Springtime Play

 Anniversary Roses

Sixteen Springs ago, James & I were married.  We just celebrated our anniversary.  Our wonderful friends (that we met just months after we were married) watched the kids for us, so we could go out to lunch and enjoy a quiet hike in the forest.  Then we were able to hang out with our dear friends.  It had been too long since we'd done that. 

Then our sunny, warm Spring quickly turned into a rainy, cold Spring.  Okay, there were really just a few days of sun, but we enjoyed them.  

We've been to a few parks since we've been in our new town, while the weather held out, that is.  

This park is just blocks from our house. 

 When the weather turns sunny again, we can walk to this park.

Logan being silly again.  He loves to give me these goofy faces when he knows I want to take a picture.  Then he wants to see the picture of course, so he can laugh at himself.  What a goof ball!  I love him!

And there's Taylor.  She always just freezes and smiles really big, when she knows I want a picture. What a sweetie!  I just love her so much too!

Here's another park we found.  The kids enjoy going to new parks, but they really don't care where they go as long as they get a chance to run and play outside. 

And I love seeing them happy and having fun. 

This week is Spring Break.  There's only been one day of sunshine so far.  So, with that, our parks were pretty full of children on that sunny day.

So, ironically, we found a quiet place to play... at a school's playground.   I guess most kids aren't interested in being anywhere near school this week.  

My children think Spring Break is only for college students though.  Since James is working, we're just treating it like any other week.  Besides, the kids get several days off school every time we move, which, this year, is often.  

Taylor loves doing workbooks for school.  So we decided to go back to that for awhile and she just started it this week.  She very excited about it.  She's most excited about learning to write in cursive, the section on maps and the stickers at the back of the book that say things such as, "Great!" and "Good Job!"   

As long as she's happy and excited to do school, I'm happy.  She loves to learn and read.  I don't usually have a problem getting her to do schoolwork.    

Logan's latest thing is doing "double school" one day, so he doesn't have to do school at all the next day.  (I'm thinking, if he can do "double school" so easily, I'm not expecting enough from him).  I think I need to revamp what's required in a single school day!  

Well, Happy Spring, everyone!  Hope all is going well for you!

Silver Falls State Park

We went on a little hike Saturday.  The weather was nice and we were excited for our first real hike of the year!  

We went to Silver Falls State Park.  It's not too far a drive from where we live and is known for it's many waterfalls.  It has about 10 miles of hiking trails.  It will take multiple trips for us to explore them all.  Sounds like a good goal to me!

Much of yesterday's trail reminded me of the Hoe Rainforest in the Olympic Peninsula that we visited last summer.  It was so wet at this spot that water was dripping off the branches and plants above us.  That's why the kids' hoods are up, not because it was actually raining.  

After not many minutes, we came to our first large water fall, North Falls.  We started above it, 

then wound our way down to be in front of it.  

Then we were able to walk right next to it,  

and then behind it!  Taylor said it was "a dream come true," to walk behind a waterfall.  Both kids thought it was the neatest thing ever. 

A shot as we were walking back out from behind North Falls.  

And one last look down at North Falls, as the trail starts to climb away. 

The trail followed the river much of the time.  It wound down the canyon and back out, so there was a bit of climbing.  None of it was too steep though.

One of the small, cute, little waterfalls near the trail.  It's so beautiful here, I just couldn't stop taking pictures for the first 15 minutes or so. 
 

We crossed the river again, this time we used a bridge, nothing as exciting as going behind a waterfall. 

Our 2nd large waterfall was called, Twin Falls.  

We hiked a loop that was right at 4 miles.  At one point we could look across the canyon and see our old friend, North Falls.  We could also hear it quite well, at that spot.  The roaring water sound just carried through the air, uninterrupted.  

We had a great hike and day together as a family.  Can't wait to do it again.

Welcome to Oregon

The day we moved to our new town, we went to lunch at a local McDonald's.  (We still hadn't unpacked any boxes yet). 

The kids saw this on the wall of the restaurant.  They thought it was funny because, although we'd just moved here that day, we weren't moving from out of state.  "We were already living in Oregon!"  they said.  

On our walk this morning Logan spotted this humming bird on a budding tree.  We were able to watch it for a few minutes.  How often do you see a humming bird being still?!?  Like, never!  

There are also Canadian Geese here.  I think this is a favorite location for them.  They fly right over our apartment complex, multiple times a day.  We see them in small groups of 10-12 on any grassy patch of land, even near busy highways.  There are dozens on any body of water around here.  

I think we have more Canadian Geese than Canada.  At first it was kind of cool, now it's just kind of annoying.  Their honking is quite loud.  I much prefer the roar of the military jets we heard in Oak Harbor.  Now that's a cool sound.  

Honk, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk...

Yeah, annoying, right?

Another New Library

We have another new library.  

 First the kids had to check out the Children's area.

And call each other, of course.   

After checking out the place, the kids started checking out the books. 

Logan found "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Magic Tree House" books.  Taylor found "Junie B. Jones" and "Elephant & Piggie" books.   

 

Then of course they had to find a comfortable place to read. 

This large library is great, but it's not technically our library, as we live out of the city limits.  We were able to get guest library cards, which limit the kids to 25 items each and only 1 item at a time for me.  But at least it's free. 

The library that is in our town is small and we haven't been there yet.  We plan on it though.  It would be nice if it had enough books that we don't have to drive 15-20 minutes to the other side of the city to go to the library.  The small library is only about 5 minutes from home.  

And that's all I can think of to tell you all right now.  I'm very tired.  I think it's nap time.  (I wish).