Rose Gardens

"Is that the Rosie Garden?, I like to call it the Rosie garden" -Miles
Back in June we made our annual outing to the Portland Rose Gardens.And I don't even remember much about it except our boys running wild...so there you go.

Smelling the birthday roses.

sigh...I want my long hair back..

So if you are going to the Rose Garden for a peaceful experience...stay far away from these rascals...I'm pretty sure they were rolling right through someone's romantic picnic. 

 Edwin got to stop and smell the Roses.

 And here is our annual family photo...I'm being too lazy to upload our previous years but you can look at LAST YEAR'S POST  to see our sequence of family photos under the rose arch.

And we ran into our friends, the Cotners, while we were there. 

And I'm a little obsessed that I have a blue eyed baby.

 All the handsomeness!

And as the sun was setting, we made our way back to the car, but Miles, of course, had to take a break to pretend he was a puppy...

And that was another year of the Rose Gardens.

Forest Park/Witch's Castle

Our good friends, Nathan and Kerri organized a Summer Hiking series. where they plan and host a hike each month. We were able to go in June and very few people were able to attend this one and it was pouring rain so we opted for a closer location than the scheduled hike and ended up at Forest Park. This is a huge local trail that we've wanted to explore but hadn't made the time. When we arrived it was pouring rain and Charlie had forgotten his coat...of course he claims that he never gets cold. Shortly after we started the hike, the rain stopped. the trails were still pretty muddy. The boys still loved it!

 

I'm a fan of his beanie/headband combo. 

We found lots of snails and slugs on the trail

We hiked to Witch's Castle. it is an old stone structure. I had no idea what it was so I just did some research. There are all these stories about it going back to 1850 and how it is haunted by 2 feuding families who owned land nearby. But then after all these stories, it was said that it was really just a stone bathroom/ranger station built in the 1950s, then abandoned. And I didn't even take a full picture so here's one from the internet.

It was mostly creepy and stinky and covered in graffiti, but still kinda cool.

My boys love their Nathan and Kerri!

So many photos of Charlie's back, running through the forest...I should put together some sort of collage someday!

Part of the hike went through the city. Nathan got this photo of our family!

 

The hike then looped back through the forest and up up up the hill to our car. The sun had come out about halfway into the hike which made it much more enjoyable than the pouring rain.

And there you have it...our family being all adventurous!

4 months/Father's Day Photos

So, I can't remember what Edwin was doing at 4 months, which is a shame because that is the whole point of these posts! I do remember that is was around this time that he started really holding and playing with toys and getting some good laughs out! Seriously! he is the best baby! Anyway, for his 4 month photos, I wanted to go to an overgrown field, at sunset on our street but I also wanted to take some photos for Father's day to give Max. I'm not great at surprises so Max came to help me and got the good smiles out of our children.

 Ok, so this post may be picture overkill but these 3 photos happened in a pretty quick sequence...haha

 It's a tradition!

The little boy in this photo is Max's dad who turned 85 last month. The man is Max's grandfather, Gorden Baertlein, doing the same balancing trick.

So then we got to some photos of our boys to give Max for Father's day. I didn't try to coordinate their outfits or anything, it's just what they were wearing on a Sunday evening. And we took a lot because they were having fun!

 So..I'm here thinking my boys are all happy and having a special moment...then the next day I look through my photos and see this...Since when is it ok to lick your brother??

Silly faces were encouraged in the end!

Then just a bit of tree climbing before heading back to the house for bedtime!