Update: Deck Under Construction

Last weekend (when Levi wasn't home) Gabe and I were able to take down the old deck and a tree that was in the way of the additional deck space we are adding.
Here's a photo of the almost completely demolished deck space.

Gabe ripped boards out while I hauled it all to the recycling dumpster in the driveway.
Pretty full by the end of the demolition.

Since all home improvement projects end up uncovering a surprise, Gabe found some rot in the siding of the house next to the back door.  So most of his work in the evenings last week was getting new siding on and putting on the ledger so that rot will not happen again.

This weekend was all about framing.

And then laying decking boards.

As of right now, Gabe has one more deck board to put in, some trim work to do, a step to build and railing to order (and then put in when we get it).
I'll be back to show the completed project...soon I hope.

Sunday Swim and Supper

Two of us were able to have some fun this weekend, while the other one labored in the sun building our new deck.  Gabe has been working in the evenings all week and the entire weekend on the deck.  With needed (and much appreciated) help from friends and family, I'm happy to report it is very close to completion tonight.  I will post pictures and update the progress on the project tomorrow.

So with Gabe busy working, Levi and I kept ourselves busy this weekend with a trip to the zoo with Grandma G.

And we met friends to swim at the outdoor pool.  Levi LOVED this frog slide.  I literally could not get him to do anything else at the pool today!  He must have slid down it at least 100 times!

After playing at the pool, our friends came over to our house for supper.  Gabe stopped working long enough to BBQ some chicken and eat...so not the most fun Sunday Supper him.  But the rest of us had a good time!

Gabe has said he's pretty excited about going to work tomorrow so he can sit at his desk all day.  Too bad he'll have to come home and work some more!

Summer Fun!

Levi and I have been busy marking things off our "Summer To-Do" list.  It's a good thing because the summer is already half way over!
The weather hasn't been great this week. (Meaning cloudy and not even 80 degrees!)  So a lot of our activities have been inside before swimming lessons or after nap time.
We've made (and "played" with) Peanut Butter Play-Doh

 And we put more of our fresh blueberries to work making muffins and blueberry frozen yogurt!

Levi is spending the weekend at Grandpa and Grandma G's house because Gabe and I have a project to start.  Our old deck is being removed!

But I'll be honest...most of the work will be done by Gabe.  After all, I have to help throw a baby shower on Sunday!  And 48 pink lemonade cupcakes have to get made between now and Sunday afternoon.

"I have a joke for you."

Levi's really into telling jokes right now.  Problem is...he only has one joke.  And it goes something like this:
"Why did the ________________________ cross the road?"
The blank is then filled in with whatever is on his mind at the moment.

For example, here's his favorite one since we had ice cream after playing at the beach on Sunday:
Levi: "Why did the ice cream cross the road."
Me:  " I don't know.  Why did the ice cream cross the road?"
(And here's the punch line, no matter who or what is crossing the road.)
Levi: "Cause a car was coming!"

Silly kid!

Making a come back

Sort of...
I can't believe we haven't had a Sunday Supper in over a month!

Well, after that long hiatus, we had friends over for dinner tonight.  We threw some things on the BBQ and three boys played with every single toy we have (both inside and out).

Since it would have been impossible to capture those three active boys on film, I didn't even try.  But I did take a picture of the one thing I knew would hold still.  This is the blueberry cobbler I made for dessert.  Yummy!

Cobbler note:
I normally prefer a fruit crisp to a cobbler because whenever I've made cobbler the biscuits on top are raw and doughy (not yummy!).  Well, America's Test Kitchen has done it again.  They have perfected the cobbler.  Their secret is "briefly bake the fruit filling before adding the topping.  This helps to jump-start the cooking of the biscuits from underneath, resulting in a uniformly cooked biscuit and a perfect filling."
We agree!

Blueberries and the Beach

We are trying to pack as much into this summer as we possibly can.  Today we marked 2 things off our Summer To-Do List!

This morning we picked 21 pounds of blueberries.  I think Levi only ate one pound!  And I think he even put a few (and only a few) into the two buckets.

I need your help judging a little contest we had while picking today.  (There is no prize for the winner, only bragging rights).  Who picked the biggest blueberry today:
Alexis?

Eric?

Levi?

I won't tell you who really picked this one...Levi ate it!

After dropping our berries in the fridge, we took of to Cannon Beach for the afternoon.

We had a great time.
We played in the sand for hours.  Making race tracks, tunnels and bridges for Levi's race cars.  Collecting shells.  Pretending to be seagulls and crabs.  Hiding race cars in the sand.  Covering Levi in sand.  And just relaxing.

What a wonderful summer Saturday!

(Leave your judgement for the biggest blueberry competition as a comment.  I can't declare a winner as my choice will clearly be bias.)

Part Three: Redwoods

The final part of our trip was to Redwoods National and State Parks.

Of course we hiked to as many big trees as we could!
This is Big Tree:

Accurately named because it is over 300 feet tall and more than 20 feet in diameter.  And it's not even the biggest Redwood.  After all, Redwoods are the tallest living things on the planet.
I think the only hike Levi would say he liked was the one we did in Fern Canyon.  And that was because he got to walk in the creek and get all wet!

We saw lots of wildlife.
We camped in Elk Meadow and we saw many of these guys every day.  One evening as we were doing laps (us walking and Levi riding his bike) around the camp ground loops, we saw about 6 bull elk actually in some camp sites.  Pretty cool!

And then on our way back from a hike through one large grove of Redwoods, Gabe spotted this little guy.

I think the banana slugs at our campsite were Levi's favorite wildlife.

We also did some more touristy things while on the Northern California coast.  We spent some time in Crescent City and went to the aquarium.
Here's Levi and Gabe "petting" a shark.

Levi really loved the seal show they put on.  But it wasn't the best aquarium we've visited.
And of course we had to visit the Redwood tourist traps!

 Here's Gabe and Levi on our trip up the gondola.

And of course we had to drive through a Redwood.

We also enjoyed a cloudy afternoon on a jet boat tour of the Klamath River.  We saw lots of bald eagles, osprey, harbor seals and even another bear cub!  But this video shows you what Levi's favorite part of the boat tour was.



On the long trip home we had to stop for lunch and take a quick tour through Wildlife Safari.
Our favorite animal was the giraffe just eating leaves off this tree right outside our window.

I think everyone had a great time!  But we were all happy to be home and sleeping in our own soft beds again after 11 days on the road.

Lazy Bend

We went camping with "the gang" this weekend.
Jen found us a nice little spot on the Clackamas River not far out of town.  It was great!

Unlike most of the rest of the country, we're just now getting our summer weather.
So we had lots of great play time in the river with Levi doing this:

or this: (He's fishing with a shoe lace he found in the water.  Grandpa Tom, this kid needs you to show him how to really fish.)

While us grown-ups spent most of our time on the river like this:

And here's our traditional shot of everyone who camped with us this year!

Levi and I have a pretty mellow week planned (with the exception of two more weeks of swimming lessons that start tomorrow).  After being on the go for these first three weeks of summer, I think we'll spend some time at home this week.  That should allow me some time to get back on here and complete the story of our vacation.

Part Two: Lassen Volcanic National Park

For part two of our vacation, we drove to Northern California and spent some time in the mountains.  Our destination was Lassen Volcanic National Park.

The daytime weather was perfect the whole time.  Not a cloud in the sky and in the 70's.  But night time temperatures were freezing.  Literally.  We could see our breath in our tent in the morning.
Despite the freezing temperatures at night, camping was great!
Here's Levi supervising while dad sets up the tent.

Levi got to try his first roasted marshmallow!  In fact, an entire bag of jet-puffed marshmallows were consumed over the course of our trip.

 Levi always finds time to get into mischief.

 And he spent most of his time in camp making dirt race tracks.

When we weren't playing at camp, we were exploring the park.

It's no Yellowstone, but there is some geothermal activity in the park.  Here's a boiling mud pot in the Sulphur Works part of the park.

Here we are in front of (still frozen) Lake Helen with Lassen Peak in the background.

 We walked around Manzanita Lake, not far from our campground.

Here's how Levi likes to do trail exploration.  I guess we have a future mountain biker on our hands.  Unfortunately, most NP trails are closed to bikes!

And this is one of my favorite shots.

Gabe took a little hike on his own to get some shots of Lassen Peak in Reflection Lake at sunset.

They turned out great.  This is one I spent a little time editing this morning, but Gabe will probably want to play around with the shots some more.  Maybe he can replace this one with his favorite one later.

Stay tuned for the final installment of our vacation adventures!  Still to come: the Redwoods.

Independence Celebration

Since it is tradition, and is a great time to visit with friends, we went to the Shaut's BBQ yesterday to celebrate.
A cornhole tournament was played.

Future Cornhole Champion!

Levi carefully studied the technique of the players so he can enter the tournament next year!
Great food and beer was consumed.
Perfect holiday celebration.

To finish it off Levi got to stay for the fireworks for the first time!
He tried his first sparkler (and hopefully not his last).  A spark landed on him and he wasn't happy it "burned" him and refused to try another.

I think he enjoyed the fireworks.  Here he is with his new best friend Jackie watching the big mortars Dave and Carley's neighbors set off.  He's showing me what they do when they go up in the air.

Part One: Crater Lake

Part one of our road trip was through Southern Oregon.  We were planning to camp at Diamond Lake, just north of Crater Lake National Park, but due to weather we nixed those 3 nights of camping and stayed at Diamond Lake Resort instead.  We were hoping to be able to view Crater Lake and then play at Diamond Lake the rest of the time.  But it rained almost the entire time!  Between rain storms (and snow flurries) we were able to get some great views of the deepest lake in the United States.

We were also able to walk/hike to some great water falls off HWY 138.  And it was on these early hikes, we discovered Levi isn't very happy walking through the woods yet.  Guess it's just too much work for those little legs.

Clearwater Falls

Whitehorse Falls

Watson Falls.  This 1.2 mile "hike" is where Levi really gave up!  At 272 feet, Watson Falls is the fourth highest water fall in Oregon.

Toketee Falls.  We had to carry Levi most of this almost 1 mile "hike" to view the falls.  And then it started pouring on us as soon as we got to the viewing platform.