Hot Saturday

Arwen and Sarah were out at her soccer game, Larkin was at a friends birthday party and the boy's were playing video games so I had them come out back and help with the yard.

 After the lawn was mowed and the boys collected some sticks for our "recreational" fire on a 100 or so degree day we set up the sprinkler and cooled off. 

 Noah wanted to make clear that he was not standing on his brothers head.

 This one only hurt for a few minuets. 

Birthday Fun

I started off my birthday coaching Larkins U7 soccer game.  The girls came up with a name last practice, "Dark Princesses" and we have a fun little cheer. 

When we got home I practiced falling off my highline.  It was pretty scary but I got the hang of falling and think I'm ready to hook up a long one next.  

We all went out for some yummy Thai food for lunch. Then Sarah took me shopping for a new suit and some clothes.  Larkin tagged along.

We ended up on 23rd street in portland and got some fun clothes at Prana then walked down the street for some ice-cream at Salt and Straw.  There was a long line but it was good.

I got Almond brittle with Salted Ganache, Sarah got Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper, and Larkin got Oregon Rocky Road.  They were all really good.  While standing in line our server kept giving us sample spoons of other fun flavors.  We'll have to head back with the rest of the kids.

We were watching a Discovery Channel shark show earlier and we figured that Sharknado was no worse and the kids have been wanting to watch it since we had Sharknado night at the Dickinsons.  So other than Joshua who's asleep next to me the other kids and Sarah are watching sharks fall from the sky and eat people. 

Oceanside

We dropped by the Tillamook forestry center on the way to the beach and found out that Larkin was named after a meat grinder.

The kids did quite a bit of swimming.

Of course we stopped by the cheese factory on the way home for some ice-cream.

Here are a few videos of the fun.

Day at the Gorge

Kelly, John, and the girls Annabelle and Lucy have been here this week for a visit.  We all went up to the Gorge for a fun day at the waterfalls.

Larkin behind Latourell Falls.

Joshua found a fun hiding place on the way up to the bridge at Multnomah Falls.

The kids all made it over the log jam at Oneonta Gorge without much help this year.  They're getting so big.  We startled a snake eating a salamander.  Noah thought it was pretty funny when the snake pooped on me which was pretty entertaining for all the people around as well. 

We got to the falls pretty dry having scaled the walls, but all got wet swimming at the falls.

The kids trying to get to the falls.

After trying to talk the kids into it I figured I'd better do it.

Some guy took some awesome photos of the kids dancing under the waterfalls.  I gave him my email and hope he gets around to sending the pictures.

Snow Day's

We had a nice little snow storm come in yesterday and it's snowing again pretty good right now.  One and a half days of no school.  I've been working from home too and playing in the snow.  We've got about six inches of snow out there now.  It's been quite a few years since we've had good snow like this here at home.

 Bear loves the snow.  He's like a little child out there eating all he can get.

 What a good boy.

The kids have been out in the snow on and off all day having a lot of fun.  Wish we had some snow toys and a hill.  Joshua spent a lot of time out back making a snow fort to protect him from the snow ball fights.  

What's your favorite thing about the snow?

Joshua: Building a fortress
Arwen: That we get to throw snow balls at people.
Larkin: That we could have fun, eat the snow, have snow ball fights, and that we have fun, and get to have hot chocolate with marshmallows, that we get to play with the snow, eat the snow, and that we get a sled in the snow, and we get to eat the snow from the sky, that we got sooooo fun.
Sarah: I like snow days more than I like Christmas. I like being with my family, eating treats, and having fun, and playing outside and then getting cozy afterwards.  Bear has made it especially fun this year.
Noah: I don't know...making snow fortresses.
Aaron: I get to work from home and play with the kids in between meetings and work. 

 So fast.  We brought Bear to the park and there was another dog there he played with.  It was fun to see him being so wild and run so fast and not even be able to keep up with the other dog.

Because poor Aaron didn't make it into the fun family picture above...(Sarah here...don't his eyes look so pretty?  Jealous!)

Christmas Vacation

Santa made his visit and the kids loved it.  Santa's my oldest brother David.

Joshua's pet inch worm he found at the wharf in San Francisco. 

Sourdough bread creations on the wharf.

Larkin's street.

Haight and Ashbury looking for treasures for the kids.  

Instead of lot's of stocking suffers we gave them cash to spend "wisely" 

Us and the puppy out by the chicken coop.

The kids were excited to get a dog.

Here's a picture with all the cousins.

And another.

A hike at round valley.

Noah at Round Valley.

Arwen beat me and all the other uncles at target practice.  She's pretty good.

Day at the Beach

After Larkin's soccer game on Saturday we took off to the beach.  We rolled into Tilllamook around noon and had some lunch and ice-cream at the cheese factory.  Then headed down to Cape Kiwanda to see how the kids fared at climbing the dune.

We "raced" to the top and Larkin won.  Later she came up to me and said something to the effect of "Thank's Dad for letting me win, but I know Dad...I was going to die I was so tired"  

Noah and Joshua spent a lot of their time hunting jelly fish.

Joshua's prize jelly.  We "pickled" a few of these this morning in a little spice jar I had sitting around.  They look cool but we couldn't get air into them to make them float.  

The 2nd time we all went to the top of the dune I sat down and watched them play on the rope swing and thought that'd be a great picture.  "Hey kids," I said, "I'll be right back...well, better give me 15 minutes or so."  I talked Sarah into coming back up as I grabbed the camera.

Noah swinging off the edge of the world...

And Joshua...

And Sarah!

Arwen did it too but I only got video of that.

I was running down the hill at a thousand miles an hour when I looked off tho my left and here comes Noah zipping past me.  I speed up and fumble with the camera.  The end of the dune was approaching and I couldn't get enough distance between me and Noah to get the shot so I flipped it on and blindly pointed in his direction and took a few shots and got lucky.  

We did one last climb and run before heading home for the evening.  

It was a perfect day at the beach.

Zombie Apocalypse Run

Sarah and I ran in the Zombie Apocalypse Run yesterday evening.  It was full of helicopters out "hunting" for zombies, people in hazmat suits, and military out to keep survivors safe.  There were even 3 huge machines out showing off their impressive "punkin chunkin" skills.  It was awesome!

You could choose to be a Zombie or a Survivor.

We chose zombie.

All survivors had velcro flags around their waists and if they crossed the finish line with a flag they survived.

 It was a little over a 5k and the survivors got a 2 min head start.  It was a trail run and was gorgeous!  We went through the spooky woods, corn stalks and farms.

It was a lot of fun growling and having people scatter when you caught up to them.  I'd chase some of them down for a while till they tired out then go for their flags.

Both Sarah and I got a few kills under our belt and had a great time.  One of Sarah's kills fought back, got his flag from Sarah and ran off course into the fields.  (Sarah here--Aaron is being modest.  He got lots of kills and I almost had 2.  Aaron was one of the very first "zombies" in.  We went to Olive Garden after to re-fuel.  You should have seen the looks and heard the comments.  One old man was disgusted and had some choice words for Aaron.  It was great.)