Seaside for Spring Break

I wish we could've spent the whole Spring Break in Seaside, especially with the amazing weather we had the two days we were there. At noon on Thursday we headed to the cute beach town of Seaside. We hadn't been there before as a family and we all really liked it though the kids requested a hotel with a pool next time. I loved the little place we stayed (even if the neighbors complained that we were too loud :), it was right on the boardwalk/beach with great views of the ocean and just a couple blocks from the main shopping street. The kids enjoyed being able to explore a little on their own and Chad and I loved our hour-long evening walk up and down the boardwalk. The kids all loved playing in the cold ocean and Nev especially loved the sand, never seeming to get cold. Friday evening we had a fire on the beach complete with s'mores! We had to leave Saturday morning around 10:00 am to head to Gabrielle's ODP training in Salem and then Easter the next day. It was much too short but left us wanting to come back for more!

  Love these pictures we took on the boardwalk during our first afternoon in Seaside

 

Elle enjoyed taking lots of pictures on her new iPhone (my old one). Here she is when we first arrived taking a picture of the ocean.

First steps on the sand!

Me with my favorite guy!

Genevieve was begging us to let her play in the sand the second we arrived at our hotel!

   This girl so rarely gets cold!

 

The view from our hotel's front lawn

Sunset the first evening from our hotel patio 

The boys had fun walking the main street, buying their coke and playing at the arcade

Some hotel room fun!

More fun in the hotel!

Friday at the beach! 

Our sand castle :)

The boys played some football

Cade and Elle were so good with Nev in the water 

This is where I wish I had my good camera so I could capture these smiles better

Where did my little boy go!??!

Crazy kids! That water was freezing!

Nev had a blast!

Love these four sooo much! 

What a great beach!

 

Elle went all the way into the ocean and boogy boarded!

 

Elle and I had fun doing a handstands and cartwheels on the beach!

 

Campfire on the beach!

We weren't the only ones on the beach with a fire :)

One last picture of our kiddos!

Pac-12 Gymnastics Championships

A couple weekends ago, Amber, Gabrielle and I got to go to the Pac-12 gymnastics championships in Corvallis. I always love going to the OSU gymnastics meets and have loved them since I was ten when I would go with my mom and sisters. I love passing this tradition on to Gabrielle who really enjoys watching gymnastics as well. This meet was extra exciting because OSU, who was ranked third in the Pac-12, did amazing and ended up coming from behind and winning the meet and the Pac-12 title. So fun to spend time with Amber and Elle and to watch a really fun meet!

Gabrielle was giving us lessons on how to take better 'selfies'. She's definitely better at these self portraits than Amber and me :)

ODP State Team for Gabrielle!

The past six months Gabrielle has been training about three times a month with the regional ODP team made up of the top players born in 2000 (with some 2001's) from Salem, Eugene, Albany and Corvallis. This team then participated in a state ODP tryout tournament two weekends ago along with the regional teams from Portland/Vancouver (two teams), Medford and Bend. The nearly 100 girls were all competing for spots on the state ODP team (the 100 girls were selected from about 250 that tried out statewide last August). Because Gabrielle was born in 2001 and thus younger than most of the participants we chalked this year down to gaining experience, with Gabrielle's goal being making the state team next year when she can compete with players born in 2001. So you can imagine Gabrielle's and our excitement when her name was on the list of players that made the state pool this year! We are so proud of her and all her hard work she put in to make this team. She will now train with the state team on the weekends for the next couple months (along with her normal club team) and play in a couple ODP tournaments in late May/early June. Chad and I thought we would have this Spring off from ODP given Cade's back injury and him not being able to participate this year (he made the state team the past two years) but are happy to now take Elle to her trainings in Salem and Portland over the next couple months!

 

I snapped a couple pictures from the tryout tournament; Elle played center back nearly the entire weekend.

 

 

Elle and some of her teammates

Instagram collage I made celebrating Elle's selection :)

 Must be Gabrielle's lucky number!

Happy Easter!

We had another great Easter this year with our families. We started the day with 8:00 am mass with our and Amber and Tony's families, followed by a few family pictures. We then brought out the Easter baskets and enjoyed watching the kids open them including a classic meltdown by Genevieve because she only liked ONE of the Little Pony sets she received :). After relaxing a little bit, we headed to Opa and Kathleen's to prepare brunch, visit, and hide Easter eggs! Around noon James and Jenn's, Marcus', Duane and Mary's, & David and Amy's families joined us for brunch and the hunt. Genevieve had so much fun looking for eggs with Daddy as her partner! Cade and Willem played lots of basketball with their cousins, Pascal, Roman and Daniel and all the cousins seemed to really enjoyed each other. It was so much fun to have Tucker and Davida there too. And then there was the annual trading of candy. At 3:00 we went to Chad's mom and dad's house for a delicious dinner, more egg hunting and lots of relaxing and visiting. What a fabulous day!!

Ready to open Easter baskets! 

Another classic pic that Cade and Willem laughed at for a good five minutes this evening :)

Love my daughters!

Opa's House! 

Willem showing some love! 

Tucker!!

So cute to see Nev and Nia running with joy as they searched for eggs! 

Gabrielle teamed up with Jacoby

Tucker LOVED the candy :)

Love these pictures!

These three cousins are still the best of friends

 

 Genevieve was a tough bargainer during the candy exchange!

Such a cool picture of our girl

We didn't get a picture of Davida as she went down for a nap but I wanted to include her in my Easter post so I stole this from Amber's camera. She took a ton of absolutely beautiful pictures of Davida this past week which I'm sure will post soon. Amber gets all the credit for this great picture!!

Love these fun ones of Cade and Elle with cousins Pascal and Selene

 

Grandma with her girls  

 The picture on the right cracks me up with Will and Nev's faces after Willem got an egg right as Nev was grabbing for it too!

 

 Also wanted to include these fun pictures of earlier in the week when our kids decorated these bunny cookies. Love how they have so much fun together.