This Beautiful Place We Call Home

I love where we live. From the redwoods to the bay to the ocean...we just have a little bit of everything. I feel so lucky to live in this beautiful place. We've gone exploring a few times during the last month and had a lot of fun exploring new places and revisiting old favorites.

On Memorial Day we went on a hike with friends in Huddart Park. It was a beautiful hike through the redwoods, despite the heat...my goodness it was hot that day! All the kids were troopers and we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately Ellie brought a tick home, which was quite possibly one of the most disgusting and disturbing things I've dealt with in my 8 years of parenthood. 

One Sunday last month after church we went on a walk along the bay. We used to do this often, but hadn't been in quite awhile. The kids love exploring, and finding rocks, sea shells, and little creatures. As a bonus we can also watch the airplanes taking off and landing on the airstrip in the bay. 

A couple weeks ago we took advantage of a very rare free Saturday and drove to one of our very favorite places here, Pescadero. We went to the tide pools first, and even though the tide wasn't very low we were able to find lots of little sea creatures. 

Lots and lots of little crabs!

Matthew was so excited to find this baby starfish that was still alive

Jon found this huge crab. It quickly ran up his arm and onto his sweatshirt. He wasn't going anywhere!

I love this place so much!

After exploring for awhile we went into the town of Pescadero for some dinner at a little restaurant (amazing pizza!) and to get a loaf of our favorite artichoke bread from the general store. It was a pretty perfect day in a pretty perfect place. 

Photo dump from the last couple of months

 Love this sweet face and her fuzzy hair :)

 Easter Sunday...not our finest picture day, but hey, they're all in it!

Easter at Grandma and Grandpa Farrell's house with cousins

 This girl loves food. Watermelon is definitely one of her favorites!

 This face again...and those arms!

 7 month pictures. She was tired and weirded out by the grass, so she looks very serious.

 Did you know you can stand on eggs and they won't break!? I was impressed! (but I wasn't brave enough to try it myself)

 Matthew and Emma got to go to Bring Your Kid to Work Day at Dreamworks on Matthew's birthday. The theme was dragon trainer's camp, to celebrate How to Train Your Dragon 2, which comes out this month. They had a blast! The little girls and I picked them up at lunch so we could celebrate his birthday with friends in the afternoon.

 Miss Ellie cut her hair AGAIN. We made it through two kids who never touched their hair with scissors. I think she's making up for it. The top is SUPER short...like chunks of hair that are maybe an inch long. But I was able to blend lots of layers in and I think it looks super cute now. 

 I love this! I went to a neighbor's yard sale and got 25-30 books for $5. The kids spent hours reading through them. Best $5 I've ever spent at a yard sale!

 Blurry phone picture, but it just kills me!

 Just practicing

 Hand foot mouth disease made the rounds at our house last week. Thankfully it was a very mild version. This was the day she had the fever...I don't know that she's ever slept so much in her entire life!

My Costco helpers

Mother's Day

 Last Sunday we walked along the bay in the afternoon. It was a gorgeous day and the perfect way to pass the afternoon. The kids found lots of crabs, shells, rocks, and other "treasures". :)  

 The kids' school has a Discovery Day every year where they get to go to 3 mini classes. I volunteered to lead a group where they made crafts out of recyclable materials. It was a little crazy, but fun. Emma was in one of my groups, and she also got to learn to make flower leis. 

 These pictures are from tonight. Jon and the kids had a backyard campout, complete with hot dog and marshmallow roasting around the fire and sleeping in the tent. This is his third weekend in a row sleeping in a tent (the joys of being a scoutmaster!). He's such a good dad!

Spring Break in Portland

We decided, kind of on a whim, to head up to Portland during the kids' Spring Break this year. It was a whirlwind trip and we were completely exhausted by the end, but I am so glad we went. 

It took us about 12 hours, including 3 stops for eating, bathroom, and running around. I don't know that Alyssa would have lasted much longer. The kids all did really great the whole time, but Alyssa was just done the last 1/2 hour. 

We stayed with some new friends, the Zundels. It was a nonstop party! 9 kids all under 11...they had a blast! 

Their older kids had school the first day we were there, so we went to Pump it Up in the morning and then the kids swam in the hot tub and played hard the rest of the day.

The next day we headed into Portland and rode a tram up a small mountain...lots of gorgeous views of the area and a fun way to pass the morning.

After the tram, we went to Voodoo Donuts and got our fill of crazy flavored doughnuts...Fruit Loop, oreo peanut butter, Cocoa Puff, strawberry lemonade, and maple bacon. Talk about a sugar rush!

After lunch that day we took the older kids swimming while the younger kids napped/watched movies. We finished up the day with homemade pizza and the most amazing milkshakes. The kids got to sleep in this massive fort together and were basically in heaven.

While we were there we all tried out the Oculus Rift. The demo is a roller coaster ride and it was one heck of a ride! It felt so real that none of us could stay standing while we were wearing the Oculus Rift. Emma loved it. Poor Matthew was terrified!

SIX!

Somehow another year has gone by and our little Buddy is six years old! He is such a tiny little guy that it's hard to believe he could be that old. But, what he lacks in size he more than makes up for with his personality. He is such an expressive boy. When he is happy, he is really happy. But if you make him mad, watch out! :)  He is usually really happy. He is the kid in class that everybody wants to be friends with. His teacher adores him and is always telling me how cute and funny he is. He is overflowing with personality and it really is hilarious.

Like most kids, Matthew hates homework, and that really has been our biggest frustration this year...so I guess I can't complain. He loves school and is doing really well, but I think he just wants to leave school at school. He is one of the top readers in his class. I was SHOCKED to hear this because for the first several months of school he refused to read at home. But he's way ahead of the game.

Matthew's current obsession is Pokemon. It is still mind boggling to me that this was ever popular, and even more mind boggling that it's made a comeback. But it's the thing these days, and he and Emma have joined the ranks of Pokemon fans.

Matthew is such a great brother to his sisters. I think he actually likes having all sisters. He has such special and unique relationships with each of them. He really looks up to Emma, and though they can really fight, they are also the best of friends. I STILL can't get them to not share a room. They just want to be with each other. Matthew and Ellie seem a lot closer in age than they are...probably because she is almost his same size! She loves being included in things that he does, and I think he likes playing with her because she will do pretty much anything he wants to do. However, she also has a very strong personality and is not afraid to put him in his place! He is really great at helping her with things and is such a great big brother. He is also really great with Alyssa. He loves making silly faces and using silly voices to get her to laugh and smile. And he loves to show her off to anyone and everyone and to tell them how cute she is. I love it.

This year, I'm hoping to keep birthdays simple and easy and I think we succeeded with Matthew's birthday. We were able to spend this last weekend with Jon's family. I made a peanut butter pie and we had it for Mother's Day/Matthew's birthday with them on Sunday.

On his actual birthday, we had doughnuts for breakfast (his request) and then he and Emma got to skip school and go to Dreamworks' bring your kid to work day. The kids have to be 6 to go, so it worked out perfectly that they planned it on his 6th birthday. He was SO excited! They spent the morning at Dragon Trainer's Camp and did all sorts of fun activities. I picked them up at lunch and we headed home to get ready for his birthday play date. In keeping things simple, but still wanting him to be able to celebrate, we invited a few friends over to play in the sprinkler and eat popsicles. His birthday happened to be on the hottest day of a nasty heat wave so it was a good way to pass the afternoon. We finished the day off with his requested dinner of cold cereal and smoothies, which was perfect, considering the weather.

We are so grateful to have our little Buddy (even though he doesn't want us to call him Buddy anymore...ha!). He is such a fun and crazy kid. We sure love him!

Pokemon cards from Grandma and Grandpa Farrell

The most amazing peanut butter pie!

Safeway donuts...we go all out at our house!

He loved his birthday card and stickers from Grandma Lorraine.

I love their expressions here. He got his very own Pokemon trainer kit. Birthday made!

And Emma's face here is priceless. She was trying so hard to be happy for him, but was obviously jealous. It's hard having to wait 7 weeks for her own birthday!

Sprinkler fun

Trenton, Chase, Ekke, Matthew, and August. He's got some great friends!

Ekke gave him a bubble gun and the kids all had a blast with it.

Six Year Birthday Interview

What is your full name?  Matthew Farrell

How old are you?  Five  You’re five? Are you sure? Oh, I’m six.

What's your favorite color?  Red

Who's your best friend?  Tommy

What's your favorite animal?  Cheetah

What do you want to be when you grow up?  Artist

What's your favorite movie?  The Lego Movie

What are some of your favorite books? Ummmm...I don’t have any favorite books. Oh, Pokemon books.

What makes you happy?  Alyssa!

What makes you sad?  Someone just snatching a toy from me that was my favorite toy and I wasn’t done playing with it.

What's your favorite food?  Toast with peanut butter

What's your favorite song?  The Happy Song (from Despicable Me 2)

What games do you like to play? Monopoly Jr Party

What's your favorite toy?  Pokemon kit

Change

Where do I begin? Life is funny sometimes. Just when you start to get comfortable, something comes along to stir things up and get you out of your comfort zone again. The last several months have been full of potential change and lots of uncertainty. We are not at all where we thought we would be right now and we are headed in a direction that a few short months ago we never would have imagined we would be headed.

Last fall, we really started feeling like change was coming. We did have a baby, so there was definitely a lot of change and adjustment with that, but we felt that there was more. Over time we felt several promptings to be prepared. For what? We had no idea! We definitely felt like the time was quickly approaching for us to move out of the house we are renting. We had no plans to leave Jon's job, so we started looking at other cities around us. In the meantime we started preparing to move. Without even trying, we found a new home for our chickens. Then we got the yard put back together, and we did some major dejunking and deep cleaning in our house. It's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate in just four years!

In January, Jon was approached about a job in Portland. I won't go into much detail, other than to say that that whole experience was very inspired. We weren't looking for a new job. That was the farthest thing from our minds. But when he was approached about it, we both immediately knew that he needed to pursue it. The job seemed really promising, they flew Jon out, he had a flawless interview, everything seemed perfect. We were sure this was the answer to our prayers and the reason for all of our previous promptings. But through an incredibly bizarre series of events over the next few weeks, the job fell through and we found ourselves in shock and feeling very lost. Of course, we knew that he wasn't guaranteed that job. But the whole process was a series of inspiration and miracles and all signs were pointing to YES. We told each other several times that if the job didn't work out, it would be because it wasn't supposed to. The night he got his no from that company, we very unexpectedly found ourselves walking down a completely new path. One that we never would have even considered on our own. Doors were opened for us to start exploring other options, and it became very apparent that the job in Portland was an avenue to bring us to this new path.

I wish I didn't have to be so vague. But everything is still so uncertain right now. Most of the puzzle pieces are still missing. We have no idea where we'll be in the next couple of months or what we'll be doing. We could still be right where we are. At the same job and in the same house. We might not. But ultimately, we both feel an incredible amount of peace (and occasional bouts of major stress and freaking out :) ) right now. I wish I could somehow share all of the little miracles we have seen over the last few months and the promptings and inspiration we have received. It has been one heck of a roller coaster ride. But we have never felt so completely sure that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing right now.

We have both learned so much and have grown in ways that we wouldn't have without the experiences we've had over the last several months. We have definitely learned a lot about patience and trusting the Lord's timing and plan for us. It is comforting to know that He can see the big picture, He wants us to be happy, and He is willing to help us along the way. This doesn't guarantee an easy path. Really, we expect that it will be quite the opposite. Growth comes through trials and stretching ourselves. And we fully expect to continue to be tried. But we hope that as we continue to move forward in whatever direction we feel we should go, that the puzzle pieces will continue to fall into place, and we will slowly be able to grow and stretch ourselves in the ways that we hope to. I'm excited and anxious to see where the next few months take us!