did enjoy it. 

Devin decided he wanted to attempt to surf it...

Nailed it! Sunk it!

Sam tried too

Cambry was too scared, but Veena successfully surfed the log and kept it afloat. Thanks Dad!

Cambry with Grandma Beck sporting last year's t-shirts.

Airhart Reunion: Farmers Market and Rainbow House

While staying at Beverly's Orchard Estate, we spent lots of time exploring the beautiful orchards in the early morning. Since our biological clocks were on Eastern Time and everyone else's were 2 hours later, we had lots of time before the rest of the crew woke up to soak in the majestic surroundings.

Vienna's daily morning battle: go inside where its warm, or freeze on the swing. She picked the swing. Look, she won't even touch the swing. We're not used to anything below 80 degrees!!!

Cambry dancing with Dad by the loud music at the farmers' market. 

We picked up some absolutely delicious cherries!! YUM

Cambry and Hadley love rainbows, so we all ventured over to this cool rainbow house.  

The house, cars, and gardens were so vibrant and fun.

Airhart Reunion: Travel to Hood River

After we finished packing up our house and saying our goodbyes, we got early to fly out to Portland. It was amazingly smooth considering that we all were sleep deprived. There was only one big meltdown where Cambry and Vienna were unconsolable, but I put on a Dora and fell asleep and woke up to Vienna fast asleep underneath her sleeping sister both of them squished up against me. It was the most precious and uncomfortable looking sleeping arrangement. Here's a pic of Vienna after I adjusted the girls a bit.

We picked up all of our bags (4 bags, 2 backpacks and 2 car seats -- so glad they all made it!), tethered them all together and made our way through the maze of an airport and out to rental car place with a circus train of luggage in tow. We were probably quite the sight, but we made out there fairly easily. We then packed all of our stuff into a Toyota Corrolla. It all fit perfectly to the astonishment of rental car receptionist.

We then drove up the beautiful Colombia Gorge to Hood River.

The place that we were staying at was a few miles out of town. So we drove through this mountain valley full of orchards and vineyards. It was beautiful.

We pulled up to this gem: Beverly's Orchard Estate. This was base camp for the week. It was nestled right in a pear orchard.

This was the view from the backyard...

...and from our bedroom window.

It was so great to hug and chat with family that we hadn't seen for several months as they each pulled in. We finally got to meet Gwenyth and Hagen for the first time. We took it easy for the night and hung out in the backyard.  To be honest, I don't remember much that happened because I was so tired and in bed by 8:30.

Good Bye Carolina!!

The last few days before we left for vacation/move, the girls had to get really good at taking care of themselves. I looked out the back window to see Cambry and Vienna eating some popcorn and drinking some water. How they got all that up there, I'll never know.

Usually, I catch the girls and give them hugs at the bottom of the slide, but with their parents preoccupied with packing they caught and hugged each other.

Part of the moving crew that came to help us load up the trailer: Aaron (Anderson), Aaron (Syrett), John, Charlie, Skip and Matt. We were seriously taken such good care of in this ward.

It was so hot and sweaty in that trailer. Mark, David, Eric (not pictured), and Devin tetris-ed all our belongings into a 8'x9'x10' block. There is something humbling about seeing all your belongings packed up into such a small space.

Speaking of how good a ward took care of us, this woman, Sister Bray, let us stay in her house for our second to last day in NC after we packed up all our stuff. She fed us and let us our kids play with her toys and in her backyard, and sleep in her beds. She was so generous to us.

She has the sweetest setup for our kids, complete with a loft and a slide.

Our last night in NC, we stayed with our good friends, the Meyers. They treated us to our favorite pizza place, Mellow Mushroom. Those aren't in Utah and it is our favorite restaurant. It was a perfect last dinner in NC.

Our kids were a big mess afterwards. So we threw them all into the bathtub.

We spent the rest of the night chatting as late as we could. We are really going to miss those guys and all the other wonderful people that we met out in NC.