Labor Day at the Beech!

We went to the beech on Labor day this year with our friends, the Zukerans.

It was layed back, and relaxing, and a much needed break. 

I loved just getting out of the city and enjoying new scenery and a slower pace for a day.

 

 

Haystack rock is where we hung out for most of the day.

 

 

It was, of course, pretty windy so it was nice the beech had these blue partitions.

It kept the wind annoyance down to just play in the sand right next to one of these beauties.

Both families brought a few sand toys that kept the kids busy for quite awhile.

We also enjoyed a little hot dog cookout on the beech.

(Or maybe a big hot dog cookout, seeing how it was way late for lunch and every single one of us was starving!)

 

It's hard to beat playing in the waves with your family, and watching them enjoy themselves so much.

 

Here are the Zukerans.

We sure love that family!

 

 

How adorable!!

I love this simple picture of the kids running around each other!

 

 

 

Cohen really liked the idea of being buried in the sand.  He lasted about 5 or 10 minutes in there.  I was impressed, but Makena on the other hand, lasted probably 30 minutes!

 

We spent a little time walking on the main road just above the beech, just enjoying what we could see.

Most of the shops were closed because it was Labor day.

 

We ended up at Mo's Dinner (I think that was the name....) for a great dinner with a great view.

We totally forgot to put on sunscreen.  I blame the cool breeze and fairly cloudy skies.

Josh and I both got pretty sunburned.  See my arm?

Amazingly, both of our boys got just a little pink, and it was gone the next day.

I guess God was watching over their poor little skin, because their parents didn't!

 

 

A two hour drive (unless you have to pass an accident like we did....) to the beech is something I am going to miss about living here in Oregon.

more from August

 

We did two weeks of swimming lessons in August, and it was sure thrilling,

but not for the usual reasons.

Remember last year? 

Swimming lessons ran for 2 weeks of Monday through Friday.

 

Cohen was in the same class level as last year, and we worked it out for him to be with his two little girl friends in the same class again.

This means the two other moms I know, Monica and Brandy, were there with their kids too.

I was sure thankful!

Cohen did great and loves the water.  He's still working on letting his air out nice and slow while he's under, but he's doing great.

 



 

Thanks to grandpa we were also able to sign up Parker for swim lessons!

Yay!

Since Parker is only one, he goes in with a Parent, which was me almost every day.

Josh filled in one day for fun, when his class was cancelled.

That was a nice surprise. 

 

Ok, I'll put it bluntly, swimming lessons were REALLY hard this year!

Just getting the boys and I ready to get into the pool together after scarfing down "free lunch in the park" was a challenge. Then, Parker was terrified of everyone around him and cried and/or clinged to me during the entire lesson. Then, we had to all get out of the pool dry off, get changed, try not to cry our eyes out due to lack of food, nap time, those silly rules not to fall into the pool, etc, all while trying to keep track of each other, the stroller, our bags, lunch, purse, etc.

Oh, man.

 

This is why I was so thankful that Josh came along one day!

 

Also, I'm so thankful for Monica and Brandy for helping out with my kids here and there in the middle of the mayhem.

Whew, swimming is good, we got tans, the boys had fun, used up our energy, and we made it!

 

 

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In the middle of all this, we dealt with some sickness.

Poor Parker got impetigo.

Can you see the residual red marks on his face?

He had some form of it for a month and a half.

So, he went through two rounds of antibiotics, and an ointment to get rid of it, and had to miss a few days of swimming.

 

So now if you think I'm terrible, cranky, and pessimistic, just check out the last post.

My life is really happy, and I'm happy in it.

Sometimes I just get thrown a little issue or two and have to muddle through it.

Besides, aren't my boys cute?

Try to make the best of every day!

 

Who knew it stopped raining in August?

 

We tried to get out and enjoy August as much as we could, especially since the weather was so nice.

It was such a cute brother moment when the boys decided they wanted to run around on the deck in their spider-man water outfits playing squirt guns.

They were both giggling and having a blast!

 

 

Sometimes Cohen just needs a nap.

You'll never find Josh complaining if it happens like this!

 

We made it to a health and wellness fair held on the hospital grounds.

I was a happy mom to be able to get fit for helmets and buy each one for $5!

 

Parker slept in the stroller most of the time, which was a little too bad because he would have loved all this cool boy stuff!

 

Cohen in the fire truck.

He was so cute because he had so many questions for the fire fighters, and you could tell he was just soaking it all up.

 

They also had a little soccer area.

He was in Heaven!

He has never played with a real goal like this or had instruction from anyone besides Josh and I.

This mini private lesson was seriously a dream come true for him.

 

Josh was beaming because Cohen did so well, and the coach told him to register our 3 year old Cohen with the 5 to 6 year old boys.

Another day, another festival.

Luckily, in Portland there is always some kind of festival going on for us folk who are just itching for something different to do.

 

We went off to the Italian Festival one Saturday afternoon when experiencing one of those itches.

 

Ducati motorcycles.  Cool.

Do you like these, John?

 



We all watched part of a live puppet show that was a bit of a spoof on Cinderella.

The boys were fascinated.



Then of course, we had to get some authentic Italian cuisine.

Delicious.

On another day we found ourselves at Blue Lake Park on the splash pad.

The boys were timid at first, especially Parker, but after I ran around with them, they fell in love with it.

These were all happy August moments. 

I simply love spending time together as a family.

my new found friend

So, you know how I really, super duper, like snow cones.....?

 

I found this beauty brand new (in the original packaging and all) for $5 at the Goodwill and couldn't resist!

 

 

So, it's Jelly Belly brand, a little weird, but I get snow cones, so it's ok.

The boys are loving my find too.

 



 

Parker liked it even more than Cohen, I think.

 

 

This is one happy mommy.

Did Cohen break his foot/ankle?

 

Thankfully, he didn't break it!

 

Cohen had a normal Cohen moment of jumping off our couch and landing at least 5 feet forward, but this time he landed wrong.

 

The poor thing couldn't put weight on it for several days.

 

I took him to the ER (was 15 minutes too late for the instacare of course) and a couple hours later we were sent home with him in a splint.

They thought it wasn't broken, but weren't 100% sure.

The orders were to put no weight on it for 1 week, which meant Cohen had to crawl.

 

I was amazed at his strength and ability to get around this way.  He pulled himself onto high kitchen chairs with arm strength and bolted around the house on his hands and knees.

He didn't let this thing stop him, and wanted to play baseball in the house, kneeling, the next day.  I played along, and we had a fun time.  It's not like we could go many places, so we had to make the best of our house.

 

If you know Cohen, you know there is absolutely no way I or anyone else could actually get him to stay down, and take it easy for more than a couple of hours at best, let alone a week!

 

 

Waiting for his x-ray.

Cotton wrap under the splint.



He looks so happy here! Trust me, when the nurse had me hold his foot in the flexed position while the hard splint set, he was NOT happy!

That first night's sleep was a bit of a nightmare.  He was in a lot of pain and discomfort, and there was lots of crying.  Poor little guy.  We rewrapped that splint a couple times to help.  I'm glad it's over!

 

The splint lasted almost a week, before he was ripping it off faster than I could put it back on him.  At about a week he was walking on it fairly normally, and a few weeks later he had no obvious issues with it.

He was trilled when the specialist we went to told him he could run again, but tried to understand that he couldn't jump from high places for probably at least another month.

I guess jumping off of Parker's crib is out of the question for Cohen!

Maybe since the doctor said it this time it will stick a little better than when I say it.... do you think?