Sunriver

The second weekend in May, the kids had no school on Thursday and Friday for parent teacher conferences.  When my friend Dayl asked if we wanted to go somewhere with our families for the weekend, we were in!  They have access to a house in Sunriver, so we all headed there Thursday afternoon once our conferences were over.  Shane was able to work away from the office on Friday, so he left with us on Thursday too. 

We got there in the evening Thursday, so we just got unloaded, had some pizza for dinner, and got to bed.  Friday morning, Dayl and I rode bikes with the kids over to Rock Creek Park.  Shane stayed back at the house to work all day.  The favorite attraction at the park was the big cone-shaped merry-go-round.  The kids all were on it and played for quite awhile on that.  They also had fun with the tetherball and on the slides. 

   

That afternoon, Dayl and I took the kids on a short hike to Benham Falls.  Dayl had been there before, so I just followed her to the starting point.  Google Maps took her to a different starting point than she had been before, which included nine miles of dirt roads to get there.  Needless to say, our cars were pretty dirty by the time we got home.  Asher kept saying, “Mom, car bumpy!” as we drove along.  We had fun looking at the falls and walking along the river’s edge, although we were a little nervous at a few points that we might lose a kid in the swift current. 

   

We barbecued hamburgers for dinner that night, then we all (husbands this time too) rode our bikes to “The Village” in Sunriver to get treats at Goody’s.  Landon and Davis were excited to buy these toilet shaped candies, where you would lick a plunder-shaped sucker and stick it in a “toilet” filled with sour sugar.  Davis kindly offered me a taste a few times and seemed quite shocked that I kept politely declining.  Asher picked out some gummy worms, while James decided on a vanilla ice cream cone.  Shane and I shared a delicious Oreo milkshake.

View on the trail in the morning, then the view of the sunset that evening on our bike ride home from Goody’s (plus a picture of the toilet candy)

 

Saturday morning, we all drove over to the lava lands, and drove to the top of the Lava Butte, one of the largest cinder cones of the Newberry shield volcano. We walked along the rim of the volcano, and enjoyed the great views of the surrounding area, including Mt. Bachelor and the Sisters mountains. 

           

We then headed over to Benham Falls again, this time to the hike Dayl thought we were going to the last time.  We hiked the half-mile into the falls, enjoying many stops along the way to throw rocks and sticks into the river, to walk across fallen logs, and to scratch names into tree trunks.  I think the kids could stand and throw rocks and/or sticks into the river for hours if we would let them.

     

That afternoon, we went to the Sharc swim center in Sunriver.  It had a fun indoor pool, with a great shallow area for the little kids.  Landon, Davis, and Halle spent almost the whole time we were there floating in circles around the whirlpool.  Asher and Carter are just about a week apart in age, and they are great buddies (most of the time).  We caught them several times throughout the weekend giving each other hugs.  Asher found the boys goggles after we went swimming and wanted to put them on with Shane.  He thought it was pretty cool.  The kids finished out the evening with a loud game of foosball after eating their dinner.

   

It was a great trip!  James was already planning our trip back as we drove home this morning. 

April Happenings

Here is some more of what happened in April.

I taught the boys the French tradition of the poisson d’avril, and they had fun coloring fish and sneaking them on each other’s backs.  I found a few on the car the next morning when I left to run some errands.  (The marks on the pictures of the car are from my camera lens, not actually on the car).

       

April always means it’s time for me to go to work at the FBLA conference for two days.  My mom came up and was a great fill-in at home for me while I was gone.  I am always so grateful she is willing to do this.  It’s hard  to leave your kiddos for a few days when you’re normally home with them all day, but I don’t worry when they’re being well taken care of by grandma.  We did a little shopping down at the outlets when she first came up, and the boys had fun pretending to be mannequins in the stores.  While she was here, the boys especially got interested in Pokemon cards, and they printed up a ton of them to play with.  She was also her usual laundry machine, washing, folding, and putting away several batches of laundry while she was here.  I wish I had her laundry motivation!

                           

That week, Davis also had his first grade music concert.  His teacher asked him if he wanted to help perform the “Robot Boy” song their class was singing by dressing up in his Halloween costume.  I thought he would be nervous, but he was a great performer, and we are all still singing “Robot Boy” around our house.

 

Asher was all wrapped up in a blanket one day, and we love our neighborhood baseball games.

 

The boys went all out on the bring-your-own-slurpee-cup day, and Asher’s always glad when daddy comes home.  “Dad, play cars me?” he asks.

 

Davis started playing baseball, so that means nights outside hanging out at the park.  Luckily, April had some beautiful spring weather.

   

The weather has been so nice that James asked to have a picnic lunch in the playhouse.  He even wanted to take his nap out there.  I didn’t think he would, but he stayed out there and fell asleep (after I killed the spider).  We even got to have some of Shane’s specialty blueberry milkshakes outside for Family Home Evening treats one night.

    

James wanted to get the Madeline book from the library, and we went suit shopping for Shane one Saturday night with the boys.  We kept them pretty entertained on these couches outside the waiting room for almost an hour with electronic devices, but by the end of the hour, they were starting to go pretty stir crazy.  Luckily, Shane had chosen his suit by then and just had to pay for it, so I made a quick escape with the boys before things got really out of hand.

 

We had our ultrasound for baby Madeleine!  Everything looked great, and we were happy to see it was still a girl :)  I guess it’s official now!

 

Running errands and shopping with boys in tow is not my favorite activity, but sometimes you have to do it.  Asher and I spent some time at the DMV, and Asher kept saying, “All done!” hoping that meant we could leave.  Another day, James, Asher and I made a trip to the Nike outlet for some shopping.  It was super busy in there because of a sale going on, but the boys were good, and they were excited to sit on the race car and the Ninja Turtle car when we were done.