Our last family photo was taken in January 2006 just before Loren left for his mission. Now that we have everyone home and have added Anne to our family, we knew it was time to take a new one.
This time we thought it would be fun to take it on our own front porch. We think it turned out great! Elliot needed his senior pictures taken, so we took a few other group and individual shots as well, which you can see by clicking here or by clicking on the “Portrait” category above.
After 7 years and much anticipation, our whole family was able to spend a week together on the Oregon Coast. Loren’s wife Anne has recently gotten a new job, and was unable to go with us, but was sweet enough to suggest that Loren still come with us. Since there were too many of us to fit in one mini van and — reminiscent of earlier family vacations — we decided to a rent a “Hugo” — a passenger van that could hold us all!
We did the drive over 2 days making a stop at the midway point in Weiser Idaho to visit and stay with Anne’s parents, Gerry & Carol Bogue. It was fun to see their “project” house; an old house that was built in the early 1900’s that they are slowly but surely restoring to its earlier beauty.
The part of the coast we decided to visit this trip was Netarts Bay Oregon (near Tillamook). We could walk a long the coast quite a ways in either direction. The surprise to the north were the Three Arch Rocks — 3 big boulders just off the coast. I just love how beautiful and bouldery the Oregon Coast is!
We spent most of the time just relaxing, walking on the beach together, playing cards and watching movies. Loren and Phillip created some beach art, and we did do the “smore” thing.
One day we did drive about an hour north to Cannon Beach for breakfast at the Pig ‘n’ Pancake and an afternoon at the beach flying kites and enjoying Haystack Rock….oh, and getting just a little bit sunburned…oops. Our other little field trip was a visit to the Tillamook Cheese Factory — yum.
Perhaps the most exciting part of our trip was when we were are about to leave I happened to look in the kitchen only to see tons of suds coming out the bottom of the dishwasher. Turns out I (yes, I can only blame myself…much to my children’s relief) put liquid dish washing soap in instead of the liquid dish washer soap. So our departure was slightly delayed as we bailed out all the soapy water. We must have cleaned it up well enough as we weren’t billed later for any hardwood floor damage…much to my relief. That could have made the trip just a bit more expensive 🙂
Every summer Clark looks forward to a week long Jazz Camp where he gets to play jazz piano to his heart’s content! This year he was also featured playing the Keytar!
My good friend Melora surprised me with a spontaneous visit! We had fun spending a day shopping and having lunch at Gardner Village. Later we were able to spend a morning with her daughter-in-law Skyler and her granddaughter Shaylynn who is a super cutie! Clark ended up alone all day, so I brought him a treat. He didn’t even know there was such a thing as a “Clark” Bar! Good thing it is yummy 🙂
The stars finally lined up and the entire extended Morgan Family was able to get together for a family photo. Our last picture was taken 7 years ago and since then we have an additional 9 family members. This summer was our window of opportunity with Melinda and her family here from Arizona and all of our missionaries home.
The 4th of July was the only day that everyone was available and while we had to pay a little extra to the photographer, it was great to spend the holiday afternoon together! (Just click on the photo to see it bigger!)
Now that Clark is 14, he also got to go to our ward youth conference with Elliot. This year they went to Snow College. They especially enjoyed the ropes course, and the water games. The highlight was getting to see the Manti Pageant.
Clark is finally 14 and old enough to go to EFY! We signed him up with his friend Nicholas and down to Provo they went for a week of fun away from the fam. He is on the back row in the brown t-shirt next to their counselor, Justin.
All the kids came up from Provo and Alan’s parents came over for Father’s Day Sunday dinner. It is still wonderful after 5 years of missionaries, to have the whole family together for special occasions.
Tess is spending the summer working two jobs now. One as a secretary at the French/Italian Language Dept. at BYU and the other as a clerk at Deseret Book. On the side, she is working as an ordinance worker in the Provo Temple once a week. On the “other side” she is having fun dating and spending time with room mates.
As of today, Madeleine is the proud owner of her first car — a Ford Focus. After crunching numbers and thinking long and hard about it, she decided she needs a car to be able to take the jobs she wants. She spent the previous week doing research and making phone calls and then today she came up and spent the day with her Dad test driving, buying and financing the car. Needless to say, she is super excited!
