Fun and Fabulous July!

We have had a fun filled July!
We had so much fun at DaVinci Days...especially watch the kinetic sculpture race with our friend Rowan...who couldn't stop checking out the boys and screeching for joy every time a sculpture went by.  Super cute! 

This was one of our favorites this year!  Tree frog!

We also took a weekend camping trip to the Metolius River in Central Oregon.
Boys in their element!

Cole was having a serious discussion with that river!

Dylan (and Cole) walked out on the log all the way to the little island Dylan is standing on...good thing the river is only about a foot deep here!

A little campfire story time!  Why does Dylan look like he is about 8 years old in this picture??

Dylan with his "Y" stick...he always seems to like to collect sticks shaped as the letter "Y".

A good morning sitting around the campfire...who doesn't like to have a fire poker stick!?

We went for a hike and Cole told us all about the trees we were seeing...reading to us from his tree identification book!

Dylan looking for birds with his binoculars.  This is the headwaters of the Metolius River...which is amazing because the river rushes out from the side of a hill and is instantly the size of a river.  It is created by underground springs.

 We also checked out a fish hatchery while there and got to check out a group of artists who were painting the river.

Before heading home we stopped at Scout Lake to play in the water!

Dad had work in Portland later in July so the boys and Mom headed up for a couple of fun days in the big city!  We made sure to hit our favorite fountain to cool our heels after dinner...we actually had a heat wave last weekend!

Dylan fell in love with this pillow that the hotel had on the beds.  He made sure that I took a good picture of it so maybe we could make one!

While in Portland we made sure to hit our favorite museum, OMSI, but we also checked out the World Forestry Museum for the first time.  Here the boys had so much fun with the 'Timber Jack' simulator...where you try to cut down trees, de-branch them, and put them in a pile!

They also had a raft that you could pretend to be riding rapids down a white water river...we did that one over and over too!

Our garden has also been flourishing this year!

Cole is always our best picker/harvester...and Dylan is always our best muncher/eater!  Dylan will just go outside at his liking and graze until satisfied!

Our little froggie!

 

Weekend Trip to Bend

 Last weekend we drove over to Bend for the weekend to see a few sights.
We spent a day at the fabulous High Desert Museum.

Dylan as a park ranger...possible future job opportunity since he does enjoy telling people everything he knows!

 Cole the fisherman.

We watched a raptor show and a critters of the desert show where we saw a skunk, a badger, a snake, and this very cute porcupine.

Enjoyed spending some time outside in the sun and heat along the Deschutes River.

The next day we hit the lava.  Here we are at the Lava Visitor Center where there were many cool displays about the surrounding volcano's and lava flows.

Then we were able to go up to the top of Lava Butte and walk the rim trail.

Some amazing views of eastern Oregon!

Then we needed to cool off a bit (since it was bloody hot there!  I'm talking like 90 degrees!!  Us western Oregonians just saw the sun for the first time this year about a week ago!) so we headed to the Lava River Cave.  It is about 40-50 degrees in the cave and is a pitch black 1 mile hike to the end.  Good think we had headlamps, flashlights and a lantern!

To end our lovely weekend we headed to an outdoor amphitheater to hear some live music.  But it was so hot and the amphitheater had no shade, so we stayed for one song before heading back to the river to cool off.  We are on a pedestrian bridge watching the hundreds of people float down the Deschutes River.

 

Happy 4th of July!

 We had a lovely 4th of July with some of our great friends.  The kiddos obviously had a blast too!!

Gotta love that corn on the cob!

Sparklers...not so excited when it is this light out.  It was about 8.30pm but it stays so light so late that is was the best we could do.   

Rob kept saying wave the sparkler around and you can write your name with it...not so much with the sun shining!  The boys were up until about 9.30 when they just petered out so they missed the big fireworks again this year...since they didn't go off until about 10.20pm!  We'll try again next year! 

 

Early summer harvest & Dirk Bones

Some of our first garden harvests of spring...Dylan is holding half the cilantro we harvested and Cole is holding about a 1/3 of the cherries we got from our cherry tree.  Last year we only got 4 cherries total so we were very excited for such a huge harvest this year!

 To get ready for this year's berry harvest season we had to use up the last of our frozen berries from last year...so we baked a berry pie!  Guess Dylan thought it would taste better in the nude!

Both boys are amazing readers.  Here is a little taste of Dylan reading out loud...

Beach Time

To start the summer off right we headed to the beach for a few days at our friends beach house in Ocean Side.

We had several lovely days of typical Oregon beach weather.

But enjoyed every moment!
Mom and her boys!!

The sun did come out too!

The boys had so much fun climbing on the rock and exploring for sea creatures. They could do this for hours!!

The boys were very prepared for all weather Oregon skies through our direction.  Including high tide that made some seriously fun pools of water! 

They didn't even bother removing the rain gear...they said it was fun to have their rain pants fill with water.  They said it made them too heavy for Mom and Dad to pick them up.  They had a blast with that!

Dylan getting a snack from Dad who doesn't have his hands covered in sand!

Cole digging a hole big enough to put his whole arm in.

Dylan telling Dad all about what he saw in the tide pools.

Dad carrying both boys out to the water.

Hiking down the beach...

Happy Cole.

This was a great low tide where we go to see many fabulous tide pools.

Again the disregard for the current clothing attire...

The boys were so excited to be almost stranded on this rock island...but they swam to safety, still in their rain gear!

Who is happy to be at the beach?

Mom is very excited to be here!

Cole is a happy guy sitting on his sitting stick while playing his stick violin...you never know what these boys will come up with next!

Dylan blissfully playing in the warm sands!