Swenson Visit Part 2

8-11

We headed to Stewart Park on Tuesday morning for some playtime before it got too hot. Leah and Molly got to dress alike in matching outfits! Summer rompers on toddlers are a great way to show off those squishy baby legs. :)

Matching cousins!

I love this one! Just about the only thing that is the same between these two girls is their outfit. Molly's fair skin tone and red hair contrasts with Leah's white blonde hair and tanned skin almost like their features are exact opposite of one another. Oh, but they both have the same squishy legs, indented baby knuckles, and toothy grins!!

Sometimes Molly likes the swing, sometimes she doesn't. If she does, she definitely likes to swing slowly and not very high.

Leah was "pushing" Molly in the handicapped swing and giggling about it.

We walked on the bike path for a bit up to the YMCA just to get a taste of the path. It is a really great feature, one that we have definitely used more in the fall/winter/spring than in the summer. Apparently the path has been resurfaced and widened since I have done it with the kids!

Later that afternoon, we set up the kiddie pool, the baby pool, and water table.

8-12

On the last day Jill and Leah were here, we spent the morning playing inside and outside, eating German puffy pancake, packing suitcases, and chatting. We had so much fun with Jill and Leah as shown by the epic goodbye at the airport. Charlie was sad and distraught (which equals grumpy and angry since he doesn't seem to quite know how to deal with his emotions), Alanna was crying for quite some time, and Molly was surprisingly quiet. I cannot say enough how wonderful it is to have visitors to our house; one-on-one time, my own kids are still in their environment and therefore hopefully acting normally instead of their "vacation behavior", showing where we live, etc... We had so much fun with Jill and Leah and are so thankful they came out to see us. We love you!

Swenson Girls Come to Roseburg!

August 8-12

 As a super fun and unexpected addition to our summer, Jill and Leah flew out for a few days to visit us!! I picked up the Swenson girls in Eugene late on the 8th and brought them back to the airport around noonish on the 12th. In that amount of time, Jill and I chatted non-stop about tons and tons and tons of great things; things that often get pushed aside during our weekly phone conversations simply due to the demands of life (ahem, children). Mixed in with all the talking, we managed to play with kiddos and see a tiny bit of Roseburg. We heavily weighed out the option of going to the coast but ultimately decided that it wasn't the best idea to go. I think that was wise. Between two napping sweeties and the ease of life close to home, we mainly stayed close only venturing as far as the Wildlife Safari village and Stewart park. It was great!!!

8-9
We spent the day playing outside and inside, ending the day with four fresh and clean jammie-clad kids. Seeing Molly and Leah together was a hoot, and Charlie and Alanna loved having Leah around.

8-10

Wildlife Safari village

We spent about 2 hours walking through the village and checking out all of the animals. It's such great free entertainment. We brought a small snacky lunch and munched as we went. These two ladies stand eye to eye!

Best group shot...

Several of the exhibits have steps to see better, but nothing works better than a lift from Auntie Jill. :)

Ultimately, we decided that the mini pony in the back needed either a haircut or a ponytail. Haha! :)

Evening playtime in the back yard. It was decently warm while Jill and Leah were here - not too hot where we just couldn't (wouldn't!) go outside.

Alanna playing basketball with the Strawberry Shortcake ball. She was loving it!

Mr. Tricycle Man

Matt has been picking blackberries every other day for a month now and this night was no exception. It was a good thing, too, because Leah was in love with those blackberries!! Free berries picked right behind the fence in our backyard? It's a no-brainer.

After some serious poonamis involving baths and laundry, Molly joined the green club with her last outfit for the day. Leah, Charlie, and Alanna had been wearing green all day just by coincidence!

Playing bubbles...and licking the bubble wands. Why, girls? Yucky!

Ha! This one was too funny not to include. She was really blowing the bubbles though!

She shoots, she scores!

 

Look at her white hair! Precious!

"Well, Leah? Which club are you going to use?"

Douglas County Fair and Fall Creek Falls

8-7

The kids and I teamed up with a few Young Lives moms and babies for a trip to the county fair. It was a bigger fair than I thought it was going to be which makes sense since Douglas county is quite large. It was a pretty hot day so we stuck to shaded areas and stayed about 2 hours. I was melting after 2 hours and Molly's red cheeks were showing about an 8.5 on the heat scale. :) The day's theme was "Dress A Veggie" day to get in free so I slapped some stretchy denim and tulle on a beet and called it good. I was the only one who would have had to pay admission since all three kids were free. My lame attempt at decorating a veggie saved me $10 so it was well worth the 2.4 minutes of my time! We went through one of the exhibit halls where the kids quickly zeroed in on a Lego display of creative projects. Next up - animals!! This was actually where we spent a majority of our time. I am all about the animals at the fair; the kids love them, the animals themselves are some of the prettiest things you have ever seen, and I think it is the most entertaining part of the fair for the ages of our children. We saw cows and calves, pigs and 5-day-old piglets, pigs, horses, and some sheep from a distance. Once we saw a majority of the animals we took a water break in the shade with our little group before calling it good. I thought maybe Charlie and Alanna could come back with Matt that evening, but it didn't work out. I would have probably done things different if I would have taken the kids by myself and either spent more time there or gone when it wasn't quite so warm, but we managed. I would have gotten the kids a treat to share at the fair as well!

8-8

Matt offered to take the kids out hiking on Saturday morning so I could clean the house at regular speed instead of kid speed. It was super helpful for me and the kids had way more fun than they would have if they would have been at home all morning and under my feet making all of us frustrated. Matt planned a hike to Fall Creek Falls and had the kids wear swimsuits with the intent of splashing around in the creek for a bit while they were there. They were gone for 4 hours and all had a blast! Charlie is in the first picture halfway between Alanna and the waterfall back along the rocks. They came back to a much cleaner house. :)

Last Day

8-3

On our last day in the park, we did a bit of packing up in the morning before sitting around and chatting for a good bit of time before, inevitably, completing the packing process. Kubes left just before noon and when they left, we headed up to the visitor's center at Paradise one more time. We stopped at Christine Falls on our way up. After a short visit, we headed back to the camper for a picnic lunch.

The best photo of the kids all together.

Besties!

This is literally one timer picture and it turned out GREAT!

Christine Falls

Mount Rainier from Paradise

Naturally, the focus is on the "big snowy mountain" as Alanna called it. However, there are some really pretty views looking the opposite direction as well! Behind Matt is the visitor's center at Paradise and some rocky peaks in the national park.

We found some huckleberries right along the path, so we did what anyone would do - we picked a few handfuls! They are so sweet.

After leaving the park, we stopped in Ashford to play at this playground. I saw a small section of it from the gas station down the block on our way through on Friday, but I just assumed it was a school playground. Turns out it was a county park that we had all to ourselves on Monday afternoon! The equipment was really nice and had some fun and different things for the kids to play on. And what tastes better than ice cream after getting hot and sweaty at the park?! There was a cute little coffee and ice cream shop where we sat on the covered patio and noshed on some pretty delicious ice cream. We ended up leaving Ashford at 4:30 and stopped for 75 minutes in Portland for supper and gas, arriving at home around 10:30. Traffic wasn't an issue and all and we flew through the city - sweet! That's how the drive should have gone on Friday... :/ Oh, well. It was worth the traffic battle to spend a fun-filled weekend with our friends in such a beautiful place. Thanks, Mountain Rainier (as Charlie calls it) National Park!