The Coombs Family

It's been a very long time since my sister and I got to take a trip together. Caleb and I went to a family reunion in Bend over the weekend and my sister joined us when it was over. Of course, it was her family too, but she avoided the reunion and just came after. She apparently had other plans, but I think she just didn't want to sit in the hot sun and stare at grass for two days. Caleb had to go to work, so it was me and my kids and my sister and her kids too. My aunt was there with her son too. We swam at the new SHARC swim center they just opened this year. It was very cool and the kids had a blast. We did a 50 mile bike ride for Logan to accomplish his boy scout badge. We ran multiple times together. Went to the park. Ate lots of food. And stayed up late talking after the kids went to bed. It was really a great week!

Ok, when we bought this house we knew the yard was terrible. I mean awful. Anyone who has come over in the past two years just laughs at what a mess we have on our hands. No real ideas on what we could do and we couldn't tell either. We don't mind a project and we are both pretty creative, but we also hate yard work. We want to be gone on the weekends, not mowing, weeding, and edging. I am allergic to everything in a yard, and most of all- grass. Yuck! Anybody who wants grass in their yard is nuts. I can go in the grass starting in August, and even then I can't let it touch my bare skin. Our front yard is tiny. It's hideous. Caleb takes a week whacker to it every month and just cuts down the weeds. Everyone kept telling us to plant grass to get rid of the weeds, but I would rather lay down a pile of gravel and call it good. Caleb went to school with a kid who has been doing landscaping for a long time. His dad does it too and it's kind of their thing. We hired P...

I got a call at work from Krista, the lady who watches my kids. She said Calvin fell and hit his lip and probably needed stitches. I picked up my purse and ran out of work as quick as I could. I was on hold for 15 minutes trying to reach his doctor, which was aggravating. But once they answered I was at Krista's door and could see what was going on. Calvin was playing in a bedroom, tripped, and fell onto the frame of the bunkbed. Which is metal by the way. The sharp edge of it too. Poor kid always falls, but usually it's the forehead that gets the brunt of it. This time it was his lip. The upper part of his gums really. You can see most of the cut here: We finally reached his doctor and took him in. They didn't give him stitches even though it was still bleeding. It's been 8 hours now and it still bleeds when he talks, eats or drinks anything. It has not stopped him from doing his sound effects for cars and trucks so he spits blood everywhere. Of course, I wore ...

We have a new tradition of hosting a party on the 4th. Our house has an incredible view of lots of firework shows in Salem. It's free, there's no traffic, and young kids can sleep inside if they are too tired. We had over lots of friends and ate way too much food. Our kids loved the sparklers this year and they are finally getting old enough to understand the concept. Here is a great picture of all the kids we had over watching a movie, waiting for it to get dark.  Early that morning our church put on a parade. Each kid was a different state and we got to come up with the costume. My mom went crazy on Shelby's Oklahoma costume. She had a red hat, a Sooners shirt, boots, a gun with a holster, and she was pulling an armadillo as a pet. He had a name tag "spot", which was a nice touch. Shelby loved her costume and wore it proud.  Calvin did not have a costume. He just fell straight into a mud puddle. He was not happy about it as you can tell by the look on ...