Archive for the ‘Outdoors’ Category

November 24th, 2012 by sara

Summer of Parks

At the beginning of the summer, the kids and I made a goal to visit every park in Eugene.  We made a checklist and discovered that this would be 58 parks!!  It was fun for me to see many different neighborhoods that we’d never been to and learn my way around town.  Jonah became really interested in maps this summer, too, so he enjoyed plotting paths to and from new areas.  Best of all, the kids had a blast climbing and swinging and learning how to get around all sorts of structures that they hadn’t seen before.  We had lots of picnics and many weeks of warm sunny days to enjoy our town at its most beautiful.

So here are a ton of photos of our fun.  You can click on them to see them larger.  Enjoy!

August 31st, 2012 by sara

Summer Fun

It’s hard to believe tomorrow is September already. We sure have enjoyed this last month or two of great summer weather. The kids have had fun playing with water on hot days…

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Swinging into the sprinkler – brilliant idea, kids!

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Snacking at the spray park

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Enjoying cold summer treats!

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And we got in a fun day of strawberry picking! (But no, he did not pick that bucket by himself. I wish…)

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Yum!

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Oh, and Nora learned how to swing all by herself. “I not even need a push anymore!!!”

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And sometimes after such fun days, you cannot control when and where you fall asleep. :)

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August 30th, 2012 by sara

Camping at La Pine

It’s been a while… Let’s see what I remember about this camping trip – our first one as a whole family! We drove east, out past Bend to a state park where we’d test out our new tent and see what Nora thought of camping. On the way, we stopped at Dee Wright Observatory where you could look out over enormous lava fields. The weather was great, and the skies were clear, so we saw some amazing mountains as well.

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Also on the way to the campground, we stopped at another volcanic site where we could drive to the top of a lava butte. This gave a good view of the area, too.

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At the campsite, we got the tent set up, and the kids were so excited that they were asking to go to bed constantly from about 5:30 on. (How funny that they didn’t actually fall asleep until after 10…)

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So much excitement!

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Then after a lovely campstove pasta dinner, we made a fire and had some smores! It was their first taste of this camping treat.

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Successful trip! Definitely more camping in our family future!

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July 22nd, 2012 by sara

Monkle and a Lake Hike

At the beginning of the month, Monkle Ricky came to visit us while he was out in this part of the country. We took him to a park and our new favorite frozen yogurt shop (as we’ve been doing with pretty much all our summer guests), and on his second day we all drove about an hour to Clear Lake for a hike.

The lake was beautifully blue and clear.

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And extremely cold.

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The trail went through old-growth forests…

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…over bridges…

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…and through lava fields!

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Jonah happily hiked every bit of this five mile(!) loop around the lake.  Everyone, including Jonah, was amazed and proud.  Well done, little hiker!

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We stopped for a nice picnic lunch in the woods.

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Nora got a nice ride for pretty much the whole hike.

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Even still, she was exhausted by the end. :)

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Jonah also got a special monkle haircut while Ricky was in town.

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The kids absolutely loved having their crazy uncle here! Lots of laughing on this visit!

July 3rd, 2012 by sara

Uncle David!

We were so excited to have Uncle David come to visit us for a few days near the end of June.  We took him to lots and lots of parks.  I think we made it to five altogether, despite having only one rain-free day during his visit.  Uncle David knows how to have a good time at a park.

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On our sunny afternoon, we went to the spray park in our neighborhood. Somehow Jonah’s favorite thing to do is stand on a fountain when it’s off and then wait for it to surprise him and spray him in the face. Crazy.

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So of course, Nora liked it, too.

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After we were done, Jonah was thrilled to discover that there was a softball game to watch while we dried off.

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The kids read lots of books with Uncle David.

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And on Saturday, the Eugene forecast looked cold and rainy, so we decided that if we were going to be cold and rained upon, we might as well do it at the beach. So we drove out to Florence, and to our (great) surprise, it was a sunny and not painfully windy day on the coast. Thanks to winter hats and windbreakers, we enjoyed a nice long walk on the sand.

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Jonah found a stick that was perfect for drawing in the sand. He was making a line for Nora to follow.

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But wait! If you can draw lines in the sand, shouldn’t you really be using those lines to make a baseball field?

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And finally, people who have come to the beach before us have made some pretty serious driftwood structures. Here are the kids looking cute in a stick house.

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