End of Summer Fun

Okay - so we did a lot of fun things this summer. We did stay relatively close to home - but the end of August and beginning of September have been crammed full of camping trips, a trip to the fair, hanging out with friends, and a trip to the beach. We feel very blessed to have been able to do so many fun things. Here are a few of the highlights...

In the middle of August, we went to Family Camp at Fort Stevens. Other than really getting no sleep - as it was the first time all four of us slept in our tiny trailor - we had a really great time. The girls loved getting dirty and playing in the sand at our campsite. They took wagon rides and went to the park. We went into Seaside and visited Trav's grandma and ended up going to breakfast with his dad. Oh, most importantly, we celebrated our niece, Alexis' 9th birthday. That was really fun and we were so glad we got to be with her on her actual birthday, August 16th.

Keira gets in some tickle time with daddy


Family shot

I love this picture

SO, the next fun thing we did was take the girls to the State fair. My mother-in-law and I took off one Monday morning and got there around opening time, 11am. I thought we would stay for two, maybe three hours max, but the girls did so well we ended up staying for almost 5 hours! My mom and aunt and uncle were there as well, but we only saw them a couple of times. We started out in different areas and Nanna and I ended up spending the bulk of time in the kiddie rides. Keira can be so scared of so many things - like the smell of farm animals. I never would have thought she would have been a little dare devil on the rides. In fact, I went on the first one with her and after that and as you can see from the picture, I thought I was going to throw up but she had found a new love. She went on 8 more rides after that one, all of them by herself except for the Merry Go Round at the end.

Mia loved the animals

Of course, you can't go to the fair and not EAT

Here's the ride where I almost lost my elephent ear

Keira finds a new passion

two tired girlies fell asleep almost immediately when we got them in the car

Four days later, we went camping for Labor Day Weekend. We had a couple little snaffoo's like, we got up there when it was just getting dark, only to find that the batteries on our trailer were totally out of water and not working. Travis had to go back into Sandy on Saturday (about 45 minutes away) to the Les Schwab and have them tested for about 2 hours, only to find out that they were shot and we needed new ones. Bummer. Oh well. We didn't let it get us down. I actually had a lot of fun cooking the meals. Normally, Trav does all the bbqing but I tried my hand at it and found that I enjoyed it - almost enough to try my hand at our home grill. The girls had a blast, other than they really didn't sleep well so Keira got pretty ornery during the last couple of days. Lets just say we had quite a few "three" moments. Here are some pictures from that trip...

Mia away bright and early in our bed...that's daddy's arm - still trying to catch some zzzz's

Ahhhh, the early risers

Cute little Gabey

Darby and Keira find digging in the dirt a great way to pass the time

Look at my orphan girl!

Gabe and Mia chillin at the kids table

Kambrie patiently helps Keira learn how to use "floam"

Hanging out drinking tiny beers...lol

Ahhhh, my precious girl who refused to take a nap just needed daddy to help her fall asleep

Corn is GOOD!

Kimberly gets a snuggle with my tired girl before we leave

So, last but not least - I had the whole week off of work after Labor Day and it was Trav's first week off after Summer term. So, before he started buckling down to study for the dental admissions test, we decided to spend some family time together. Tuesday and Wednesday were low key and Trav had to work on some stuff so the girls and I hung out in the backyard and gave "Ol' Blue" one last go around before the end of summer. That is what Travis fondly named Keira's first pool, which unfortunately had acquired a hole in it's bottom. So, we filled it the best we could and the kids had the last swim of the summer...and the last swim for before Ol' Blue got chopped up and sent to the trash.

After we had a couple of days to relax and re-group we headed for the beach on Thursday morning. Trav's grandma lives in Seaside and with the craziness of life, we really hadn't had a chance to get down there. We stayed two nights and had a great time. Trav's dad was there as well so the girls got a lot of good time with Grandpa and Great-Grandma. The weather was gorgeous the first day and overcast the second two days, but we got in everything we wanted to do. Keira has been watching Mary Poppins and so she wanted to fly a kite really bad. We had a couple of perfect opportunities. The kids got some great time playing in the sand and Trav and I even got to go out on a date! The only hard part, which seems to be the "norm" when we go anywhere is that the girls didn't sleep very well but they seemed to do pretty good in spite of that and we still had a restful time.

Here are some pictures of the last part of our week...

Goofy girl had part of a sandwich hanging out of her mouth and she thought that was really funny

They both wanted to walk

Future gymnast?

Mia is pretty amazed with the kite flying

Keira flying it all by herself

What a gorgeous sunset

Mia "tries out" the ocean for the very first time

The girls snuggle with Dino
Fun rides in downtown Seaside




Feeding the seagulls with Grandpa
Keira's new best friend

Up daddy
Mia is starting to love books, too

Mia and Dino fight for Great Grandma's attention



Wow - so that's it for now. My next posts will probably not be so long or have so many pictures as this took me a LONG time to do. Until next time...