A visit with Shadow

I had to make a separate post for this goofy dog... He looks pretty good for almost 10, doesn't he? Be sure to read the post below as well...

Too much fun?

Is there such a thing as too much fun? If so, I think we're approaching it. We're neck deep in wringing out the last bits of summer before school starts up in a few weeks.  

After our big Baker City and Joseph excursion... we had a week to breathe, then took off on Saturday for the valley, met up with friends that evening for an impromptu pool party (the boys' first experience with a diving board), and spent the night in Salem. On Sunday we squeezed in a visit with Shadow (and a photo shoot of his new buddy, baby Ryan), then dropped the boys off with their cousins in Silverton for a sleepover, while Dave and I ventured off to Portland for our 4 day date, aka the Assistant Manager's Meeting (Les Schwab sponsored). My dad picked the boys up on Monday and brought them back to the beach for a few days of fun with Grandma Judy and Midge the beach dog... then we all met up again at the Portland Zoo on Thursday.  

Once home, we ran a few errands, did a few loads of laundry, and an aikido session for Max, then we were back at it on Saturday, with a trip to Tumalo State Park with the Silverton Cousins and the Bend Grandparents (and family dinner at Grandma and 'pa Prestidge's house)... and if that weren't fun enough, Sunday (today)  boasted a trip to Prineville reservoir (and all the boating fun you could want with our neighbor, and buddy, Ed) AND a birthday party (Happy 6th, Race!), AND a group dinner (most of the families from the birthday party) at Red Robin. Yes, I'm exhausted. I won't even tell you that we've got an equally busy week coming up, and another FUN vacation starting on Saturday for an entire week at Lake Chelan! Wahoo!!!!

So, I guess it could be true, that you CAN have too much fun. At least we're trying REALLY hard to find out.

Max, the Yellow Belt!

Max promoted to a yellow belt last Tuesday, and is quite proud (as you may imagine). Here are the pictures from the entire class... and some great ones of my newly yellow belted one. Enjoy!

Days 2 through 7 Camping... Unplugged!

I would have diligently kept up with this blog, had it not been for the remoteness of our RV park! It was nice to take a break, and we had lots of fun. LOTS of fun.

I'm exhausted, but did manage to add the first of MANY pictures to our new gallery at my website (in the friends and family section), and you can check them out here!

You'll get to see, among other things... our visit to the Enterprise hospital for Sam's broken wrist! Thankfully a minor break, it serves as an interesting story... that could have been MUCH worse. I'll be sure to give the full story soon. I'm off to bed!

Day One - to Baker City.

It takes a LONG time to mobilize an army. I guess you could say the same about our family! We didn't leave town until well after noon, but made good time getting to Baker City. It was a beautiful drive, marred only by the fact I was paranoid towing our trailer on a few of the more narrow roads. Not, by any means, because of Dave's driving (impeccable by the way). It's just a minor paranoia of mine. I suppose I'll get used to it.

I think I gave Dave a heart attack, though, when we pulled up to our campground in Baker City. Granted, I'm glad that first impressions didn't hold true. We pulled into a 1955-era mobile home (as in there are full time residents here) park, and the pool looked a bit scary through the fence. Thankfully we gritted our teeth and pulled further in to discover a quaint, albeit older, RV park with very friendly staff, a nice playground, and a very nice pool to boot. The playground (probably built in the 50's and before modern safety standards) has one of the old swing sets that is a mile high, and thankfully sturdy. The boys had a blast swinging as far as they could "to the moon" Sam said. 

So, we made it. We had a fabulous dinner (Grilled flatiron steaks), and are settled in for the night. We plan on visiting the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center tomorrow, and have promised the boys a visit to the pool.  

... and we're off!

No promises, but I think we may try to post a couple of times to this blog while we are out on vacation. So, check back next week and see what we're up to!  Oh, don't forget to check out our GREAT new pictures from the last couple of weeks... RIGHT HERE!

Cheers!

11 days later...

This is nuts. I got up last time to put the boys to bed and finish the post... and it's somehow 11 days later. 

We've got a few weeks until our next camping trip, and the are packed. I'm trying to just "go with it." We are also trying to gather up all of the extra "stuff" in the house for a garage sale, which is a challenge when the boys are around. They hate the thought of parting with ANYTHING. For better or worse, Sam, the sweetheart, LOVES his buddies. All 125 (at least it seems so) stuffed animals in the house. What kills me, and is making me hesitate about actually taking some of them without him knowing, is that he is so sweet to them, talks to them, makes up stories about them...  wish me luck!