"Look Mom, no training wheels"

Joelle and I were sitting inside doing her math when she looked out the window and said "is Ben riding a pink bike?" She went out and looked and came back in yelling, "Mom, Ben is riding Emma's bike, she has no training wheels!" Apparently he and Emma were racing. She was on Joelle's bike and he was on Jacob's (Ben's tire is flat). He couldn't go fast enough on that little bike so Emma taught him how to ride her bike so they could really race. It sounded like he figured it out on the first try. He is so happy.

I love this place!

David woke up this morning and said he felt like going out and being one with nature and the kids (something along that line :). He looked online and found this wonderful little place called Latourell Falls. It is about an hour away and is my new favorite place. It was absolutely stunning. I know I have been saying that a lot, but this place really was. David always comes up with the best activities for our family.

This picture really shows the true character of each child :) - even Samson's character is showing.

This one is really more accurate. There three super happy kiddo's, one class clown, and one sassy miss? Can you guys who that could be?

This is the first waterfall we saw. In one word... Beautiful. It is one of the 3 tallest waterfalls in Oregon (250 feet). This picture is way back from the parking lot. It was huge. It was a great little 2 minute walk down to the base of it. When David said he wanted to go take a little hike I was a little weary since it was Sunday, but I loved this. It really makes you appreciate the beauty the Lord has blessed us with.

This picture is when we are down at the base.

The kids loved how you could feel the spray from the water (you wouldn't think we could feel it that far back, but with it being so tall there was quite a bit of spray - even though it is a pretty narrow waterfall).

There were these cool little rock walls all over the place. It was really cool. The kids kept going around telling us what animals and faries lived where, and what all the foot prints in the ground were. It felt like we were walking around in the pages of a mythical book.

Then we decided to try then next trail that led back to another waterfall. The trail started out very steep (which really should have been a warning sign), and continued that way the whole way up. There weren't any signs or any thing so we had no idea how far we had to go. We found out later it was about a mile up there. It was quite the hike. I am not quite sure how I feel about that with it being Sunday, but it was beautiful. The kids did great up until the end when the boys started to get tired (David pretty much carried Katie the whole way so she was of course very happy). I was a little whiny toward the end -unbelievable I know :)- because we didn't know we were close and I was starting to need to use the restroom (I have been trying to drink my 64 fl. ounces of water a day -woohoo). But when we got to the waterfall the hike was so worth it.

This waterfall was larger and even more beautiful than the first.

Jacob took this picture. I was proud that I was actually in it :).

We got a little lost on the way back (we tried to take the loop around instead of going back the way we came) which made everyone -accept for David of course :)- a little grumpy. Once we back tracked and knew where we were going everyone was happy again. All in all it was one of my favorite things we have done since we've moved here. This was the only scenic view from the whole trail. Each time we passed it the boys told us that they thought they could see all of Oregon from there. I love the imagination of children.

3 ... 2 ... 1 ... Lift Off!

This afternoon Ben was super bored. He kept asking to do something fun with me. I remembered that we still had these rockets sitting around. After digging around the garage to find all the pieces, we went to a park to launch them off.



Ben was excited to launch his rocket first. Unfortunately, we didn't pick a large enough park. The rocket went up really high. I tried to track it's descent, but it was oven the fence and possibly made it over the nearby freeway. Ben was crushed to say the least. I had to promise him I'd get a new one for him tomorrow.

Now a smarter person would have called it quits. Instead, I decided it was a fluke and proceeded to get Jacob's rocket ready for launch. The kids started the countdown. 3 - 2 - 1 - Lift Off!

Looks like I'll be getting two rockets from the store tomorrow.

By this time, Sarah was sure the rockets were landing on the freeway behind the park causing all sorts of traffic collisions. I figured I'd take one more chance and launch the big kahuna rocket, figuring that being a larger rocket, it wouldn't go so high.

All systems go. Prepare for launch.

Ignition in 3....2...1..


Mission Control we have ignition.





The rocket soared up into the sky. After a few seconds you could hear the 'pop' of the engine and see the recovery parachute come out. The rocket floated back to the ground while the kids ran over to see if they could catch it.





Recovery successful! After quickly packaging the parachute, the rocket was ready for another flight. The second launch was another successful flight. Jacob actually was able to catch the falling rocket before it touched down.

This was a fun activity and I'm sure we'll be doing it again in the near future. But first, I'll have to help Ben and Jake get their new rockets ready. I'll also need to scope out a bigger launch field.

A million pictures again, be prepared.

Our family has made it's way to Port Orford OR three times in the course of a month. We went for the 4>th of July, then we went back 2 weeks later to help my Mom and Dad move in. We went to help them on a Friday, but we had to come back on Sunday for 2 days for David to go to a work meeting that Monday. We already had scheduled vacation for the following Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So we left Tuesday night and went back to Port Orford and stayed through Saturday.
These first Pictures are from our 1st trip there. This house belongs to some very good friends of our very good friend R.J. We now feel very close to these two women. They are twin sisters Joan and Jean. Our kids love this place. It really feels magical. This is their house. It is beautiful. It is a haven for kids. They have a little fishing pond right next to the house and a little creek that runs through their land. Both are good for fishing which David loves. These women are so sweet to let our family run crazy all over their land. They are also fabulous cooks. They always treat us to the best meals.

Tim and Katy helped my parents drive one of their moving trucks up. It was so fun to get to have someone else experience this place we love so much. Being with them was so good for me. I have been missing my family like crazy and I loved getting to see them. It was not long enough though. I needed another two weeks or so :).

This is the little creek they fish in. It is such a beautiful, peaceful place. No wonder we have a hard time getting David to leave it :).


Katie loves going around and picking the flowers. They are all over the place here. It makes her so happy. She did it for hours that day. Luckily most of them are weed flowers and not anything specially planted.





Katy and Katie.... how cute is that?





Everyone heading down to go fishing in the creek.


Dad and R.J. out for a stroll.


Joelle didn't catch a fish this time, but she had a lot of fun practicing.


I don't think Tim caught one either but it looked fun.




Emma and the boys are just happy to hang out.



Even though she didn't catch a fish, Joelle is becoming very adept at catching these little salamander things. I am not sure what they are called but she catches them in the little pond every time we go. Thank you to Jean's grand daughters for teaching the kids how to do this. It is really cool. I won't touch them, but I will take pictures.

I think her favorite part is dropping them back into the water.


I think David was the only one to catch a fish that day. He was pretty dang happy even though it is just a little guy.





Everyone wanted to touch it. I don't know why that is so fascinating. Yuck! But I am glad they like it. It is their time bonding with Dad.









This is our second trip back to help Mom and Dad (Tuesday evening). Our new favorite hobby is picking blackberries. They are everywhere up here. I guess they grow like a weed. My kids love picking them. This is our new favorite spot. It is a little over half way to Port Orford. This exact spot is a little rest stop that R.J. told us about. It is right next to the most beautiful river.







This is the pathway down to the river. BEAUTIFUL! It kind of reminds me of something out of Lord of the Rings -the part where they are hiding from the ring wraith for the first time. So cool.





I know there is a glare on this picture, but it was the only one that showed what David and I want to buy one day. We want that little house and land on the other side of the river over there. Not that exact one but something like it. It is absolutely heavenly. It is a good dream to have. May never be realized, but it is fun to have dreams.


















While we were at Mom and Dad's we decided to have Katie's Birthday party ( I realize that I forgot to take pictures of mom's new house - I will do that next time). She was turning 3 on Sunday. Every time we would tell her her birthday was coming she would get so mad. She said she didn't want to have a birthday. All it took was a few cupcakes and a few wrapped presents and she was ready to be 3. She has wanted to have a birthday every day since :). She loves presents, cupcakes and candles.








The two outside candles were regular but the one in the middle was a trick candle. I think we blew 5 or 6 times before it finally went out. She loved it!








She loves cards. She got a princes card from us and from Nana and Papa. She was in heaven


That was the biggest polly pocket set she had ever seen.






We got to go back to Jean and Joans this trip too. This time David caught one fish and helped Joelle catch 3, Emma catch 1, and Jacob 1. Joelle was litterally jumping up and down with excitement.


This is Emma's fish.





Another of Joelle's fish.


The kids wouldn't let us go home without stopping at the river to get some more blackberries.











This was David's bounty. He was good enough to share with me since I was busy taking pictures. They don't actually come into season until September so the pickings were slim.

This is Joelle vs. Dad.




This was Emma's.






These were Jacobs. After we got home Katie got Nana's present in the mail. She was so excited about the Tinker Belle doll, and felt like a little angel in the rosetta dress up. We have the Tinker Belle movies so this was really fun. She also loved grandmas kitten stuffed animal that she got on her actual birthday because I had brought it home from Port Orford when we weren't sure we were going back and then forgot to take it back when we did go. I wonder about my brain sometimes. At least she had a gift on her real birthday