Rollin' rollin' rollin', keep that wagon rollin'

The swagger wagon that is.  Remember my post about having 5 children and the one about having an identity crisis?  Well, this is the continuation of all that fun.  And just to be clear , I mean NO offense to anyone who has a mini-van, because 90% of my friends do, but they also probably know that it is NOT me, nor will it ever be (even if I get one).  But, back to the point at hand - we had such an awesome week with my niece and nephew that it has taken all these posts just to show it all!  (And it's mostly for their mom, who is probably the only one who cares what we did all day everyday.  Well, and maybe Grandma.)

Day Seven

Kennecot, home-made water park and the Music Man. . .

See that "little" truck down there?

Well, this is the size of it's wheels.  Not so little after all.

If you live around here and you haven't taken gone out to the Kennecot Copper mine, you should. It's cool.  It's only open mine still in use in the U.S., and one of two man-made objects you can see from space.

 

At the visitor's center, we watched a movie about how it works and it was actually quite interesting.  I learned ALOT.  And it was only about 15 min long, just right for our wiggly bunch.  Corbin and Lexi had little worksheets I had printed off the website, so they went around reading everything and trying to answer the questions. 

Colton's favorite part was seeing all the different trucks, etc. that have been used at the mine (good thing they were in plastic cases).

And we got to look at all the things they find under microscopes.  There are many, many different types of minerals that they get out of this "copper" mine.  And would you believe they actually get several hundred thousand dollars worth of gold out every year as well.

We got to see several models of how it all works.  Very cool.

It was a good thing we got there early.  Since it was free day, it was getting really packed by the time we left.  We stopped for lunch at JCW's on the way home.  Burgers, fries and shakes.  Yum!

And what's better on a hot day than a little fun in the back yard with the hose!  This is pretty much an everyday occurrence at our house in the summer, since it is impossible for Colton to go outside without turning the water on.  But this was THE backyard water park complete with cooler hot tubs and tube slides.

That night Corbin, Lexi and I went to see my friend and his friend in The Music Man.  It was really fun!  And I couldn't have asked for better company!

Day Eight
Fiesta Days Children's Festival and . . . their mom returns!

My cuties in their Salvadoran soccer uniforms I brought them.  Too bad my camera had a weird glare thing going on!

Playing games, gathering prizes, making crafts and all for FREE!

and of course, the annual FISH RODEO! 

It was a great end to a super fun week!  We were so lucky to get to spend some time with Levi and Lexi this summer.  We will sure miss our cousins!

Skamamish Day 1

Since I've jumped around a little bit, and to clarify for my regular readers and avid followers, this is the continuation of our trip to Oregon/Washington and follows the first post (even though this says "day 1").

So after we left Ontario area, we headed up and across the state of Oregon into the Columbia River Gorge.  I was surprised that besides a brief stint of trees, most of the drive was high desert type terrain.  We kept waiting for the beautiful, lush, green forests we had seen in pictures and always pictured Oregon to be like.  It wasn't until part way into the Gorge that it was what I had imagined it to be like (Russ was thinking more Flaming Gorge, with huge steep cliffs shooting up), but it was absolutely gorgeous!  And the drive along the river was incredible!  Our hotel was actually on the Washington side near a little town called Stevenson and it was the perfect setting.  The hotel was called Skamania Lodge, but for some reason Russ could never remember the name - Skamamish? Skamountain?  Whatever.  It was super nice and thanks to my dad, we got an awesome deal, no way we could have stayed there without it.  So we are extremely grateful.

Onto our first day . . . (well our real first day we checked in, went to the pool for a bit and then went to bed, so that doesn't really count).  We started out with the intent to drive about 40 min away to check out a view of Mt St Helens, but about 15 or 20 miles out we realized we were almost out of gas and there would be nothing when we got out there, and then how would we get back?  So we decided to pull off and attempt one of the many hikes we had passed on our twisty road through the trees.  Falls Creek Trail turned out to be a perfect hike . . .

Cool trees

Cool rocks to climb on (and in)

Cool bridges

And at the end, an AWESOME waterfall!

(Can you see them all the way down there!?)

We had our picnic by the falls before we hiked back down.

It was totally cool.  Gorgeous falls and perfect weather, what more could you ask for?   Super fun hike and the boys did great!   Loved it!

After the hike (well, after Russ hiked halfway back up to get his glasses), we went back to the hotel to go swimming.  We did this pretty much everyday, but I promise you won't have to see swimming pictures in every post.  Just a few. :)

That night after dinner (and an interesting experience involving underwear), we went out to watch the kite boarders on the river.  Apparently the Gorge is the kite-boarding capital of the world.  It looked really fun, but was maybe even more fun to watch.  We had the perfect spot on the dock, because we could see the whole river, but we were behind a little bend just out of the wind.  We had fun seeing them jump, watching them crash, and hoping they didn't run over each other too much.  It was a really good time!

UP NEXT:  Lots of fish, another waterfall, and a new car . . . are you intrigued yet?

Just another school day?

Corbin was REALLY excited for the first day of school again this year.  He couldn't sleep at all the night before "meet the teacher" and the night before the first day.  But for some reason for me it just felt like we picked up where we left off a few months ago before all of our vacationing.  Maybe this is how it will be from now on.  Kindergarten is a big deal of course, and first grade made me nervous (would he know how to get lunch, would he be okay at recess, etc, etc); but this was just taking him to school.  Of course I had to get a picture though.  I think next year he may not let me take a picture before he goes in.  :(  This year he didn't want me to come in and take a picture of him in his classroom, but I followed him in anyway.  Lucky for him, his teacher had duty that morning, so they could go in yet anyway.  I guess he's getting older . . .

Into farm country

I am having a great dilemma trying to figure out how to post about our big family vacation, because (1) I have about a thousand pictures, (2) those pictures are probably mostly only cool to me, but (3) this is most likely the only record I will make of this trip so I feel like I cannot leave anything out.  And maybe other people (ie. my mom or sister) may actually be interested in every detail of our trip and who knows, maybe someone else will one day want to trek out to the Oregon coast via Washington and will say "Hey, what was it that you guys did?  Where did you stop?  What was the best things?   Etc, etc."  So I'm open for suggestions.  For now, I'll start from the beginning and you'll just get what you get.  If you want to see more pictures, I'm sure I will eventually post them on Facebook (not all 800, don't worry).

Our first stop after a seven hour drive (which I thought was going to be five hours) was in Eastern Oregon/Idaho to visit Russ' family.  We stayed with one of Russ' cousins and had a great time playing and visiting.  We also had the pleasure of attending the Malhuer County Fair, which unlike where we live, was actually about the animals.  Russ remembered going there as a kid (he grew up on a ranch there) and had fun reminiscing, and believe it or not, we actually ran into someone that remembered him (or his brother).  Best part:  Corbin riding the mechanical bull.  Yee-haw!

Another reason for our stay out in farm country was to visit Russ' grandpa.  He still lives in Nyssa, which is slightly bigger than the neighboring town of Adrian, where Russ lived.  The Jensens have been in that area for several generations now, so it is fun to see all of the history and hear the stories.  The boys loved visiting with Grandpa Jensen and exploring his little farm.  Russ is a farm boy at heart, so he loved being there as well and showing his boys a life that is so foreign to them.

Around the Farm . . .

The boys' favorite part ?  Playing with Grandpa's dog. (And no, Russ, that doesn't mean we should get one.)

Up Next:  Skamania and the beautiful Columbia River Gorge . . .

Just a glimpse of the good things to come

So, we actually made it home in one piece, with all of our children and car intact, from our two week road trip across Oregon.  And it was AWESOME!  I couldn't wait to share the pics and since I took like 800 pictures (literally), you get to see just a few and just try to guess what we're doing and where we are since I don't feel like typing much right now.  (Besides, most people just look at the pictures anyway, right?)

Are you curious yet??  More details soon to come, in multiple posts, I'm sure.  I know, you can't wait.