Friday, December 31, 2010

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Hiking

I took the kids to the Vancouver Land Bridge this week for a nice walk.  I brought Cooper's bike and he had  fun chasing Larkin and I around.  The bridge is awesome, it goes right by the railroad tracks and the Fort Vancouver Airport. We saw lots of large planes heading to PDX Airport, two small planes that landed at Fort Vancouver, right over our heads, and three trains.  Cooper was in heaven, Larkin was happy to be
running and Riley was happy to be with us.
 


Cooper, Riley and I went to Lattourell Falls in the Gorge this week too.  The Out and About with Kids book said this trail is great for younger kids. 

We were sprayed with freezing cold water as we crossed this bridge.  Cooper and Riley had a great time running and it was nice to be outside.  I am looking forward to many more hiking adventures now that  Cooper can walk for longer bouts of time.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Holiday Stuff

We put up our tree this year super early for us, two days after Thanksgiving.  Cooper has been talking about our tree since November 1st, thank you store displays.  We have lights on the house too and they look great this year.

Today we took the Holiday Express along the Willamette River with Aunt Janet, Erin, Maria, Teo and Ciaran.  The boys had a great time, they loved sitting with Aunt Janet.  Santa visited us on the train and gave out candy canes.  We went on this train last year at night so this year we wanted to check it out during the day so Cooper could see out the windows.  He loved it and it's a great holiday tradition!



After the train ride we visited the Belmont Firehouse Museum where another Santa was visiting.  Cooper loves this museum, we drive by it all the time and he always wants to go in and check it out.  The museum is only open one Saturday a month and for groups with appointments so he was super excited we were going there. 


Santa was there for a photo op and Cooper asked him for a fire station and fire truck (although on asking Cooper later, he said that isn't what he asked for).  He was pretty shy but enjoyed sitting on the firefighter Santa.


We walked across the street and treated Janet to India Oven for lunch.  It was a great day, although pouring down rain weatherwise.  Thanks Janet for the fun train ride and joining us on other Santa adventures.

Fresno 2010

We took our annual trip to Fresno last week.  The visit was great except Cooper and I got sick.  We visited with Sharon's dad, saw his friends Dick and Betty, Cooper played with his two older cousins, Chloe 12, Noah 7, he also played with Alexander his cousin that is 2.  We all met our new nephew (Alexander's brother) Adam who was born in September.  We had fairly good weather, did some shopping but mostly hung out with the family.

We walked Christmas Tree Lane (with about a quarter of the Fresno population).  It was jammed with people, we felt like cattle, there was no way to stop without losing half your group.  We brought the wagon for the two older boys but Cooper mainly sat on Mama's shoulders and Alexander pushed the wagon from behind while Chloe pulled it from the front.
We also took the two older cousins, Chloe and Noah, bowling.  We had a great time and Auntie Sonya beat us all in her three strikes in a row on the last 2 frames.  Chloe and Noah had never bowled and they had a blast.
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