Oregon: Chetco River

After the beach we stopped by the Chetco River where Tommy demonstrated his rock skipping skills. Several in the family were very talented in skipping the rocks several times across the river, and others, like myself, were simply good at throwing rocks. I had never skipped a rock before, and I would say that it is definitely not one of my talents. After several attempts I think I only got a rock to skip once. Oh well... I still had a lot of fun watching the kids throwing rocks.

Olivia snoozing in the sun.

Little Robby did manage to skip a few rocks himself.

The wind-up...

and the pitch!

Olivia did wake up long enough to watch the action.

Tommy shows us how it's done.

Before we left, we stopped to get a few pictures of the cousins seated in front of this beautiful wooded path. (L to R: James, Robby, Matthew, Eli, Jenna, Molly)

Robby tried to get me to come into the hollow tree trunk and kiss him, but I thought it looked a little creepy in there. Jenna on the other hand didn't have a problem and stole my kiss.

Oregon: Harris Beach

I'm finally getting a minute to upload my pictures from the trip. I guess I'm the slacker because most everyone else has at least posted something.

Robby and I joined the family in Oregon late on Thursday morning. We would have loved to be in Oregon for a week with most of the family, but school work for both the boys kept us home a little longer. I did think after we had bought our plane tickets that it would have been fun for me to take the girls out earlier in the week, but I must admit that I am not sure how I would have handled getting through security at the airport with two little ones by myself. I know it's possible, but I must admit that jumping through all the hoops at airport security stresses me out, especially when I have children in tow!

Let me get to the pictures... When we arrived on Thursday we were just in time to get a bite of lunch with the family and head off to Harris Beach. I was really glad because Abbie gave me a tip before with left which was to bring an extra pair of pants for my kids because they will get wet (whether you want them to or not! ;) I was really glad I listened because they did get wet, and I was prepared! Here are the highlights of our beach fun!

Little Olivia slept through the visit to the beach so she has still never seen the ocean (not that she would have remembered anyway). The other thing I think when I see this picture is that Robby had it easy, his hair didn't get tossed around in the brisk wind on the shore like mine. He took a picture of me holding Olivia but I am not going to post it because I look a bit like Cousin Itt thanks to the wind.

The kids had a great time running...

playing in the sand...

playing in the sand some more...

and dancing in the water (which was so irresistable that they couldn't help getting wet -- Thanks Abbie for the tip!)

Robby and his brothers

I love seeing my kids have fun!

One a pig and three are gold...

Okay, before I start into vacation pics, I have to share this very amusing rendition of "Baa, Baa Black Sheep" as performed by Jenna. She sang this over and over for us on the 2 hour drive from Medford, OR to Fort Dick, CA.

An Olivia video

I thought you might enjoy a peek at Olivia on camera. I was really trying to get film of smiley Olivia cooing at me, but as usual she stopped as soon as the camera came out. I did catch one smile in this video and one very small coo, but in real life she can be very talkative and smiley.

I also have another story to tell about her. On Friday, she and I went clothes shopping because I needed to find a new outfit for Robby's brother Tommy's upcoming wedding. When we went to Macy's one of the sales ladies approached me so that she could admire Olivia. Olivia looked up at the woman and gave her this huge grin. I was totally surprised because thus far she has only smiled for someone in the family, and I told the woman that she was the first stranger that Olivia has smiled for. The lady was so charmed that as if by magic she offered me a 15 % off coupon for the things I bought at Macy's that day. Score one for Olivia! I will have to remember this trick for the future because I always like to save money!

A Beautiful Day for the Train Park

Last weekend I got a call from one of my friends inviting me and Jenna and Olivia to a special park that has a working mini train that people can ride. We had been to this park once before and I knew that Jenna would be thrilled to go again so Monday we dropped everything and went to play.

Jenna's waiting to see the train go by.

This was a very interesting slide. It is made up of a bunch of rollers. I wanted to take a picture of Jenna sliding down this slide. So, she ran enthusiastically up to the top of the slide (even cutting off a little boy) and then refused to go down. What a silly!

Running free!

Jenna and her nursery friends Graham and Blair go for a fun "ride" in a stage coach.

This was one of her favorite places to play in the park.

After running around and playing for a while it was time to take a ride on the train.

Jenna and her friends all decided to corral themselves in the cattle car. You should have heard them scream with delight when the train took off.

Olivia napped while everyone (except Mom, of course) rode the train.

After the train ride we had to go ride the "horseys" (according to Jenna). You can see her friend Graham on the horse next to her and then Graham's mom riding with Graham's little brother.

This time Olivia got to ride, too! She wasn't so sure about it though. I wish I could have caught her look of surprise when the carousel started.

I finally caught a smile on camera!

Okay, it may not look completely like a smile, but I think I clicked the camera a fraction of a second too late. Olivia is a tricky one. This is very characteristic of her, she loves to smile with her mouth wide open.

My next goal is to catch a smile with her actually looking at the camera.

Easter Fun

We did something a little different this year. Yes, we still did a string maze to start of the Easter hunt, but this year we did our Easter egg hunt at night so the kids had to use flashlights to find the eggs. I got the idea because Jenna had gotten some sparkly Easter eggs at the Fishing Festival they went to the week before, and I thought that they would reflect the light of the flashlight really well. Plus, we have such a small backyard that there would be few places to hide the eggs really well in the daylight. At night, I could use the shadows to hide eggs.

Olivia slept through the Easter fun and was oblivious that she was surrounded by string.

I had fun setting everything up while Robby took the kids to the store.

I cracked up when Li'l Robby got home and started singing the theme to Mission Impossible while he snuck under and around the string as if they were laser beams.

Jenna, on the other hand, thought it was great fun to try and get tangled up in it herself.

Robby used a hanger to wrap up the string. I never realize how much I string I use until I see it all wrapped up at the end.

I would have had pictures of them gathering eggs, but since it was dark they didn't really turn out. You'll just have to take my word for it that they really enjoyed it!

Spring Break: Science Museum

I was so glad when we went to the Museum on Friday with Andra and cousins that we happened to meet up in the parking lot. No confusion that day! We all had a great time. The kids really liked the special exhibit on Dinosaurs that we saw.

Audrey is getting to be such a big girl!

Digging for dinosaur bones.

Making our own dinosaurs.

Here's Robby's creation

On the way in and out of the exhibit we passed by this dinosaur. When we first walked in James and Jenna were seriously freaked out by this guy because he was moving and making noise. By the time we left they were okay with it, and went and stood nearby to watch. They didn't realize that it was going to turn its head to them and roar (is that what you would call it, do dinosaurs roar?). I cracked up when they all jumped.

Jenna was so eager to try everything.

I thought it was cute that Audrey wanted to help me feed Olivia.

Working hard!

Aunt Andra was happy to have a minute to hold Olivia.

And lastly, this is my little show off, Jenna. She has gotten to the age where she really wants to impress me with all the "big" things she can do.

Spring Break: Zoo

Spring Break has been over for more than a week, and I am finally getting caught up on the blog. On Wednesday of that week we took a trip to the zoo. Our intention was to meet up with Andra at the entrance, but that proved to be more difficult than we thought. Wednesday was a very popluar day to go to the zoo, and amid the crowd at the entrance we never found each other. I know it's surprising, but there were THAT MANY PEOPLE! When Andra and I talked after we got home we discovered that we had both waited about 45 minutes for each other before we decided that our kids would not wait any longer. As we cruised through the zoo, I kept an eye out in hopes that we would find Andra, Matthew, James, and Audrey, but we were not that lucky. I think it was because we both took similar paths through the zoo and she ended up just far enough ahead of me that we never crossed paths. It was disappointing, but we each still had fun with our kids. Here are our highlights...

Look out for Jenna, the tractor driver.

Olivia just hung out in the stroller and watched the world go by.

Now I realize that I didn't have to go to the zoo to see a monkey because my own monkey likes to climb trees.

Li'l Robby had to convince Jenna to get in this clam because at first she was very apprehensive. After he got her in there he told her to look scared, so this is Jenna "looking scared."

After Jenna did it, she insisted that brother had to get in, too! (He really didn't want to, but I told him that he had to since he made Jenna do it.)

Throughout most of our zoo trip, Chap had control of the camera. You can see him in the reflection on this shot. When we got home he proudly informed Dad that he had taken a picture of every animal we saw.

Nice self-portrait. What do you think he is thinking?