Fun at Collins Beach, Columbia River

Koh: We just love beaches.  We went Sunday to this favorite one right near our home.  

Lots of sand, not lots of people, shallow water, kites, yummy picnic lunch, even an alien space boat.

Face Painting #1

Abe: We let the girl scouts touch our faces with paint for the first time.

Look at that big spider on my face!

Koh got fireworks.

Clear Lake camping

Koh: We went camping Saturday and found a beautiful campsite on a lake and my favorite part was Dad teaching me to walk on water.   I liked using our private family hole-in-the-ground toilet, too.  

Abe liked lighting the fire with a match even though he got burned.

We even found a banana tree and ate the bananas.

Our first 80th Birthday Party - Nana Jo's!

We don't get to visit our Nana Jo very much, so we all went this summer to see her and Aunt Susan for her 80th birthday bash.   Boy was it fun, especially since we had Jillian to play with so much.  Do you know we did all these things WE NEVER DID BEFORE:

• Played on a WII and and iPad
• Stayed up till after 10pm and slept all night in a girl's room (cousin Jillian)
• Ate candy, cotton candy and ice cream instead of fruit every day
• Went to Delaware
• (Koh) Pee'ed on a really big snake in the river - scaring everyone, especially our mom
• Caught fireflys and cicada shells
• Had campfire s'mores for lunch

We really like the big beaches and lots of SAND and warm water.   Click here to see all our pics and movies.

Warm water, warm air, I'm so happy I'm dizzy

Abe: Here's what we're doing right now on a Maryland beach (Atlantic Ocean. . . think warm water, warm air).

Barf bucket blog

Koh: (gutteral sounds)
"Daddy, it's colored red from the strawberries"

(buuuuuuuuuiiiik, get your buiuiuuiiick sounds)
"Daddy, can you smell that?"
(sweet apple juice aroma)

"Daddy, can you help me?"
(sounds of soft caressing my back)

I got sick today and threw up a lot of times, in the toilet and in the barf bucket, and I missed school and stayed in bed a lot.

I didn't think it was that bad, and I only cried once.   I've just been feeling sick and my yucky food has been coming up the past two mornings.    I just lean over and fill this bucket, then Daddy empties it.

When I'm done I smile 'cause I feel a lot better.   Daddy told me it's good practice for college, whatever that means.

Chicken washing - that's OK, right?

Koh: Mom and dad don't watch us like they used to, especially in our back yard.  We play a lot on the chicken farm tier and today we decided to wash the chickens.  Abe held 'em and I poured water all over them.   Dad came and snapped this picture while he laughed.

Chickens need baths too, right Dad?

Reef visit from Hawaii

Abe: Our pal Reef and his mom visited this weekend and boy did we have fun.  He slept in our room all night, and we went out and did a bunch of fun stuff:  Like OMSI, then rode the Tram, then played in the water park.   

And on Sunday we hung like monkeys at the playground, did an orienteering race and ate pizza, too!  Look here at these pics and flicks:

Look! A Green Booby!

Koh - Every day we look at the Willamette River from our home and seems like we're always driving by or playing by big rivers.   I like spotting the boats and ducks and logs and buoys out there.

Mommy thought it was funny when I saw this green buoy from our car on the bridge the other day.   What was so funny, Mommy?

Angel's Rest to the top!

Today we set our new "toughest hike ever" record by hiking all the way UP and DOWN this great Columbia Gorge hike all on our own two feet.  Well, we also each used our bellies and face once, but that was just to make sure we were COMPLETELY covered in mud!   We like running downhill only the belly smacker made us cry.

It was more than 4 hours long and 4 miles and the top was WAY UP so high we HIKED INTO THE CLOUDS!!  Over 1500 feet high above the river!

This was really fun and we got special treats at the top and bottom for being so tough.    We threw rocks and saw lots of flowers, waterfalls, slugs and a snail.   Plus we climbed on rocks near the summit just like the playgrounds only if we fell here we would keep falling and die.

We want to do this some more!    Click here to see 30 more pics. 

Alphabet

Koh:  I can write all the letters of the alphabet - see!

Meatballs

Abraham:  Mommy, that girl on your cup... look at her big... meatballs.  I'm going to eat her meatballs.

Big Boy Bikes

Abe & Koh:  Yesterday was just about the best day ever because we got new bikes.  Bye bye trikes and hello skinned knees.  We rode around the neighborhood after dinner and did just great.  Koh crashed a little bit, but he was tough and got back on.   The next day we rode them at the school playground because it wasn't hilly like at our house.  Mommy was surprised that after just five minutes we had already discovered how fun it was to ride our bikes straight into a brick wall.  We laughed and had fun doing that until Abe did it too fast and smashed a tender part of his body on the top tube.

 

 

Frog, Fountain, Flood Fun

Koh: On Saturday we went on a looooong hike at the nearby Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge, whatever that means.    What was fun for us was the flooded trail which meant we had many side trip adventures on slippery slopes with broken glass and bugs and snakes to make it past the high water places.   

There were lots of ducks and geese and blue herons and fish jumping right out of the water! 

The frog pond was really cool 'cause it's tadpole season and LOTS of 'em were in the pond and we scared them away.   Then I fell in trying to catch one, so I wore just undies the rest of the day!   Nobody could tell 'cause I look so good in skivvies, especially compared to those ol' diapers. 

We kept walking and walking several miles and hours, even past the roller skating rink and the amusement ride park.   We ended with water fountain fun at the church where we saw mom and dad get married.   well... not really on the last part, but we do go there a lot cuz of that drinking fountain.   

Mother's Day

Koh: We gave Mom and Grand-Mom our best effort yesterday to show 'em how much we love 'em.  We worked all week to make two personal paintings for Mom, can you see?  We even made personal cards, too.  Then we fixed her a cake . . . see?   Then we walked her to the farmer's market to buy her some swiss chard and bok choy, see it in our basket?  Then we got her a latte at the bakery - look at that crowd!   We ended the day at Grand-Mom's where we fixed this heart-shaped pizza and played hockey and baseball.   What a great day for Moms (and for us, too!).