Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Summer Evening

Today we were very sad to see Grandma go. We had a wonderful two weeks and the boys enjoyed hanging out with Grandma. It always goes by too fast. We miss you lots and Eli is wondering when we can come visit. I told him it is going to take a lot of quarters.

This evening we had some nice family time. We went out on the patio and roasted marshmallows in our new fire pit/chimney (thank you Grandma!) and the kids thought it was so neat that we could do it at our own home. It was very pleasant and the fire felt warm. I think we are going to enjoy many more summer/fall/spring evenings out there! (depending on the wind and rain of course)

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Once Again....A Trip to Sunriver

When we asked what place we should take Grandma more than any other, Eli's reply was to Nana and Baba's. We were going to go there anyway, but we saw that it was with the up most importance to Eli that we do so. We left after church on Sunday and returned home this evening. We had a great time playing at the playground, the pool, and bat watching. You wouldn't think so, but bats are very punctual. I'm serious, we would be sitting outside at 8:59 and not see a single bat, and when the clock struck 9:00, dozens of bats would swarm around the waterfall in my parent's backyard. It was pretty amazing. You could hear them flapping and squeaking and they would dive-bomb your head. Eli was completely fascinated and watched them all three nights as long as he could before it got too dark to see or we made him go to bed. We also got to enjoy a new park that had been opened in Caldera Springs right before we came. It has a big grassy field, a tree swing, walking paths, a maze made out of reeds, and a stream with a bridge that Evan was determined to fill up with rocks. Baba said he was also throwing rocks in the other day so that the water would make more noise, so Evan felt the need to do so as well. We played some Frisbee and baseball and football. It is a great place for the kids to run around. Eli is already asking when we are going back! We have a little less than a week with Grandma here. It has gone by too fast once again, but we are planning to spend some time just hanging out at home. We have relocated the pool and it looks like it is going to work, so lots of pool-days to come as Eli would say!


Saturday, July 12, 2008

Grandma is Here!

We are so excited that Grandma is here for about two weeks. Thus far, we have had a pretty relaxed time with swimming, playing, and just hanging out. Yesterday, we put Grandma and the kids to work and went raspberry picking. I love raspberries. The color, the smell, the taste. Everything about raspberries, except perhaps when you go picking and the wind is blasting and the thorny branches are slashing your legs and arms and face. I guess that is the way it goes sometimes. The berries this year were pretty small, but we picked about 10 pounds which will be good for eating some and freezing some. We might have to get some more at the stand down the street.

Grandma also got Eli a little something special. He got a new big boy bike and helmet. He sure is cruising now!

One last little story...last night we were standing in the driveway, Evan, Anuty Jessie, and myself, and out of the corner of my eye I saw something strange. When I looked again, I saw a raccoon sitting on the Wilson's patio. It was about 8:00 or so, so it was still pretty light. Some blue birds were swooping at it and chirping like crazy. My guess is that it tried to go after their eggs. Anyway, the raccoon was scared and was trying to get away fro the birds, but it did not want to get close to us. I picked Evan up as I was afraid he might try to pet it and the raccoon decided to be brave and run through us. It ran down the driveway right next to us, so close I could have touched it, and then across the street, over the wall, and under the chain link fence on the other side. We could hear the birds squawking at it as it was running away through the trees. After all that, Evan for awhile could only say "tiger, run street in there!" So that is our story of a run-in with a tiger.

We had only been picking for a little while and Evan had about 2/3 of the bottom of the bucket covered, and Eli says "hey, Evan ate all of his berries."

Monday, July 7, 2008

Church Camp Out

Once again, the time of year rolled around for camp out. It was a lot of work to get everything ready, but as always, it is worth all of the work. The kids had a blast! They played all day doing various activities from the playground to catching bugs to collecting paint balls (there was a new paint ball course added down by the lower campsite) to poking the campfire to climbing trees and all of that other fun camping stuff. On July 4th, some of us went in to Mollala for the Mollala Buckeroo. The kids had a great time watching the horses, the bulls, the cowboy monkeys, that's right cowboy monkeys, buffalo, and fireworks. Except for Evan, he did not like the fireworks even though he said he did, he hid the whole time! Back to the cowboy monkeys, one of the entertainment bits was that some border collie dogs came into the ring to heard some big horn sheep and on the dogs were little monkeys dressed up in cowboy outfits. It was pretty funny to see the dogs running around with monkeys on them. I did not get any pictures as the light was not very good at that point and they were moving around too fast. The other cool thing was the One Armed Bandit who came in and rode around and cracked his whip and he only had one arm, hence the name. Then they let two large male buffalo in the ring and he herded them on top of the horse trailer, and THEN he got on with them on his horse and stood up on the saddle! Pretty impressive. Naturally the boys slept very well at camp this year with all of this kind of excitement! We had a great time, but mom and dad were happy to be home in our comfy bed!

Waiting for the rodeo to start

The One Armed Bandit and his buffaloes on the trailer
Can't go camping without roastintg marshmallows
Bedtime stories
The kids kept messing and poking the fire, so I suggested that they take some of the firewood and make their own camp site, and this is what they came up with. They played here for hours, and we brought the camping gear that the boys got for their birthdays from Grandma, so they were set!
And now for your enjoyment.....Blake, Eli, and Evan performing "Hitting a Baseball" for the church camp out talent show!