Baertlein Weekend

Last weekend was another example of snow ruining our plans. But it all worked out fine. We were planning on going out to Max's uncles ranch house in central Oregon and meet up with Max's brother's family and take care of cows, ride ATVs,  build fences, and have a fun cowboy weekend. There had been tons of snow in Central Oregon and it still hadn't completely melted so it would have been challenging to get there (It is in the middle of nowhere) Anyway, after speaking with Max's brothers family, we decided to still get together in Portland and still have plenty of cousin and sibling time and eat the meals we had planned. They came on a Friday evening, we had a pizza party and sent the kids to bed. Saturday morning, Lisa made us a great pancake and bacon breakfast then we checked out a new-to-us park. Brent and Lisa had nostalgic memories at this park and it was fun for us to explore someplace new. 

Can you spot the turtle?

Miles "Take my picture mom!"

Emmett and Edwin

When we got back, Edwin napped and all the other little Baertlein boys ran wild outside. Brent set up a slack line and Lisa worked on an amazing corned beef dinner.

a bunch of Slackin' Baertleins.

Charlie was kind enough to offer his support.

After a good day of being outdoors we came in to enjoy our Irish dinner. Then sent the kids to bed and had some fun game time.

Charlie couldn't fall asleep for awhile because his top tooth was dangling by a thread so he eventually pulled it out. Then, there was the issue of Charlie's sincere prayers that he would catch a leprechaun. He had worked on a couple traps for weeks. SO basically we felt like the tooth fairy and a leprechaun needed to visit our house that evening. We don't really always do the "visiting leprechaun" thing. I have a couple of times when my kids didn't expect it and I don't really want them to expect it, but it is still kinda fun to surprise them. I went to bed after midnight and Max decided to stay up and get a little creative. He left green glitter around the house and around the traps.

 and threw around green crepe paper. We have done lucky charms the last couple of years, we got extra this year because cousins were in town.

 Beard on the family photos.

 Anyway, Max had fun with it, and hopefully they don't expect it every year. ha

Anyway, they were excited for Lucky Charms in the morning. Charlie was still disappointed that he didn't catch a Leprechaun, but happy about many other things.

We had a good breakfast with our cousins then went to church and August came with us which was super fun. Charlie loved going to class with August. When we got back Max and Brent worked in the garage while the boys played wild outside again. 

So it was far from a cowboy weekend but it was enjoyable to have a low-key cousin weekend.