It's Been A While

Hello! It's been a while since I've been on the blog. We have been keeping busy this last month of our summer vacation. We have been to amusement parks, state parks, shopping (of course!), decorating for school, and having a lot of out of town company. Today is actually the first day of school for the two big boys, so I may have some free time to get back to blogging. Of course there are a lot of pictures for me to post, so stay tuned in the next few hours and days for some blogging action. :)

Oregon Coast & Wildlife Safari

On Tuesday of our vacation we went to the Oregon Coast. I forgot how breathtaking it is. . . . and how cold! Brrrr! When we got to Bandon it was 68 degrees according to the van's themometer. When we got near the ocean it was 58 degrees! It wouldn't have been so bad, but the wind was going full blast also. It made for a short trip to the coast!

Wednesday we went to the Wildlife Safari The Safari is a drive-thru wild animal park. It's pretty neat to be that close to the animals. You'll see a few pictures of the animals that we saw on the slideshow.

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Sleeping Under the Stars

One of the nights that we were in Oregon, my boys wanted to sleep on the trampoline. So David, Trevor, Cole & Uncle Josh headed outside armed with blankets, flashlights and marshmallows. They even took a laptop computer out there so they could watch a movie! Talk about roughing it! LOL







They had a fire to keep them cozy. . . .



and to roast giant marshmallows.

Park Slideshow

Here is another slidshow of our Saturday and Sunday last week. Saturday we had a family picnic. My uncle, aunt & cousin from Nebraska happened to be in Oregon at the same time we were. So we all got together Saturday night for some food and fun.

Sunday night after church we went to the park in town. My brother Joshua works for the city and he helped to put in all this new playground equipment. He wanted to show us his handywork. We packed a cooler and headed to the park after church. The boys had a great time playing around.

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A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village

We went with my sister and her children to the A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village. It is a children's museum with plenty to see and do. Rather than try to pick and choose from the many, many photographs I took, I figured a slideshow would be fun. So sit back and enjoy our little tour! :)

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The Park

The park is always a hit. After Grampa and Grammy headed home we walked to the park just a few blocks from my sister's new home. The kids had a great time playing there, and I got a few good photos in the process.

If there's even the slightest opportunity, Cole will be off the ground.

Kerilynn, Trevor (in the back), Cole & Logan

All the cousins + David

Dad's Antics

Grampa got quite a good workout from the grandkids while we were there. Here are some photos of the kids, keeping Grampa busy:

You can see where this is going, right?

I love that you can see the moon in the background here.

And after the kids are done with him. . . .!

Meeting Grampa

It was nice to finally touch down and be on solid ground again. This was the first time that Grampa and Aunt Jessica got to meet my Brooke. We first went to my sister's home in the Salem area. We stayed with her for the first few days of our trip. Grampa and Grammy came to get us from the airport, then we had a delicious grilled dinner.

Here's Dad with my nephew Joel. Joel is 2 weeks and 2 days older than Brooke. He is such a sweetie and he stole my heart.

Aunt Jessica & Brooke

Plane Ride

Of course our trip started with a plane ride. Two of them, to be exact. We flew from Pittsburgh to Midway, then on to Portland. The kids love anything out of the norm, and flying is a great adventure for them. They did GREAT on each plane ride and I was so proud of them. I loved hearing all the good comments about our kids from the people around us.

Cole is always the one to give you a laugh.
After our first flight the pilot told Trevor he could come in and see the cockpit. Trevor was eating that up! Then the other boys filed in to see. The pilot was very nice to the boys, commented on their matching shirts and asked if we'd like a picture.

Stay Tuned!

We got back from our Oregon vacation Saturday morning at 3:30 a.m. (Yes, you read that correctly!) We had a good time, but the old saying is true: "There's no place like home." I wish I could bundle up my parents, sister, niece, nephew and the rest of my family and bring them out here to live nearby. I'm going to work on downloading some pictures and blogging soon, so stay tuned for some information about our trip.

Nana

David's mom was able to come for a visit the week of Brooke's birthday. We didn't do too much while she was here; mostly enjoyed her company. We did get out of the house a few times to enjoy nature and go bowling.

One day we picnicked at Canoe Creek State Park.

Brooke and Nana wore matching shirts.

Brooke got the "mooch seat." She sat in the middle of the table and ate a little bit of everything.

I just love this one. Look at all those cute tooshies! :)

We took a short hike to the kilns but the boys paused for a photo op.

Here are the kilns. They were very interesting to see.

Of course you can't go to the park with boys and not end up playing hide-n-seek, or tag, or both! It was Trevor and Cole's turn to count.

Now it's their turn to hide!

After the hike the boys took a dip in the water. This swan came right over to us.

When he finally figured out we weren't going to feed him, he left.

This was when we first spotted the swan.

I wasn't expecting Brooke to go for a swim, but Daddy took her in for a while. All her things were in the diaper bag, so Nana improvised and put David's shirt on Brooke to keep her warm.

There's that cute little tongue again!

Later that night Cole taught Nana how to play Pictureka. I think Brooke was learning too.

Our park has $1 bowling on Wednesday afternoons. We took Nana to bowling that day.

We told Brooke to clap her hands, and she did!