More time on the water

As part of our "staycation" family reunion, we decided to meet our cousins and family at a couple other locations. (In addition to our beach day, a couple posts ago) 

One of those days we went to a beach spot along the Columbia river. We had never been there before but it was a great calm place on the river and the water was warmer than the ocean. It was a Saturday which made it incredibly busy, but that also meant Max was able to come with us so that was exciting!

Pulling (and pushing) their weight!

 

The mini van was the best decision ever!

On another day, we went to a fun park along the Willamette river and got to play with our cousins some more. 

Our cousins have the best toys and it was good practice for the boys to go rafting. Which didn't happen in 2020 (surprise surprise) 

Man, those summer days were good to us...even if we were quarantined for many of them!

 

Cousin Exchanges and Fish

These photos are completely out of order but I'm just going to move forward with my blog and not let that slow me down. Over the Summer, Max's brother suggested we do some cousin exchanges. They have 4 boys and live in Central Oregon.  They come into Portland regularly so one day they took Charlie with them for a couple days, then a week or so later they took Miles for a couple days, then later in the Summer they left August with us and took Edwin for an overnighter. (Their younger boys are 11 and 4 and seem to play well with our boys.) After Edwin's turn. we drove with August out to their house to exchange back and to celebrate Max's dad's 88th birthday. 

Let me tell you those Baertleins showed my boys a good time. They went fishing and hiking around frog lake and got to go swimming (a luxury and hard to find in Summer 2020) They also got movie time and lots of bike time. 

And here are some photos out of order. 

There is a trout farm on the way to the cousins house so Brent and Lisa had taken our boys there and we wanted to go on our way as well. 

One night, when August was with us, we made beeswax candles. 

And made s'mores with our candles. 

And more photos out of order. Edwin really clinged to uncle Brent. 

When we got to town, we spent a couple days staying at Brent and Lisa's house and helping throw a party for Grandpa George. At this point he had been on hospice for awhile and we knew it was likely his last earth-side birthday. I have zero photos from the party.

After some partying, we spent our last day in Prineville going to the park and the BMX track. This was pretty much the highlight of our kids' lives. I mean it's one thing to be deprived of parks for many months but then they got the best high castle park and a BMX track in the same day...it blew their minds. And thankfully our cousins had plenty of bikes to share. 

These fishing pictures are out of order but everyone successfully caught a fish or two. 

And that was an exciting part of our Summer!