Cousins + Fountains = Fun

The Wilsonville Fountains.

I love the heat, I love the smell of chlorine water, I love the sound of a lot of kids laughing together. This makes for my favorite kind of summer day.

New Gymnastic moves.

PS - Tired kids, and afternoon naps are just a bonus.

Where's the Party?

I love to ask this question when in a big group of kids. Well let me answer the question!! The party was at the Horse barn!!! And boy was it a party.

For Avery's 6th Birthday she really wanted a horseback riding party. Well for their Birthdays, I really like to be the dream-maker....... So we made it happen. Avery had been to Haven of Hope Horse Ranch for a preschool field trip and at that time they had mentioned that they did Birthday parties. Well I stored that away, and called them to see if we could celebrate Avery's Birthday with them.

I was only slightly uncomfortable letting the kids parents know they would need to sign liability waivers :)

Avery invited 6 close friends and cousins. There is such a magic when children get around animals, and this was no exception. The kids were all able to ride the horses, pet them, feed them and even paint them (more on that later).I think this will be a memorable 6th Birthday for an amazing 6 year old.


All the girls got their pictures taken meeting 'Dutch'.


They had the choice to ride Dutch or Ichabod (he was HUGE)



Painting the horses. I think all the adults there were a little surprised by this. What would PETA say?

But when the party was over, all the kids just kept talking about how they were able to paint a horse! Ichabod is pictured below.

Helmets required!

I think I was the only one with flip-flops.... As Bri would say, " Only Holly".

Avery having a moment up close.

All the children: Grace C., Grace G., Eli, Jake, Lucy, Gretchen, Rachel, Emma, Avery, and Caitlyn. And Ichabod the horse.

Horse cupcakes with Skittle apples.

And because my parents were not going to be able to be at the Horse party, we had a second party (which was actually first) celebrating Max and Avery's August Birthdays.

Avery got a Ipod shuffle. It was on sale and I will tell you some of the best money I ever spent. She loves to listen to music and sing along. It is really priceless. And only a little sad that her two year old sister wants one too!

Hillary helped me to snap this shot. I love her face.

The party was fish themed. My mom had goldfish on the table and a goldfish cake. We even ate fish for dinner, Salmon Bri had caught on his fishing trip.

Singing.

Mom picked out this cute outfit. It reminded both of us of Aunt Kiran. Avery will be wearing this for the first day of school.

The rowdy, no shirt cousins. I love that they love each other!

I love you Avery. I'm grateful to have been a part of your first six years. You really bring a lot of joy, happiness and laughter to my life.

Happy Birthday. May ALL your dreams come true.

Beach Trip

Our family has been going to Brian's parents Beach Cabin, well, since the beginning of our family.
To say that we love this place, is an understatement.

We recently took a trip with Brian's parents to check out its progress.

A few years ago Brian's parents decided to sell the lot to the North of the cabin to finance the remodel of the 500 square foot cabin. Well the remodel is finally underway and going well, in fact the inspector signed off on all the permits today. Today also would have been Brian's Grandma Isabel's Birthday. Maybe she had a hand in it. She and Grampa David originally purchased this cabin and it was later passed down to Patsy.

The cabin in the picture below is the one with the huge spruce in front of it. It is grey on the top,
with wood framing underneath. The three story house behind it is what was built on the North lot that was sold.

The house will have an open floor plan on the main floor, a sleeping loft and finished basement. I can't tell you how excited and grateful we are for this place to be finished!



Para-sailors coming off Maxwell Mountain. They kept coming down one after the next. Sailing right over our heads. If you ask me, I think it is a little crazy. But that's just me.



Poppa John and Grace.

I think this is one of my all time favorite pictures. I just love the look on Avery's face!

Grace running in from the ocean

Jake and Bri dug out quite a hole and kept filling it with ocean water.

How's that for a family picture??

Lost Teeth and Pink Dresses

Avery's first top lost tooth. I'm kind of amazed at the size of the hole it leaves.... But she looks so cute. Hard to believe she turns 6 years old this coming week. (More to follow on the horse back riding Birthday party :)



So of course, Grace wanted her picture taken too. They just happen to be wearing semi-matching dresses. Too cute.

Then one more wanted to jump into the picture.

And vintage Jake....always shooting a weapon.

Grace has really been into watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse lately. What is it about that mouse??

What I did this Weekend

On the way back from an early morning Saturday run, I ran past a garage sale just opening. I spotted this table from half a block away....took a turn and asked the lady to hold it for a little while. It was only 5$!!!!! I love it.

I've been reading this great, inspiring blog, called Just beachy. It's on the right column of this page. This woman is amazing. She builds, designs, and envisions beautiful coastal inspired things (with a eye for a good deal to boot). It inspired me to 'redo' my nightstand area. I'm just sad I took no "before" pictures because it really looks 10x better! There used to be a teeny nightstand and a huge book shelf, with books that I had already read. Well I enlisted Jake and we carried all the books and shelf down to the extra bedroom.

It really opens up the space and makes it look so much more simple and a little coastal too.



A cute little drawer. I found an old book called the "Yellow Wallpaper". A short story I read in a Women's Studies course in college. I stuck the book in the drawer and am going to re-read it soon. Hill and Kir, Look it up. I would be curious of your thoughts on the book.

Note all the Coastal Living Mags stacked. That is probably only a quarter of the ones I own. It is one of my absolute faves.

With the huge book shelf gone, I could actually see out the right window. I pulled the curtain open at dusk and could see a beautiful pink sunset sky.

PS - My room always looks like this! jk

Strickly for Posterity

I actually took these pictures myself. And Hill you would be proud (I didn't even open my mouth for the shot).

I often feel there are no pictures of the two of us together. Usually, only ones of Brian and the kids. I like to call many of our photo albums "Brian the single father". Because that's what it looks like. I take all the shots, and therefore am not an many pictures.....

So these are for no other reason than to prove we were sometimes in the same place at the same time.

PS - We met 14 years ago in this month of Aug and I still love this man!

Magnus Tree Farm

This is what we did to celebrate Cassy's (our dogs) birthday! She turned 9 on Aug 4th, also Coast Guard Day, as Brian likes to remind everyone. And as I write, I am realizing that I did not even get a good picture of our dog on this post;) Kind of funny.....


The kids at the end of the little hike.


Picking Blackberries

The full beard.... he is still so darn handsome.

Getting a ride. She must be more than half his body weight!! It really is amazing.

This was my attempt of taking a good portrait of the three of them....

Cute girl with the flowers / dandelions she picked for her Mom.

Happy B-day Cassy! You've been a good dog. I'm sure you will be around for another 9!

Fun Places, Fun Friends

Off to our new favorite beach Neskowin for just a day trip! Totally over cast but still warm! In fact all the kids got burned, because bad mothers waited too long to put sunscreen on!! Felt so bad...

But they were no worse for the wear. Lots of treasures found, lots of laughter, and lots of energy burned.



The climbing tree




A surprising picture of 'The Mother', that was only because Emily was there to take it.



Budding Gymnasts Avery and Friend Grace

Grace wanted to do everything the big girls did. She is Avery's mini-me times ten.

Where's Jake??

Treasures found by Jack and Jake

Dead fish and even a few live ones were caught.