Family photos 2018

One of the great things about spending time with Buck and Anna, is getting our family photos done by our favorite photographer! We went to the gardens, which we've been wanting to check out for awhile and the majority of the time our kids were running wild and Anna still managed to get some great photos! We were there until the place closed and would have loved to stay and explore longer, I guess we'll just have to go back again! So here is every single photo  to show what a circus it is to get family photos. I've taken quite a few family photo of others and without fail parents are always begging for cooperation from the kids, and I'm not an exception. But I've also found that a family acting like a family makes the best photos and memories. Anna is amazing at capturing these things! So here you go!

 

 man down

The series of the caught glasses....

 

 

As you can tell...the are DONE!

And just because I seem to like comparison photos more these days...here are family photos from our past done by Anna...

 2015-Oregon Coast

2014

2012

 2009

2009-Engagements (she was right there from the beginning of our family so we really couldn't ever go to another photographer, not that we'd ever want to!) 

Anyway, I'm super impressed if you made it to the end of this post! Thanks friends!

Oregon Berries

Last year we missed out on Blueberry picking, it was so sad! 

About 4 years ago, our friends let us know about this small blueberry patch at their neighboring property in Sherwood. The owners had just moved to the property and didn't really publicize their blueberry patch. The bushes were usually dripping with berries and no one else was there to pick them so we made out like bandits. They sell them for super cheap too. This year, I couldn't contact the woman to see if the farm was open, the number I had was disconnected, but it was such a good deal in the past that we just decided to drive way out there, knock on the door and see if we could pick some berries. The owner answered and let us know that due to some health issues with her mother, she hadn't maintained the blueberry patch and hadn't been down to look at it in a long time but we were welcome to go check it out and see what we could get. So that is what we did. 

I know this story is not really interesting to anyone else, but I like it on my blog, so whatevs!

 We found that many of the berries were shriveled and many were overcome with blackberry bushes (which sadly, are not in season yet!) But we were still able to find some good little spots.

Edwin liked eating all the berries...green, purple, and blue! He also really liked picking up and throwing all the manure that had been laid in the rows.

 Miles loves blueberries and picked for awhile. But then stopped to play with Charlie who refused to pick any berries because he is suddenly not a blueberry fan!

My berries spilled from a piece of the bucket breaking off when I picked it up.  Luckily the berries fell in a not-so-manurey spot so I saved a bunch of them, but still, many fell deep into the grass, and I couldn't get them. (I did wash them when I got home, in case you were wondering!)

After picking up too much manure, Edwin was banished to the Ergo which he was not too happy about, even with Daddy passing him blueberries...spoiled baby!

Free at last and back to his mischievous ways!

Anyway, we still ended up with quite a few berries, about 3 gallon size ziploc bags, and it was incredibly cheap so it ended up being a pretty great evening!

Slip 'n slide

This week has been super hot for Portland. At Sunday dinner we talked about going outside and running in the sprinkler with the kids. It would probably be a good memory for them. Max said he must be getting old because he didn't feel like getting wet. then we laughed and realized our sprinkler wasn't at our house and we ended up pulling out the slip n slide. And then we proceeded to have a whole lot of fun...especially when daddy "turbo blasts" you! (gives them an extra shove into the large puddle of water)  And I took some photos of our happy children.

 

And that was a memorable Sunday evening!