Oregon Trip! March 2014

A few pictures before we get to our trip: we had our first bike-riding lesson! Olivia was very excited, until I told her she had to wear her helmet. She did try for a while, but was more excited about helping Carter learn than actually riding herself. Also, Carter had to try it as well, even though he isn't anywhere near reaching those pedals. We have a lot of bike-riding in our near future!

Then a few days later, the kids and I flew to Oregon. We take any opportunity we can to see family, and a baby shower made for a great excuse! We happened to fly out on a dance day, so Olivia had her bun in. I thought her waiting for the plane was just too cute not to document!

As soon as we got to Oregon, Carter found his Grandpa buddy. This boy is always attached to his Grandpa when we are together. Mom is no longer good enough to do anything, including silly things like washing up after meals and getting snacks. Carter will say no to me, only to immediately find his Grandpa and ask for the same thing :). I love having grandparents that are such a crucial part of my kids' lives!

 On morning while we were in town, we met Michelle and crew for some cousin time! We did the carousel, the park, then went out to eat before the kids were all tired and grumpy. These kids are going to have so much fun growing up together, and eventually maybe even the boys will notice each other. Right now Carter and Logan mostly play around each other, but they don't fight too much yet!

Logan had so much fun with these 'telephone' toy things. He was listening to Aiden on the other side, just giggling and shouting his response. I also loved how Tyler was so quick to hold Logan up to let him participate! What a great older brother!!

While we waited for lunch at the restaurant, Carter and Logan shared a snack. They were so funny about never complaining, but also taking as much as their little hands could hold and shoveling it into their mouth. I don't think either one was keen on sharing with the other, but they were quite passive aggressive in their demonstration of that frustration.

As I type this, I'm trying to figure out exactly how many people we had in that booth. We were at an Applebee's corner booth, and if my memory serves me right, we had Janet, Michelle, Tyler, Aiden, Andy, Ashley, Danielle, Mary, Gary, Olivia, and myself, with two high chairs squeezed into the opening. It was a FULL booth, but it's too fun to all chat together, so we didn't spread out. At the time I remember smiling to myself, because it was such a familiar experience to me, as my siblings and I would never want to split into two tables. We would have squeezed in just like my new family did that day :). I started out with a pretty great family, and married an awesome one too. I'm so lucky!

Andy doing the requisite jungle-gym Uncle play :). He is such a sport about letting the kids climb all over him every time we are together!

 After we spent a few days with our Keizer family, we headed down to Philomath for some time with my side of the family. We always split our time when we visit, so the kids get a parade of family members to play with...the perfect vacation! This time we were lucky enough to get to meet baby Adelyn, a new baby of our friends. I think at first O was more excited to play with her friend Grace, but after I finally let her hold the baby, she didn't want to give her up! She loves babies, and was entranced by this sweet little girl. I totally enjoyed the hours catching up with a great friend and snuggling this sweet baby. It confirmed my own baby-hungriness!

Just a couple fun pictures from this amazing rocking horse that my Grandpa Dale built. He built one for each of his children at Christmas last year, so this was my kids' first opportunity to test drive it. As a note, it is constructed beautifully, and is EXTREMELY difficult to tip over. You can kind of see from the second picture, but O was rocking it crazily, and didn't get it to tip over once.

The next day we went to the Newport Coast with my mom. It was so fun! The weather was great, especially for March, so we were able to be out the entire time. Our first stop was down to the bayfront to say hi to the Sea Lions. The kids weren't as impressed at first, but soon they started kicking each other around and yelling to eachother, which produced mixed reactions. O was cheering them on, while Carter cowered behind Grandma Terece. It was very indicative of the different personalities of my kids ;).

This was Carter's comfortable distance from the water. You can see how far forward Grandma and O are, but he was happy to be in about 1" of water the entire time :)

During our week in Oregon we had some wonderfully unexpected additions to the family (baby Reese and Zoey came quite early, the day before their planned baby shower!). We weren't able to see them quite yet, but we did catch the new Grandma Kathy one evening before we went home. Olivia loves her special time playing at Aunt Kathy's, especially reading together. The next time we visit will be even more special, as O can hopefully read to her new cousins :)! They are the most adorable little girls, just typing this makes me itch to cuddle them again!

That was the end of our trip, the kids were very ready to see their dad, and I was quite ready to pass off a bedtime or diaper change as well! We were surprised when we got home by these beautiful shelves in the garage! Now we have more room for more stuff!