Thursday, September 4, 2014

Ending the summer with a splash!

10394610_10204719686611334_3961639412923566218_n

Over Labor Day Weekend my Mom and sisters and I had a girls weekend in Portland.  SO much fun!  Activities included a temple session, (although I did mine all by myself.  1st time for everything.), a river cruise on the Willamette, Powells City of Books, Voodoo Doughnuts, Red Robin, staying at the Embassy Suites, shopped ‘til we dropped all day Saturday, Cheesecake Factory, Comedy Sportz Improv show, an awesome water nursery, and visiting a sweet architectural salvage/antique store.  We had a blast!

IMG_20140829_160959568IMG_20140829_185117367IMG_20140830_083316027_HDRIMG_20140831_094101985_HDRIMG_20140831_102748703

These big ol’ lily pads can hold a child sitting in them!

IMG_20140831_102810395IMG_20140831_103245014IMG_20140831_103348121_HDR

IMG_20140831_102407725

This nursery is seriously SO cool.  It has awesome fountains, koi, all sorts of tropical foliage...  And it’s designed like a park.  It would be a great place to take engagement pictures or something.

IMG_20140831_103652822IMG_20140831_103646205IMG_20140831_105537182

We rode a ferry with the car to cross the river.  I’ve never done that before!IMG_20140831_105956964IMG_20140831_105839102_HDR

heatherestevenson gmailBacktracking a bit: This photo was from the Youth Jam in Idaho Falls. Kids could pick their own backgrounds.  OOOOORRRR, we may or may not have snuck in a trip to Egypt.  I mean, this looks legit.

IMG_20140822_153409020

I made a couple things from pinterest ideas.  One is a job chart with the dollar bills hanging so that a kid can do the chore and get their $ immediately.  My boys already earned themselves enough dough for some legos.  This one, above, is for the items I pick up for them.  Brennan’s roller blades made their way into the basket many times in the first few days, but strangely they’ve been put away lately.  Weird.  (The “jobs” in this case are not cleaning chores, but actually good deeds.  Like “Read a book to a younger sibling” or “write a letter to a grandparent”, stuff like that.)

Fern Ridge Lake

Is it vain of me to say I love this picture?  Took it on my phone, and couldn’t even see what it looked like at the time due to the sunshine.

The day before school started I took the kids and hit the lake with my Mom and my sister Devon and her son (far left).  We were the only ones at the park!  It was fun.  Kieran, true to form, avoided the water and wandered around for quite a while.  But UNlike him, he did decide to touch the water.  He couldn’t decided whether or not to like it for about 20 minutes before finally deciding he could handle walking in it up to his ankles.  He played in the water for a little bit that way until tiring of it.

IMG_20140902_160019485IMG_20140902_160111682IMG_20140902_160126830IMG_20140902_160131174

Also at the lake is a playground.  Kids had fun on that too.

IMG_20140902_163821430IMG_20140902_164306073IMG_20140902_164752730

Wait wait wait!  Why is Hollyn suddenly looking so grown up?!?!?  I’d like to speak to a manager!

IMG_20140902_164757756IMG_20140902_164809247IMG_20140902_164838977IMG_20140902_164923488Is it wrong I get a kick out of this one?  Because Kieran. (“Whyyyyyy?  Oh Why me?”)

Aaaaaaand yesterday was the big day. Sniff, sniff.  I miss my big kids, but kind enjoy the relative quiet.

first day

1 comment:

Kelly said...

This was a really long post. Where do I begin?

First, I LOVED the idea of having your kids do NICE things to get their belongings back. MUCH better than chores. Simply brilliant. I may have to copy.

Second, you always take such cute pictures of your cute kids.

Third. What lake? Why has no one told me about a fabulous lake where I can take my kids to play? Is it secret?

Fourth. I had SO much FUN on our sisters weekend. Jenny and Shannon want to do it every year. I hope we can figure out how to be regular about it, for sure! Loved seeing some of your photos.