Portland it roasting! Head to the river!

What do you do when it's over 100 degrees outside and your house does not have central air?! No, you don't give up and die... which is tempting sometimes... you go to the river, that is what.

Sunday after church we headed up the Wilson River. We packed sandwiches, walked down the cliff and stayed for a few hours, it was so much fun, and beautiful too.

We found a mini-rapid for the kids to play on... You see that blue thing Jessie is riding on? It's a blow up Boogie Board, Mark found it at a surf shop, he thinks it rocks :) The kids love it!

Lots and lots of tadpoles, I doubt there will be a shortage of toads this fall.

I am trying to stay cool. Oh wait, I already am... that is right, don't forget it.

On Monday at 5:00 pm it was 105, and so we packed up again and went to Sauvie Island, on the Columbia River. It was actually pretty nice, a little hot, but not when you were in the river. We went with the Oliver family and the Jarvis family, thanks for coming with us! It was awesome :) We will be going back soon, that is for sure.

Scott was pretty hungry :)

Lucy liked the sand...

I was butting in on Kimberley's photo session.

Lily and Jessie were getting buried.

Jenny was c c c c cold!

Mark was strutting up and down the beach looking buff.

Jack just couldn't take it anymore, being buried was killing him.

Curren and Taylor

Andrea finally made a sand ball after multiple attempts, yay Andrea!

I know, we do have a swimming pool, but you just have to get out and away from it all sometimes! The rivers around here are just too fun to pass up. Also, we do have those little window A/C units in our bedroom windows, so at least we can sleep at night. So don't feel too bad for us :)

I love me some summer!

Jessie and me at the Rose Garden, I love this photo of us!

I like how this photo came out, so I am sharing, can't you almost smell it? It's so gorgeous.

Curren has decided swimming with clothes is cool...

Summer has brought us a new pet, meet Creampuff, the fastest hamster I've ever seen!

Summer consists of sitting out back by the table and painting our fingers and toes, reading books, watching kids swim (they are getting to be good swimmers!), watching the garden grow, and just enjoying being outside.

We had Stephanie, Brigham and Porter come to visit for a few days. It was fun going to the beach and to the zoo. I love this picture of Brigham, he's a cute kid.

In case you are wondering, Stephanie is Mark's brother's wife, and their kids are Brigham and Porter, they live in West Virginia, so we don't get to see them very much, it was so awesome of Stephanie to come all of the way out here, thanks for visiting!

The final days

Saturday and Sunday were pretty relaxing. Saturday Mark, Emily, Curren and Grandpa went to a gun show for the morning. I took Cherie and Jessie shopping, and out to lunch. We all had a good day. That afternoon we went back to the house and played in the pool, had a BBQ and hung out. We had fun with the super soaker, and water balloons, both Grandma and Grandpa got a water balloon on their lap. Sunday we went to church and after church Emily and I made a 4th of July cake. I found this recipe on line at the Pioneer Woman’s blog. It was delicious! Monday we went to the coast. We started out in Tillamook and made the trip to the cheese factory. Then we headed up to Cannon Beach to shop and explore Haystack Rock. We were kind of cold and wind blown after the beach. We made our way to Astoria and Emily had to stop by the Goonie house for a picture. Curren even indulged her with the “Truffle Shuffle” actually, she had to pay him $1.00 to do it! Have you seen the movie The Goonies? If not, you have lived under a rock for your whole life. The Goonies was filmed in Astoria… Tuesday they had to go home, they had a long trip ahead of them. We had so much fun, and can’t wait to see you all again! Thank you for visiting us we love you!

The family vacation continues...

Mt. Adams

Day two of the family visiting took us out to the Columbia River Gorge. The Gorge is fun, there is a lot of hiking, a lot of sight seeing, and home of Hood River. A town dedicated to windsurfing and kiteboarding. We started out by going to Crown Point. It’s a lookout point, and it’s pretty high up there, you get a good view of the mighty Columbia.

Curren yelled out "MOM!!! Look a HIPPIE BUS!" I was down below, so pretty much everybody heard him, it was funny!

Jessie can't figure out why everything looks so small...
We then headed over to a newly opened Airplane museum called WAAAM. It is in Hood River kind of out in the country. It was a neat place, the museum was full of old airplanes, cars, military vehicles, memorabilia, etc. Plus, they bragged their airplanes up, they all still fly, it’s pretty cool.
After the museum we had some lunch and then went down to watch the windsurfers and kiteboarders doing their thing. It was windy that day, and we saw lots of people out. The gorge is almost always windy, I might add.
To Be Continued…

Fun with the family :)

Mark's mom, dad and sister came to visit this past week. We had such a fun time. They got into town on Thursday afternoon. We went out to dinner at Rock Creek Tavern. It's out by our house in the country. It was a really neat place to go, and the building was beautiful.

I really wish Mark would take a nice picture once in awhile *sigh* I think it's a lost cause.

There was a cool mushroom lamp made from wood, isn't it pretty?

After dinner I took the girls to the International Rose Garden. If you come to Portland in the summer, you have to come here!

I look like a tall giant compared to Mark's mom and sister!! :D