Hood River, OR

For a little Anniversary surprise, I scheduled some time away from the kids and took Chad to near by Hood River, OR. This small little town was just what we needed. My parents took care of the kids, or was that the other around? Allowing Chad and I to have some fun out on our own. We spent 3 days and 2 nights in Hood River and on the way home stopped by the 2nd largest year round waterfall in the nation, Multnomah Falls. We decided that we were to climb to the top of the falls and enjoy the view. Well the climb itself was a sure surprise to me! I think I about passed out, but I did make it. Honestly I think the marker of just 1.0 miles up to the top was wrong as it felt more like it was 10.0 miles and straight up. We certainly enjoyed our little trip, thanks again Mom and Papa!

The Falls

The very top of the Falls

Watch out...

Yes, that is me all red faced, but I made it to the top.

The Happy couple!

Our little sunshine

Kennedy has figured out the stairs and loves going up and then waits for Mom to come and get her. She also loves Colin's hats, doesn't like the cute ones I put on her, but will wear Colin's all day.

Here she is showing off her new shades!

Dozer Day 2008!

Saturday, May 17th was Dozer Day. This is wear kids get to drive a bulldozer, excavator or tractor. This year Chad wasn't able to join us, so it was just myself with the two kids. The 95 degree weather was a little bit more then I could take, but overall it was a great day.

This is what we rode to get to the top of the hill for Dozer day!

Colin loved every moment.
He was so excited he was skipping.
Climbing the small excavator
Look at the dirt on his face... Just a wee bit hot (see sweat)
What we waited in line for. He was concentrating so hard that he didn't even smile.

Digging in the big sand pile, just like at Grandpa and Grandma's

Running through the tunnels

One final picture before we had to leave.

A few scratches, but all was well.
Kennedy was so happy to finally be in an air conditioned car.

Mother's Day Tea

Today, Colin's school had a special Mother's Day tea. We arrived at the school at 9:30am where tables were dressed in pink table covers and flowers in the center. Colin was so excited to see me that he almost knocked me over. We proceeded to sit down and the kids served the Moms a wonderful Blueberry Crumb Cake that they all helped make, fresh Strawberries and grapes. Of course a tea party isn't a tea party with tea so the option of having iced tea or hot tea was also available. Colin truly enjoyed bringing me my food and wanted to make sure that I ate every last bit. I do have to say that the crumb cake was pretty tasty. After everyone enjoyed their cake and tea the kids all lined up and sang to songs. During the lining up our little Col got a little sad as he wanted to be next to his good friend Zachary. Well all was good once he was able to stand next to him, but on the top riser. After finishing the songs they gave out the flowers and a shadow picture of themselves with a darling poem.

The kids getting lined up to sing.

Colin sad because he couldn't stand next to Zachary
Happy again, with Mom's flower
Sad because he loved the flower too much that it broke.
What a wonderful Mother's Day gift!

Our little photographer

So Colin asked to use the camera tonight and so I gave him our older Kodak to use. I showed him how to use it and allowed him to go around the house while I stayed in the computer room. When he came back we downloaded the pictures. I was pretty impressed with what he had captured on camera. I loved his point of view and here are some of those photos. Enjoy!

Firetruck!

Photo of Colin!

Dinner!

Kennedy's Dinner!

Self Portrait!

The Easter Bunny came late...

Well we found these little Bunnies hoping through the house and just knew that we had to capture the moment.

Our littlest Bunny

"Get this off of me"...
"I want to wear it too!"

Camas Fire Department Open House

Today, April 5th, I (Chad stayed home to work on the truck) took Colin and Kennedy to the local fire house for their open house. They had a little bit of everything for the entire family. They had local businesses their with booths giving away free stuff about safety, I even got 3 reams of Georgia Pacific Copy Paper for the printer. Clowns were there for the kids (which Colin was not a fan of). Plus they had demonstrations of their K9 unit. Colin's favorite was getting the Fire Badge Tattoo and using the hose to put out the "fire", the ladder truck and eating his hot dog. It was a great morning.

His Fire Badge Tattoo

The Ladder Truck
The back of the ladder truck
Taking Aim...
getting the fire out.

There even was a train engineer their talking about safety of trains. Colin on the way says, "Mom, how am I going to be a train conductor and a fireman when I grow up?" Pretty much, I told him that he could do one in the morning and then in the afternoon do the other. :-)