Aria's Baptism

After we left Provo my Mom and I drove the kids down to Portland to attend Aria's baptism.  It was a great few days playing with cousins and celebrating Aria's decision to be baptized.

 
 We got there a couple of days before the baptism so we could play around together.  One day we went to this really pretty beach.  I wish I could remember the name but it was somewhere just outside of Portland.  The weather was perfect and they had a beach as well as a big splash park, playground, and gardens.  The kids had a great time playing in the water.

After the beach we went to the spaghetti factory to celebrate Aria's birthday.  They had a balloon guy come around and make balloon animals for the kids. Nathan got a sword and sheath.  He was quite talented.

Beckett was a big fan of his balloon robot but nothing topped his very own cup of lemonade!

Marianne's friend is a photographer so we got some really beautiful pictures of Aria's special day.  

Aria's baptism was such a special day. We were so glad we got to be there for her.  The kids and I got to sing with Aria's other cousins and Nana and Marianne both gave wonderful talks.  Nana made an amazing baptism quilt for Aria that I wanted to steal.  I can't wait for Rylynn's baptism to see her quilt!

We are so proud of Aria and love her so much!

The day after the baptism Nana flew home to the cabin.  After church we went to a beautiful park with gardens and ponds.  The kids loved the frog/fish pond.  Rylynn brought a net so she could be fully prepared to catch a frog:)  The flowers were beautiful and along one of the paths we saw a giant banana slug.  Rylynn was so grossed out and tried to kill it but Marianne quickly explained that in Oregon they like banana slugs.  I had to laugh because it was such an Oregonian thing to say.

We stayed until it got dark and we had to drag the kids to the car.  I love being surrounded by God's beautiful creations on the Sabbath.

Oregon was the last stop on our month long trip.  As we headed home to the unknown I felt a mix of relief to have our family back together and to be back in our own town with our own things but we still had no place to live.  I was completely shocked that Garret wasn't able to secure a rental for us while we were gone but I knew something would work out.  The day after we got home we went and walked through a rental house right by Rylynn's elementary school.  As soon as we left we started preparing the application.  I called the management company to ask a question and was informed that they had just received an application on that property.  Seriously!  That house had been sitting there for like 3 weeks and no one had applied and then the day we apply someone barely beat us.  At that point we were staying with Garrett's cousin and then we moved over to our friend's house who were out of town for a week.  After staying at friend's houses for two weeks and nothing was working out with rental houses I decided to just get an apartment(Garrett was gone for a week with the YM on high adventure).  I was not thrilled about the idea but it was an immediate solution and at that point I had been living out of a suitcase with my kids and moving from one house to the next for 6 weeks straight!  The week before I signed up for the apt Garrett got an interview with a firm that he had wanted to work for straight out of law school but the interview wasn't going to be for another three weeks.  We were completely in limbo...