Cooling off

Our summer visit to one of our favorite water parks.

Even at the park, he has to read!

Aden reads!

A few months ago, we realized that Aden started reading. Full on reading. Not just memorizing the books but actually knowing what the words looks like and reading it. We will borrow library books and he will just read them out loud. Every page, from start to finish. Since then, he is always with a book. He'll wake up in the morning, go to the bathroom, then back to his room to read. He reminds me so much of myself, especially when I caught him reading a book while brushing his teeth! He continues to amaze us everyday.

Sibling love

Moments like these are the ones I never want to forget...

My cutie pie

Summer in Review

Summer went by too fast - we've been on the go all summer long. We went camping three times this summer and the rest of the weekends were spent at the beach. It's bitter sweet that summer is over...on to new adventures!

Our Beach Trips:

Our Camping trips:

First boat outing in 2011

The Friday of Father's Day weekend, we "had to" take the boat out on the river to make sure everything was in perfect shape for our camping trip the next weekend. It was such a perfect afternoon - warm and the kids were so excited to be on the boat again. Kadence calls it her boat. She'll ask you, "where's my boat?" It is the funniest thing. We've tried to tell her it's OUR boat, but she insists that it's her boat. Such a perfect kick off to our summer!

This is how every vacation should end...

Legoland - Day 4

We headed back to Legoland for our last day in San Diego. This time, we came prepared. After "designing" a new pair of sandals for little miss, we were successful with our mission and was able to "make up" that 1/2 in. that she needed to get on the rides. I won't divulge too much what we did, but I'll just say that it was very successful! Kadence was just ecstatic! Let me just say that it cost us $9 at Walmart but her happiness is so priceless!


Big boy driving:

Wildlife Safari - Day 3

Our 3rd day started out a little gloomy - we were supposed to head back to Legoland for the day, but the weather didn't cooperate and it was very cloudy and cool. We really wanted to enjoy the water park but since it was too cool for swimming, we decided to head to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Safari. I can't tell you which of the animals we saw were my favorites - I love them all! It is amazing to see huge rhinos so close by. I love giraffes and there were plenty of them there. And how can you not love those elephants?! I could've gone on that tram ride a few more times, but we were just too tired by the end of the day.

Legoland - Day 2

We spent our second day in San Diego ready to conquer Legoland. The kids were very excited and couldn't wait to get on the rides. Poor Kadence ended up being 1/2 in too short for the rides. She was very bummed - especially after she learned how to stand up tippy toes whenever they tried to measure her. Unbeknownst to me, Darin taught her how to try and fudge her height by standing tippy toes and talked to her about it. Although we made the best of it by taking her to the 2 & under area (which she loved), we were very bummed that she didn't get to ride with Aden.

We also spent the last couple of hours that day in their new water park, which we were very excited about. I could've stayed in the lazy river all day long - but the big hit is their "Orange Rush" where you ride in a raft down this huge slide. Darin & I took turns riding it with Aden (K is too small to ride) and I will always remember how hard Aden & I laughed & screamed the entire way down. It was so much fun.


Orange Rush video:

San Diego Trip 2011

Before the summer craziness starts for us, we wanted to take a short trip to a fun place to commemorate Aden's 5th birthday and our last year of freedom from school obligations. We made him choose where he wants to go...I tried to convince him to go to Disneyland since we've never been, but he was adamant that he wants to go back to Legoland. Since we love San Diego so much, he didn't have to twist our arms! So, we packed up our "new one car" as Kadence calls it and headed south. The kids surprises me with every trip that we make. I was a little anxious about the 18 hour drive,  but they did AMAZING. We left Portland at 5pm, after a long dinner/gas/pit stop in Medford, I took the 10pm-3am shift (which Darin said worked perfectly for him since I'm such a night owl!). He took over after that and drove us all the way to SD. We got there at 11am, with all the stops! Our kids slept through the night (they were both excited to sleep in the car, especially with the new neck pillow I made them), did activities/books and they were so well behaved and patient that we turned on the DVD on the last hour of the trip just to give them a reward for being so good! They just are the perfect travellers - they are so excited about the destination that no matter how long our journey is, they so appreciate it. We are one lucky parents!

Day One - San Diego Zoo:

Dinner with Friends

Water Fun

Warm weather shows up, pool comes out! First time this summer, they had a blast!

Ms. Rocket Launcher

Kadence figured out how to work the stomp rocket and after lots of practice, she's now a pro! She kept herself busy doing this and it was so much fun watching her have such a good time.

Kadence with Julia

These 2 bonded over memorial weekend. Kadence just adores Julia and I'm so amazed how well Julia plays with Kadence since she is 6 years older than her! I caught them sharing some precious moments - I hope they'll stay friends for life!

Memorial Weekend 2011

Fun time with friends! This weekend marks the 5th year we've co-owned the beach house! We count our blessings every year...

These girls are T-R-O-U-B-L-E

This is the kind of party we like to see in the 'tub - not the one
we fear we'll see in about 10-15 years!

Me & my baby girl

Fun at the park

Hangin' out

Aden has always been a very cautious child - he thinks first before he does everything. Although I always thought that being a boy, he would take after his dad, he definitely ended up with my genes and is more careful and not very daring at all. So it always amazes me whenever he tries out things that I knew used to intimidate him. And although I get a little bit anxious sometimes, I hide it from him and I make an extra effort to encourage him to be daring. This is one of those days, when all of a sudden, he decided he will try hanging upside down from monkey bars which he's never tried before. I was so proud of him and it was another reminder that he is growing up way too fast and that he's spreading his wings. 

 

Happy Birthday to Dad

We had a weekend full of birthday celebration for Darin. Started off on Friday night with party at Jenn & Craig's. Then Saturday night, we had Darin's siblings over for a more intimate gathering at our house. What a fun night it was. Christened our new firepit that Darin built and enjoyed the wonderful evening. Sunday was the first nice day we had in a long time, and we enjoyed it in our backyard, kids playing, horseshoes for adults and I gardened all day. We topped it off with an impromptu dinner with the Lefferts & Seteras who came over to enjoy the backyard with us. It was a very busy weekend but a very fun one. We appreciated everyone joining us in celebrating Darin's birthday.

 

Enjoying the firepit

Kids goofing off during dinner

The adults table

Beach for Easter weekend

It's became one of our yearly traditions now to spend Easter weekend at the beach. The best part of that is that we are usually surrounded by dear friends. We had an awesome time - the weather was perfect, which always helps! Lots of play time at the beach, hiking the dune, tide pools, and late night with friends.

Aden loving the fact that we were able to get up to our "fish bowl":

Alicia enjoying the view - the best part about hiking the dune:

Sydney & Kadence: