The Arboretum

A couple of weeks ago we took the kids to the Hoyt Arboretum.  It made me laugh to hear each of the kids accidentally call it the Arburrito.  

It's pretty huge so we only saw a portion of it.

The Arboretum is divided into different sections.  We wanted to see the redwoods so we started on the Fir Trail which took us to the Redwood Trail.

We were all quite excited to see the mix of redwoods which included the Coast Redwood and Giant Sequoia.  It was interesting to us that the redwoods had soft bark, kind of spongy.

The picture above is of a Dawn Redwood which is a very interesting plant.  Metasequoia, it's scientific name, is an ancient tree first thought to have come from the Mesozoic Era and believed extinct until a small stand of trees were discovered in China in the 1940's.  After the war the plant was studied and cones and seedlings were distributed arboretums and universities throughout the world.  Interesting fact from Wikipedia: "Metasequoia has experienced morphological stasis for the past 65 million years, meaning the modern Metasequoia glyptostroboides appears identical to it's late Cretaceous ancestors".  It is considered a mystery that this plant even survived in it's little nook in China considering it wasn't growing in it's ideal environment.  Another interesting fact: it's a redwood that is deciduous, meaning it looses it's needles in the fall! The needles even change color.  Isn't that an interesting tree?

It was at this point on the trail that we got hit with a downpour.  But hey, we are Oregonians now, eh? We just put on our raincoats and trudged on to the Oak Trail.  I had no idea there are so many different looking oak trees!  But no pictures because, you know, it was a downpour.  I didn't want to get my camera wet.  Me and cameras . . . and cell phones . . . we don't have the best track record.  Water, sand, they are dangerous.  I must be careful.

We tried to peek at the oaks through the sheets of rain but didn't glean much and ended up back at the beginning shortly thereafter.  So we decided to go to the zoo since we were quite close.

Oh, uh, by the way, I did drop my cell phone in a puddle in the parking lot when we got back to the car.  But it's okay!

Neskowin

On one beaching day we found ourselves in Neskowin and discovered it's a pretty nice place to hangout.  There's a nice little river that winds itself around the beach and into the ocean.  It's shallow enough for the kids to play in yet wide enough to still be exciting.  They love wading around through that river.

Neskowin quickly became one of our favorite places for beaching.

Camping on Whalen Island

A couple months ago we went camping in Whalen Island State Park.  While it wasn't our favorite campground, we did have a fun time.

Whalen Island is in a big bay.  It's a good place to go crabbing and clamming.  We took a bunch of equipment with us to do both but in the end we didn't end up shellfishing . . . Someone maybe forgot to bring his license.  Haha, oh well.  There was plenty for us to do anyway.

Lincoln and I didn't particularly enjoy walking through the mucky sand in the bay (it was too cold for us), but Ethan and the other kids loved it.  Maybe a little too much.  We had some pretty wet, sandy, smelly, gross kids in a very short amount of time.

Summer is Blazing By

Wow, summer is nearly over.  It's flying by.  The kids and I spent last month in Utah visiting family and friends.  It was a blast and we loved it.  The only problem was, it went by too quickly.

We were busy, busy, busy pretty much the whole time.  Of course, we were oh so happy to visit our favorite place: Bear Lake.

It was so fun, and good for our souls, to reconnect with our friends and family members we left behind when we moved.

But, as always, it's good to be back . . . especially considering Utah was so hot this July and Oregon has been quite nice since we've returned.

And now we being to settle down and prepared for the school year.

The Fedora

Months ago, Hudson spotted this fedora at Target.  He feel in love and could not forget about it.  It wasn't expensive, but we didn't feel like a fedora was a necessary part of a boy's wardrobe, so we wouldn't get it for him.  But he never forgot it, and had to stare at it and touch it and try it on every time we went to that store.

One day, a month or two after he had first seen the hat, the kids were eating sandwiches for lunch.  Hudson wiped his mouth with a napkin and seeing all the jam on the napkin he said, "Mom, you see how much I needed this napkin?"  "Yes," I replied because indeed, he had needed that napkin. "That's how much I need a hat," he stated very matter-of-factly.

Ethan and I loved that because it was completely out of the blue, showed persistence and good salesmanship and it made us want to get him that hat.  Still, we weren't sure he really needed it.

A couple days later Hudson was such a big help during the day.  He has always loved to help, but this day, he was especially helpful.  We wanted to do something nice for him, so Ethan and I talked it over and decided that since Hudson had saved up most of what the hat would cost, we would pick up the rest and let him have that hat.  Ethan took him to the store that night and Hudson excitedly bought his fedora.

Doesn't he look good in it?

Picnic at the Park

There's a park about a mile from where we live that we love to go to.  It's a most perfect park, I think.  It has everything one would need in a park.  It's big (about 60 acres), has a nice playground area, a couple different pavilions, lots of benches and picnic tables, trails, ponds, rolling grassy hills, streams, and a beautiful, almost garden-like area with flowering shrubs.  It's a favorite of mine and the kids.

 We love to picnic.

 We love to see frogs.

 We love stone bridges,

 And streams,

 And big hills.

 We love spotting snakes and other interesting things.

 We love lily pad covered ponds.

On this particular day, we especially loved the shade provided by big trees!

Being a Mother

Years ago, soon after I had my first baby, Ethan's uncle asked me what surprised me most about being a mother.

I had to think about it.  With three older sibling who all had kids, I had had a pretty good idea of what to expect.

Then I realized there was one thing I had not expected that had, indeed, surprised me.

I replied, "I'm surprised how much I like it."

I feel very blessed to be a mother.