Swimming in the Columbia in APRIL

 It's not something you can plan for, but when the weather is this nice, you have to take advantage!

Even Daddy took a dip or two (last photo).

Cooper Spur Log home

We met our friends for a weekend at Cooper Spur for one last ski trip of the year.

Mother Nature had other plans...Saturday morning, a snow storm hit and the mountain 

closed it's operations for the day. Skiing and snowboarding were not in the cards after all.

But we made amazing memories anyway!

(starting on the left clockwise)

Kingston, Jake, Barker, Brianne, Harrisen, Ettie, Matt, Jaclyn, Courtney and Carter (front and center)

 

Lunch with Daddy

At the Bingen skatepark since it's so close to his work. And today the tables are

turned as Kingston becomes the teacher to Barker who wants to try out skateboarding.

It was so sweet to see King give B pointers and cheer him on!

 

I always have to sneak

When I take a picture, especially when their being still - I'm caught more easily.

I couldn't resist. They are sharing a book over breakfast...reading and sharing!

My heart melted.

 

We found a new park!

Parks are finally open again so for our Spring Break we went on a 

'Gorge Park Tour' and went to 2 parks each day. This one was in a neighborhood

in Odell on Mt. Hood. What a gem! It had the most amazing play structure, a mini-skate park

trail and several pieces of 'work out' equipment. We will be back again soon!

 

Easter

Full of silliness as per usual!

 

Fish ladder with Nico and Elsa

 Rock hopping, log throwing and poison oak dodging kinda day!

baseball drills

Dad made us a baseball preparation workout to get us ready for the season, we're hoping we'll get placed on the same team this year - fingers crossed!

 

twinning

at the skatepark, wearing almost the same outfits...they don't even know

how cute they are!

 

April Fools

It was a morning of sinks full of worms, rats on nightstands and in Daddy's pick-up

as well as a 2am wake-up call with Mama being doused in silly string!

I was very disoriented and confused in the moment but then also very proud - the

boys finally got me back after years of enduring my pranks!

Can't wait to see what they come up with next year!

Barker cleaning up the tramp after he and King had a silly string battle.

After this moment he threw the rest of his silly string away because

"all this cleaning up isn't worth it," he said, "I'm done with this stuff!"

 

playgrounds are open again!

It had been too long since we've been able to go to a playground as a family and play.

We took advantage at Kingston's new school and had an extra long 

"lava monster" session where Mama was mostly "it" and it was glorious. 

 

King steals mama's heart

He brought home this dandelion from school and as he handed it to me he said,

"Here mama, I brought this for you. Sorry it doesn't have a stem, but I wanted 

you to have a reminder that Spring is coming!"

 

Elliott came over

One of our friends from our old neighborhood came out for a visit.

We've been able to meet at the skatepark several times, but the stars finally aligned

for us to have an extended hang out session! We took full advantage.