Johnson Family 2011

2011 was a crazy year for our family but it ended great and we are predicting a fabulous 2012! Here is a brief summary of our year!

Of course we did a lot of camping and hiking...

Memorial Day Weekend
This is a hike called Pilot Rock. It is beautiful but a little scary! At the end you have to wedge your body in between rocks to climb to the very top. Justin wasn't comfortable letting the girls go all the way up so I stayed down in the "safer" area with them. Justin, Jaco, and our friend Craig went all the way while the girls tried to prove they could have done it by climbing all over and scaring me to death! Even Cody wanted to go to the top but he couldn't figure out how to do it.

For Justin's 35th Birthday we went camping! We started out by Mt Shasta but didn't like the campground so we headed west to the Redwoods! It was perfect there!

As we drove home, we noticed a large crowd on the bridge going over the Klamath River. As we crossed it, Justin saw what was creating the crowd...A huge whale was swimming under the bridge! Of course we stopped to check it out. She was HUGE and magnificent to watch. We found out later, she and her baby had some how gotten lost and ended up in the river. The baby made it back out to the ocean but they could not get the mamma whale to leave. We tracked the story for a couple weeks and were very sad to hear that she didn't survive. It was incredible to see a whale larger than a school bus swimming so close to us!
For Labor Day, we hiked Grizzly peak with our friends the Case family. It was a hot day and we ended up taking the "long" route. I loved it and thought it was beautiful but the kids were tired and thirsty and weren't quite so happy as I was. The girl's faces look happy, but believe me, either these pictures were taken before they got too hot or after we made it to the bottom and they were just glad to be done. The look on Jaco's face says how all the kids felt!

Justin opening his own practice...

On April 1st Justin opened the doors to his own practice! Not too long after moving north, we heard about an amazing opportunity down south that was too good to pass up. So with faith mixed in with some fear and support from our family, we bought a business! Justin lived by himself for almost 3 months while the kids and I finished up school.

The front desk!

The girls trying out a treatment room...

Then there was the big move...

The kids and I could have stayed up in northern Oregon while Justin worked in Southern Oregon, but we decided it was too long of a commute to see each other, so when the kids finished school in June, Justin came and packed us up to head south with him.

We love our new house! Great safe neighborhood, awesome schools, and lots of room!

We don't have a very big backyard but we belong to the neighborhood coop which gives us lots of playing space including a pond and walking path.

Our traditional 4th of July holiday spent with the Bruners on the Oregon Coast...

The kid's first time out on the ocean!

Halloween in the coolest town ever for the holiday...

Free ride at the pumpkin patch!

Our annual tradition of a fun Halloween meal and carving pumpkins! This year we shared it with the Savage family.

La-La and Care Bear in front of a crowd at the parade!

Care Bear took second place in the downtown parade costume contest! She won the gold ticket and Sparky her puppy! Not so shabby for a homemade costume!

Jaco the wizard, La-La the angel, and Care Bear the caterpillar!

The crowd of kids that raced around our neighborhood filling their bags with candy!

Thanksgiving spent in Boise with family...(We haven't been "home" for Turkey Day in over 10 years!)

The cousins!

The girl cousins!

Then of course Christmas...

Cutting down the tree in our beautiful "backyard"! No way would we pay more than the $5 tree tag when we live in a forest full of perfect Christmas trees!
Ward Christmas party and a visit with Santa
Christmas Eve shared with the missionaries serving in our ward. Everyone in their new jammies!
Christmas Day!

And last but not least, Happy New Year!...

For New Year's Eve we took a little drive to beautiful Crater Lake! It was a perfectly cold crisp gorgeous day!

After sledding at Crater Lake we went to our friend's the Case's for some tasty prime rib stew and games! Here is Kara playing a Disney version of Who Am I? It was a great new year's eve!