summer road trip

so we took a fun little road trip last week. limited planning went into it, and we knew only that we would head for the John Day Fossil Beds Nat'l Monument in central oregon. so we packed up our camping gear and it the road with no real itinerary in hand (all part of the adventure todd says). i gotta say we had a great trip and saw some interesting things.

first we started off in the town of fossil, or. where up behind the high school you can dig for fossils. it was entirely plant matter (leaves and such) but the kids really had fun digging rock and then chiseling it apart for the fossils.

then we went hiking through the actual national monuments where they had examples of fossils found in years past....

we found little spots to camp each night...

we also went through an area call the 'painted hills' which were so stunning. i have seen the painted hills in lots of oregon scenic calendars, but had never been to the area. my pictures don't do it justice but you can get a sense.

lastly we ended up in a native american reservation/resort called kahneeta. the kids had been so good tromping through national parks we thought it'd be fun to reward them. so we stayed in teepee and then played all day at the pool which had big water slides.

on the drive home we had two very tired kids.....

it was a fun little summer get away and made me want to explore more of oregon next summer!

happy 40th birthday todd!

so todd's 40th birthday was on Aug 2nd, but the party lasted all. week. long.

we had good friends over for pizza and cake on his actual birthday.

also to 'help' partake in todd's birthday present which was a new kegerator!

i got an old vintage fridge, painted it and then enlisted the help of our good friend josh (who is a brewer at full sail and knows all things beer) to convert it into a kegerator. (mostly i watched as he generously did the work). needless to say todd loves his new friend who lives in the garage. we named him phil (he was an old Philco fridge...so seemed appropriate). already he gets blamed for things like...'aaahh, that's just phil talking'.

then the following weekend we had a big backyard bash....lots of friends, lots of beer, lots of fun. we didn't take any pictures except for this one of the late night crew.

it was a great celebration of a milestone birthday......happy birthday todd!

mid-summer

summer has been busy. no time to blog. but here is a little catch up for the month of july.

let's start with the 4th of july. lucy's pre-school was in the parade in the morning. my family was up from portland to hang out for a BBQ. the only picture i took was this sweet one of riley and my niece ella. my family headed home relatively early so we hit up another party with a giant slip-n-slide....it was AWESOME!

riley played soccer again this summer.....he's really a great little player and more importantly loves it.

we had a little family vacation with my mom and george (i call them mo-jo) and my brother and his family. long walks on the beach, hanging out, building sand castles....it was lovely.

momo and all her grandkids....

.....little ella, she's getting so big.

....sandcastle building

....the three little cousins

we had some slip-n-slide and water fight adventures of our own to cool off on some hot summer days.

oh in BIG milestone news, riley lost his first tooth. he was so excited! (he was the last of his friends to lose one.... he even asked the dentist at his visit in march if it was ever gonna happen). so when it finally popped out he stared at it in disbelief. the tooth fairy brought him a gold sacajawea dollar.

last but not least the county fair came to town. gotta love the fair.....rides and more rides...good times.

in addition to the rides, this year both kids participated in 'mutton bustin'. this is essentially riding a sheep across the area. you could do it with or without help. lucy chose to do it with help.

you had to be under 55lbs and riley just made it, so this being his one and only year he did it without help.

oh and i almost forgot....check out this you tube video. todd (farmer's market manager extrodinaire) pulled off a flash mob at the farmers market....it was fantastic and todd is front and center in the video!

so that's all for now.... coming next blog is todd's 40th birthday...stay tuned!

summer in full swing

be warned this is long blog, lots happening and lots to share for this first month of summer

first we need to back up a bit. BEFORE riley's birthday at the beginning of june lucy had her first dance program. she got all glittered up in a purple tutu and twirled on stage. she loved every minute of it...and i gotta say it was pretty darn cute.

then we had the last day of school respectively for each kid. as i do on the first day i like to take a picture of the kids on the last day of school....helps me see how much they've grown in a school year when i compare it to the first day.

lucy's pre-school had a little graduation ceremony complete with a tea party. several of the kids in her class are off to kindergarten next year. she still has another year of pre-school but enjoyed the pomp nonetheless.

riley was so excited to be done with school...not because he had a bad year, if fact he thrived this year..... but mostly he justed wanted to be home because his cousins were out visiting from Denver and that is WAY more fun than school!!

todd's brother chris and his kids brendan and megan came out for a visit. chris stayed for part of the week and the kids spent the whole week with us. my kids were over the moon to have their big cousins around to play with.

they did a little hiking

tried some stand-up paddle boarding

the dad's celebrated father's day together

went strawberry picking and then came home and made some jam

more hiking...this time to some falls

spent a day at the beach

all in all a wonderful week.....we hope they come visit us again soon!