Our happy places

With new and exciting things going on in the summer, we felt that some of our favorite places had been neglected, so within a week we made time for our favorite park and the Children's museum, and I decided to take a lot of photos, so there you have it! Also, Charlie is wearing the exact same outfit for both outings yet they were on different days. 

With the park being so new, we usually see some sort of improvement each time we go, this time we got excited to see this new bird on the rock...simple pleasures. 

He was up really high, and his glasses fell off.

 Getting dizzy

Batman caught in a spider web!

We of course spent a lot of time playing in the mostly dried up creek.

Synchronized Squatting!

My favorite little rumps!

And then we had our Children's museum outing a couple days later. Each time we go, Miles is able to do more and it is so fun to watch!

Oh this one cracks me up..Charlie cheerfully in the oven...Miles' guilty look...

Baertlein Brother's Bistro!

I think he's finally getting old enough where he doesn't shove all the pieces in his mouth...hurrah!

This boy will spot every digger we drive by, he loves them so!

One of the main reasons I made time to go to the museum this week was because it was water safety week and they had a kayak outside and life jackets to practice water safety. I thought it would be good for Charlie since he is going on his very first white-water rafting trip this year. Charlie couldn't care less about the kayak but Miles liked it!

And then there was an artist with this setup so Charlie was able to contribute his art skills to the project. I didn't ask what they were going to do with it but I assume it will be displayed somewhere in the museum.

Then we spent time in the stick caves...I guess that's what they are called. We have never really spent much time here...so we enjoyed playing hide and seek.

And those were some outings where I probably took way too many pictures but I don't mind!

Blueberries and a slumber party of sorts

I have multiple blog posts started but we've been so busy living life that I haven't been able to update them, just be prepared for a huge Summer photo dump, a preschool post, a park/children's museum outing, and a family reunion camping trip. But let's share our blueberry picking adventures first. A little over a week ago we finally made plans with Richard and Marissa to go pick blueberries at the best (and cheapest) blueberry farm we've found. They extended the invitation to meet them for dinner and then stay after and put the kids to bed at their house. We were feeling ambitious and have been wanting to try this for awhile since it's still fun to spend time with friends after 8pm, it's just rare. 

Anyway, we met at Richard and Marissa's house at 5 and enjoyed an amazing Thai Curry dinner made by Richard. We then loaded up the cars and went to the blueberry farm. 

My favorite part was watching these two little friends. They really are becoming best friends and it makes me so happy! They picked for a little while but then sat down to enjoy their berries. 

Marissa took this picture and then posted the following quote...It just makes me so happy!

These two little blueberry pickers were so cute last night. I kept overhearing their conversations and just couldn't help laughing. One of them went like this:

Lacey: "Ow!"
Charlie: "Are you okay Lacey?"
Lacey: "Yeah, I'm okay, I still love you"
Charlie: "Thank you! Come here I gotta tell you one more thing!"

(...I'm still wondering what that one more thing was but at least they seemed happy about their conversation!)

I didn't take many pictures because I felt that I was trying to pick as many berries as I could before the kids dictated that it was time to go home. I kept Miles in the stroller. He kept begging for berries saying pees (please)...and then some word seeming to sound like blueberry. I think blueberries are his favorite food.

We picked until, sure enough the kids were tired and done. We then went back to Richard and Marissa's house. I put some homemade cinnamon rolls in their oven and then we put our kids to bed at their house, it went much smoother than we imagined. And then we got to spend a couple hours eating cinnamon rolls and playing games with our friends. Around midnight, we transferred the kids into the car and went home. The transition went pretty smooth. We felt like brave parents, and we are super grateful for the wonderful friends we have! Also, we got about 10 pounds of blueberries and more than half of them are already gone!

4th of July

For fourth of July this year we did our usual local event. A parade and BBQ at my grandma's house followed by the firework show at our old high school, just a block away from my Grandma's house. Max's parent's joined us as well as some friends from church, the Mallards. It was a very hot day, we've been having abnormally hot weather here in Oregon, I don't mind, I just have to remember to put sunblock on my kids, and try to remember to cover Miles' bald head.

The celebrations had barely started and Miles already looked like this. His shirt was soaked with watermelon.

We arrived and ate our food then went out to the sidewalk to watch the little parade. 

The group

Then we had a couple hours to kill before fire work time so my cousin had the brilliant idea of bringing the slip 'n slide! The kids loved it!

Miles cracked me up, He wanted to crawl down but then loved the splash at the end and would stand up and do a victory run to me,

Our Friend Jessica Mallard made a gorgeous 5 layer cake and brought candles so we could sing happy birthday to America and all the kids could blow out the candles.  Max gave them a little lesson about the US flag.

 Around 8 pm they started a couple fireworks at my Grandma's house but we decided to go find our seats for the fireworks show at the high school.

Just as we arrived the Life Flight helicopter was landing. We found a spot in the field to set up our chair and blankets, Max's parents sat down while Max took the boys to check out the helicopter. I realized I had forgotten my camera so I ran back to my grandma's house to get it.

I got back just in time to capture these photos. Max was standing in line waiting to see the helicopter but the boys kept running away into the baseball field. I decided to play with them in the field while Max saved their place in line. These photos were 95% luck and I'm so pleased with them.

 These will be fun ones to pull out when they start little league someday!

They finally got their turn to check out the helicopter for about 3 seconds, so I just managed to get this blurry photos then it was time to get off.

After the brief helicopter visit, we walked back to the field. They had started playing some dance music over the speakers so we enjoyed that. Miles is quite the dancer. Miles also impressed us with his soccer skills as he dribbled the ball all around the field.

 As we continued to wait for the fireworks, Charlie got to run around with his friend's Kerrington and Kai.

I set up my tripod with remote control so I could take photos of the fireworks while still cuddling with my family. Each of the boys had moments of cuddliness but mostly they were wiggly. Both boys loved the fireworks though.

We walked back to my grandma's house and it ended up being almost midnight before we left to go home. Max's parents stayed the night at our house. 

And a bonus funny story, the next day was Sunday and Charlie was still wearing his eye patch when we left for church. He has to wear it for 2 hours everyday to strengthen his weak eye.  He had multiple people ask him if he had a firework accident.