The great Oregon steam up 2015

We  love the great Oregon steam up!  We try to take the boys every year, and they always have a good time.  It was nice and overcast so we didn't roast like we usually do, that was nice. It even sprinkled a bit!  Felt good, and even a little chilly.


Alex loved the train, and pretty much wanted to do that the whole time.  We made it on 3 times, and this one time we ran into a friend who happened to get on before us. She snapped this picture while our trains were passing, and then sent it to me.  And, I don't know who that guy is that is behind April, he just happened to be in the picture.

Alex loves to see all the tractors too...

These are just his size!

Daddy got these ear muffs out for him to wear.  It can get pretty loud there, as you could see him plugging his ears on the train ride.  Apparently we didn't have his muffs for that ride.  He actually didn't end up wearing them the whole time.  After a while he decided to take them off and he did good!

Time for the kids tractor pull!  The kids love to do this every year.  They look forward to it, and this year Alex got to do it! 

He gave it all he could!

Push! He didn't get a full pull, but he made it pretty far.

Sittin' watching the tractor pull...

Aric's turn!  He really pushed hard, and got pretty far.  We loved his position while he was going.  It was a very determined stance.

Aaron got a full pull, and won the pull off too.  He won first place, and got a gift card for McDonald's. He was very proud.

It was another fun year at the steam up!

Desiree

Aric's 7th birthday

I love this newly turned 7 year old!  He had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle themed birthday party at the park with lots of good friends!

Then we went to see the Minion movie...

And, finally dinner at Red Robin. Complete with ice cream sundae...

Don't forget me!

Aric's 20 questions:

~Favorite color: Red

~Favorite toy: Ten Kai Knights

~Favorite stuffed animal: My Teenage mutant ninja turtle ball

~Favorite thing to sleep with: nothing

~Favorite fruit: apple

~Favorite cereal: Trix

~Favorite thing to eat for lunch: hamburgers

~Favorite dessert: cake

~Favorite drink: root beer

~Birthday dinner: Red robin chicken strips

~Favorite animal: turtle

~Favorite book: Any TMNT book--too much ooze

~Favorite song: TMNT theme song

~Favorite game: Tag

~Favorite tv show: TMNT

~Favorite movie:

~Favorite thing to do outside: Ride my bike!

~Best friend: MJ

~What do you want to be when you grow up? A pizza maker at teenage mutant ninjas pizza place.

Desiree

4th of July

I have 3 pictures from our 4th of July weekend.  This is it! Making minion cupcakes while camping. I think I wasn't in the picture taking mood for various reasons.  But, we had a lot of fun!  We camped, played at the beach, went on a family bike ride, and had lots of fun!

How was your 4th of July?

Desiree

April's violin recital

June 20, 2015

3:00pm

April is becoming quite the violinist.  She did a spectacular job at her recital!

 She actually played 2 instruments, the violin and the piano, at her recital.  She is learning both so well!

 I look forward to these recitals, they are really a happy momma moment.

 The wait is so long, and then it goes so quick when she finally gets up there.

 I have a video at Flickr, you can watch it here.

 Desiree

Memorial day camping trip (part 1)

This happened almost a month ago now, but I wanted to get these pictures up.  It was such a nice camping trip, and so much fun!

We went to Beverly Beach over on the Oregon Coast for Memorial day weekend.  We got lucky and found a spot earlier in the week as we didn't decide to go until the weekend before.

It was a nice little spot.

Alex always loves helping to bring the firewood over...

 They got along pretty well for this camping trip...

 Aaron loves to have the chance to chop some wood...

 I think our kids are finally getting the idea of sitting around a fire

 the beach is always fun to play at.

 Nice weather was a plus.

 Too cold for the water, yeah right!  Most of them ended up getting their clothes wet on this day at the beach.

 We had a pond right by our trailer, and caught sight of some salamanders.

 This girl mostly just wanted to sit and read in the trailer.  We had to drag her out sometimes!

 A view of our site from the bathroom, see the pond right there? And, the frogs would make so much noise at around 8pm every night.  It was pretty loud right there next to them. We were all glad we had a trailer that blocked out some of the noise.

 Game night!

 We played some hi-ho-cherry-o and Trouble!

 One morning we went on an Oregon coast quest.  It's where you follow some hints to find a box that has a stamp in it to put in the book.  Each quest gets a stamp, and allows you to explore new areas on the Oregon coast.  We had so much fun on this quest of Big Creek Park.

 Walking to find the next clue...

 We had to find letters like this in different locations to spell a word which is our clue to where the box is...

Some climbing and exploring were a must!

 We finally found the box!  It is always fun to get to the end.

 We have to write our names down in the log book. It is fun to look and see who has come by recently.

And, that's the end of part 1.  I think I have a few more pictures to share, but I will share them later!

Desiree

Happy 9th birthday Aaron!

Aaron's birthday was celebrated over our memorial day camping trip on May 24, 2015. He wanted to have a mustache theme, so we did!  It was fun. Pictures from left to right, first row: mustache straws, and cupcakes. Second row: opening presents, and his birthday lunch at Izzy's in Newport, OR. Third row: Aaron with a cake decoration mustache, and more present opening.

This boy has grown a lot this year! Some highlights of his 8th year are:

~He earned his Wolf badge for cub scouts.

~He had his first piano recital

~He went on his first clamming trip with his Dad and Uncle Marc

~He had a fun time at his first cub scout camp

~A lot of fun cub scout activities like his first pinewood derby

Here are his 20 questions:

1. What is your favorite color? Blue

2. What is your favorite toy? Exploderz gun (he just got it for his birthday)

3. What is your favorite stuffed animal? Minecraft pig

4. What is your favorite thing to sleep with? A pillow

5. What is your favorite fruit? Star fruit

6. What is your favorite cereal? Captain Crunch

7. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Trout (note we don't really ever eat this for lunch)

8. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Bacon

9. What is your favorite dessert? ice cream

10. What is your favorite drink? Dr. Pepper

11. What do you want to eat for your birthday dinner? Crab (and he did)

12. What is your favorite animal? fish

13. What is your favorite book? Minecraft chapter books

14. What is your favorite song? Dark lord funk (a Harry Potter parody)

15. What is your favorite game? Minecraft

16. What is your favorite TV show? Sarah Jane adventures

17. What is your favorite movie? Star Wars

18. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Shoot my Exploderz gun

19. Who is your best friend? Karl

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Engineer

Happy Birthday to an awesome boy!  

Aaron's baptism--a year ago

In honor of his 9th birthday I am finally posting his special baptism day from a year ago--when he turned 8!  I realized as his 9th was approaching that I never got around to posting about this.

It's an important day, and one that deserves to be posted about, so I figured better late than never!

He had a joint baptism with his good friend Karl P. who have a birthday just about the same time.  For some reason we didn't get a picture of the two of them together!  Weird, and kinda sad.  That would have been a fun memory.  Oh well, we got some pictures with the family.  These are the best we got...

With Dad who baptized him...

With Grandpa...

All the boys...

And, our family...

Aaron's baptism: May 25, 2014

A very special day.