September, So Far

So we have had a busy September already. We started the month with a family trip to the Oregon Coast. Garrett, Melinda, and Adelade came with us. We arrived in Portland on the 3rd and stayed there the first night. We enjoyed the Japanese Gardens and dinner at a German restaurant, and then swimming at the hotel pool. In the morning, we went to Salty's Restaurant for the best brunch ever! After that it was to the coast.

Fish Hatchery at Cascade Dam (stopped on the way home)

We drove to Seaside on Sunday. There was a lot of traffic getting there and a lot more when we actually got there. It was packed with people, but we thought we could at least enjoy the promenade walk along the beach. We were wrong. It was super foggy. We were standing on the beach and couldn't even see the water. So we went back to the very busy shopping area and took the kids on a carousel ride and then left. We were unable to see the beautiful coast as we drove from Seaside to Lincoln City. It was a bummer start to the trip. On Monday, we decided to just hang out since it was a holiday and avoid the crowds. We went to the beach and had fun building sand castles, flying a kite, and collecting beach treasures. On Tuesday, we were blessed with some sunshine and went to the beach again and the boys played in the ice cold water and built more sand castles. Dan and Garrett even went boogy boarding that day. Later, our family went for a little hike in the woods. We didn't make it to the cool bridge and Drift Creek Falls, but had fun anyway.

On Wednesday, we went to Newport. We visited the aquarium and the kids had fun looking at all the fish, sea lions, otters, and the hands on tide pools. After we headed over to one of the lighthouses in Newport. We were able to experience real tide pools as it was low tide when we were there and also see the lighthouse somewhat through the fog. After we got back, I took the 2 boys to the beach one last time to play in the water.




Every year Fruitland has a little festival in the city park called Fruitland Family Fun Days. They have free things for the kids to do, performances going all day on the stage, local vendors and food for sale. Owen really loved the swings and the jumpy house you can see in the picture below.
Lane had fun on this corded run and the blow up water slide.
We also got to see our great friends the Starr's, which we haven't seen for a while. Here are the boys on the swing again with Ethan Starr.

It is that time of year again - peaches. We again went to Kelley Orchards to pick the fabulous Elberta Peaches. So I have been busy canning peaches, plum jelly, and pizza sauce. My friend Melissa Stevenson helped me do peaches yesterday. She is a fantastic person. Lane has been enjoying school and started soccer on Friday. Owen is liking more time with mom while Lane is at school and being my little helper. Grae is busy, busy, busy and really likes to carry around and wear everyone else's shoes right now.