The Smell Of School

Greta had her "meet and greet" day at school yesterday and she is ALL ready for second grade. 

The distinct scent of school supplies(and that wierd school smell that never changes since even I was in school..is it the cleaner??) is in the air and this girl cannot be happier. 

We had a great summer.... but, it is time for her to get back to school. 

Oh! because this is our journal I must add a story about her tooth. Her permanent bottom tooth that was  broken in half due to an accidental head butt incident at the park across the street. To my surprise, this girl did not want her tooth fixed..why you ask? because she thought she looked like a pirate and liked it... ahem. Of course she could not live life "looking like a pirate" so it was fixed this week. She wasn't happy. Not at all. I am sure it will be fixed many more times throughout her life. All I can say, Greta, is you will thank us for fixing it one day. :) 

Pirates are overrated. 

Mary's Peak

We have put ALOT of miles on our shoes this summer. Our last "To Do" hike this summer was Mary's Peak which we have put off for two years and we still barely made it. Now we can mark it off the list. I loved hiking this summer. It changed me a little, I must admit. I am looking forward to Autumn hikes and winter strolls. I can officially say good bye to summer today. I saw too many changing leaves this morning to avoid the changing of the seasons any longer. 

 We decided this looked like an elephant with tusk and trunk. 

In a tree. I started to teach them how to climb trees this summer and they are hooked. 

Photo Dump From The Week

 Hiking and Dahlia Fest with GiGi

 Greta with the "I am A Hottie" flower and the kids at the airport watching planes take off. They love this. 

 Where's Waldo?  Right here on my sofa. 

 Watching lots and lots of The old school Adam West Batman movie when the sun went down. 

 I may get in trouble for posting this one :)

 Breakfast at the Green Salmon...

 Tree climbing

 Ocean hike

 Hermy the crab 

wildflowers..love. love. 

Knitted Trailhead Sign

When I retire... I want to knit trailhead signs :)

Feral Beach Fun

We spent a couple nights at the beach last week. The weather was great. Lots of time to jump on rocks, explore, find treasures, get dirty and just be a kid. The ocean is the most fun play park there is in my opinion. I spent enough of my time there jumping and climbing from rock to rock, I must say.. 

 searching

 buds

 imaginations run wild

 Headed out to search for agates

 making super highways. 

 exploring

spending time together

Art and Air Fest= A Kink In The Neck

 Jeff's mom came to visit this past week and it was fun showing her the hot air balloon take off at the Art & Air Fest. It was an early morning but as always, well worth it. 

 Here's what I mean about the kink in the neck.. SO much to look at way above. 

 Stopping at Corks donuts has become a tradition on "air balloon day" We pass it on the way and the kids are so excited. 

We watched 32 balloons take off. Very fun. Then we went home and took naps :) 

Picking The Last Of The Blueberries: Through Greta's lense

 I can never say enough how much I enjoy the pics the kids take. Fieldin with a branch mustache above and his summer crocs below. 

 Greta's own hand and the over ripe berries telling us the season is pretty much done. She also took videos of her and Fieldin singing and laughing in the blueberry fields. Love it. 

Dahlia Fest

We made a visit to the Dahlia Fest in Canby, Oregon. It was beautiful and a photographers dream. I could have spent hours out in the fields with my camera. 

 One of the fields

 This flower was one of my very favorites. The flower below was as big as Fieldins head.. 

 My two. 

So glad I finally made it to the Dahlia fest. Next year I am going to make sure I go to the Iris and Peony fests as well. It was so hard not to take all these lovely flowers home with me. 

When You Can't Find The Right Hula Hoop, Make Two.

After shopping around for heavy, durable hula hoops, I gave up. 

I did some research and decided to make our own. 

Greta is very good at hula hooping. It is pretty cool to watch. She needed a good hula hoop that would hold up. So for the same price of a thin plastic hula hoop at the store we went "made to order" on our own. I was going to take on this project alone with the kids but very glad I waited for a day when spouse could help. Jeff is much better at these things than I am. Yes, I said it. 

 Greta with the 10 foot piece of pipe. We just attached with a pipe connector and decorated with their choice of duct tape. 

 Fieldy trying his out. He found flame duct tape that look like Hot Wheel car flames. Here he is jumping through his "ring of fire"

 A very patient Jeff taping the hoop. 

Hoopers. Greta's has solid penguins on hers and Fieldin opted for stripes of flames and play gravel inside his tube to make lots of noise when he spins.