Saturday, August 22, 2009

Our visit to Washington

My sister Keri and her kids came down from Washington for a visit at the beginning of August. The night they came in I fixed a big spagetti dinner to feed everyone. This is Grace and her cousing Laura (who is 17 days younger) sharing a plate of food. It starts out clean enough but then... ...things get a little bit messy. There was spagetti all over the girls, all over the table, chairs and floor. They had a wonderful time!
Keri stayed down for a week and then on August 8th we loaded our kids in the car and followed them all back up to Vancouver for a visit of our own. We enjoyed seeing their new house and letting all the kids play together. One day of our trip we went out to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. I love the huge tanks they have where you walk through a tube in the middle of the aquarium. You are surrounded by fish and they have these windows built into the floor so you can also see what is underneath you.
Grace didn't like walking on the windows in the floor so she keep trying to run away and find something else to entertain herself with.
Time for a break!
Another night Keri took our kids and Bob and I went on a dinner cruise on the Willamette River that runs through Portland. It was a really fun way to see the city and a fun date!
Later we went out to Pacific City beach. The weather was perfect and even though the water was cold we still had a great time.
Nathan loved playing in the water this year. Last year he would run away from the waves and hated it when they got him. Not this year!
This is a huge sand dune at one end of the beach. Bob and Jeff took the older kids all the way up while Keri and I entertained the babies down on the beach. Once Nathan finally made it to the top he decided that he needed to roll all the way back down.
Anyway, good times were had by all and we were very sad when the 15th rolled around it was time to say goodbye and make our way back home.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Because of various circumstances Nathan ended up having three different birthday parties this year. First he had a combined birthday party with Scott on Monday night for Moultrie Family Home Evening. Nathan and Scott share the same birthday so Sherry brought a cake for both of them that had a "football glove" on it according to Nathan but it looked suspiciously like a baseball glove to the rest of us. Nana made him a Thomas blanket with his name embroidered on it that he just loves! It was a good day for him.

His actual birthday was on Wednesday and he really wanted a cake so he got a boring chocolate one but it was tasty! I also took him to the store where he picked out a new tricycle that is very noisy! He likes to push the button on his tricycle to rev the engine when Mike comes over with his motorcycle! I think the testosterone kicks in early!
Then we had the last party for him the next Monday after my parents got back from Washington. I asked Sarah to make the cake for him and she went all out! Check out this cool 3-D Thomas cake she did. I don't know how many hours it took but Nathan absolutely loved it. Thanks Sarah!
He also loved the hot wheels and the "Papa truck" he got that would launch the cars across the room.
Happy birthday buddy! I can't believe you are four years old!