A Trip to Oregon

John and I drove the boys up to Oregon for a whirlwind of a trip! We had lots of major events all jam-packed into an extended weekend. The first night we were there, we had a little barbeque at a Park. The boys loved playing on the swings.

 We loved relaxing.

 My sister even brought a little firepit for s'mores!

 Lincoln had some major investigating to do with new cousin Seth.

The following day we went to the Portland Zoo and Washington Park (which is a massive rose garden). There we got to ride an amazing train ride from the Zoo to Washington Park. I don't remember what we paid, but it was definitely worth it!

 Look, Lincoln is getting some top teeth finally!

 Doesn't it look like a sweet ride?

 This rose garden was amazing! It just kept going and going with hundreds, maybe even thousands of different rose varieties. It made me want to plant a hundred roses in my yard.

 I fell in love with so many different varieties. I loved that they had a plaque below each one, identifying it.

 Once back at the Zoo, we were just as impressed. This zoo was HUGE! I liked that it had everything organized by region, so as you walked around you would visit the southwest or the northwest. Look at this beautiful tree! It's called a Baobab Tree. I loved the look of it.

 Ethan found a sweet set of bongo drums. He could have stayed here the rest of the afternoon.

 They had this land rover set up as part of the exhibit so the kids could pretend they were on an African Safari, pretty inventive, right? The front half was in with the wild dogs, but the seats were on the other side of the glass.

 These two passed out right at the same time. My mom said she loved that Justin and I each had bright green strollers, it made us really easy to find in the crowd.

 They had so many different kinds of Monkeys/Orangutans/Gorillas/Apes.

 I just liked this carved wall.

 All throughout they had fun things for the kids to explore.

 They even had a cool river exhibit with the kinds of fish you would find in different rivers in each region.

 John likes to get Ethan excited about Turtles. I think he's trying to persuade Ethan to ask me for one.

 Even the farm area was super cool. What kids doesn't want to drive a tractor?

 Or a wooden horse? We were so impressed by this zoo!

 After the zoo, we met up with my sister's family for her little boy's birthday party. Ethan is posing with the man of the hour.

 It was at this cool splash pad with water that shoots straight up from the ground. It reminded me of Disneyland.

 Lincoln loved climbing all over these cement steps. I did not.

 All the kids gathered around for some snacks, cupcakes, and presents.

 The adults got a chance to take a break too.

 And Ethan did his share of baby inspecting.

 Lounging Lincoln.

 Here are my twins.

 At first, I don't think the boys knew what to think of the splash pad, but then they totally got into it.

The next day, we all went to Seth's Baby Blessing. See? We were super busy. Well, we just had to show up for things, my poor sister had to plan everything!

 Mark's parents even got to come out from England for all the festivities.

 Later that evening, we had my niece's baptism. It was fantastic. All except for the fact that my sister asked me to lead the music to a song I had never heard and didn't have any music to follow. That was awesome.

 Seth is worn out from all this partying.

 Maddie and I had a great heart to heart.

 Here's the whole crew!

 Later that night, we got to celebrate the 4th of July!

 Ethan and Lincoln both enjoyed the sparklers.

 I got to play around with all the different settings on my camera.

 We had quite a show.

 Maybe a little bit too big of a show!

 So we moved to a different location and definitely broke some rules.

 It was worth it. Well, I can say that now, we were all kind of freaking out the whole time.

 I love the 4th!

The next day we were going to leave, but didn't get a chance to use up all our fireworks. So we headed over to the Parsons' to hang out one last time before heading home.

 The kids really enjoyed the show, even though it wasn't quite as spectacular as it would have been had it been dark.

 By kids, I mean the big kids of course.

 The sparklers were still a hit with the little ones.

 What a whirlwind! Did it you make it through all the festivities? We had such an amazing time! We always wish we lived a little bit closer!

Breathe. Just Breathe.

No, you're not dreaming. I actually posted again! After a brief (ahem -- 11 month) hiatus! I have a lot of catching up to do. No promises. This is a guilt-free blog. Someday I'll catch up. You'll get a random blog about last July and boating from last summer. Someday I might actually post something that happened within the last month. But for now, enjoy at your leisure, or not at all!

A Trip to the Oakland Zoo

While Pammie was here, we got a chance to go to the Oakland Zoo. There was a group of my friends going for our little field trips, so we decided it would be a fun thing to do with Pammie. Boy, oh boy, it was HOT. Oakland is not supposed to be this hot. We saw some not-so-pink pink flamingos.

 And some Sun Bears, who, as it turns out, don't really like the sun all that much.

 When we went to go see the otters, it was really funny. Ethan said, "Hi, Otters" when we walked up to the wall to see the otters, and these otters raced over to greet us. They must have been expecting us!

 They have several super huge turtles that were all resting in the shade.

 Ethan thought this thing was pretty cool and asked for a picture.

 Can you believe this turtle is just chillin' on the back of an alligator?

 Here we found some of our friends, enjoying the same crazy turtle/alligator spectacle.

 Next, we headed down to the petting area and the boy had a lot of fun brushing all the animals. They also had an excellent set of misters, so even though it wasn't all that pleasant smelling with the goats, I was more than happy to hang out.

 I can't see a warthog and not have tunes from the Lion King running through my head.

 Ethan is getting a much closer look at something.

 Here's more of our little crew.

 I think it would be funny to see this number of children running around amidst all the strollers.

 We took a lot of rest breaks in the shade. There are a lot of hills in Oakland, and the zoo is no exception! We definitely got our workout for the day.

 This was as many kids as we could sandwich on the bench.

 This was our "family shot." We had about 7 attempts, and Ethan is jumping up and down in every one.

 Pammie and I took the train ride around a small portion of the zoo with the boys. It was really all Ethan wanted to do since we got there.

 I love this shot of the boys.

 So, funny story, directly after coming through this tunnel, there is a fake snake on the side (they had little fake animals posed along the route of the train). My mom, who is deathly afraid of snakes, was sitting on the same side as said snake and nearly had a heart attack as we came out of the tunnel. I was so bummed I didn't capture her reaction on camera. It was priceless.

 On the extremely short train ride we pretty much just saw kangaroos and Emus. As cool as they are, I don't think it was worth the $15 to see them. Although maybe seeing Pammie pee her pants from the snake scare was worth it (okay, not actually peeing her pants).