A Wild Game of Mini Golf

After spending the day giving the house a good cleaning, we decided to go miniature golfing for Family Night.


I thought that this would take some time considering the ages of the youngest kids, but it only took about 1/2 hour to play. We split the kids up into groups by their ages.

The youngest three, Josh, Ian, and Timmy went first. They started out taking turns hitting the ball, but after the first hit on each hole the race began and it was every man for himself, and if they decided they were done with a hole they just picked their ball up and placed it in the hole. Then they picked it up and move on to the next hole.


The middle group Joe, Matthew, and Davis were next. They tried to play real golfing rules,meaning that who ever is farthest from the whole gets to hit their ball. They were all trying to be the farthest and were constantly calling out. I'm the farthest, no I am. I don't think they were concerned about scores at all.


The last group was the 10 year olds, Emily, Brevin, and Scott. You would think that this would be the group that played by the rules, kept score and remained focused. You would be wrong. They were just as crazy as the younger kids.

And what happens when the older kids catch up with the younger?

They make themselves part of the course.

Bethany and the babies, Sam and Valerie, also participated a little, so I guess you could say there were four groups. I think the babies group was the calmest of them all.

It was a fun wild game of mini golf!

OMSI and a Camp Out

On Friday we headed into Portland for a visit to OMSI, an interactive science museum. Valerie loved playing in the water areas and her favorite toy was this ball toy.
When other babies came near, she would try to hold all three balls in her hand. Eventually she did let another baby have one of the balls, because she could only hold two.


Emily was glad when we left the little kids area. There were animal habitats in the kiddie area, and she kept trying to organize them and make them look nice. Then kids would come in and mess it up. She loved the other exhibits though and had fun doing some of the puzzles, and science experiments.

Joe and Josh loved everything we did. They especially liked the Rocket launchers.

They also liked building the boats to see which one sailed the best. Joe spent a lot of time here.


One thing about coming this early in the year is that the cousins are still in school. So Emily waits every day fro Scott to get home and Brevin to come over. Now that it was Friday the party could begin. Brent's kids came over and joined us for a "Camp Out."

We grilled Hamburgers and Hot dogs, and then for desert the kids roasted Marshmallows over the hot coals.

Uncle Andy set up his tents in the house and the kids had an indoor camp out. That is my kind of camping. (no dirt)

Davis, Joe, and Matthew

Josh,with Timmy sleeping in the backgound. Ian was in the tent too, but did not want to get in the picture.

The Early birds. Brevin Emily and Scott (Baby Sam joined them in the morning) were up at 5:30am. They tried to keep quiet.

The next morning we all went swimming at the local pool. (sorry no pictures) The cousins had a great time together, and they always hate it when the party ends.

Learning to Dance

"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to dance in the rain"

-Anonymous

After our hike on Tuesday the rain began to come down again. By Thursday afternoon the boys could not take it anymore and decided rain or no rain they were going to play outside. My sister said that when you live in the Northwest you just learn how to play in the rain or you might never get to go outside again. They had a great time and screamed like little girls as they ran around the back yard.

Wahclella Falls

Tuesday the sun was shinning so we decided to take advantage of the dry weather and go on a hike.
One of the advantages of living so close to the Columbia River Gorge is that there are tons of waterfalls and just as many hikes. The hike was beautiful,
and because it has rained for 21 days straight here, there were a lot of little water falls along the way.

This fall was at the first bridge almost right at the beginning of the trail. It was so close to the bridge you could almost touch it. I expected the trail to be pretty muddy, so I was surprised that it really wasn't.
Valerie loved riding it the back pack. She just didn't like it when I stopped walking. Good thing the hike was only a mile long, so we really didn't need to stop and rest.

When we got to the falls the kids wanted to throw rocks in the water, so when I asked them to come take a picture, they stood in the group, but my boys were not happy about it.

Emily was a good sport about it though. The trail does a loop past the falls, so the trail going back is different. The kids were excited when they found a cave, and wanted to go explore it. When we mentioned wild animals they changed their minds.

We did encounter a few Banana Slugs on the trail. I asked Joe to pick one up so we could get a picture of him holding it. He did not want to touch it so I took a picture of his finger next to it so we could see how big it was.

After the hike we took our picnic lunch over to the Fish hatchery at Bonneville dam. After lunch we went over to see the fish. Grandma bought the kids some fish food to feed the trout. The Trout were pretty viscous when they threw the food in. Emily was worried that the only way they got fed is if someone bought the food out of the little machine. I assured her that the fish got plenty of food. She decided that at the end of the day whatever food was left in the machines was dumped into the water for the fish to eat. I guess she can think that if it will help her sleep at night.


Josh is still crazy about all of the bridges on the river, so for an thrilling adventure, Grandma took us for a drive over The Bridge Of The Gods. It was a beautiful ending to a beautiful day.

Valerie's First Steps

Before we left for my parent's house, Valerie was standing up and walking around holding on to anything she could. Even a giant ball was a good walker for her. Ryan was happy we could go visit my family, even if he could not come too, but he was sure that Valerie would start walking while we were away. He was right! Valerie is now starting to let go and take a few steps on her own. By the time we get home she will be able to walk to her dad.

This video is for him.

On The Road

Every Summer we try to take a trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Washington. Because of Valerie's arrival in the middle of the summer last year my whole family came to visit us instead. So this year we planned ahead and decided it would be fun to come at the same time as my brother Jon and his family so we could all be there together. Then the blessings started pouring in and Ryan was working again, and had no vacation time. I still planned to caravan up with my brother, but the thought of driving for 12-14 hours in a car alone with my kids was not leaving me very comforted. I know Jon and Jenny would have helped where they could, but I also knew that I would probably be stopping a lot because of the baby, and while I am grateful for my old cars I am not sure either one of them would have done that great on the long drive.

My parents came to visit last week for my cousins wedding. They drove down in their big Sequoia. After a couple of days we decided it might be better if the kids and I just got in their car and drove back with them. My kids were out of school and we really didn't have much going on for the next couple of weeks. The only trick was going to be getting us home, but my dad was willing to drive us back too. So Sunday the kids and I left to go spend two weeks at Grandma's.

It was amazing how good my kids were on the drive. We left our house at 5:ooam and arrived in Vancouver at 5:30pm.
Valerie was even pretty happy............. for most of the drive.
I think having me sitting right next to her the whole way really helped.


Because it has been so rainy the whole drive was beautiful. Usually it is all pretty brown until you get to the gorge, but not this time.

Josh was two the last time we made the drive to my parents, so this was like the first time for him. Once we hit the gorge, he was in heaven. Bridges, tunnels, trains, dams and waterfalls everywhere he looked. Sometimes there were two trains at the same time. At the end of the long drive we got to drive over a bridge to get to Grandma's. That was the best for Josh.











When we arrived, Ellen had dinner ready and the kids were so happy to be out of the car, that they ate and played until bed time. The drive could not have gone better, and we are so excited to have two whole weeks to visit with my family.

Better Late Than Never

At the end of April I weeded my Vegetable Garden and started to prepare it for planting in May. We have a membership to the Red Butte Gardens and we love to go to their plant sale the first Friday in May to purchase our plants, and then I usually plant everything the next day.

However, this year May was a little wild both with activities and the weather. I missed the plant sale completely. The weeds grew back in my garden and even though the thought of planting was in the back of my mind, the time to do it never appeared.

I had a coupon for $10 off at a local nursery that expired on Memorial Day. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to get there, but Ryan's office is right by the nursery and since he had to work that day he offered to stop by after work and get what I needed. (Isn't he great!) The pickings were slim, but he was able to get most of the things we wanted.

Now that the plants were bought it was time to focus. So Tuesday, after the Kindergarten Talent show, I put on my work clothes and spent the rest of the day gardening. I finished about 8:00pm and am happy to say the garden is in.

It ended up being better that I didn't get it in until now, because if I had planted it when I wanted to it probably would have been killed by the uncommonly cold weather we had in May.

Now it will be up to Ryan to keep it alive while the kids and I are visiting my parents for the next two weeks. I know he will, because he enjoys the fresh tomatoes just as much as I do.