Multnomah County Fair

On Sunday the weekend of Memorial Day we took a trip to Fry's Electronics for my mom and we all bought something. Our friend Rosey was visiting us for the day and she came along too. My car went to take the electronics to the home while Sharon's car headed to the Multnomah County Fair. We went to this fair last year, it's free and it is next to the amusement park in Portland, Oaks Park. We looked at all the booths and then let Cooper hit the rides. He did the carpet slide by himself this time! He and Mama also did the Go-Karts.

Covered Bridges

While Nona and Bob were here we took the covered bridge tour in Linn County. This area is
about an hour and a half from Portland. We drove to seven covered bridges, ate snacks and even had Cooper bike around at one. We also checked out the Lebanon dirt racetrack and picked out a Paperbark Maple at a tree farm in Salem.

More Fun

Today Cooper's preschool class drove out to Gales Creek to plant pumpkin plants. It was a rainy day, perfect for planting. Farmer Anne came to the school a couple weeks ago to help the kids plant the pumpkin seeds. She brought all the seedlings back to the farm and today they went into the ground. Here is Cooper's plant.




This fall the preschool will have a picnic at the farm and we will get to buy the pumpkins that the kids planted!
Other fun things the kids did today was take a turn on the tractor, look at a honeybee hive close-up, feed Stuart the rabbit, look at the ducks and find/hold snakes. Cooper loves the snake part! He held and pet the snake.




Looking at the bees




Holding hands with buddy Graham.








We left the farm about 11:30 and drove to Tillamook with Nona and Bob to check out the Tillamook Cheese Factory!








After nibbling on cheese samples, observing the workers (Cooper loved the observation area) and eating delicious ice cream, we headed back to Portland.

Nona's Here

Nona and Uncle Bob are visiting us for two weeks! We are having a great time, last week we had terrific weather too. We've been pretty busy with Cooper's last two weeks of school during this visit. Last week was parent appreciation day! The kids made their parents a candle, a magnetic picture frame with the school picture and sang us a song.

My mom and I played tennis this weekend, we will probably hit the court a few more times depending on the weather. We also checked out the Grilled Cheese Grill for lunch. Cooper loved sitting in the bus on the top deck.






We went to our first Dozer Days. This is an annual event where kids get to drive trucks: excavators, bulldozers, etc in a quarry. Cooper tried out the bulldozer, roller, excavator and backhoe. He had a great time, especially loved playing in the sand. We will definitely be doing this event again! Here is video of him driving the bulldozer.

Cooper and Sharon playing on tires.

Birthday Badge

Cooper wanted to celebrate his birthday at preschool so we did that May 3. I brought in pictures for Cooper to talk about and a baby outfit that teacher Anette tries to fit on the him. She also makes a birthday badge to wear all day. Here are some pictures of Cooper talking about his pictures and his outfit.

Roller

Today Rosey, Rosario, Cooper and I went to lunch at our favorite Thai restaurant. While we finished up lunch, a street paver rolled by out front. They are paving the street in front of the restaurant. Cooper found a nice seat in the window to watch the roller go back and forth while we chatted bit more.






Also, today is our big brown dog, Lukey's birthday! He is 1 today and he got a toy and a birthday bone!

Sun!

It's sunny here for several days in a row. It was 80 degrees yesterday! Nice weather keeps us outside all day. We biked with friends yesterday for about 3 miles. Cooper did great, listened really well. It was a busy trail so he had to pay attention and keep to one side. He did really well.



Erin, Mateo and Ciaran


Later he took his bike out again to ride in our driveway. This is the outfit he chose to wear.




Sharon and Cooper took another bike ride Monday evening. He was so tired from all that activity I had to wake him up to get to preschool this morning.

Bike riding

Cooper watched some girls off-road on their bikes at the park and he wanted to try also.
Here is a video of him on his bike coming down the hill.

Camping Pictures

Pictures from our trip to Bend, OR.






Cooper built a mud out behind our trailer.

First Camping Trip

We took the trailer out for our first trip of the season last weekend. We went to Tumalo State Park, near Bend, OR. The weather was summer-like, hot. It was Susan's birthday weekend trip and we all had a great time of playing cards, hiking, talking and eating good food. We were right by a river trail so we took a hike on Saturday. The dogs had a blast, Luke learned how to swim, but only to rescue me from the water. Hopefully this summer he will swim to fetch a stick or ball or something. Cooper rode his bike all over the campground from morning until night. We gave him some independence to ride to our friends sites without us too.

Nice Weather

We had great weather on Monday this week. Cooper spent the day eating and playing with Luke outside.

More Cousin Pictures

A few more pictures of the cousin visit. Sharon took them to the Multnomah Falls and to visit Herman the Sturgeon at Bonneville Dam.

I took the kids and dogs again to the dog park and the boys did not have as much fun this time. It all went south went Cooper did a face plant in the mud puddle. Chloe was sweet and carried him back to the car.

This was a nice quiet moment in the house, all three kids reading.

I took them to OMSI for an afternoon and they all had a great time, especially racing the boats.