Sibling Weekend

In March my little brother came up with a fun trip idea... my brothers and our spouses to get together for a weekend. In order to make this happen we conned my mom into the idea of OMA Camp.... 3 days of non-stop chaos with all 8 grandkids. I honestly don't know how they sold it. But we picked a day and talked it up for 4 months and we finally did it!We had a fabulous weekend.... Hiking, Rafting on the Deschutes, swimming in a cold lake.






Can't wait till we can do it again!

Car Show

Nathaniel has been taking an interest in Motorcycles. The other day I was driving and as we drove by a motorcycle Nathaniel yells out the window, "Hey Mr. Motorcycle Man can I sit on your motorcycle?" (This Momma was thankful we were going 40mph and there was no way he heard him.) Last week Nathaniel told Daddy, "Stop, wait, stop turn the car around, I just saw a motorcycle!" Well we went to a car show at our church and guess what was there?

Nathaniel LOVED sitting on the motorcyle.... and then running around from car to car

A trip to Nevada

Not sure where to start... cheap airfare and hotel took us to Vegas. Expensive food and shows brought us back home. I would give a mixed review on Vegas. While we found plenty to do there, I'm not sure I would want to go back. I guess time will tell. Initially I was overwhelmed with the hot temperatures (105!) , the crowds of people, and the smoke in the air. But it was nice to have some time to ourselves. We saw an Amazing Musical "Jersey Boys" and a Cirque De Soliel "Ka".

The tigers from Siegfried and Roy were in "The Secret Garden". We saw them wrestling and roaring at each other.




We had brunch at the Stratosphere and watched people jump from 850 feet above the city.



The Shark Aquarium was interesting. I kissed a Komodo Dragon! and saw the Dolphin pool.



The rest of our time we spent at the pool. We missed our little boys too much! I think they missed us too.

Scrub a Dub Dub

Sometimes it's just easier to put them in the sink! I love Logan's face when Nate starts to use the scrubby on him.

A day with 7 kids

And just when I thought 2 was plenty.... My brother and his wife are out of town and both sets of grandparents were out of town, so I guess it's our turn :-) As Ken took my brother and Amy to the airport to catch their flight I hear the oldest say to the second oldest... go get a rope and we can tie Aunt Sarah up. sheesh! Thankfully the day went much smoother than that...Once Ken got back from the airport he marched 6 of the 7 down to the grocery store to get breakfast groceries. I didn't really NEED anything, but it seemed like a good idea so I made a small list of things to get.


After cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs, toast, bacon and strawberries we got everyone into there swimsuits... wait the two oldest boys dont have swimsuits. Ahhh. Off to the store. Once everyone was ready we were off to the Clackamas Aquatic Park. It was a lot of fun, but the littles only lasted about an hour and a half. The lifeguards made everyone get out of the pool so I was able to get a snapshot of Ken with the kids (minus Javen who was at the top of the waterslide line). Fun day for all!

Sea Lion Caves and Aquarium

Day 2 of our down South adventure took us to the Sea Lion Caves. Nathaniel would love to tell you about it. "saw a baby seal swimming, then on the small rock, mommy on the big rock, baby seal wants to snuggle mommy on the big rock." It's really a precious story.

No flash photography down in the cave so this will have to do.




The Oregon Coast Aquarium was less impressive in my opinion...but that may be because we saw the one inside the Mall of America last October which was AMAZING! Nathaniel was more interested in the dirt/pebbles on the ground.





Over all a beautiful day at the coast- no wind, and at least 70 degrees. LOVE IT!

Safari Fun

We took a trip down South this weekend. I don't think I've ever been to Eugene and the Safari was another hour South of Eugene. I've heard great things about the Safari and was not disappointed at all. We had a blast... spent more $$$ than I anticipated but hey, we're on vacation! (The Safari gives Zoo members a 50% discount) We got up at our normal 5am and put the kids in the car thinking they would sleep on the way down. Nope. Oh well, guess we will stop for a nice breakfast :-) We reached the Safari about 10:30am and drove through the park. We saw lots of cool animals.










Afterwards we went into the village and signed up for both an elephant excursion and a giraffe excursion. Nathaniel has been asking me if he can pet the elephant at the Portland Zoo so I was very excited to actually give him an opportunity. Even Logan loved it. Nathaniel loved that the elephant waved to us with one leg.



Logan clapping for "Alice" the Elephant


Giraffe excursion. If I had to pick only one I would do this one again. So much fun. Nathaniel has NOT stopped talking about feeding the carrots, banana, and lettuce to the giraffe.






Petting Zoo. Inside the Safari Village was a "little zoo" with a few exhibits and a petting zoo. Nathaniel loved feeding the goats.