Summer Salem Part 2

Friday the kids were really tired of running around so we made one quick trip to pick out Micah's fabric for his quilt and then were back at the house for nap time and swimming in the afternoon.  That evening we went to pick Bumpa up from the airport too.

Saturday was a hang-out day.  Lisa and I went back to get some more fabric and the boys hung out with Bumpa and Uncle Andrew.  In the afternoon the other three were back and we spent the afternoon enjoying some pool time.

All five boys studiously watching Howard the "cleaning machine" at work.

Sunday morning, since it was the week of his birthday, Brandon opened his present from Uncle Andrew and Auntie Cheryl.  He was pretty excited about it and held/looked at it a good portion of the drive home that day.

A quick family picture before we loaded up the kiddos and headed for home and the others headed for church.

On Monday Brandon put his new lego set together, first one he did completely on his own (with one or two "help" times from me) and he did it in a total of about an hour and a half!

Blessings

Summer Salem

At the end of August we headed down to Salem for a couple days.  Bryan, Sally and Cheryl then went down to Ashland to the Shakespearean Festival and the kids and I hung out with Uncle Andrew when he wasn't working.

Wednesday we took a beautiful "hike".  It was more of a walk through the woods than a hike.  Quite enjoyable.  Since there were several adults to watch the kids, I meandered behind and enjoyed some fun photography time.

Sally's tree roots.

I was so thankful for my long lens with this one.  A lady tried creeping up to the butterfly to get a picture with her camera but the butterfly flew away before she could get close enough.  My long lens let me take the picture from farther away without scaring it off!

Never seen this kind of bug before!  It had a blue body.

Auntie Cheryl got her work out on the walk back carrying Micah who continually said,
" Faster!  I am going to touch ____'s head."  It was a fun joke, but she had to work to catch up to Bryan who used his long legs to his own advantage.  ;)

Thursday Bryan, Cheryl and Sally took off for Ashland, Andrew went to work, and the kids and I headed to Portland to meet up with Alyssa and the kids.  We had never been to their house in Portland and the boys were having a difficult time understanding why they couldn't play with Raymond, Sam and Mathias anymore.  It was good for them to be able to see the distance problem.  After that, Alyssa and the boys came back to Andrew and Cheryl's place to play in the pool for the afternoon.  Let me tell ya, five boys is A LOT of busy fun in a pool!

These two went from not wanting to get off the steps to jumping and swimming on their own.  It was fun to watch their confidence grow.

Note Brandon's red eyes?  Even after two and a half hours of constant swimming and playing and diving he still didn't want to get out of the water.

Little miss Lisa just loves the water!

Part two coming up.

Salem Weekend--Part 1

Mother's Day two years ago we were all sitting around Andrew and Cheryl's table wondering when Cheryl's graduation would be.  She said it would be Mother's Day weekend in 2013 and we all looked at each other and said, "Alright, we'll be here again that weekend, Lord willing."

Thursday, May 9th, Bumpa, Bryan the boys and I all flew down to Salem in the bowanza (bonanza).  (Grandma had driven down earlier in the week on Monday.)  It was a weekend full of fun memories and a weekend full of pride in the hard work Cheryl had accomplished in the past four years.

God blessed us with some beautifully sunny days to start with so we enjoyed a garden, swimming and generally playing outside. 

The boys thought feeding the chickens was great fun!

Friday we visited an Oregonian garden whose name is escaping me right now.  There were some beautiful flowers blooming!

The children's garden had these bushes all shaped into different shapes--bears, fish, flowers, etc.  Pretty amazing artistry.

Brandon has recently discovered dinosaurs and was interested in excavating this "cementasaurus rex".  :)

But the train was the highlight for the boys!

We went swimming every afternoon!  The boys were incredibly bummed when it was too cold and dreary to swim Sunday though.  Brandon went so far and to tell me we had to stay extra days so we could go swimming again.

Brandon was once again extremely anxious about going down the slide and after some strong coaxing and encouragement from everyone, we finally got him to go down and then he enjoyed it again.

Micah hung on the tube and kicked all over the pool!

Saturday was preparation day as well as more swimming and playing outside.

And the party started to arrive!

Up next...Cheryl's big day.