Visiting With Ampa and Grandma

We took a trip up to visit Ampa Larry and Grandma Becky! We had not been there for three years and a visit was definitely past due. Rayden was so excited for the trip up there and had a list of things that she wanted to do during our visit. She wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese since we do not have one here, she wanted to go to the zoo and she wanted to ride a train. We promised her that she could do all of these things during our visit. The drive up there went great....a long drive, but a good one. Parker slept the majority of the way there and when he wasn't sleeping he was plugging his ears when Rayden was singing!! Rayden actually stayed awake almost the whole trip and just listened to the iPod (and singing at the top of her lungs) and looked out the window. We had such a wonderful visit and enjoyed every minute of it. Silly me believed the weather reports for the weekend and only packed summer type clothes.....not the smartest thing when living in Oregon! We had a couple cloudy, cool rainy days but we made do with what we had and still had a great time! It was so nice to visit with family and Rayden and Parker really enjoyed spending some quality time with Ampa and Grandma since they do not get to see them very often. Thank you for having us, we had such a great time.....see you soon!

"Where A Kid Can Be A Kid"

The first place on Rayden's list to go was Chuck E. Cheese! We went there the first night of our visit. We all sat down and ate our pizza (which was surprising decent!) before going to play games. It was really nice that all of the games were only 1 token, so Rayden's 50 tokens that she had went a long ways! Rayden ran all over playing games and Parker tried hard to follow her and do everything Sissy was doing....he got mad at us when we wouldn't let go of his hand! Rayden's favorite little ride was the chair that went round and around the clock. At the end of the night we cashed in the tickets (a lot of them gotten by Grandma Becky in one game!) and the kids each got a blow up hammer and Rayden got some cotton candy. It was a fun first night with more fun to come!!

The Zoo!!

The Oregon Zoo! The second place on Rayden's list to go! We all headed out in the morning for the zoo with a very excited little girl. She wanted to see the bears, elephants, monkeys and giraffes the most. We saw all of those animals and then some! Rayden's favorite animal was the black bear.....it was just on the other side of the glass right in front of her! She took a picture of him and we left but she kept wanting to go back and see him again! The elephants were fun, especially the baby elephant named Sam (short for Samudra). Parker had a laid back day and enjoyed looking at all the animals. He loved watching the monkeys jump around all over the place and he liked the bear as well! The zoo has changed a lot since I was a kid.....I have not been there in years and years! Mine and Jeff's favorite animal was definitely the polar bear, he was so massive and beautiful!

Zoo Train

Rayden was super excited about riding the train at the zoo; she loves trains. We parked their strollers and climbed on the train just as it started raining! The ride was nice, even though the rain was coming in the windows. Parker kept pointing out the window at everything and Rayden was trying not to sit too still because she probably would have fallen asleep :) (parker did end up falling asleep). The ride was soon over and we had to step out into the rain. The kids' strollers were not undercover so they were soaked. We decided to call it a day, went to the giftshop and then headed home. It was such a fun day at the zoo....even with the rain!

The Garden

Ampa and Grandma have a little garden outside and the kids really enjoyed going out there and picking their blueberries and strawberries. We learned that Parker does not like blueberries at all but would sometimes eat the green ones if he picked them. He loooooved the strawberries but got very mad when those were all gone. Rayden helped out Ampa and Daddy get some old carrots out of the ground one day and they added them to the compost bin. Rayden had a great time harvesting everything and cannot wait until our garden at home has things to pick!

A Little Friend

We went over to Patty and Scott's house so Rayden could see the little kitten that Ampa had rescued from the Amtrack station. The little kitten was super sweet and Rayden fell in love with her....she still talks about that little kitten! She really wanted to take that little kitty home with her. We finally pried her away from the kitten and then the kids ran around the big yard with Daddy to get some of their energy out before heading back to Ampa and Grandma's house.

Play Time

During the times that it wasn't raining during our visit the kids got to go play at a couple of playgrounds. They both had fun running around the new territory and exploring the new toys. Playgrounds are always a fun place to go! Parker loves going down slides now, most of the time he gets to the top and promptly turns himself around and goes down on his tummy, it is cute. Rayden loves anything that she can climb right now but does get stuck sometimes and asks for help. I love how playgrounds can even bring out the little kid in the adults as well......you just can't help but play, swing and go down the slides as well :)

A Big Helper

Rayden's favorite chore to help with right now is laundry....especially folding (which is great because I hate doing it!) Rayden even does a pretty good job for an "almost 4 year olds" (as she calls herself). She jumped right in to help Grandma Becky with her laundry. The stood in the dining room talking and folding for quite awhile, it was pretty cute!

Just Having Fun

Just some photos of some of the fun things the kids were doing during their visit. They played with the Noah's Ark Little People set, colored some pictures, played with the puzzle from the zoo, made paper airplanes and Rayden loved wearing her gorilla mask from the zoo. The kids had a fun time visiting :)

Making Ice Cream

Patty brought over a really cool ice cream ball to the BBQ for the kids to do. It was pretty cool, Patty just added the ice cream ingredients to the middle and the ice around the outside and then handed it over. Rayden, Jake (Patty and Scott's son), Scott and Larry all took turns all rolling and kicking the ball around for around 20 minutes. Rayden enjoyed the yummy chocolate ice cream afterwards.

Ampa's Birthday

While we were visiting Ampa had his birthday! We all celebrated it on Saturday evening with a BBQ. Grandma Becky made some very good food and we all had a wonderful time. Rayden helped Ampa open up his gifts and she played with her new bestest bud Scott. It was a fun way to spend our last evening there.

A Cool Treat

With the warmer weather comes popsicles! On this night Parker had his first! He loved the cherry popsicle and ate the whole thing with little mess......yum! Look how happy he is with his cool treat.

Cupcake Decorating

A while back I watched Shawna's kids for a full day, so I had her three plus my two. It was a busy day! The kids were pretty good too. I had made some chocolate cupcakes that morning so the kids could decorate them after nap time. Rayden and Caitlyn got to decorate them but C.J ended up taking a very very long nap that day and didn't wake up in time to help. The girls had fun decorating with marshmallows, peanuts, coconut, m&m's, gummy bears and lots of sprinkles. They cupcakes were decorated with as many toppings as they could fit on there and then the best part came, eating them!! It was a great activity to keep the kids busy and entertained for awhile.

Jordan's Birthday

A few weekend ago was Jordan's 2nd birthday. He had a pirate party at a park near his house, it had been raining all week but stayed dry for the day of the party! Jordan got a cool new wagon from Papa and Grandma. All of the kids loved playing in it and Jordan spent the vast majority of his party in the wagon. Nico was pulling Jordan and Rayden around in the wagon, just running in circles the whole time. Ashleigh made a cute pirate ship cake that all of the kids enjoyed eating. Happy 2nd birthday Jordan!

Corn on the Cob

Parker had his first corn on the cob the other night. He loved it but he refused to eat it from the middle, he only wanted to eat the end! We ended up just cutting the corn off of it for him after he chewed on it for awhile. Yummy.

A New Friend

After dinner one night Rayden was playing out in the yard (please excuse her very dirty hands, face and everywhere else!!) and found a snail. She was soooo super excited and went around showing everyone her new little friend, whom she named Patrick! The little snail kept coming out of his shell more and more when she was holding him and she loved every minute of it. She played with her little pet for awhile before putting him back in the yard and setting him free.

More Swimming

When the pool was a bit warmer than it had been, and when Parker was in a better mood, we all went swimming again. This time Parker had a great time and really enjoyed swimming. Rayden learned that she could easily float on her back and even swim in her back, so this was what she did with the majority of her time :) I have a video of her swimming on her back that I will upload soon.

Bug Vacuum

Rayden got a bug vacuum a couple weekends ago and she has had a great time sucking up bugs! The first night grandma sucked up a fly in it. Rayden let it loose outside and then went out back to suck up ants. After you suck up the bugs you close the hatch and it turns into a magnifying glass to see what you caught!

Beating the Heat

It has been warm here lately and Rayden has been looking forward to swimming season. Papa got the pool all cleaned and filled and she was eager to try it out. it had not heated up quite enough for some of us yet but she didn't care. On Memorial day Papa and Uncle Jason took the kids into the pool. Rayden loved it of course and swam all over the place with her trusty floaties on her arms. Jordan did not care for the pool at first, but quickly warmed up to it and started having fun. Parker has been in quite the mood lately and that didn't change when he got into the pool, he just fussed the whole time so we finally took him out (he still continued to fuss!) I am looking forward to when it gets warmer, then I will be more than happy to join them :)

Fishing Fun

This past weekend we headed out to the lake for a relaxing day of fishing. The lake was pretty packed since it was Memorial weekend (there was even a guy dressed up as Superman on a jet ski!), but we found a good spot for our lunch and a good spot to fish on the pier. (the same pier that Rayden was standing under in the previous fishing post, the water has really risen!) Parker was mad because we were right by the water so he was not allowed to run around....he either had to be held or in his stroller. He was happy when he was eating his strawberries though! Rayden had fun fishing and playing around, she did not end up catching any fish this time though. Between Daddy, Papa and Grandma (she caught the biggest at 14 inches) they caught 15 fish (they had to stop at that because each person has a limit of 5 a day). I do not have a fishing license to I tried to keep the kids entertained. It was such a beautiful day out and the sun turned my mom and I into bright red lobsters by the days end. Rayden was just exhausted and fell asleep on Papa's lap when we were sitting at the table before heading home. Such a nice day!

Little Biker

The kids' friend C.J had his 4th birthday party this past weekend. (Rayden is mad that all of her friends are turning 4 before her, she says it isn't fair!) After everyone left Parker got to test out one of Colin's gifts, his Harley Davidson power wheel!! Parker LOVED it and played on it for soooo long. His face would just light up everytime someone would hold down the gas pedal to make it go (he was waaaay too short to reach it!) He was our little biker dude!

A Little Getaway

Jeff's schedule at work got changed for the next month or so and because of his old schedule and new schedule merging, he ended up with a 6 day weekend last week. We decided we needed to get away for awhile and headed over the mountain to Klamath so the kids could visit with Grandma Bonnie and Papa Chuck. For the most part we had a wonderful relaxing weekend.

Grandma Bonnie bought some buckets and shovels for kids to play with while they visited. Rayden and Parker broke them in eagerly! They played out in the dirt and gravel almost everyday while we were there and got good and dirty in the process :)

Rayden had to have a few tea parties while we were there of course! On this day she had some yummy hot chocolate, she said it helped her sleep "sooooo good!!"

Parker was being silly there and chewing on his shirt a lot. He thought it was hilarious and continued to do it because of course we were all laughing at him! Bonnie said Jeff did this when he was little too.

Jeff helped his mom fix some of her sprinklers when we were there too. While they were doing that we were looking at all of Grandma Bonnie's pretty flowers. She had some gorgeous lilac bushes blooming and they smelled wonderful! She got some pots and put some starters in them for me to take home but unfortunately we forgot them there :(

Sunday was a hard day for Parker and I. Parker got up in the morning and he was throwing up and had diarrhea. No fun. Luckily he did not have much in his belly and was just throwing up water most of the time. He definitely was not himself and kept laying down on a blanket in the living room to sleep and every once in awhile you would find him laying on the kitchen floor. Poor guy. We got him to take about a 4 hour nap and he did seem better when he got up. We all sat down to eat a yummy steak dinner and that is when I started feeling horrible. I ended up in pain and throwing up until about 3 in the morning and still felt really cruddy the next day. I was really thankful for Bonnie, she helped out with the kids sooo much and took care of me :) Rayden and Daddy ended up sick with the same thing a few of days later.

The next day we decided to get out the house for a bit and headed to the park for a picnic and some playing. I still felt nasty and Parker was a crank but we had a good time. The weather was beautiful and Rayden had fun on the playground. She tackled the bog rock climbing wall like a champ and played with some other little kids that showed up. We said goodbye the next afternoon and headed back over the mountain for home. Thank you Bonnie and Chuck for taking us in and taking care of us!! We had a great time and see you soon. :)

Bald Again

Parker was in need of a haircut so Daddy shaved his head. I guess at some point Parker turned his head just right and he ended up with a bald spot. Jeff ended up having to shave his head really close! He was a little baldy but it grows back fast!

Planting Flowers

Rayden helped Grandma and Papa plant their flower boxes a few weekends ago. She had such a good time planting all of the pretty flowers and then watering them!

Casting Lessons

Since Rayden enjoyed fishing so much the last time she went, Grandma Terrie bought Rayden her own little fishing pole. When they got back to the house with it, Papa gave her casting lessons. She tried hard and is now casting like a pro!