A Visit from the Packers–October 19-23

My brother-in-law Nate started the MBA program at BYU this August.  Each fall, they give the MBA students a week off to go recruit for internships.  Nate spent part of his time in California, then Becky, Nate, and their two little boys drove up to spend the rest of the week with us.  Nate visited with a few companies in the area, and Becky and I did some shopping and hung out with the kids.  The boys had tons of fun together too!  Here are some highlights of the trip.

Just hanging around the house:  We had fun watching the boys all play together.  Davis especially liked Ryan, and he liked lying on the floor looking at him.  Bennett loved all of the cars, and had fun lining them up on the table one night.

   

We went downtown Portland one evening and walked along the river.  There were a ton of bikers and runners, so we had to watch out!  The boys had fun looking at the river and seeing the boats.

 

We had a groupon to Lee’s Pumpkin Patch from my mom, so we headed there again one afternoon.  It was quiet, with hardly anyone there, and the boys had fun in the bounce house again and going in the maze and down the slide. Bennett was getting such a workout in the bounce house that he came out with his head drenched in sweat! 

         

Finally, we went to the Rose Gardens for some family pictures, which Becky was kind enough to take of us.  It’s always difficult getting a good picture with three boys, especially when you look at them later and realize Davis is making funny faces in all of them!  Little stinker!  When I asked him about it, he just said “Yeah, Mom.  I just went like this . . . and like this . . . and like this,” recreating some of his silly faces.  Here are just a few for examples:

  

Luckily, Becky caught on to his act, and she captured a few great ones too:

           

We loved having them come to visit!  Thanks for the great pictures Becky, and thanks for coming to visit us.  We had a great time!

BYU Football Game–October 15

When we found out that BYU would be playing the Oregon State Beavers in a football game, Jake immediately began making plans with all of us to attend.  Even though Jake and Stacey ended up coming up the weekend before for the century ride, they made the trek the next weekend with my parents to Corvallis for the game.  We had a great time watching BYU play, (despite the groundhog dayish third quarter).  James came along with us while Davis and Landon spent the day with Uncle Kelly.  They had a great time with him too.  Here is a picture Jake took of us at the game – with everyone pictured except Jake and Ethan.

Lee’s Farm Pumpkin Patch and the rest of Jake and Stacey’s Visit–October 8

Shane and Jake left really early for their century ride, so Stacey and I had all morning with the kids.  They started out by playing a little Wii while Stacey and I got ready to go.  It was actually more Landon and Davis playing, while Kallie and Ethan pretended to play.

We left just after that and made an adventurous trip to Ikea with five kids.  We had a couple of things to return from our last Ikea trip on Labor Day weekend.  We escaped with only a few small mishaps, and then headed to see Jake and Stacey on their ride.
After that, we headed straight to Landon’s soccer game.  We were a little late, but he still managed to play a great game.  The kids, unfortunately, discovered the slightly wet dirt by the baseball diamond, and although they had fun and entertained themselves during the game, we had to wash all of their clothes when we got home!

Of course, in true Jake-and-Stacey-visit fashion, the day was far from over.  We headed home to let the kiddos nap, then went to the Lee’s Farms pumpkin patch.  We always love going there to see the animals, enjoy the activities, and best of all, eat the delicious pumpkin and apple spice donuts!

Here is how much we have grown since last year’s trip to the pumpkin patch.

     

The first time, Jake just sent Ethan down this slide by himself.  He came shooting out of it so fast – it was hilarious!  Jake decided he better go with him the next time.  You can tell by the pictures it’s a bit of a rough ride!

   

Stacey and I going down the Jack and Jill slide, then Shane and Jake going with James and Ethan

 

When we got to the bounce house, they were almost closing, so we had all the kids in there with no one else there!  They had a lot of fun jumping around together.

   

James in the bounce house, and enjoying one of the yummy donuts.

         

Not sure what Davis was thinking about in this picture!

 

We had a monster of a time!  We’ll see you next year!

Thanks Stacey for all of the AMAZING pictures!!!

Harvest Century Ride–October 8, 2011

Just days after Shane got his new road bike for his birthday in August, he and my brother Jacob signed up for a 100 mile bike ride in Hillsboro.  Shane had already been biking to and from work most days of the week since June, so he just had to add the longer training rides on Saturdays.  His longest training ride was 67 miles, so the 100-mile ride was still quite a bit longer. 

There were several rest stops along the way, so we waited at one of the rest stops at mile 82 to see them ride in and to cheer them on. 

The kids waiting for their dads to arrive.

       

They looked pretty good for already riding for almost 5 hours! 

Their total ride took them just under 6 hours.  I thought that was pretty impressive for their first time!  And most impressive of all, they didn’t even come home and collapse, but instead went with Stacey and me and the kids to the pumpkin patch. 

Around the House

Most of September, we didn’t have any major events around the house – just the usual day to day activities.  Here are a few pictures from around the house:

The three boys all still in their PJs after waking up in the morning

 

James pushing around his dog in the shopping cart.

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Every Wednesday, my friend Jenn and I do a swap with our kids so we can go help in the older kids’ classrooms. Eve and Davis always have a great time together. Last time, they wanted to play in the sandbox, even though the sand was wet. Davis kept lying down in the sand – maybe enjoying the sunshine or pretending he was spending a day at the beach.

The two smiling and dirty kids!

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And finally, here is a series of pictures of James sitting in his chair.  He likes to bring this chair out from the boys’ room and carry it to the perfect spot.  Sometimes he sits there and watches me clean up and “talks” to me, but this day he brought a few books with him and sat and read them.