Oscar's belt test

Oscar tested for his Lil' Dragon Red belt today & did a great job.

 Here he is with Emma (who is 2 years older and a few belts ahead of Oscar assisting)

He did awesome.  This is Zach Dunn, Oscar and Calvin's instructor.  He rocks.  He's a 3rd degree black belt and amazing w/ the kids.  If you are interested we highly recommend him and his wife (they teach together)

 He did it!  Here he is getting his new red belt.  Great job Oscar!!!

The Beach

We love Cannon Beach. We go there as often as we can. We've just returned from 5 days there. Such fun.

The boys love playing on the local skate park.

We made tons of smores.

Calvin & I climbed to the top of Astoria's column.

We did some hiking. This was the biggest slug we saw.

We visited Fort Klatsop.

More water fun.

Park fun. Vacation Darren even showed up.

Our daily walks from the condo to town.

Cousin Marley showed up on our last day to play.

Until next time...............

Day with Granny (and the dogs)

Darren had a convention this weekend so we headed over to Grannys house for the day. And what a day it was!
We fed the dogs.Played with the dogs.

Laughed with the dogs.

Watched TV with the dogs. Are you catching a theme here?

We also played w/ squirt guns / watered Granny's plants.

And blew bubbles (with the dogs). I'm so glad Granny has dogs. Maybe I can get away w/ having 3 boys and no dogs? Maybe? They can visit her when they need a dog fix... right? RIGHT?

The Smiths.....

They moved in across the street several years ago. Being the only 2 stay at home moms on our street we quickly became fast friends. I was honored to be able to spend their last 2 days in Portland with them. Tomorrow morning she heads off on an adventure. She, her husband and her son are moving to Costa Rica for a year! I am so excited for them. What memories they will create! But here on the homefront they will be missed. A lot. Little Myles. He is so sweet. He was one of those high-needs babies. Poor Melissa used to come over and cry while I took a turn holding and rocking him. You'd never guess it now at almost 1 1/2 he's such a good little guy. The boys have had fun playing with him....

He fit right in w/ my brood of little men.

Bye Bye Myles & Melissa (and Morgan too). Skype us please.

ROSES!!

My mom and I took a guided tour of the Portland Rose Gardens this morning. It was her birthday present. I love my mom. We had such fun and lovely views...... Happy belated Birthday mom!

Soccer Camp

We signed Calvin up for a soccer camp this year. He sort of gets the short end of the stick a lot.... Oscar gets to do everything first (school, tee ball, etc) and Jack is the one lately who has been getting all the attention because of his fall. So we thought Calvin needed something all to himself. He LOVES soccer and from an early early age we noticed his oddly advanced ability to handle a soccer ball. So we signed him up for a weeks worth of tiny-hawk Skyhawk soccer. He LOVED LOVED LOVED it. There were only 7 kids there. And the "coach" Amy was super sweet. She had them take water breaks every 10 mintues (the whole camp only lasts 1 hour a day).

Notice towards the end the other 3 & 4 year olds had dropped due to lack of attention, stamina... whatever. Calvin is still loving it. Maybe it's just me but he looks like a soccer player... you know how they have a "look"?

The camp is held at Riverdale Grade School. That place has an awesome playground. Seriously awesome. Oscar and Jack had a blast.

Ice cream after.... because it's summer after all. And my little red-headed boys needed some extra cooling off after our fun in the sun afternoon.