Tate's Working Hard

Tate's always been his father's son. He proved it again! When Daddy and Grandpa got dirt for the new garden that they built, Tate worked along side them the entire time. He hauled dirt in his wheelbarrow for hours! What a great helper!
 

 

 

Grandpa

Kezia loves to say, "Hi Papa!" to everyone, but especially to Papa and Grandpa. Grandpa gets her to say it over and over by saying, "Hi, Kezia!" to her just so she'll respond, "Hi, Papa!" Since Grandpa and Grandma were here this weekend for Katiree's birthday, Kezia had many chances to tell Grandpa hi, get carried around and give kisses. Here's the cheesy grin and a Kezia kiss...

 

Katiree's Arts and Crafts Birthday Party

SEVEN... the first year we do a birthday party with friends. Katiree wanted to do an Arts and Crafts birthday party and invited 10 girls. What fun we had!

 

They painted pots (and did bubble painting - no pictures of that) inside.

 

 

 

Play-dough creatures were made outside.

Sidewalk chalk art for the patio.

The crayon drop game was a hit (thanks to Travis' boisterous enthusiasm)!

 Auntie Chanda helped the girls make cards.

A sample of the girls' work!

 

When the pots were dry, Grandpa helped them plant strawberry plants to take home.

 

It was wonderful to have a group of girls from church, school, neighbor and longtime friend as well! Katiree enjoyed herself and I hope the girls did too!

Katiree's Birthday Cake (age 7)

Each year for each child's birthday, they get to pick out a theme for their birthday cake. We research ideas and decide on a cake. This year Katiree chose to do an "Arts and Crafts" birthday cake. Since I hurt my back right before her birthday, I was so thankful for help from my sister and sister-in-law. Katiree and I were both thrilled with the result!
 

 

 

 

 

Katiree Cracks Us Up

At nearly seven years old, Katiree is often found building (game rooms, designing restaurants), climbing, imagining... her creative side is coming out and it's fun to watch, but sometimes she just cracks us up. This is how I found her outside one day last week.

 

 

Memorial Day Weekend at the Cabin

We went to our family's cabin on Mt. Hood (Oregon) for Memorial Day weekend. The kids were in their element playing outside. Katiree built a fort out of branches stuck between trees. Tate and Zane played with some old trucks (that used to be my dad's and uncles'). Katiree, Kezia and Zane went for rides in an old wagon. Kezia did not fuss about the pine needles on her hands (she's still crawling mostly). They all loved being outside.

 

 Kezia  continued to work on walking inside the cabin. She loved these stairs and would go sit on the bottom stair, peek through the railings and at one point, shouted "YAY!" (see picture below).

 We went fishing at Trillium Lake. The fishing was an interesting adventure. While the kids loved trying, they didn't catch anything. Evidently, only one guy on this side of the lake even got bites and he reeled in three (or more) fish of decent size. On top of no bites, our kids haven't been fishing before. Travis was trying to man all three kids with three fishing poles, undo tangles, reset bait... and then deal with another little boy that thought it was great fun to be with us (he'd been fishing all morning with his dad and was plumb bored). Our boys liked this little boy as well and were happily playing hide-and-seek with the worm container, holding worms, etc. with no regard for their noise level. To top it off, Kezia just wasn't going to sit all morning in the stroller (where did those days go?) and boisterously was making herself known. I'm pretty sure we were the family all the other fishermen were grumbling about and I'm also pretty sure that no fish would come our way just due to the noise level! But, the kids left happy and wanting to go fishing again some time. 

 

We spent time down at Still Creek near our cabin. When I was younger, a lot of time was spent fishing in Still Creek, but we also spent a lot of time at the "swimming hole" just playing. When we were older, we swam in the glacier water at the swimming hole, but those days were few and now long in our past (BRRR...) Katiree, Tate and Zane loved throwing rocks in the water. Kezia loved the sand and rocks (until she ate some sand and threw up) and washing her hands in the water (with Travis' help). It was a wonderful weekend (until I threw out my back) with great memories made (even in spite of the back). My memories at the cabin are precious to me; we hope the memories our kids make will last long in their hearts.

Family Weekend at Seaside, Oregon

It all began when Travis and I realized we've never gone to the coast with only our little family. We also realized we'd been so busy lately that we'd left little time for our little family to just be... just be together, just enjoy each other, just experience life as a family. We opted to change that...

Thus, the trip to Seaside, Oregon, came about. God went before us, had a weekend stay at the Worldmark Hotel in Seaside on craigslist (on the beach, heated outdoor pool, full kitchen and two bedrooms!) and planned the most beautiful weekend for our mini vacation!

We left Friday morning and headed to the Tillamook Air Museum (if this is a vacation, we've got to see some sights, right?). This air museum is a huge hangar full of old planes. We knew the boys would love it, but Katiree did too!

I can't remember what type of plane this one was...

This plane was called the "Dolphin". Katiree has been studying dolphins at school and thought it was AWESOME!

An F-14. The boys love fighter jets right now, so this was what they were both thrilled to find.

This picture cracks me up... Tate and Zane looking under the helicopter to see if they can see how it works.

A DC-3... My Grandpa Randall was an airplane mechanic for 40 years. We have a picture of him in front of a DC-3. The picture looks VERY similar to this one.

 We left the air museum and headed for Tillamook Cheese Factory. If you've never been there, I'm sad for you! =) We watched them make cheese and had an ice cream cone! Yum. The kids posed for pictures...

Tate the cow... Katiree the farmer with four arms.  Kezia on the cow's back.  Is Zane the milk can?

It was nap time and we hadn't left Tillamook Cheese Factory. Tate was starting to get really silly! All the kids wanted to "drive" the loaf car. (cheese loaf)

 We went from Tillamook up to Seaside, Oregon, where we had fun on the beach for the next two days. Sand castles, jumping in the water (even Zane tried), playing in the pool, flying our kite and enjoying the sunshine. God really gave us the PERFECT weekend. No wind and lots of sunshine. In the Northwest, this is just not easy to predict or find in April.

Zane's (and Travis') sand castle

Katiree and Tate's sand castle (notice the awesome fence around the moat)

This is what happens when you say you are leaving the area where we built sandcastles. The boys think they better destroy at least one of them!

A beautiful day!

Zane getting his feet wet.

Running from the waves (and then back in)

 

Kezia was there too... she just napped in the Ergo carrier or enjoyed the sites.

Jumping as the waves roll in...

Sunset

The beach

 We praise God for our wonderful time! We enjoyed our family. We were thankful for purposeful time spent together that was uplifting and relaxing. We were thankful for sunshine so we could enjoy the beach and the pool every minute that we were there!