I am a couple weeks late in posting this mainly because it is always soooo long, with that warning out of the way...in the beginning of August we finally made our annual homage to Oregon sweet Oregon. The trip out the kids were really great which always makes the trip much nicer.
As we were about 2 hrs from Grandpa/ma Potts' we passes town we just had to stop and take a picture at. So here is our "Rowena" in the town of Rowena Oregon.
The first full day at G&G Potts' we had our big family and friends BBQ with lots of yummy food & swimming too. At the BBQ we got to see Uncle Robert and Aunt Lucy, Josh (whom Josh is named after) and many others. Phoebe was elated that Robert brought his little doggy which she acidently dropped on his head right after this picture (the dog recovered, but was a little shaken). To entertain the kiddos this year my parents got a bubble machine to play with this year and it ran for hours daily.
It was nice just to beable to relax many of the days, read the paper, and look out for the deer that coss my parents fireld everyday. After seeing the these deer so close Phoebe has really started a Bambi Phase, watching the movie and playing with her stuffed deer, something that rarely ever got played with.
The kids loved discovering all the fun play spots in G&G's house like the laundry shoot and this little window by the front door that is only 1 ft wide or less. Perfect for their miniature tushes.
On Saturday we went and enjoyed dinner at Robert & Lucy's new home, which the kids loved because it had a big back yard where they played with toys & (my favorite part of the doll house besides Phoebe's crazed look is that one of her "sleeping" dollies is a Seth Lord from Star Wars) bikes. They also got to pet Robert's python, Monte.
On Sunday, we went to visit my Grandma Hogan in her new home closer to my parents. The kids LOVED running around her home and playing with all her fun kick-knacks, like that frog that croaks as you walk by it. Unfortunately that frog followed us home and croaks whenever I walk into the kids bathroom, too bad the batteries "mysteriously" went missing out f it recently.
Because my grandma is 93 and prefers the heat on to about a million degrees while it is already 85+ outside we all were dying of heat exhaustion, so Uncle Robert when and go the kids ice cream cones to cool off and eat out back, this turned into quite the sticky ordeal.
Monday was spent at our new favorite beach, Taft Beach in Oregon. It is overly crowded and parking is always available & it is a cove so no big waves for the kids to be swept away in. This year the beach was PERFECT, I don't know if I have ever been to an Oregon beach on a nicer day in my whole life. The temp was in the 70s with very little wind & the water in the shallows was even warm enough to walk in without stinging. Everyone LOVED the beach, I think it was their favorite activity of the whole trip.
We showed the kiddos how to build sand castle which were much easier with pre-molded buckets.
Phoebe loved that the seaweed was red and constantly picked it up to show us, along with all the pretty shells in the sand. We also tried to teach Phoebs how to skip rocks in the water. She was pretty unsuccessful, but still loved just throwing rocks in the water.
Cami is our resident mess maker and took NO time at all to dig in & cover herself in water and sand. Phoebe dug her toes in the sand about 15 dozen times as well but eventually quit playing in the sand after she got some in her eye.
Sophie loved the beach and even dipped hr dainty little toes in the cold water for the first time with no complaints about the cooler temperature.
My brother, Robert, got bored after several hours at the beach and thought it was a good idea to take a piece of old charcoal and paint tiger stripes on Cami, obviously I was away at the time playing with Josh under he pier, which he loved weaving in and out of the polls, otherwise I would not have condoned it, because it quickly was then wiped all over the clothes.
I had to include this picture because this woman was not too far from us and she was carrying around her little dog in her bra the whole afternoon. I would have never thought of a bra being so multi-functional.
Tuesday was a day and relaxation and pampering for me. The kids discovered & locked themselves in the dog kennels. Is it still abuse to get one for our house to use if they like it???
In the afternoon I got a pedicure with my mom and in the evening we were treated to a wonderful dinner at Caruso's which sits right on the lake, very pretty.
.While we were out my Aunt Barbara & Uncle Joe randomly stopped in; by randomly I mean they live in Florida and I hardly EVER see them. I am glad that they made their annual homage home the same time we did this year.
On Wednesday, we introduced Phoebe to a an annual tradition of ours, blueberry picking. You can see how full she got her bucket before it was too "heavy". I stayed home and watch the wee ones, but I was told that for the couple hours that everyone picked blueberries, Phoebe entertained them with her incessant talking. Grandpa even said if Phoebe could have talked those blueberries in her bucket it would have been filled many times over.
After berry picking, we went down to meet some friends of ours at Riverfront park. There we played on the playground, water park and carousel. My kids were a bit to pansy to really play in the water we many just chased them back down after they tried running away over and over again. My kids, however, LOVED the carousel and all cried for more after our 2 rides were done.
Wednesday night we had a few last minute visitors and went swimming in the dark until 10 pm to fulfill most of our swimming needs.
On Thursday we sadly packed up and headed home.
The trip was pretty easy despite missing one of our exits and taking a 15 mile detour into Washington. We even manage to sqeeze in seeing one more family member on the way home, so I would call this trip another great one; I wish we only didn't have to wait another whole year to do it again.
