Since Matt and Paul were going home on Wednesday, we celebrated Carla's birthday early in the week at Red Robin. The crew came out to sing and everything for her, which she enjoyed! Happy Birthday Carla!After dinner we went for a walk to the Willamette River... Elijah was in his glory all week having his Uncles, Aunt and Grandparents with us!the Family

On Wednesday before Matt and Paul left, we took a drive out to Multnomah Falls. Along the Scenic Route, we stopped at this gorgeous look out over the Columbia RiverJason and SamuelCan you spot anyone up on the bridge? Matt, Jason, Paul, Carla and Dad are all up there for a closer look. Jason and Matt continued on for a 2 mile round trip hike to the top of the Falls. (these are the Falls talked about in the Glenbrooke Series, Alexa)

The rest of the week included the OMSI (Portland's "science world"), Chinese Gardens, Art Museum and lots I mean LOTS of shopping with even more deals than we could imagine! One store called Frank and Meier had a huge sale going on as it changes hands into a Macy's... it was a 4 floor store with racks upon racks upon racks of 60% off last ticketed price. So, we went there 3 times to comb the racks and bring home bags and bags of clothes.Grandpa holds Samuel to give him a change of pace from being in the stroller or on my back. the local Transit system has a street train called the Max...which has a Fareless Square circling downtown Portland. We rode this a few times... Elijah loved the train! Choo choo

Thanks Alexa, for helping me get these posts in order of the week rather than the order Blogger wanted to put them in!
so, here you have it, our vacation in Oregon. I had to be very choosy in which pictures to post, because I came home with 250 pictures on my camera. Thank goodness for digital!

7 months now...

I thought I better do a quick post before we leave on vacation, for all you die-hard bloggers! It's great! (more to come in a couple weeks)

So Samuel is already 7 months old. He is now doing the military crawl... it is such a surprise to me that he is doing this already. We are so proud of him!
And I started to give him real food too now, besides his cereal and jar food... here he is enjoying a cantelope! [love his hair?! he had a bath last night and went straight to bed...]

what a big boy

Happy Birthday Luke

We went to Luke's birthday party on Saturday. His theme was "get messy with me". So in the backyard the kids did some painting, got a tattoo from Alexa, ate hotdogs and cupcakes... it was fun! Happy Birthday Luke, sorry we forgot to sing to you!

We are having a great time in this heat wave... Keeping cool in our downstairs multipurpose room! Samuel, by the way, did start sitting on his own really well that same week I did that post a couple weeks back... and now already he wants to be on his hands and knees.On Saturday we went to my parent's house for a BBQ and a soak in the pool... Samuel loved sitting in the big pool with everyone. Rick and Jen and kids came over on their way through to Powell River. Nice to visit with them after so many yearsSamuel found a comfy way to lounge in the water in the shallow pool, on Uncle Paul's lapwe set up our pool in our backyard too, so the boys have been having fun this week in the heat at home. Elijah is such a fish, he is loving every minute of it.

Joy in Summer

I saw my bowl of cherries sitting there and thought they looked so yummy and actually beautiful, I wanted to take a picture and so began the hunt for all the other things that bring joy in the summer time. So here are a few pictures of what I found I love this time of year, in no particular order:Cherries! All summertime fruit except melons actually, I'll save those for Elijah.oooo, Dana made Grilled Peppers on the BBQ the other night for all of us and they were so YUMMY. Since that night we've made them 3 times... I hope we don't make them too many times as to get sick of them though.The smell of this lotion is so delicious! Makes me wish I was in Hawaii!Nothing like a glass of iced tea, Canadian Iced Tea that is, not the "ice tea" you can order in the States which is just sweetened cold tea. Blah.Hydrangeas... love them and now I have 2 bushes of a mini hydrangeas in my own backyard. I love having fresh flowers for my table! (see the spider? She likes them too!)Raspberry Jam. I love making it every summer and eating it all year. Yum Yum1 little, 2 little, 3 little bubbles, 4 little, 5 little, 6 little bubbles, 7 little, 8 little, 9 little bubbles, 10 little bubbles go POP, POP, POP! Something a bit relaxing about blowing bubbles. (sing that song with your kids next time...tune: 10 Little Indians)

Now I am going to begin a tag! I want to tag Alexa, Korinne, Rachel, Laurie

Abbotsford is the Raspberry Capital - did you know that?

On Friday we had Devin, Sherry and Marayah over for a BBQ. Here the boys admire Marayah while she sleeps the entire visit!Besides growing tonnes of raspberries here in the Fraser Valley, there are lots of strawberry and blueberry fields. So one of our summer events in Abbotsford is the Berry Festival. We took the boys to that on Saturday. The best part of that was the Kids Entertainer on the main stage. Our friends from church, Anna and Isaiah, asked to be up on stage with her and help act out her songs. Elijah enjoyed watching that show.
Then later in the day we walked over to Mill Lake for some park play time. Elijah didn't play too long before asking to go see the ducks. (it was very hot again, so that's probably why) And Samuel is 6 months now and he is doing really well at sitting! I can now, if I remember, just sit him down from a holding position rather than lying him down. Makes life a bit easier and even easier yet once he even more stable.

Happy Birthday Lorraine!

We went over to Lorraine's today to visit for her birthday. Here she is looking great! I took these pictures, especially for you Suzan and Josie. Enjoy! My boys are all in brown today... kinda fun and Elijah is always wanting to wear his new brown tank or new brown t-shirt we got at Old Navy a couple weeks ago. Maybe a new favourite colour? I know he likes it a lot but nothing can top Yellow.
(Suzan, Jason purposely smiled with an open mouth grin... just for you!)

Princess Baby Shower

Last night we had a Baby Shower for Sherry and Marayah. Girls from Church were at the shower... I picked a Princess Theme. Afterall we are all God's Little Princesses! Welcome Baby Marayah! Proud First-time Mommy!Marlene gave Sherry this new Rubber Duck that lights up! Deanna had fun showing it to Marayah!As if Julie doesn't have enough of her own babydolls at home... it's still nice to rock a little bundle.Tamara looks comfy holding Marayah while they listen to the story I read "Gigi, God's Little Princess" by Sheila WalshSherry opens some beautiful gifts... a few handmade ones: Wendy made a blanket with a matching burp cloth; Deanna made a floor blanket and Ashley created a scrapbook style framed picture for Marayah's room. Way to go Girls!Looks like Ashley and Tania are having a good time too!

First Father-Son Camping Trip

On the Long Weekend Jason took Elijah on his first camping trip. They went to Sweltzer Creek near Cultus. Elijah was so excited to go camping! They set up camp, swam in the creek, ate Thimbleberries and explored the area Sunday afternoon. The night however was cut short! About 11:30pm Jason called me from the site and said Elijah had puked all over the sleeping bags, pillows...etc. You get the idea. So they packed up and came home. In the morning Elijah had fond memories of his camping trip, because as far as he is concerned he did the camping thing! That's good! They'll probably try again this summer.

Canada Day Parade

So we started out our Canada Day festivities by going with Kurt, Dana and girls to the parade. Since we live so close we just walked over from here and didn't have to fight traffic or parking hassles in finding a good spot to see the parade.
I don't necessarily know why I am posting a picture of the Bus Float, but perhaps it can be used as a reminder of your home in Canada-for all those visiting our blog that live in various parts of the world (and there are lots of you! Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, USA...)

We set up the three kids alongside the curb for a perfect view of the parade. Everytime a clown came past though, Elijah was quick to take a step to the back where I was standing. He didn't cry and he actually said "Hi Clown, Hi Clown" but he felt more comfortable from about 5 feet away than right under it's nose. A funny thing though, once when Elijah came near me I looked to see the clown he was avoiding and in fact it was NOT a CLOWN at all but a guy with a huge fro (how do you spell that?) so he sure did look like one! Sorry buddy!

Oh and the Kayser girls even had their Uncle Keith give them candy as he walked by with a float. Kinda fun for them!Samuel and Momma trying to keep the sun to our backs. Samuel did really well despite his lack of nap, which of course there was no way he would have been able to catch a few zzz's with all the sirens and horns honking as they past by. That's okay though.Danika plays with Sammie a bit until he pukes all over her! She doesn't like to get dirty so that was a big deal to have puke land on her hand! Sorry Danika, Samuel will grow out of that eventually, I hope.

Family Day at Rotary

We went over to Rotary after the parade for a picnic lunch. Aaron and Jen with kids showed up too and so we were all able to have a lot of fun in the sun!





...another Octopus Sprinkler! this was nice to keep our bodies cool in the heat.
Alise was too cold to want to stand there for a picture - imagine that, cold!