Memorial Day in Portland {May 23-26}

For Memorial Day weekend, we headed down to Portland to visit Jess & Shane and see my parents, who drove up from Ashland. On Saturday morning, we went and rode the tram. It was a fairly short little ride, but fun for the kids and had a great view at the top.

  

After the tram, we went to the downtown Portland Saturday market and enjoyed exploring, people-watching, and eating lunch from one of the food carts. After some short naps, Nate and I left the kids with our fabulous babysitters and went out to dinner to celebrate our 7th anniversary! We had some delicious food at the Oswego Grill, then did some outlet shopping before getting dessert and heading back. Before and after pics: 7 years, 3 kids, 5 apartments / houses, 4 cars & 1 van, 1 masters degree, and lots of fun times later.

On Sunday, we enjoyed church, a yummy BBQ, and a nice Sunday walk. Despite the threats of rain, Monday turned out to be a nice day, and we had fun playing tennis in the morning, then eating a picnic lunch at a fun park in the woods, where we let the boys wade in the creek.

My parents left early that afternoon, and Jess and I went to pick Jake up from the airport (he was flying in to start his internship the next day). We got to hang out with him for a brief couple of hours before heading home Monday night. It was a fun weekend! A couple more random pictures:

 

Asher liked to give Eliza ‘hugs’ (aka tackles), and Bennett and Grandpa working on some Perplexus before church.

Rattlesnake Ledge {May 17}

We decided to be adventurous one Saturday in May and looked for a fun hike to do as a family. We decided on Rattlesnake Ledge – approximately 2 miles each way to a top-of-the-mountain viewpoint. The hike was beautiful! The scenery along the way was really pretty, and the view from the top was amazing. The boys were troopers – Bennett hiked the whole way up and down, and except for a brief stint in the hiking backpack, Ryan hiked almost the whole way. Eliza hung out in the Ergo and seemed pretty content. I told Nate as we were nearing the top that this was about my limit for hiking with the kids right now – I was exhausted by the end (which is more a testament to my lack of in-shape-ness than anything!), but we loved it!

     the boys throwing rocks in the lake at the bottom of the hike

5 Months {May 8}

A few pictures of Eliza at 5 months – a couple of her favorite things this month are playing with her toes, making spitting / bubble noises with her mouth, and sucking on her bottom lip.

 

Sheep Shearing {April 26}

The little city-owned farm close to us had a big sheep shearing event at the end of April, where they had sheep shearing and sheepdog herding demonstrations, tractor / hay rides, and some other fun activities. It was pretty crowded (the sun was out!) but we had fun and avoided the most crowded attractions (which were also the most expensive – pony rides and bounce houses). I had never seen a sheep being shorn, and I was pretty fascinated. The boys were interested too, although I may have liked it more than they did :) It was interesting to see how the wool comes off and how thick it is. A few pictures from our day:

   

 

4 Months {April 8}

Eliza’s 4-month stats were:

weight: 14 lbs 8 oz, ~60%

height: 26.5”, >98%

head: 16.6”, 75-90%

At 4 months, Eliza:

~just found her toes. She loves to grab them and play with them (as you can see in the pictures)

~smiles at people, and laughs when she’s being tickled

~rolls all over – tummy to back and back to tummy, and likes to reach for her toys

~wiggles and kicks and likes to be moving

~still has a hint of red in her hair depending on the light. She has a big bald spot on the back of her head, and nice little mullet underneath :)

Overall, Eliza is a pretty happy, easy-going baby and we love having her in our family! She likes her brothers and spends a lot of time watching them run around.

Easter Celebrations {April 20}

We had the usual celebrations for Easter – dyed eggs the night before, Easter baskets in the morning, a little egg hunt in the backyard after church, and a yummy dinner (with the missionaries). The boys were pretty excited for Easter to come – they had been talking about it for weeks. We tried to really focus on Christ and what He did for us, and they seemed to at least understand a little bit – the next day, when we were talking about Bennett’s preschool’s baby chick that had died, Ryan said “I know what they did with the baby chick. I think they put it in a tomb”. In our rush to get to 9am church, I didn’t get any pictures of the kids in their cute Easter clothes before church. As seems to always happen, Eliza had a messy diaper during Sacrament Meeting that ended up all over her Easter dress and my white skirt. Lovely. I went home and changed and attempted to salvage our clothes, and we re-created the photo opp the next week by having the kids all wear their Easter clothes again :) A few highlights in pictures:

the boys were pretty excited about the bow ties in their Easter baskets

  

2 out of 3 smiling is pretty good these days :)