4th of July

Here are some pics of the kids from the weekend of the 4th.

Ray and the kids gearing up for our neighborhood's annual parade

Addison and Parker - we bucked tradition and spent the 4th at Greg & Rebecca's. It was cold and our kids HATE fireworks. Needless to say, it wasn't as fun as years past but we loved spending time with the family. Can you tell they were saying "cheese"?

Ready for the parade

Emily and Chloe

Riding in the parade

I know the order of these pictures is wierd but I'm too lazy to try and fix them now. Hope you enjoyed anyway!

Happy Birthday Shirley!

Today is my aunt Shirley's 60th birthday so we thought we would share some things about her in honor of such a special day:

She is the most spontaneous person I know

She visits regularly and the kids adore her (not just because she almost always brings them something!)

She loves animals and has many cats

She has quite the green thumb and has a fantastic yard

She gave me a home when I needed one

She has provided insight, advice and support in times of need

She understands what is really important in life and inspires me to follow suit

She is very special to all of us

And, she hates having her picture taken (or I would post one). Hope you had a great day today Shirl!!

Sandcastle Festival

OK. I think this is the last of the vacation pictures. We went to a sandcastle festival and saw some really cool sand art (I swear I took more pictures of the art but can't seem to locate them now!). It was a little cool the day we were there but this is a gorgeous beach with amazing views. The drive there was beautiful too.

Driving to the Coast

This was our ride for the first half of our trip. It was great for the girls to chill and watch movies. You can see Parker in the front seat. All of the research I did said that kiddos in carseats should be in the passenger seat (there are no airbags) so he got to co-pilot for Uncle Brad.

What a view!

Wowza

Multnoma falls in the Colombia River Gorge. Breathtaking no? I guess lots of people have weddings there and about 10 years ago, as a wedding party stood on the bridge, a huge boulder (the size of a school bus) fell into the water below and soaked the wedding party. Brad told us the bridge was built in the early 1900s which is a little freaky but it did feel very solid!

Do you see us?

Mt. Hood

We drove up the Columbia Gorge and ate lunch in Hood River. We then drove up to Mt. Hood where people are still skiiing and snowboarding. It was fun to play in the snow in June. This is the huge ski lodge that was built during the great depression. It was mammoth and quite impressive.

Parker was being wild, here he is running from Ray in the parking lot.

Nice view in the background.

Mt. Hood from the road. The lodge is about half way up the mountain (it's actually a volcano) at 5,400 feet above sea level.

Does this sweater look familiar yet? I think Chloe wore it every day!

The boys

The girls and I went shopping at Ikea on our last day in Portland and the boys had fun playing with Brad and the neighbor Burt's construction equipment. I swear Parker grunts like Tim the Tool Man Taylor EVERY time he sees a tractor or dump truck or anything larger than one of our cars. He loves heavy equipment and between Burt and Brad, there were many. Chloe did get a ride on the excevator after we got home. Parker had a blast showing us that he knew how to work the scoop.