Oregon, day 2 and 3

The second day with mom and dad we took a tour through a home that used to be on a ranch in the 40's and is now made into a museum.

A lady that our family has known from church for years used to live in the house when she was a little girl. She was actually born in the house. It was she who fixed it up again in honor of her mother's 80th birthday and turned it into a museum that she gives tours of.

Our tour guide, Sharon Rosengarth.

Sam found a surprise when he looked in the outhouse behind the ranch house.

The surrounding property is amazing too, with these giant pines around the house.

After visiting the museum, we went out to meet Dad and Mom's friend, Doris. She lives on 7 acres and took us around to see some of the land. The boys were delighted with seeing a mother Killdeer and several babies skittering along behind her. One of the babies got separated from the rest and Samuel was able to take a picture of it, with his hand included to show size comparison.

When we got home, the kids all played out in the yard until a crazy hailstorm interrupted! The ground was completely white with the hail.

Bright and early on day 3. She's ready for another outing.

:)

We drove out to the head of the Metolius River. You wouldn't know it unless I told you, but near the top of the picture is actually a spring where the water comes out and the Metolius begins.

Looking at the spring and the river.

Isn't the river lovely?

A chipmunk we saw along the trail.

Somebody found a nice way to travel.

Next, we went a little further up-river to the Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery.

Sturgeon.

We purchased a little food to feed the fish in a lake that was there. You can see them swarming in the water after the food.

Large trout and other fish.

The boys especially like this picture of the fish with his mouth at the surface.

Near the hatchery is a bridge crossing the Metolius.

Very rapidly moving water and very deep we are told.

Boys with Doris.

This is a dirt pile that was in Mom and Dad's yard. Mom wanted me to take a picture of all of the toys in it. I think she liked seeing signs of children at her house.

Several days later, the dirt pile was whipped into shape by Sam and Will.

They made a barricade with an opening for a rifle.

This concludes my pictures of the kids at Grammy and Papa's house. Boy, it was great to be there.

Rambling...

I'll share more pictures from our trip soon. I just thought I'd ramble a bit tonight.... We are officially not doing school for the month of June (from our trip starting May 24-end of June). The last several summers we have continued to school through the summer, for various reasons. We usually reduced what we were doing, but it seemed like the best thing for them to keep up some of their skills and keep busy at mind-engaging things. Sometimes it worked out well and sometimes it didn't, especially in the last couple of years, so we're trying something totally different this year. June is entirely school-free. Sometime in July we plan to ease back into some school by starting Grammar and math again. Then, on the first of August, we plan to begin full-time school. We'll see how it goes. One does feel ready for a break when summer begins. So we're enjoying it. June will not be work-free. We hope to use some of the time to accomplish several home and yard projects and do a good deal of deep cleaning. But in between those things we have many fun outings and time outside planned.

This last week we started some of the deep cleaning, but a lot of the cleaning was just catching up from being gone to Oregon. We did take one day to enjoy some fun things. Thursday we went to a local park that is right next to the river. There's a paved trail that runs along the river, so we walked on that for a ways and then turned back. I had brought a snack, so we ended up going to a picnic table by the river to eat it and enjoyed seeing a large group of geese and a few ducks that wanted to share our snack. Then we played at the park and headed home to fix lunch. After lunch, I took the boys to the library while the girls were napping. We had a great time. We always have the girls with us when we go and it's hard for me to help the boys pick out books. They pretty much do it on their own and I look them over to approve them. We spent two, leisurely hours browsing books and finding some great reading material. Such fun. In the evening, we took a picnic dinner to a new park with Peter. It's new to us. We thought it would be fun to go see what it was like. It's in town, but it's way up high on a hill and has an amazing view! The weather was perfect and so we hiked to Skyrock which is at the very top of the hill to see the view. Beautiful. Truly, everyone has been in a better mood since we took that day to enjoy some new things together and do something out of the normal schedule at home. I'm grateful. God gives the breaks at just the right time. Time to stop rambling. Goodnight...

OREGON, FIRST DAY

The first day was technically a travel day and there wasn't much photographing needed.We found a play area at the Pittsburgh Airport while were waiting for our plane to board.
Testing out the flying experience.

Tired, restless, but THRILLED to see Grammy and Papa. Unfortunately this picture came out fuzzy, but I think it's the only one I got of mom and dad with all of the kids. This is at a restaurant that we ate at before heading over the mountains from Portland to Bend.

Now, the first real day begins. We relaxed and explored Grammy and Papa's house all day. Here is Cecily in the backyard playing with some of the landscaping rocks.

The boys are stretching their legs and trying out some of the yard games they found in the shed.

My mom has the greatest little play closet upstairs in her house. Amelia spent the whole first morning up there. She carried this toy out of there to do on this little table.

Grammy helped her string on some sewing shapes.

In the evening, we roasted hot dogs for supper, then came back outside to make s'mores afterwards.

Yum.

Fellowship around the fire. :)

I liked this picture of Amelia playing with Papa.

Calvin, by Grammy's beautiful blooming trees.

S'mores face. :)

Trying out the winding staircase.

At the top.

My parents turned on their fountain for the girls.

Then they had a great time playing in the water.

I'm not sure what Cecily is doing, but Amelia is pretending to be fishing with that string that she found.

Wet.

Peter and the boys were playing in the yard. Here is Peter, hiding with a plastic bat he is using like a gun.

Dad enjoys the fire. He was inaugurating his new firepit.

After all the stickiness and wetness, the girls definitely needed a bath. They got to try out Grammy's extra-fun bathtub.

Much cleaner!

What a great day. What a thrill for everyone to be at their house!