A Forest Walk and Park Visit

Friday afternoon, we decided to go on a walk through the forest park at the top of our road.  There is a trail that winds through the trees, and the boys like to walk and explore through there.  We ended up walking a little farther than normally do, continuing through the woods to the other end and walking to a park to play.  The boys were a little tired by the time we got there, but they had a fun time at the playground and were rested enough for their walk home awhile later.

 

Lately, when I ask James to smile for me, I get a frown like the picture above and the picture below.  When I tell him again to smile, he gives me a smile with his big eyes.  Not sure why the sudden change . . .

 

     

Their favorite thing at the park was definitely the swings.  We did all sorts of under-dogs.  I always make a barking sound for an under-dog, so we did under-cats, under-pigs, under-monkeys, and even an under-ghost (boo) and an under-wind (whoosh).  The last two were Davis’s special requests.

     

Landon took this last picture to prove I was there, and of course, Davis with his non-smile again.

We also had some fun that day making apple chips, although none of us were too thrilled with the final taste.  They were fun to make anyway!  James helped put on the cinnamon, and you can see his reaction again when I told him to smile. :)

 

James then walked in with the block bucket on his head.  He thought he was pretty funny!

 

Make-a-Pumpkin Game

Last year, I found this game idea to make a pumpkin, but I never followed through and made the game for the boys.  This year, I followed through and made the game.  We modified it a little from the original version.  The boys thought it was pretty fun, so hopefully we can play it again a few times this year. 

   

Sunday Burritos

One of the boys’ favorite things to have Uncle Kelly do is to roll them up like a burrito in a blanket.  They beg him to do it on Sundays, and he pretty much always obliges.  Here are a few pictures of our three little burritos.

 

First Day of School

The first day of second grade!  Landon’s teacher is Ms. King, and he is excited for a new year of school.  Davis is in his second year of preschool with Mrs. Abeyta.  I didn’t get a picture of him on his first day, but here he is with Landon before his first day.

 

Fort Stevens State Park {August 24-25}

For years, we have been meaning to go and have a camping trip at the beach with our own little family.  We finally were able to fit it in this summer.  I had a hard time finding a campsite because I went to book it so late, but I was persistent and got on every day to see if anything had become available.  We got extremely lucky, and one morning there was a yurt available for the weekend we wanted!  I hurried and booked it, and we were excited to go and spend the weekend at Fort Stevens State Park, which is the most northern spot on the Oregon Coast.  (And we didn’t even have to pack our tent!)

We left on a Friday afternoon, and packed tinfoil dinners to cook when we got there.  Shane got the briquettes going, and our dinners cooked while we unloaded the car.  The boys had fun riding around on their scooters and finding the items for the little scavenger hunt I made for them (thanks Pinterest).  The dinner was delicious, and we even made a peach cobbler in the Dutch oven for dessert, which was yummy except that I forgot the whipped cream to go on top. 

       

Sleeping in a yurt is always great – nice and warm with the space heater, and (somewhat) comfortable beds to sleep on for all of us.  The best part?  The set up and clean up is so much easier!

The next morning, we had some croissant egg and ham sandwiches for breakfast, and then the boys played around a little bit on their scooters and explored the campground while we packed up. 

 

Hanging out in PJ’s in the morning.

       

Afterward, we headed to the beach, which was a little bit crowded but still nice. We had some lunch, and the boys had fun playing in the sand and down by the water. Shane took them on a walk down the beach to explore, and they were especially excited to find a whole sand dollar. Landon kept asking how much we could sell it for – he wanted to know if it would sell for a dollar. :)

       

Davis always loves to throw the sand for some reason.

 

Davis and his sand beard.

     

They have a shipwreck on the beach from the early 1900’s, so we walked over to see it.

After the beach, we decided to drive up to see where the Columbia meets the ocean, then over to Astoria.  Our final destination was Seaside to explore the little shops and eat some delicious clam chowder at Doogers.  Unfortunately, 2 miles outside of Seaside, Davis all of a sudden threw up.  We cleaned him and still continued with our plan, but he threw up in the restaurant too half and hour later, so we had the waitress bring our whole meal to go and we ate it in the car.  Luckily, I had given Davis and bag and I could tell he was getting sick, so I hurried over and we got it all in the bag.  The restaurant was so loud that no one seemed to notice. 

The drive home was pretty rough, with Davis throwing up five more times, then several times all night long.  We were glad it came on at the end of our trip instead of the beginning though!   Even though it had a not so great ending, we were glad we could go on this last vacation before the end of summer!