More Fun Things

Well, my brain is still in May. As I look back through the pictures I am a little caught off guard. I had forgotten how much fun we had! Look at Cohen's face here! There's no doubt he was having a good time. This is the first time we took Cohen bowling. We were able to go with another little family, the Hymas's, in the ward on a coupon. Yay!

Daddy showed Cohen the ropes. The funny thing is that he got a bowling set for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa. Only after we went bowling together did the game finally click for him.

Honestly, I can't believe how SLOWLY the ball rolled down the lane whenever Cohen bowled. No wonder he lost interest by the time the ball got to the end to potentially knock pins down.

As seen here, Parker thinks Cohen is a hoot.

On another day, we went up to Vancouver, Washington (only a 20 minute drive) to see the Pearson Air Museum. They were having a special day where they let the kids sit inside some of the planes on display. If Cohen were 8 he could have gone on a free plane ride! We'll probably never be back here at the right time for that to happen, but it sure is a cool concept.
I really don't know about Cohen's face in this picture....

He thought he was so cool.

So here he is in an actual old airplane. They had the whole set up for him too. He thought it was pretty neat.

I'd just like to document that Parker was with us too, strapped to my front. I'm sure he had a fine time there.

This is the second plane he got to sit in. It was a little bigger. Now I'm thinking I should have found out what kind of planes these were so I could tell the story better. Could-a, should-a, would-a. Oh well.

This is where the kids went to meet up with a pilot to take them on a ride. Cohen really wanted to go!

Nature Fair at the Park with Dad

So, way back in May we (even daddy!) went to a Nature Fair at a local botanical garden. We try to get out and do something as a family one time a week. This helps us stay connected to each other and have fun too!

Leach Botanical Garden is a beautiful place. I hope to go back again soon, so I can really explore the place. Our trip was fairly quick, and focused on Cohen, so I didn't really get to take in all it had to offer.

To get up to where the fair was being held we got to walk up this windy trail with beauty all around us. We actually got lost on the way up. :)


There were lots of booths all having to do with nature in some way. At this one, Cohen got to plant a little plant in a planter (that sure sounds funny) and take it home. It initially went through some shock, and I thought it wouldn't survive, but now it's nearly August and it's thriving on our balcony. Cohen's favorite part about this was digging in the dirt, of course.


Ice cream for 25 cents. Wow! Even though it was a little chilly, we couldn't resist letting Cohen have some.

One of the boothes had skulls from local wild animals. Hooray, this means Josh had fun too! He was interested in how the boney structures of the skull in animals differ or resemble the human skull. He's in school studying the human body.... can you blame him?

So then, he just had to teach the ice cream licking Cohen all about it. Parker's taking it all in too, I'm sure of it.

He got to make a pine cone animal. Fun. He still has tiny little plastic bugs from this event.

What a nice stranger to take our picture for us.

Then, back down the path to the parking lot. When I looked up this is what I saw. It's beautiful, isn't it?! When people ask me how I like Oregon, I say it's beautiful. It really is. I love it. (This is also an attempt to avoid being negative about the rain!)

Fun path!

The fair hosted a little band while we were there. Cohen loved this part the most by far. We stopped to go back the band between everything we did. My little Cohen loves music, and dancing, and banjos, and guitars, etc. This is normal for me, but perhaps weird for other people.

Parker today

So, I sure have a lot to catch up on.... but I'll think about that later. :) I took this video of Parker today and just can't get over it. We just started to hear him babel about a day ago. It sounds like "mama" sometimes. I love it. He seems to only do it when he's mildly upset, but I'm sure that will change.

"Outings"

I feel a bit like Mary Poppins or something. I love to take the children on "outings." For some reason it just hit me that's what's going on. I love outings to the park, train stuff, airplane stuff, any kind of museum, cultural events, music, races, etc. I especially like them when they're free! I have never been one to just be happy sitting at home, but now that I have a cute little Cohen who is like a sponge and his adorable little brother too, I just have to get out of the house and teach him a thing or two. I love to teach Cohen how things around us work and function. It's amazing how excited he gets about things. One aspect from one outing can turn into pretend games for a week, or checking books out about it at the library, or at least multiple conversations with me about our outing.

I really want to start some kind of low-key preschool or learning program with Cohen. We would both benefit; I feel like I've already got a good start because I'm always making sure he's learning something.... even if it's not working on letters or numbers. (Trust me we need to work on letters and numbers too.)



So here are some outings we've been on lately.

Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden

This squirrel wanted to eat our lunch. He was not shy in the slightest.
Just beautiful. I posted about this place last year too. I just can't get over how wonderful it is.

Cohen in mid jump. He is a very active child to say the least. Everyone who sees him now, whether I know them or not, tells me this.

Parker comes on our outings too, usually like this.

This time we had Bridger, Aspen, Kaleb, and Cohen. I love the moms, Sabrina and Amber.

There was a big grassy area where geese and there goslings were doing there thing. It was so cute, and everyone wanted to go up to them and feed them. Then... the mommy geese thought we were out to kill her kids. Then the mommies of our kids (including me) freaked out a bit as the honking, hissing, and snapping geese chased our small children. Ok, don't feed baby geese, don't even get kind of close.

National Train Day at the Union Station

They had a clown show that Cohen loved. He mostly liked the circus music and just danced like he does, back and forth, until I told him we had to go. He would have kept going forever!

This is some famous steam locomotive. It blew it's whistle while we were really close like this.... it was VERY loud. Mind you, I live right next to a freight train. We didn't tour this train because the line was so long, but we got to go on lots of other passenger cars. It was good for Cohen to see what they were like.

I think this is some kind of fix-it train vehicle. They had it out for kids to play on. Cohen got a turn too, but I couldn't snap a good picture.

Troutdale Rail Depot Museum

We have been here before, but this time we took our great friends, Sabrina, Kaleb, and Avery.

cute little Parker

Parker laughs so adorably. Most of this video he's just mesmerized by the black camera that daddy was pointing at us. At least you can catch a glimpse though!

The rest of April

Yes, since it's now technically June, I thought I should finish posting about April. The time sure does fly by. This is a lot of random pictures. Perhaps one day I'll be on top of blogging!
My cute boys in matching Sunday outfits... thanks to Grandpa!

This is Parker playing in his crib while getting Cohen ready one morning. We would sit him in this bobby pillow all the time, and I think it taught him quickly how to sit well on his own. Amazing how he already loves trucks.
My little dare-devil Cohen. This is no big deal to him.

When daddy gets home from school everyone wants his attention. (I promise Cohen usually has pants on.) He was telling us about his vienapuncture lab this day. In other words... every week he gets stuck with a needle and he sticks someone else too to draw blood.



One night when I went in to check on Cohen before I went to bed this is what I found. Cohen in Parker's crib. We hadn't put Parker in it yet to sleep.

Cohen and his great friend Kaleb at the zoo, pretending to be eagles.

Look how this big cat (mountain lion...? I forgot!) is sitting on the branch. It's kind of funny to me.

This tractor is at the zoo. I think Cohen and Kaleb should have the farm taken care of.

By the way, one of Cohen's favorite animals at the zoo was the chickens. Hmmm. His other favorite is the elephants. I guess that's pretty normal.

I wasn't watching Cohen, but he came and got me one day and showed this to me in his room. He told me he "did it right!" To his credit, we no longer have Mr. Potato Head's eyes and one of the ears. I was proud of him, even though it looks a little like Pablo Picasso's work.

Parker LOVES our cat Rusty. This is him enthralled with him on the bed.

Easter Baskets. We were so lucky to have Jessie and Robbie come down to visit us on Easter weekend. Really amazing. They sent us out on a date! No kids! Wow! That was almost the first date we've had since Parker was born. And then they made us a wonderful breakfast the next morning. What a treat. I'm such a nice hostess... aren't I?

Oh, I made those little bunnies in their baskets. I like them more than the boys do. Figures.

aww, cute.

The Easter Bunny got Cohen a Mickey Mouse clubhouse (education dvd) show and a mickey doll. He had never seen it before, but now he's a mickey mouse fan to say the least.

Both Parker AND Cohen liked Parker's gifts from the Easter Bunny.

This is a huge supposedly chocolate flavored-sugar coated-marshmallow- lolly pop. One of my ideas to have Cohen stay absolutely dry in the underwear all day. If you know Cohen, you know he loved this thing. I had a tiny taste.... it was disgusting.

Thanks for coming to check us out!