Grant's 6th Birthday

August 4th was jam-packed with birthday fun for the birthday boy. He went to breakfast with Grandpa, had his friend party at the pool, and had family over that night for dessert. His theme was Star Wars. We made some Death Star pinatas, Storm Trooper candy bags, a Death Star cake, cupcakes with light sabers in them, and pool noodle light sabers. 

Kari dressed up as a Jedi and "trained" the little boys in the ways of "the Force." Then Joel came out in a Darth Vader costume and fought them all. They were so great with the littler kids. I loved watching them. They were a big help to me, too.

Cousins Camp Weekend

One of our favorite weekends of the year happened about a month ago--cousins camp weekend. The kids spent two nights with Grandpa and Grandma Moffat and all their Moffat cousins, doing all kinds of fun things (mini-golfing, swimming, hiking, Oaks Amusement Park), and we parents spent two and half days doing whatever we wanted, which also included fun things! :) G&G bought a 15 passenger van so they could haul all of their grandkids around in one vehicle. The kids loved it.

We got these couple photos through texts, assuring us they were all having a good time. 

After "The Crusty 15" (the kids' nickname for the van), picked them up Friday morning, Greg and I picked up Subway sandwiches, drove into the gorge, and hiked up Horsetail Falls and on to Triple Falls. It was a little chilly but perfect hiking weather. Triple Falls was beautiful! We ate our lunch at the top of the falls, on a rock right by the water.

Dinner Friday was at the Happy Valley Food carts (also became Saturday lunch!), and no date weekend is complete without a trip to Costco, of course. ;-)

Saturday morning we met up with the Wilsons at the Scottish Highland Games Festival. We watched some crazy strong men and women throw things, watched some Scottish dancing, browsed the vendors' tents, and listened to LOTS of bag-piping music. Sadly, the Moffat clan didn't have a tent this year, but we saw lots of Moffat clan memorabilia. The caber toss at the end of the event was pretty impressive to watch. We stood as close as we could on the field, right behind the competitors, for the best view.  It was quite the experience!

We ate dinner at Nickolas', a Lebanese place Greg's wanted to try for a while. It was tasty, especially that big huge pita bread they brought us at the beginning of our meal. We went for a long walk that evening and came back and finished off a couple more episodes of Poldark, a PBS show I got hooked on and got Greg into, as well.

Sunday after church, we went for a bike ride on the Springwater Trail, and then it was time to pick up our kids. A great weekend for all of us!

Fourth of July in Lincoln City

We joined Ryan and Michelle and their family in Lincoln City for a couple nights at the beach house they were staying in for the week at Olivia Beach. We maxed out that little house. The boys slept in a tent in the one-car garage, their own little man-cave, with all the girls sleeping in one room. Olivia Beach is such a cute little area and the perfect beach vacation spot. It looked more like an East Coast beach neighborhood than an Oregon Coast one. I want to go back. The weather was great the whole time we were there, and we really enjoyed the time together--relaxing and fun!

The day of the fourth, we set up chairs and waited for a few hours to watch the fireworks in Siletz Bay. It was quite the experience (great people watching) but an experience we all decided we don't need to repeat for a long while. Funny memories, for sure--dinner at Moe's on the bay, waiting for three hours for dark, Bailey screaming because she hated the fireworks, Lorelai with her ears plugged for the same reason, the boys LOVING the fireworks, intoxicated people getting their illegal fireworks confiscated by the police, cold wind, counting 60+ campfires on the beach, and doing our own little fireworks at dusk.

The time spent playing on our own beach by the house was definitely much more fun. The last day we were there was warm with very little wind--perfect.

Blueberry picking

We picked blueberries a couple different times this year to fill our freezer (and our bellies). It was a great year for blueberries--big, juicy, sweet, and plentiful. The kids got a little tired of picking after a while the first day and found a tiny frog to entertain them while I finished up. 

Summer Fun

We haven't had much summer weather since school got out. The kids have had a couple days worthy of the slip n' slide, but we're all looking forward to more hot summer days in the next couple weeks. 

They did some extra chores to earn money to buy a bubble machine. Not sure why, but they had fun with it when it came in the mail. :)

Summer isn't complete without a trip to Cold Stone for ice cream. 

beautiful flowers from the farmer's market, just because

Watching the clip after the credits of Finding Dory. They moved to the very front row and were the last ones in the theater.

Kari's friend, Katelin, had the brilliant idea of putting dish soap on the trampoline. They had a blast slipping and sliding all over. I did insist they wear goggles, though, to protect their eyes. They looked awesome! :)

Time with Aubs

It's not often that I'm alone with just Aubrey, but it happened for one night when Kari was at camp, and Greg, Joel, and Grant were at "man-camping." We enjoyed our girl time. We ate what she wanted to eat (nuggets, fries, and a frosty at Wendy's), watched what she wanted to watch (Alvin and the Chipmunks movie), and just had a relaxing evening together.