Portland Fountains

When I was in elementary school I remember going to Portland to see the fountains and being able to play in them. It was a fun field trip. I thought it'd be fun to take the kids. I was going to do it myself while Nick was at work during the week, but he decided he wanted to come with us so we went today! :-)

We drove to the Expo Center and parked and got on Max and rode it the last stop at PSU. Then we did a walking tour with a map I printed off to see a bunch of the fountains. Some were just to look at, but the other ones were where lots of people go and play in them (even though there's a sign saying you're not supposed to...oh-well) Then we rode Max back to our car and came home. It was really a lot of fun and the kids loved playing in the fountains and getting wet. They didn't even mind wearing their wet clothes all the way home! (mental note: bring a towel next time)

On Max

fountain #1

Fountain #2

Fountain #3

Fountain #4...finally one to play in! :-)

Fountain #5

Fountain #6-another one to play in...and boy was it BUSY...so many people "swimming" and laying out, etc..

We also went to the waterfront fountain #7, but neither kid wanted to play in it! strange..I saved that one for last cause I figured they'd want to play there the longest! I didn't get any pictures either...oh-well

Then we walked back the Pioneer Courthouse Square (fountain #8) to wait for our Max train back to our car. FUN day!! :-)

Yesterday I was really tired so I took a little nap on our couch. I woke up a bit later to itch my arm. And then again woke up to itch my arm. Later I kept waking up to itch my neck--over and over and over again. then finally woke up cause next to my mouth was all itchy. I finally said screw it and I woke up...but my arm, neck and face were itching so bad...I went to the bathroom to see what was going on with my face and I was covered in mosquito bites! Grrr. I had 1 big bite on my left arm, 4 on my neck and 2 on my face. Stupid mosquitoes!! And this is one of the main reasons why I don't go camping!! I was in my house for goodness sake. Sheesh!!!

On the 28th Nick sent me a text letting me know he cut his finger at work and was heading to the hospital. He didn't sound panicked, so I didn't panic but I was definitely concerned since I didn't know the extent of the cut.

He was simply throwing away a piece of scrap metal at work, but it was oily and it slipped out of his hand and somehow cut through his glove and cut open his Left ring finger. It's pretty deep and required 3 stitches. Nick said you could "see the meat" in his finger. gross. I'm SO glad it wasn't worse and so glad that aside from the annoyance of not being able to use his finger, he's doing just fine and will recover fully. He gets his stitches out on Friday.

In Utah, Nick's cousin Lindsey would color my hair. She always did such a great job!! I miss her... but, she gave me advice on buying hair color at Sally's and how to do it. I was stressed out to do it since I haven't done my own hair color in 4 years and there was so much growth since I had it colored last...But I did it...and aside from a little brassiness, I think it turned out pretty good.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Preston and his new friend Seth playing Mario Cart Wii. We love this boy...he's a good friend to Preston and he's SO polite and kind. They are a good friend-match. :-)

The kids like pointing out "Wii cars" and one parked next to us so I took a picture of them next to it.

Preston got a Yoda tattoo in his happy meal and had to show it off.

On my drive home from work I was following this truck. I loved the sign/picture on the back. It's a tribute to 9-11.

Ashleigh

I've neglected writing about Ashleigh lately. She's so quiet and she's away from home playing so often that I don't have too many opportunities to take pictures of her.

however, I finally snagged her one day. :-)

Here she is doing some fun acrobats on an exercise ball. She was also using the ball to help her stretch farther in her splits. She'd sit on the ball, spread her legs and slide off and land in to a deep split. Pretty impressive.

We also did some hairstyles that I found on Youtube. Ash was a good sport and sat as my model while I practiced them on her. This first one is called a Waterfall Braid.

This one is called "twist back with a messy bun". Ash liked this one the best.

This is the website http://www.cutegirlshairstyles.com/

I'm excited to try out some more! :-)

Random pics...again

Picture of me and Preston while we watched Ashleigh do gymnastics.

The kids in line to get water from the fridge before bed.

Preston has a new trick...

Nick was showing the kids something on the computer. I think it was Angry Birds. Love Finley's smile. (cell phone pic...yup, my phone sucks!)

Yesterday the kids and I went to Burnt Bridge Creek Trail and went for a walk. It was SO hot outside, but this trail is completely covered with big tall trees. It was easily 15 degrees cooler on the trail. The trail is marked at every 1/4 mile which made it fun for the kids to look for the next marker. We probably would have walked farther, but the kids both wore flip-flops....and there were mosquitoes everywhere!!! We all got bit...a lot! but it was fun regardless.

As we were getting ready to leave we heard a train go by which made Preston freak out to go see it. So after getting some directional help from my mom, we made it to the Felida Moorage where there's a nice spot to park and wait for trains to come by. We only waited about 20 min before a train came. It was a short train and it was loud, but the conductor waved to us and it was really cool to be so close to a train. I remember fondly hitching rides on trains in Vancouver and riding them up to Woodland and having my friends come pick me up. Good times.

The happenings lately

Quinn came to visit us a couple weekends ago. It was so great to see her and spend time with her. She was a huge help to us especially on Friday when we had a little medical scare with Preston, and she watched the kids since I had to work at the same time as Nick and then later let me go grocery shopping all alone and watched the kids even longer. She and I had some great heart to heart conversations and she completely doted all of her attention on the kids and let them play games on her new phone. They loved all the attention. Ashleigh, especially was so sad when Quinn went home...it was so sweet and so sad.

Ashleigh doing Quinn's hair for her. :-)

Later Quinn put some make up on Ash. Look at her long eye lashes. I never realized they were so long.

Nick got a new front license plate. It's a black "Don't tread on Me" emblem. Looks pretty good! :-)

We've been telling Ash for a few months that we would get her a new bike. We kept putting it off, but finally her old bike's chain broke and she couldn't ride it anymore so off we went to Toys R us to get her a new bike. I had $15 in gift cards, yay, which helped with the cost of the bigger bikes. While we were there we was Irene from the latest Biggest Loser (she was in the final 3). I was a chicken and didn't ask her for a picture or autograph...but we did follow her for a few minutes in our cars since we both left the store at the same time. ;-)

Ash took the following pictures

We celebrated Independence day on Sunday rather than Monday with our neighbors who were having a big bbq party. The neighbors and I had to work early on Tuesday morning so we didn't see the point in staying up late Monday night doing fireworks only to get up early on Tuesday. It worked out really well and we had a lot of fun!

Nick made a little stand for our fireworks. It worked really well, but then the neighbors and Nick decided to put their big fireworks together so it would be a bigger display for us all to enjoy.

The kids really enjoyed themselves. It was fun watching them light their little fireworks and then run really fast away. Preston especially was hilarious to watch!

This one was Preston's firework...it looked like a silver mushroom but it had the best display and lasted so much longer than other ones that we bought. I think we all liked that one the most.

On the 4th we were busy doing all sorts of random things around the house and Ashleigh asked for cinnamon rolls so she and I set out to make some. She was a big help and only 5 hours later they were done. ya know...since we have to wait for the dough to rise, twice. lol...

On Tuesday we got to watch Bridget and Finley for a few hours. Finley always keeps me on my toes and just makes me smile so much. Ashleigh and Bridget played so well together and they had fun like always. It's always a joy to watch them.