Our Anniversary

Doug and I celebrated 11 years of marriage last Saturday. I can't be more grateful and thankful to have him as my partner in crime! He is the best of the best, and I am one lucky lady to call him my husband!!

We went to dinner at decarli, and fun new upscale restaurant in old downtown Beaverton, just a few minutes from our house. We had a lovely dining experience. Good drinks, good service, amazing food. We will be back for sure!

Cheers to us!

We then headed up to the Rose Gardens to walk around. It was a lovely night and there was lots of beautiful flowers to be seen and fun people to be watched. It was nice to just sit and be still.. together! 

 Enjoying the time together!

Here's to many happy years ahead!!

Fourth of July Fun

Our plans for the fourth were cancelled due to our friends being sick, so we decided to make the best of it, checking an item off our "Summer 2012 Bucket List", and headed south to Enchanted Forest. Doug and I haven't been there since we were young, but we both still remember how much fun we had there. We hoped our kids would enjoy it, and oh, my! did they ever!

 The Famous Sign

 Excited to go in.. While Evelyn was just giddy, Matthew was not too sure of the (fake) crocadille in the mote under the castle drawbridge!

 Since the first "attaction" is the big castle, Evelyn was in heaven from the beginning. She loved the castle, and everything in it!

 Matthew watching the "Sing a Song of Sixpence" show. Even at my age, it was pretty funny! He was glued to it and was laughing and clapping the entire time!

 All of us in Western Town. The kids even shot (toy) guns.. it was epic! (I didn't take any shots of that as I was helping, but it really did happen!)

 Having a blast!!

 One of the big attractions they advertise is the "Water Light Show", which is fairly new to the park. We weren't sure what it was or if the kids would sit through the whole thing. Needless to say they LOVED it, we all did. It was one of the highlights for us for sure. Matthew was like this most of the time, hands clasped, watching in awe and saying "oh, wooowwww!"

 They have a "kiddie ride" area, and so we bought a couple of tickets and let the kids pick one to go on (there was only 4). They chose the train and got to ride by themselves! They were so proud and had fun!

 They wanted to ride with us, so the sweet ride conductor let us go on with them for free. 

 Matthew already a crazy driver! 

The funnest, and I mean FUNNEST thing the kids did was the "Shoe Slide". I still remember this from when I was there, and let me tell you, we could have done this ALL day! I went down with Matthew a couple of times, not sure what he would think. Then he said "I do all by myself!" and proceeded to race his sister down the slide many many more times. This is both the kids' favorite thing about our time there.

 Doug said his smile was HUGE going down!

 Evelyn wanted to go with her dad a few times, too.. and they both had fun!

 Finally ready to move on to see other things! 

 The Rabbit Hole.. starts out dark and cramped but ends up in a little house across the path. Matthew wasn't so sure at first, but was a big brave boy and went thru it and of course, loved it!

Heading to the car.. one last shot!

The kids have not stopped talking about our adventures there. They keep the map of the park in the car and look at it every time we drive somewhere. They really had so much fun. Doug and I did as well.  A much needed family day filled with lots of smiles and fun.

Summer is here!!

Finally summer has come to our fair town!! We decided to go try a new fountain that a friend told me about, one that isn't so crazy crowded and also fun for the little ones. 

The funny story is that we didn't actually go to the fountain at first, but to another "water feature" in the same area. We found the "real" fountain after we had played at the other water area for quite a while. We wondered why there was no one else there.. haha! We still had fun and enjoyed the time there.. but next time we will go to the real fountain!

She LOVES the water!

Matthew boycotted the water this trip.. and sat on this rock the entire time Evelyn played in the water. He was completely happy to do so, too. Silly boy...

Evelyn took this picture of my and insisted that I put it on my blog. So, here it is! HA!

She has such a good time splashing around!

After that we headed to Jody's to say hi (Doug was working late so we had time). My son decided that he liked water once we got there and Jody let then have at it with her hose. They had a great time! 

Sibling love at its best! HA!

He is fierce with a hose!

Loving being in control of the water!

He really does love his JoJo!!

Evelyn running for her life!

Needless to say, after spending most of the afternoon in the sun and water, both of them fell asleep within moments of lights out. Let the summer fun begin!

Park Fun

 They often walk to the park holding hands. So precious!

 Evelyn is FINALLY learning how to swing on the "big girl swing" independantly. She is pretty excited, as are we!

 Chatting with her brother on the "microphone"!

 Since Evelyn was really little, she loved to play "restaurant" at the park. There is a spot in the play structure that looks like an "ordering place". Apparently she wasn't too happy with Matthew's order in this picture.. HA!

 Happy to pose... notice my son in the background. All he wanted to do was go up the slide! 

 I seriously think he went down the slide at least 50 times! 

My sweet monkey!

Thankful for such great places to play that are in our neighborhood, and for my sweet kids who love to play at them!!

Berry Picking

This was the year, I thought. Time to start berry picking and making my own jam. I haven't done it since before Evelyn was born. Both kids are old enough now. Both kids will love it. Right?

To make the deal even sweeter for my two cherubs, the farm we went to had a HUGE play structure made out of an old combine/tractor. Certainly that would be enticement to get berries picked with good 'ol mom. Right?

Negative, ghost rider.

Okay, okay.. it wasn't all bad. They both were very well behaved and didn't run off or eat all the berries, etc. Evelyn really loved picking berries and was actually quite the speedy picker. I actually might have eaten more than she did out in the field! HAHA! We had two buckets full in a relatively short period of time.She was super excited when I taught her that some of the best berries lie behind the "pricklies", the prickly weed that grow between the plants. Most stay away from them, but if you gently push them aside, you find untouched, big and sweet berries!

Matthew on the other had, had absolutely NO interest in picking berries. He stood at the end of the rows with our wagon, watching Ev and I do all the work. He didn't fuss, didn't even move. He just stood there and watched. I invited him to come help several times, but no. He just waited for us to fill our buckets, occasionally braving it and joining us for a moment or two. I felt bad, but he really didn't seem to mind. Silly kid!

Sadly, the great play structure the farm had was a bit too big and overwhelming for my two. The slides were too steep, the structure too tall. They were happy to head home and try again next year. I was pretty proud of them being such good sports about the whole thing.

Here are the only two pics of the two of them. Sigh...

During Matthew's nap, Evelyn and I made jam. We had such a good time chatting, laughing and tasting the sweet strawberries! It was a great two hours with just my girl!

Oh.. and the jam turned out pretty good, too!!

Ducks!

We are so fortunate to live within minutes of a beautiful park that surrounds a pond full of hungry ducks (and fish!). It also sports not one, but two playgrounds, too! I have spent time there dating back to when I was a teenager. Evelyn and I have been a couple of times. We went again today and Matthew now can say he, too, has experienced the fun of Commenwealth Park. I have a feeling we will be visiting there a lot this summer!!

 Matthew getting ready to give out some grub. He was laughing and giggling the entire time!

 My sweet girl showed him how it was done!

 "Follow me, Ducks!" (and they did!)

 Good thing I had lots of bread with us!

The ducks would NOT leave us alone since we had been feeding them. Evelyn was trying to gently explain to them that we were all out of bread and that they needed to go away. I didn't have the heart to tell her that they didn't understand her! HA!

We visited both playgrounds after feeding the ducks and the kids had so much fun playing together. There was a double slide at one of the play areas.. and the two of them just got silly!!

 They are so stinkin' cute!!

No doubt about it.. we will visit this fun place again soon!!