Washington Park

One of our favorite things to do during summer vacation was to pack a picnic and spend the afternoon at the zoo or Washington Park.  We would usually start at the zoo and ride the train to the park to have lunch at the amphitheater or rose gardens (Noah's favorite).

Zoo Train!

Hanging at the Rose Gardens!

We can't pass up snow cones!
(this was actually the first time they ever had snow cones)
Noah carefully ate his entire snow cone without
loosing a single drop of it and Silas
basically needed to be hosed off when he was done :)

Resort @ The Mountain

Ryan and I had our annual weekend escape to the mountain for our anniversary again this year.  We decided to check out some of the local spots which included a good hike to Ramona Falls and then had an amazing night out at Skyway Bar & Grills annual Crawfish Festival - YUMMY!!

Ramona Falls

This is never good...
Skyway has an amazing homemade vodka selection :)
(even bacon vodka)

Not a bad way to spend a weekend :)

I loved the meat sign at Skyway!!

Evergreen

** I am really going to work on getting caught up (again) so things are going to be a little outdated for a bit, I actually started this post right after we went to the museum back on June 3rd but the entire summer seems to have passed since then, oops **

Noah has been asking for the past few months to check out the space museum so we took advantage of a free Sunday a couple weekends ago and had an overdue space museum date :)  Evergreen did not disappoint, Noah's mind was blown before we even stepped in the doors!!!  We had a nice picnic lunch and milkshakes at the Cosmo Cafe, needless to say he is begging to go back!

Seriously!  The space shuttle :)

All the seating around the museum is old airplane seats.  Noah
figured out how to work the seat belts and then informed me
that he is ready to go in a real airplane now and that trip
should be to Disneyland :)

The Spruce Goose

Walking into the Spruce Goose

One of the volunteers gave Noah a pretty cool paper
plane.  All the little old men that work here
are so friendly and full of information.  

Inside the jet engine tube!

"My favorite planet"
Right after I took this picture he ran straight into that
metal rail (which I am guessing is to keep you off the planets)
and smacked his head so hard I thought we were going to have
to leave.  Luckily he pulled it together and we finished
our trip with a giant goose-egg on the top of his head :(

The Titan II 

The Gemini Spacecraft

You can walk down underneath the Titan II to
check out the boosters, I think it was about three
floors down.  Noah was not a fan, it kept making
loud hissing noises like it was starting up
or something and I think it scared him a little bit...

Looking up at it from the bottom, it is amazing
how huge these things are!

Moon buggy!

This was a lunar landing simulator, Noah
did way better than I did :)

Pressurized rocket launch pad!

"Am I taller than the astronaut?"

Playing on the museum's playground!

My Booga!!!

Family Movie Night

Over the past few months we have started doing family movie night about once a month.  So far we have watched The Lorax, Swiss Family Robinson and Peter Pan!  These pictures are from our first one over summer break.  Our original plan is that we would turn the living room into a giant bed and all have a sleep over down there but both boys asked to go to their beds, which was totally fine with us and our achy backs :)  We make lots of popcorn with some root beer on the side, needless to say it is a pretty big deal around here!!

Do we have enough snuggles, pillows and blankets???

I love that he is holding the movie case!

Jake watched too!

Day Trip

At the beginning of the summer my grandma had told me how much fun she and her sisters had visiting Bonneville and the fish farms up on the Columbia Gorge so of course I added it to our summer to do list immediately :)  We packed a giant picnic lunch, lots of snacks and headed up the gorge to see what we could find!  The dam was pretty amazing, I did not realize how huge it was and we got to go down under the fish ladders to watch the fish swim by.  Apparently we missed the busiest fish time by a couple weeks but we still got to see a few go by which was pretty cool.  After checking out everything at Bonneville we went down the street to an awesome park that they had just built with a giant play structure and picnic area which we had entirely to ourselves!  After lunch and some playground time we headed over to the Bonneville Hatchery across the way.   We saw lots of GIANT sturgeon and tiny baby trout and the boys loved feeding the fish (I think they would have stood there throwing food all day if I would have kept giving them quarters).  Our final stop was Multnomah Falls for a little hike and dessert :)  I had not been in several years and I think that out of all the cool stuff we did they were most excited to see a real waterfall.  The only bummer is that it was PACKED, I mean like hard to walk around packed.  I can't imagine what that place must be like on a weekend...  Anyway, we hiked half way up the falls and the boys had two of the biggest popsicles that I have ever seen in my life and then they immediately passed out in the car on the way home :)
Super fun day!!!

Steering the "ship"

Watching the fish swim by on the ladder
at Bonneville!

The fish ladder, I found this very fascinating!

This is as close as you can get to the dam, it is so huge!!!

Feeding the fish!

Cheese!!!!!!!!

They loved the fish arrows around the hatchery!

"I think this fish is bigger than me!"

Playing in the creek at Multnomah Falls

I think they would have hiked all the way to the
top if I would have let them keep going.  

Cheese!

Checking the map at the hatchery!

Seriously huge Popsicles...

The Fair

Here are a few pictures from our first ever family trip to the Washington County Fair!  It was SUPER hot and we were not sure what to expect but we ended up having a blast and were there for like 4 or 5 hours (maybe more).  The boys wanted to ride on every single ride and play every single game.  We had a lunch that consisted of elephant ears, cotton candy and snow cones (we probably deserve some kind of parents of the year award for our healthy choices :)

Sheriff Noah

And Deputy Silas :)

Noah and I at the top of the ferris wheel!

Oaks Park

At the beginning of the summer the boys and I made a list of all the fun things we were going to do over summer vacation.  One of those things was Oaks Park!!!  I used to go there when I was growing up (mostly to roller skate) but have lots of memories of the park in general.  We met Sara and Atreus there and had a crazy, fun filled day!  I think we rode almost every ride in the park some of them many times.  Noah LOVED the Tilt-a-Whirl, I think we ended up riding it like 6 times.  It is a miracle I did not loose my lunch, I really took one for the team by going on those crazy spinning rides...  We ended the day with some amusement park fried food and ICEEs, can't go wrong there :)

Ready to drive!

They loved the motorcycles!

There are fun "picture holes" all over the park , the
boys thought these were hilarious!
(I'm not sure what the proper term for these are)

Tilt-a-whirl - again

More motorcycle riding!

Silas was not too sure about the carousel.

Cheese!!!!

All three boys on the Frog Hopper!

1st ever carousel ride!

The boys and I on the train!