Saturday, June 27, 2009

Silver Falls State Park

For a date Travis once took me to Silver Falls State Park to see the South Falls. I've been wanting to go back for a long time, so we took the boys for some short hikes around a few of the waterfalls on Silver Creek.
Before we could get to the first waterfall, we spotted this snake on the trail:

The most famous of the ten falls on Silver Creek is the South Falls. Here it is
on our approach, you can see little people on the path that passes behind it:

Part of the pathway has really low-hung rock, Travis
has to stick to the outside to avoid hitting his head.

Uncle Shane and aunt Angela were able to join us

Under South Falls

The falls pass over basalt rock which include lava
chimneys you can look up into. Here's some holes:

I convinced Avery to stand in the big hole


The trail down the other side of the falls

South Falls again from the other side


After we saw the South Falls, we drove to the other end of the canyon to check out the North Falls. As it happens, we walked up the path to Upper North Falls, so now we have to go back soon so we can see North Falls as well. The boys are adamant that we go soon, they really loved the trip.

On the way, there was this little waterfall coming down next to the path.
I convinced the boys we should climb up and see what kind of pool might be up there

Almost to Upper North Falls

Here we are

Shane and Angela


Looking downstream from the falls

We'll have to wait a long time before all the boys are
old enough to cross the log and play in the shallow area.

Time to go. These stairs are cut from the rock at the end of the path


A tree hanging on to the hillside

On the way back out Travis had to check out the little waterfall too

There's a long canopy of branches over a bump out from the trail here that looks cool.
My camera can't get a wide enough angle in the space to really show it.

Such a fun day, we'll have to go back really soon!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Book Eater


What happens when you leave your book unattended, even for just a few moments?

Emmett happens.

Later in the day I was stupid enough to do it again, and he got the front bottom of the book too!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Horses and Frogs

Besides Emmett's first steps, we had some other fun at Ben and DeAnna's last night. Megan bought a childrens' saddle for Vegas so she could teach her nephews and niece to ride. My boys had their first rides with it last night.



Carson didn't enjoy sitting on Vegas

Emmett wasn't too sure about it either

Megan got up to try and comfort Emmett, but it didn't help

But she stayed mounted so she could give Avery a proper ride
instead of just leading him around. Avery loved it of course.

After the horse rides, Papa found a little frog

Avery holding the frog

I got a shot of Carson holding it too, but the frog took off immediately and startled Carson

Monday, June 22, 2009

Emmett's First Steps

Emmett is less than 9 and a half months. We've known walking is just around the corner, and frankly, I've been avoiding encouraging him to take steps. I just feel like sooner is not better with him. But tonight Emmett's aunt Angela encouraged him with a can of pop. He had several runs of 3, 4 and 5 steps. Here's a video compilation of pictures getting a run of 4 steps:


After just so much, Emmett finally gave it up with a
"WHY CAN'T YOU JUST GIVE ME THE CAN!"

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Boys

Emmett loves rolling around in blankets. Today he was at it again when he sat up
and gave me a big grin. I didn't quite capture the smile, but how adorable is he anyway!

For all Emmett's non-stop moving, sometimes when he
climbs on the couch he'll just kick back. I think it's too cute!

Also today it was time to wash the cars. The boys
had a blast flinging suds... until Daddy banished them.

Avery helped a little with the car washing, then picked up his *new* scooter to
ride. When I was in 3rd grade I won this scooter as first prize in a drawing contest
through the post office. The brakes are shot now, but Avery is loving it and it's fine
for around the front of the house when he's supervised until Travis fixes the brakes.

While Avery helped with the cars, Carson tried out the scooter too

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Licensed

Travis' license to practice dentistry in Oregon came in today - exactly one month from graduation. So he will get to start work on Monday!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Attack of the Marker

Yesterday evening we went to the Hunsaker's.

What happens when one of Alli's markers hides from clean up?
It will inevitably be found by the kid who wants to eat it...

Carson didn't want to share

Carson made a huge improvement with the dog yesterday - he didn't run
screaming from him! In fact, here's Carson *throwing* Gunnar's toy for him!

Hard at work

And here is a common occurrence at Papa and
Grandma's - muddiness! Alli gets her feet washed.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Slugs

Today Avery turned over a large rock in our backyard and found two slugs!

Here's the smaller, speedy one (I brought a Sharpie out to
offer some scale, not that it's well positioned for this shot)

We moved the slugs to a bucket with some bark and rocks so Avery could show Daddy when he got home. We had to cover it so they wouldn't climb out ("no slugs were injured in the production of this post"), so I kept replacing cool rocks in it so they wouldn't cook.

Here's the speedy one which just climbed over the
big immovable one in the lower left of this shot:

After we showed Daddy, we put them back by a big rock in the shade. Avery moved
the speedy one (I don't want to think that he actually touched it) into his dump truck.

Carson takes a peek

Avery just didn't want to let him go

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Spokane on the long side

Just 2 weeks after we moved to Salem, it was back up to Spokane for a bit of a family reunion. With my cousin Jenna graduating high school and heading off to school, the Cabe's decided to take a road trip. Del and Darla and the four girls saw the sights from Ohio to Salt Lake, UT, where they were joined by their eldest, Chris and Cameron, for the drive up to Spokane.

During our time in Milwaukee, we were able to spend some holidays in Ohio with the Cabe's (my Mom's brother and family). We visited for Thanksgiving 2005, 2007 , 2008, and in April '08 just the boys and I went to see Jenna and Julia in the musical "Meet Me In St. Louis." We had such an amazing time getting to visit them, there was no way I was going to miss seeing them all in Spokane! Chances of all my family getting together again with them are probably pretty slim. Plus, the only time Chris was in Ohio when we were, Travis wasn't there, so this trip would be their first meeting!

Friday we drove up, and on the way we stopped at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River so the boys could meet Herman the Sturgeon.

Avery really liked this jumping fish fountain

Follow the fish (I love when they hold hands!)

There were 2 really giant sturgeon in the sturgeon pond, I don't recall if this
one was the biggest. Whichever is the biggest is actually Herman II. Herman is
about, or not quite, 11 feet long, 500 pounds and 70 years old. These white
sturgeon can grow over 20 feet, over 1700 pounds and live longer than 100 years!

By the trout ponds

The beautiful view driving out of the fishery

When we arrived in Spokane we all met at my parents' house before heading downtown to Riverfront Park (site of the World's Fair in 1974, Expo '74). It's a huge park with a lot of great places and sites. First stop, the giant Radio Flyer with a slide handle:

Right next to the Radio Flyer are these giant children's blocks.
That's the famous clock tower behind us:

Carson being silly with MaKenna and Sarah:

The famous Garbage Eating Goat! Unfortunately, the vacuum wasn't working...

Stopping to feed the geese:

On to the Looff Carrousel which will be celebrating it's 100 birthday July 18th.
All the horses are still original! Here's Avery riding "Miss Liberty"

After the carousel, Avery tried to convince us we
needed to go in the fountain, but it was time to eat!

All 17 of us walked over to the Olive Garden where Avery didn't
care when Jenna confiscated his kid menu to do the word search:

Saturday morning the boys went for a dip in the hot tub. Carson didn't manage
any more than this, though he did enjoy leaning over to pop bubbles.

Avery, of course, loved it.

Then it was time to head to Newport for cousin Logan's graduation:

Avery thinks he's pretty cool with Chris' sun glasses:

After the graduation, there was a big BBQ party for Logan.
Here's Chris, being Chris (YouTube, PureVolume), in the middle of a game:

The kids had a lot of fun with silly string. Chloe managed to spray herself.

Carson trying to spray himself, but just couldn't get the button pushed.

I think Avery was mad because we wouldn't let him have
any more silly string, but Chris' imitation was very funny.

Emmett hung out with Julia a lot

Cameron gives Carson instructions:

The attempt:

Assisted success!

The Grandkid Train, by age: MaKenna, Sarah, Julia,
Jenna, Cameron, Chris, Morgan, Laurie, Cyndi.

Grand & Great-grandkids, *mostly by age: Emmett, Avery, Chloe, MaKenna, Sarah,
Aaron, Julia, Logan, Jenna, Cameron, Chris, Morgan, *Jace, *Carson, Laurie, Cyndi

Del, my Dad and Mom were funny sharing a plate, they actually
wanted a picture of them taking a bite simultaneously.

That evening, back at Grandma Cabe's, Avery and Cameron went for a walk
where Avery enjoyed bashing dead trees and sticks with a wooden bat.

On Sunday, we all went to church with Grandma. Quiet Sister Cabe with all those people!

After church everyone enjoyed playing with some remote control trucks my
parents bought for Avery and Carson. Carson's favorite was being a bridge:

I don't know where the hat came from, but next
thing I knew Chris was creating Gangsta Avery:

Here's some video of it. For another funny Chris
influence on Avery, go HERE for another video of them.


Then we took the party to Grandpa Cabe and Great Uncles Albert and Charlie. You can spot
Avery on his knees there at Grandpa Cabe's headstone. Avery was facinated with the place.
Crazy Chris and Jenna

Back at Grandma's we took some pictures. Here's the whole gang:

Attempting a family picture with Great-Grandma Cabe:
A lot of pictures were taken on that step and Avery was trying to avoid it like
the plague. Then the chocolate chip cookies I made were brought out and we
couldn't get him to move. Classic "Don't bug me when I have cookies" syndrome.

Sarah, Mmm Cookies!

After pictures, the kids headed out back to play.
Carson was really not sure about the tall grass:

Sandbox time!

Avery couldn't get enough of digging and burying:

That was our last evening with the Cabe's and we had to say goodbye. The next
morning, Morgan came over with Chloe and Jace to say a last goodbye. I didn't
take this picture, so I barely just noticed Carson peeking through the chair!

Then it was time to drive home. At one point Avery
had to have me take his picture hugging Monkey.

What a great visit, I'm so glad we all got to get together!