Seaside, OR

As close as we live to the beach (1 hour and 10 minutes, to be exact), we don't go nearly enough.  Well the end of the summer came and my friend Angela and I decided we needed to take our kids there before summer was over!

We had a great day!  We began with the pedal cars.

After getting some food, we shopped at the fun stores, including the hat shop.  :)

Blonde Sadie with bangs?

Goofy boys!

 Then we headed out to the actual beach.  It was windy as it always is, but what a beautiful day!!

Angie getting Maddie all sunscreened up!

Jackson, Zack and Drew starting their beach castle

Diggin

Progress!

Sadie flew her kite.  This is where the wind comes in handy!

What a great day!  I am thankful that we live so close to a fun, beautiful beach where we can go for a quick day trip.  And I'm thankful for great friends to enjoy it with!

My Little Fishies

We are super blessed to live in a neighborhood with two pools and a wonderful summer program that includes swim team and swim lessons.  This year, Sadie was on the swim team for her 3rd year (I think) and the boys both did two sessions of swim lessons.  They love the water and it is so fun to see them improve from year to year!!

Sadie swimming the butterfly, her least favorite stroke!

Done with a race!

This was a "fun meet", Sadie and her friends doing the t-shirt relay.

Zack's backstroke

Drew chillin' after a lesson  :P

Mt. St. Helens

It seems like our summers fill up so fast that there is not much time left for camping, which we love to do.  But this summer, we made sure to make time to go once!  We met our friends, the Morris', who live north of Seattle, at a campground near Mt. St. Helens.

Our boys had a blast with Luke

Because you can't camp without electronics these days!

Don't worry, they did play a ton too!

Sadie and Emma had a great time, too!

There was a Mt. St. Helens visitor center at our campground that we went to.  The kids did a bunch of activities and became junior rangers!

The next day we drove all the way up to Mt. St. Helens to the Johnston Ridge Observatory.  It was amazing to see the mountain and also to read and listen to the stories of what happened the day it erupted.

On the trail

Us

The Morris'

This was a neat tribute to those who died

We had a really great time with good friends in a beautiful place. Can't wait to do it again!

The Oregon International Airshow

We are super lucky to live really close to the Hillsboro Airport.  It's a small airport, but every summer it hosts the Oregon International Airshow.  It is so fun to be able to see the airplanes as they practice the week before the airshow over our neighborhood and places that we frequent.  The amazing Thunderbirds and Blue Angels are our faves, of course!  For a variety of reasons, we have never actually gone to the show, so we decided this year was a must.  Of course, the one year we actually to go happens to be one of the hottest EVER, with temps over 100°!!!  And it was even hotter on the tarmac, oh my!  But we had an absolute blast and seeing the Thunderbirds that close was seriously mind blowing!!

COOL!

The kids in some sort of crazy tall Army Jeep.

Maddie, Sadie, Drew, Sailor, Zack and Jackson.  Go NAVY!

Crazy helicopter

Sadie and Maddie checking out the Coast Guard helicopter

 There was SO much more to see and do.  But you can't miss the show!

 Trying to beat the heat.  We lost!

Airplane racing a jet car.  I think the jet car won.  Mind blowing how fast they went!

 Thank goodness we brought spray bottles!

It was loud, too.  :)

All 6 Thunderbirds!!

Here is the coolest stunt that the Thunderbirds did. Total surprise fly-by!

We will definitely be going back next year.  Just hoping it's a tad cooler.  :P

Fire Pit

A week or so after moving in to our new house, we had our first fire pit fire/ s'mores eating evening.  It was a fun way to enjoy our new home!

Ready to roast some marshmallows!

And the eating... oh so good!

Um, guys?  Where's my s'more??