Levi and I have been talking about her arrival for about a week. Alexis and Eric are a few of Levi's favorite people, he's been know to call them his best friends. So when she finally arrived on Wednesday, Levi couldn't wait to meet her and asked me several times when we'd be able to go. Then he got a little shy when he finally did get to meet her on Friday evening. Silly kid!
Levi has made several comments to both Gabe and I (separately I should add) about wanting a little sister. Maybe Addison can bee Levi's "little sister". After all she won't ever have a big brother, and Levi will never have a little sister.
That introductory meeting was the kick off of our weekend.
We've also spent the weekend getting stuff off the to-do list.
Hanging out at Jen and Rich's BBQ.
Driving out to the gorge to do a quick morning hike to Upper Horsetail Falls.
Levi loves this Lego headlamp we got him for his birthday. This "cave" behind the waterfall is why we let him wear it on the hike. But honestly, it's on him much of the day at home anyway.
And since we were out that way, we had to do a quick stop at Multnomah Falls. I'm hopeful Levi will be up for the hike to the top next year. Very hopeful.
To conclude the weekend Gabe made the most amazing Kalua pork. I'm being totally honest when I say it was better than some of the Kalua pork we've eaten in Hawaii. It was that good! He rubbed it with green tea, salt and pepper. (Thanks for the recipe America's Test Kitchen!) Smoked it in the BBQ for a few hours and then braised it in the oven for a few more. Seriously delicious! If only waves were crashing out our window...maybe next summer.
Levi and I decided we needed to end summer vacation with a BANG!
So on Wednesday we spent our last day of summer vacation at Oaks Amusement Park. I heard from a friend that they open early two days a week for kids under 6 so we decided it would be fun to try it out. Levi was excited about the bumper cars (which it turns out he's too little to do.) I was glad Levi and I could do one more big fun thing together before I go back to work.
The rides were pretty scary for Levi at first. (And the first ride was on the carousel.) But once he got comfortable, and saw how much fun everyone was having, he did too! Some rides he could go on by himself.
On others I got to join in on the fun!
Here we are on the Tilt-a-Whirl.
We had a blast. Oaks Park will definitely be on our list of summer adventures next year!
I'll be back tomorrow to share some things about our weekend and introduce a wonderful new friend we met last night! After that, I might be MIA for awhile since I'll be back to the grind.
Levi and I have one more week of summer vacation. Next week at this time I'll be gearing up to head back to school. Prepping my classroom and planning lessons to welcome 200+ new 8th graders to American History. (Technically, 4 days. I have to go to a planning meeting all day on Thursday! Yuck!)
We've been making every moment count.
Here's what we've been up to over the last week:
Levi had to go in for his yearly check up at the doctor. I'm happy to report he's almost 40 inches and almost 39 lbs!
We went to the zoo with friends.
We finally filled up Levi's pool to splash and swim in the 100 degree afternoon.
We picked peaches at the farm. (Well, I picked while Levi played in the dirt.)
Took Levi's first MAX ride down to Saturday market.
Bought the most amazing Chester blackberries from the farmer's market.
And of course we had to play with all Levi's new toys.
Here is our young scholar at work learning his letters. Levi can identify about 10 letters in the alphabet but we haven't really worked at writing them. (We aren't even sure yet if he's a lefty or a righty. He uses both hands for so many things still.) At dinner tonight we started talking about things that start with "F" so I decided after dinner I'd show him how to write "F". I showed him, wrote one with him, and this is the one he wrote all by himself.
He's saying: "F". Having him say something is about the only way I can get him to look at the camera.
I just noticed how bad this guys buck teeth are! Guess we should start saving for corrective orthodontic treatment now. Braces aren't covered in our dental plan...
We joined Grandpa Tom and Grammy Joey down at their property near Yachats this weekend. On the agenda was a great weekend fishing, chasing down crawdads, and spending some great time with grandparents.
Levi and I were ready for some fishing on Siltcoos Lake. Here Levi is showing off his fishing shirt, proof that he's ready catch fish!
The captain and all his crew enjoyed a beautiful morning on the lake.
The morning was beautiful but the fish just weren't biting. We didn't do much catching. Gabe (and Levi) were the only successful fishermen. Gabe caught 2 newts, a little squawfish and this little trout! Like a true fisher man, Levi will tell you he caught a fish on the lake...and Daddy helped him.
After an unsuccessful morning on the lake. We headed to Indian Creek to find our dinner! Thank goodness the crawdads were plentiful. In just an hour and a half in the creek, we caught 277 crawdads.
There's a tradition ofkissing crawdads on this adventure. Levi would only follow the tradition of kissing the crawdads after they were cooked. (Not sure that should really count! The risk of having one hang onto your lip is part of the "fun".)
Dinner still took some work. We had to shell those 277 crawdads before we could eat them.
Of course we also spent the weekend enjoying camp fires and munching on roasted marshmallows.
And taking a walk (or ride for one of us) down at the beach. Levi was loving all the little pools made by the low tide!
It's so much fun to see Levi making memories.
Grandpa Tom and Grammy Joey, thank you for having us!
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.
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!
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.
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!"
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!
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.)
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.
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.
