School's Gardens

As you might of noticed we are back from here.

and already missing the schedule free/carefree feelings of vacation...sigh..

(I have to add this picture because it is one of the few of Andrew on the beach not squinting)

This week we got a chance to help do some gardening at our school.
The girls were supposed to work for three days..but got all the work done in two instead. I missed the first day, but sent my mom and Andrew to take my place. It was so nice of them to go and I hear they worked HARD.It was fun to work, but I think it was more fun to see friends that we haven't seen much of this summer. Working at the school's gardens is a great way to feel connected and have ownership in our school (as you know school is just around the corner hehehe).

When life gives you rain...you go swimming

Well, we are in the Northwest. We are in Oregon to be exact.What is one of the things Oregon is famous for? I'll just tell you..rain. But rain might get some people down, not these guys though. While we were waiting for the sun to shine the kids got to hit the pool at Granpa's place. Like Ryan said, "swimming in the rain is better because you are already wet!"

Some of the jumps got pretty fancy!

Nice form Emily. Good times in the rain.
The sun did come out though! We ran to the ocean.and we hit the the waves ("we" is a loosely used term here someone had to take pictures)

and the sand dunes. It is such a pretty day we decided to stay here one more night. I am off to build a sand castle!

Manzanita time

It's Manzanita Time! Every year since Erik was a small fry, his family has been coming to Manzanita to spend time together at the coast. This tradition is still going strong.
We were lucky to get the same house as last year! It is a block and a half from the beach.
As soon as we unloaded the van, we ran to the coast.

We had fun jumping waves

Running from the waves

and just goofing around.

This morning we went to explore the tide pools.

When I was little, I remember my teacher passing around a box with shells and other things from tide pools. That started my fascination with tide pools. I guess I have always been destined to join the Manzanita crowd : )
Now I am lucky to get to go each year with my family to walk around and explore them.

This year we found tons of star fish

Tons of sea anemones.

I have to say that I am really happy that my kids love the coast and love the tide pools.
Emily loves exploring with her cousin Lauren.

Actually, Emily loves doing anything with her cousin Lauren!

And Ry loves doing anything with me!! : )

The Flying Dutchman

I love to go on thrill rides. I love all the extreme rides at the state fair. Erik on the other hand does not love rides. He doesn't even entertain the idea of riding on a rollar coaster. So, I have been training my kids since birth to go on rides with me. So far, this has worked beautifully.
As I have already said, we took the kids to Nickelodeon Universe last night. Amazing fun evening. Guess what? There is a new thing to do at the MOA. It is an indoor ropes course called, "The Flying Dutchman." I agreed to go with Emily. You have to go through 4 levels..walk out on the plank and ring the bell. It is literally FEAR FACTOR at the mall. Did I mention that that plank is located 56 feet up in the air? You have to cross scary rope bridges and other obstacles to get to it. Basically, once you are at the top you are hanging out in the roof of a 6 story building and your only safety net is the harness wrapped around your body!

Here I am making my way up to to ceiling of the MOA. You can't tell here...but I have a death grip on my harness.

Emily did such a great job. At one point, she yelled down to the lady that had hooked us up, "Look we haven't died yet!" Everyone laughed. I am so glad she can joke around while my life is passing before my eyes!

Here I am sporting the death grip and a pounding heart!
Like any good mother, I made Emily go first.
BUT we did it! Of course you have to use two hands to ring the bell. I had to loosen my harness death grip to ring the bell. By the way, I didn't cry at all. Good for me!
I am adding these last two pictures so you can really appreciate the height. That purple shirt crossing the tight rope is me..trying to not be out done by the nine year old who just crossed the rope!
Above us is literally the ceiling to the MOA!
I have to say that it actually was a really cool experience to go through this course with Emily. We had to talk each other through the scary parts and we succeeded together. I feel more bonded to her. I am sure that is not the last time I- have- I- mean-get to go through this course. Ry is already planning our trip up together! Anyone else want to join us?
As for Erik...he was able to keep his feet safely on the ground the entire evening plus he won this cute pink duckie. Good job Erik!

MOA

If you come to visit...we will take you to the Mall of America. It is just part of the deal. You come we all go. We decided that tonight would be a great time to hit Nickelodeon Universe with our visiting cousins. There are so many fun rides. These guys went on all of them a few times!

I love to have these guys make great memories together. We started off with the smaller rides and worked our way up to the "bigger" rides. This is such good training for the annual trip to Valley Fair!

It is so fun because they are all now tall enough to go on most of the rides by themselves. The few rides that the little ones do need a chaperon on were ones that the chaperons would actually choose to ride...so Carol and I got to ride some for free. Leo LOVED the log ride. Andrew and Leo are now both fans of the Timberland Twister. Hooray! The other favorites for the night were Splat-o-sphere, Rock-bottom and the Danny Phantom ride.

A fun surprise bonus:

I am not sure if you knew (because we sure didn't)...but the first Tuesday of each month Lego Land has a free build project from 5-7pm. You get to build it there and take it home. Tonight's project was a red lobster. Ry insisted on waiting in the line to build it. I am so glad he did. It is such a cute project. We lucked out tonight!

As soon as my knees stop shaking I will share with you all how Emily and I defied death and Erik caught it all on film..(OK "defying death" is being dramatic...but I will share how Emily and I got really really terrified)

Cousins photo

Last week we took all the grandkids to get their picture taken together. We do this every time Nico and Leo are in town.

It was total craziness behind the camera. People making silly faces and silly sounds..

Telling kids to look at the camera and being ignored by at least one child per shot.
But I think that we got some cute pictures.
Taking these pictures is a great tradition. They turn into wonderful keepsakes.

Party time!

We celebrated Andrew's 6th birthday yesterday with his friends (yes, we are late...but at least we are celebrating). We decided to have a tumbling party. We called Gleason's Gymnastics Center. I love having birthday parties here. We get the entire place to ourselves! The kids have smiles through the entire party!

This group played hard.
They swung high. Leo is swinging on the rope during free play time.
They bounced high. At one point, Sasha (the party host) had each child lay down on the trampoline..he bounced them up super high and caught them. The kids loved that part!
They flipped all around. Here Alexis is modeling the trapeze.
Erik joined the fun. What a fun dad!
We had a VERY happy birthday boy!