Oaks Park

Charlie's (and now Edwin's) eye doctor host an event each year at Oaks Amusement Park/Roller Rink. The kids all get free ride bracelets and lunch. It was a blast! There were lots of things for kids of all ages to do so Edwin got to join in the fun!

 

We took turns swapping the kids around depending on who could ride what but we all had a good time. 

Our whole family did the Ferris Wheel together. We all loved it except for the times when it stopped for people to load or unload because that's when Edwin realized he did not want to be strapped down and was trying so hard to stand up while I was trying so hard to hold him down. He was screaming by the time it was our turn to unload, not because he was scared, but simply because he wanted to stand up and his mean old mom wouldn't let him!

 

After we had already had hours of fun, and I was ready to go, we decided to do a little roller skating. Both Max and I grew up roller skating a bunch so we were excited to pass that on to our kids. Miles and Charlie have both tried skating a couple times and they are still quite wobbly but it was fun to practice a bit. and the only photos we got were them in the arcade area...but they did pretty well scooting around in there.

 

Strawberries

I hadn't taken my kids to go strawberry picking, ever! They had picked raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries, but never strawberries, and they are the perfect height and have strong backs so we finally made it happen. It was somewhat impulsive in the afternoon after Charlie got home from school. (I wanted him to work, hah!) Anyway, we got there, the boys picked for a bit, Edwin ate and kept chasing down my bucket. It seemed like every couple of minutes Miles was updating me on the total of berries in his bucket and it definitely wasn't filling up very fast. "Mom. I have 5!" {two minutes later} "mom, I have 6! Can I eat one?" 

Disregard the binky dragging in the dirt...

 

 

 So then the big boys got bored of picking and just wanted to run up and down the rows and Edwin pooped up his diaper so we decided to call it quits with 3 pounds of strawberries and get home in time for dinner. They lasted about a day but we were able to make a jar of strawberry jam so that was exciting! Hopefully we'll be more productive next year!

Annual Rose Garden outing

At the beginning of June we made our way to the Rose garden. After a weird day where Max was in a car accident and I had to pick him up at work, (Don't worry, he's fine!) we got there a little late. We were meeting some friends to take a couple photos for them and in turn, they took our traditional photo under the arch. We've been able to go pretty much every year since we moved back to Oregon after college. And I'm banking on my kids still participating as teenagers. As of now, they're still excited about it. I'll take it!

And once again... here is the sequence. I'm going to regret sharing these photos over and over each year when I finally print my blog into a book and it ends up being super expensive because of all the photos.

Prom 2004, we hadn't even started dating at this point but I love that we now have this photo for reference!

October 2011

June 2013 (Photo cred-Anna)

June 2014

June 2015

June 2016

June 2017

After we got that photo out of the way, we let the boys loose!t

This is for climbing, right?!

Edwin had some super close calls with falling in, but Max was quick enough to catch him every time.

He looked for our birthday roses but the boys quickly got distracted, Miles always likes to find his and "pose." And we still have yet to find the 2017 rose for Edwin.

Also, I think there would have been a lot more in bloom if we waited another week, but it was still very beautiful and the weather was perfect. 

 

This is Charlie...runner and destroyer of romantic picnics.

"Take my picture mom" I'm glad he isn't sick of it yet!

I swear if we just put a cool drinking fountain in our yard, we would never have to go anywhere....because that's really all they care about. 

And we always end our outing in the amphitheater to let the boys run more, this time Charlie danced his heart out for about 30 minutes while making his own music. There really is no limit to his energy!

All my boyfriends!

 And then we went home. Thank goodness for Spring and all this beauty around us!