Enchanted Forest

Last month was Nick's birthday. For a while now he has wanted to go to the Enchanted Forest just south of Salem, Oregon. As a birthday treat at his suggestion, we went up to Portland on Saturday, spent the night there, then drove down to the Enchanted Forest for a few hours of birthday fun before driving home. This place is perfect for young children and all 3 had so much fun. It also made for an easy drive back home as they were all so worn out they mostly slept. Here are photos from the day!

Enjoying Lunch

First Taste of Guns

Pip and Will in the White Cage

Oliver loved the Bumper Boats!

A Magical Train Ride

Frog Hopper was the favorite I think!

Park Mascot?!?

Pippa Live at the Improv

Pippa got a new joke book on our most recent trip to Portland (thanks, Powell's Bookstore!). Here she is trying out some new material before taking the act on the road. Note: none of these jokes actually come from the joke book.

Camping!

In mid-July we took a short trip to the KOA Astoria/Hammond and stayed in a Kamping Kabin. It had 2 bunk beds in the back room and a double bed up front. It was very basic and reminded me how hard it is to camp with 3 small children. We spent a lot of the time at the beach just playing in the sand and jumping the waves. It was pretty cool and misty at the coast, but much fun was had!

Dee Wright Observatory

In July we visited the Dee Wright Observatory. It's about an hour away from us and it's built in all the lava fields. It's pretty random, but there are great views of all the different mountains surrounding us

July 4th!

Okay, so I know it's September already, but we had such a fun Summer and I figured it's about time I caught up with posting photos on our blog! We got to do lots of cool things with the kids and because there is so much, I have to break it down into several posts.

On July 4th was the Bend Pet Parade. We went to watch and it was fun. We saw the flying dog, and lots of dogs not flying, many wagons and bikes, and lots of people. William got sick later that day, so in hindsight his miserable fed-up look and lack of excitement was for a good reason.

At the end of the day, Aunt Jess and I took Pippa out to see the super-fabulous fireworks on Pilot Butte. They didn't start until 10pm and Pippa had a tough time staying awake, but alas she made it and loved the fireworks!

First Day of School + A Lesson in Tolerance

Nick here. It was the first day of school last week and I took care of the Reese family tradition of taking photos of the kids outside the front door before sending them off to school.

William, nervous about his first day at the 3's class.
"What if they eat crayons different than the way I eat crayons?"

Pippa, ready to start her first day of pre-K.
"Don't worry, whether it's blue, orange, purple or yellow, it all comes out the same color."

"You're right, Pip. No matter what our skin color, our religions, our political leanings or the way we consume Crayolas, we're all the same on the inside. That is to say, filled with wax."

Sniff, sniff, they grow up so fast!

School itself has gone well. Pippa has taken to it like a sparkly unicorn at an all-you-can-eat magic jellybean buffet, making friends, doing art, singing songs and basically laying out her case for pre-K Prom Queen. William, out in the world on his own for the first time without a big sister to boss him around or take his toys or boss him around some more, has been a bit more reserved, content to sit back and observe and figure out the angles. He's a bit shy with the teachers and other kids and prefers to just play with toys, but then again, that sounds like a good way to spend a few hours, so you can hardly blame him. Hopefully once the novelty of the train table wears off he'll start interacting with others a bit more. But then if you know how Will likes trains, that could be a while yet.

It's a dolphin!

'Look, it's a dolphin!' said William as he ran over holding a sandwich he had nibbled into the recognizable shape of a dolphin. It made me smile for several reasons; one being that he noticed his sandwich looked like a dolphin and another that he is talking full sentences of independent thoughts. I had to take a picture!

Look, the one on the right looks like a dolphin!

Anyway, it's Labor Day weekend so we decided to do a small day trip out to Newberry Caldera before the weather turns snowy. It was fun to finally go see the crater and the big obsidian flow. The obsidian is so black and shiny and the kids got to climb over and collect lots of rocks. We went and got an ice cream treat at one of the campground shops and ate them overlooking Paulina Lake. It was a fun day and only a 30 min drive from home!

View of Paulina Lake

Reading the sign

Roarrrrr, I'm a bear in my cave...