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 :)