Made with Love

Busily making beautiful beaded jewelry for Auntie Meg's birthday.

Kindergarten Orientation

The Tomato Bandit Strikes Again….

This is pretty much her own person tomato jungle (with a few herbs thrown in here and there).

Veggies!

We are LOVING our CSA share from Springdell Farm this summer!!!

Playdate on a Party Boat!

Good times with friends exploring Forge Pond from a boat, instead of the beach.  :-)

Happy Birthday, Natalie & Juliette!

Reunited

And making the most of these last days of summer!

Almost Home

He's gotten a little more capable, since our last trip to the West Coast!  Pretty soon he'll be pulling the big one.  :-)

Last Night

Many thanks to Nan & Pop for a wonderful and memorable visit!  Miss you all already!! xoxoxo

Pop & Nan and all their grand-monkeys.

We'll let the last picture of this twosome (in their matching side braids) be a happy one, as it was a tearful goodbye for Brienne at the end of the night.  We'll have to get better at Skyping a little more often than we do with the Giebelhaus Clan.  

Around Town

This morning we did the geeky tourist thing and schlepped around the Old Mill District in a surrey.  It was totally fun, but next time Aiden & Bree will hopefully be old enough (aka, tall enough) to help with the pedaling.  These kiddos aren't light-weights anymore!!

Elk Lake

Our second adventure of the day was a late afternoon visit to Elk Lake.  Jahla's riding one of the many floating logs in the pic below.  Who needs a noodle, with all the floating logs around here?!?

Yes, that's snow on the mountain.  And that's Daddy & Aiden on a rock climbing expedition.

We stopped at The Lodge at Elk Lake for a bite to eat before heading back to Nan & Pop's for the night.  A highlight of this stop was climbing on the giant Elk in front of the lodge.

Lucky Lake

One of today's adventures was a hike to Lucky Lake.  We parked the cars, and huffed it on foot up a scenic trail leading to the lake.  The kids were absolute troupers, and managed to make it the entire way there and back with relatively little grumbling. 

Nice belly, Bree….

And back down the mountain we go!

Gouldson - Douglas Reunion

The "whole gang" had actually been together for the duration of our camping trip (Kathleen, Oden & Iain traveling from Portland, Alison & Thomas from Seattle and Doreen & John from Bluebell, PA).  We finally got a group photo once we were back in Bend.  Thank you for hosting us, Kelly & Michael!

The "Big Kids"

And the "Little Kid"  xoxoxo

Suttle Lake Swim

After departing our campsite, but before headed back to Bend, most of us headed over to the day area at Suttle Lake to enjoy some final swimming.  I finally submerged myself in the icy cold waters, but merely to cleanse the sweat of my body from my morning run.  Brienne was very disappointed that I wasn't up for a leisurely swim and water play with her.  Brrrrrr!!!!!

Last Morning at Scout Lake

The Mommies went for an amazing run around neighboring Suttle Lake this morning.  Beautiful scenery, great workout, and excellent company!  Something to remember for years to come.  :-)

Hanging out in the "Girl Fort."

Back at the Campsite...

Aiden & Iain busied themselves making forts.  There was a "boy fort" and a "girl fort" that they built into the roots of 2 enormous fallen trees.  I think the one pictured below was actually the girl version, but the boys pitched in with the construction.

Bree gets a hula-hooping lesson from Alison.  

If the campfire is too hot, you can always toast marshmallows over your shoulder….

A very dirty princess.

Sticking to a bedtime schedule was a little tough when all the adults were sitting around the campfire still having fun six feet away from where the kiddos were supposed to be sleeping.  So, we relaxed our rules a bit, and let the kids stay up late.  Although the pictures didn't come out great, we enjoyed watching Alison and Auntie Kelly strut their stuff with the illuminated hula-hoops and poi.  It was quite a show!

Brrrr!!!

When we explored this lake yesterday, it looked like a small puddle of mud.  We didn't actually expect to be swimming in it today.  Well….truthfully, I didn't swim.  This was the coldest puddle ever!  Most of the lakes in this part of Oregon are the result of snow melt.  The high temperatures during the days definitely don't win out over the cold nights when it comes to warming up the  water.  The temps were warm enough for most of the kids, and *some* of the adults (myself NOT included).

Jahla & Bree didn't even wait to get their swimsuits on.  The moms took a morning walk, and next thing ya know, these two are in their underwear!

There were lots of floating logs all over Scout Lake, which provided much entertainment for those brave enough to tolerate the cold later in the day.

Aiden preferred playing in the sand.  Can't say I blame him…..

Water babies warming up…..

…..and then cooling down again with popsicles back at the campsite.