Farm Fest

In April we made our way down to the Yamhill County Historical Society's Farm Fest.  There were all sorts of old-time demonstrations and things to see.  

One of my favorites was the plowing competition.  It was fun to see the teams of draft horses and mules plow the field.

The museum had hundreds of old wagons, tractors, and cars.

The kids got to climb around a covered wagon, pet some livestock, and even see what it was like to do laundry without a washer and dryer.

We saw and heard an antique player piano play a song, watched blacksmithing demonstrations, looked through an old schoolhouse, and many other things.  It was a great way to spend a Saturday.

The Magnolia Bloom

This spring we were finally able to go do something I've been wanting to do since we moved here: visit the arboretum when the magnolia trees were in bloom!

It was just as wonderful and beautiful as I thought it would be!  My poor pictures certainly don't do those blossoms justice.  I'm not the only one who enjoyed them.  Ethan and all the kids loved them too.  There's something enchanting about walking through a forest of trees bursting with flowers!

And although the youngest did like the flowers, he mostly looked forward to going to the zoo we promised to visit as soon as we were done with the magnolias.  Unfortunately for him, everyone else must have had the same idea for when we arrived at the zoo, we could not get in!  It was full!  Poor little man!  He was so disappointed.  We let him pick our next destination.  He picked a park not far from our house.

As you can see from that happy face, he had a great time.

Tacoma and the Puget Sound

One of our more recent adventures was going back up into Washington, all the way to Tacoma.  We wanted to check the area out and see the Puget Sound.  

I just love our little family adventures.  We have such a great time together.

Astoria Column and Fort Columbia

A couple of months ago, we took the kids to Astoria to visit the column and go across the bridge to Washington.

Beautiful views along the way.

The kids are ready for an adventure.

This is a view of the bridge we were going to go across.  It was so fun that it was right down there close to the water.

The Astoria Column is a 125 foot tower that overlooks the city of Astoria and the mouth of the Columbia River.  The spiraled pictures are a sgraffito frieze depicting important events in the area's history focusing on the discovery of the Columbia River and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

At the little gift shop there you can buy an airplane to throw off of the top of the column.  The kids had a lot of fun doing this.  Hudson's went so far we weren't able to retrieve it.

Lincoln had fun throwing his airplane around the lawn in front of the column.

In the picture above you can see Saddle Mountain.  Guys, that's the mountain I hiked up last May.  That one there!  That huge one!

And here we are, going across the bridge into Washington.

After crossing the bridge we headed to Cape Disappointment.  There is a short hike to the lighthouse there.  

Next, we headed East to Fort Columbia State Park.  This is a historical park with many buildings still standing including the battery, officer's quarters, and barracks.

And yes, I had to take a picture of Saddle Mountain from the Washington side of the Columbia River.  Yup, I hiked that.  

My kids LOVE exploring these old places.  We were disappointed to learn, however, that you can tour the wood structures (officer's quarters, barracks, guard house) but they just happen to be closed the day we went.  Bummer.  

Being silly - something our family excels at.

This is the American Empress docked at Astoria.  You can do a river cruise on this thing.  Wouldn't that be fun?  It certainly was impressive looking.

That was certainly a fun adventure day.  We didn't care much for Cape Disappointment, but we had great fun at the column and the fort.  We went home tired and happy to have seen all that we saw.