Backyard Campout

We've been wanting to do a backyard camp out for awhile. The kids spent the evening reading, playing games, making shadow puppets and looking at the stars(our neighborhood is pretty dark). The kids fell asleep easily(they were tired, especially Greta) and lasted all night. 

Very fun but tiring. I stayed in with the howling cat that didn't like being separated from his children. It was a long night for parents and the cat but the kids slept great ;) 

Beach Day

We escaped the heat yesterday with some friends. The kids had fun digging out forts and becoming...

 mermaids and.. 

 a merman. 

A Changing Room For The Youngest

As I posted awhile back Fieldin wanted his room changed into a 1970's Star Wars theme. He still wants me to paint his room silver but I am biding my time on that one... 

 We have put extra storage in his room for his star wars lego collection. He had us take his car wall trax down and bin up some of his toys in the garage. 

 His work station below

 His legos separated by color so he can find pieces easier. 

 These are the photos we took at the beach awhile back. He picked out his favorite. He says he loves his room. 

 old star wars sheets that used to belong to Jeff. There is always lego creations all over his bed. 

Fieldin made a TV for his room. The "F" stands for Fieldin TV network. He made a stand out of books and a tupperware lid. To watch the TV you sit in front of it and open the pages of the books to see different pages(switching channels). Very clever buddy. 

More Dinosaurs

Greta needed a science fix so we headed up to OMSI.

The kids just recently saw a dinosaur exhibit in Minnesota but we wanted to see this one too. 

 This exhibit was very different with bright colors and more decorated dinosaurs. 

 The kids.. and below, Greta took the pictures of the dinosaurs for us. She did a good job. 

 Then out to the other exhibits for some science fun before heading out. 

It was a long day because we had other errands in Portland. 

Also, a sad day because we had to say goodbye to our wonderful next door neighbors that moved away. They will be missed. 

Another Visit From The Tooth Fairy

Two teeth down! 

Fieldin lost his second tooth on Thursday night. 

 Just like last time he was very excited and ran to the mirror to see what he looked like and then he was hyper and took awhile to go to sleep.

 He set up his tooth pillow in the perfect place and was all smiles. He was upset that his pillow was on the floor in the morning. He thought the tooth fairy put it there but we told him that he probably knocked it down while sleeping. 

Good thing tooth fairies come at night because they may not want to come during the day with our resident clone trooper guarding the house at breakfast. By the way, clone troopers like oatmeal and fruit. 

Pie # 5: Peach Pie

Greta hasn't had much free time to make all the pies she wanted this summer but we are still plugging away and may have to continue into Fall. She was gone for the day and so Fieldin and I went and bought peaches at a farm for her. 

 Jeff did most of the cutting(and eating) of the peaches but she worked on cutting some got the pie. And we watched her like a hawk because peaches are so slippery. 

 this pie had crystallized ginger and a bit of tapioca mix so it was a little different then we've had before but still very good. 

 adding dots of butter

the finished pie! 

Caves And Flashlights

We hit another National park this week. 

And we took the kids caving or as the guy at the coffee shop said "spelunking" which I had to google because that is a new word for me. I like it. 

 We checked out flashlights from the rangers. We didn't do any difficult spelunking(used it in a sentence :))so we didn't have knee pads etc. We stayed within the easy to moderate realm. To be honest I knew none of us was ready to try to fit through very small holes in the pitch dark. We may be crazy but not stupid. 

 I only got photos in a couple caves. It was so dark and my camera was not cooperating. I could only get pics at the openings of two. It was a little eery going into the caves. Leaving the sun and 93 degree temps to ending up in the pitch dark with ice in places and 55 degree chills. Some how the kids never spooked. Greta thought the lava rock etc was cool and shining her light to check it out while Fieldin was happy with the novelty of a big flashlight of his own. 

 We didn't see bats or at least I don't think we did. It was so dark and to be honest the flashlights don't give off a whole lot of light. 

 At the opening of skull cave. This one was neat. 

 checking out the opening before we head down. 

 Fieldin shining his light at me. I think the only reason I got this shot was we weren't too far from the opening at this point. 

 picnic lunch. It was so hot again this day. Mid 90's but the kids were troopers and wanted to hike into the desert to see a farther away cave. 

 getting another junior ranger badge. Taking their oath at this park. 

Chunk with his badge.  

 Finally we wiped him out. 

 We had an awesome day. 

Relaxation

It was nice getting away on a family vacation. 

As usual every morning started out with lego building. That part was the same as home. 

 I will be honest it took a couple days for me to decompress, it's been a busy summer. 

We took the kids pedal boating which we loved. Greta wanted to pedal but I was afraid we'd tip the boat moving around. 

 The kids hung their legs off the boat and relaxed while Jeff and I did the legwork. I loved it. 

 The view we woke up to each day. We loved seeing different types of birds in the morning. 

 There was alot of time spent playing Muppet yahtzee especially in the morning. 

 and just like home the table was always covered with books and legos. That I couldn't escape from. 

 We watched a raptor presentation that was really neat and caught up on movie watching. 

 and these two(especially Fieldin) were always up for pool time. 

 The kids said some of their favorite things were pickle ball, tennis, biking, swimming, pedal boating and playing. I agree with them.