Week 1 of "Vacation"

About 5 years ago now Nathan and I learned that when traveling with children you don't get the true "vacation" rest and feeling of a vacation that we did before children. We LOVE getting to go places and do things with our children, but it is just different. So I loosely call our last 3 weeks a "vacation". Though it was the kids summer vacation trip. Secretly I'm still hoping Nathan and I can somehow get away late in the summer for a grown ups only vacation :-)

Ayway.... back to our last three weeks.... week 1 of our "vacation" started with Damien, Kristin and Jacen flying into town to visit with us and us taking them up to McCall for the weekend. McCall, Id is so beautiful and such a restful place for us. We spent time hanging out at the timeshare that was PERFECTLY located for us :-) out our back door was this huge wall of rocks! What more could all of the boys ask for :-)

We came back home Memorial Day and spent the day relaxing around the house and at the little waterpark across the street. Also a small birthday celebration for Emma's 2nd birthday as her birthday the next day was to be spent sitting in the car driving to visit Nana and Papa and Grandma the next day :-)

On Emma's birthday Damien, Kristin, Jacen, Colin, Alexander, Emma, Harrison and myself loaded up into the Sequoia and head out west :-) Nathan unfortunately had to stay and work... one of the drawbacks of working for yourself .... if you don't work there's noone to do the work for you :-) He was able to eventually hook up with us for a few days at the end of our adventures out west.

We did celebrate her birthday the day after though at Grandma's with a few of her uncle's and aunt and cousin.

Most of this first week was spent staying the night at my Uncle Rich and Auntie Karen's house who live just down the road from my mom aka grandma. Mom and I and the kids were able to head out to the Oregon coast for a bit one day, also to visit a really fun place called Shady Dell where the boys and I were able to ride on miniature trains :-) And just get to spend some time visiting with and getting spoiled by grandma :-)

We also while at Auntie Karen and Uncle Rich's we felt as though we were at a bed and breakfast... more than that actually... it was great! My aunt was up before we were every morning and as soon as one of the kids made a peep she was in their room trying to get them out quietly without waking me :-) She would serve us delicious breakfasts and even watch the kids for me while I got ready in the mornings. One such morning she took them all out on a walk (she's a grandma you know:-) so she had a stroller ready :-) they went for a walk through a filbert (hazlenut) orchard and got to watch the trees being trimmed. They also got to go over to the neighbors and see their chickens. Later one morning we went over to "the farm". The home and land where now my cousin (Uncle Rich and Auntie Karen's son) lives is known in our family as "the farm" originally Grandpa (Ellis Kropf) and Grandma (Uncle Rich and my mom's parents) bought this home and land and kept a berry farm. Over the years I also remember there being wheat fields and cows and sheep as well as chickens at one point. It was then bought their son my Uncle Rich who then created a tree nursery on "the farm". A few years ago their son Ron bought "the farm". And who knows... maybe in a few more years Ron and Kara's son (another) Ellis Kropf will own "the farm". :-)

All that to say :-) the morning we got to go visit the boys got to go for a ride on a tractor that had a forklift attachment hooked to it. They also got to ride on ATV's out into the tree fields to watch and "help" Uncle Rich remove some tree's that they needed to dig up with what I call a backhoe :-)

We then went to the barn and visit the goats and cows and let the kids play on the hay bales. Auntie Joey (my sister) and her son Danny were able to join us and also Ron and Kara's son Ellis. The boys were having so much fun and even all ended up in an old apple tree :-) Ron has hung a HUGE tractor tire from some tree's to make the ultimate tree tire swing :-) They had so much fun!

It reminded me of how fortunate I was when I was a little girl. I spent 99.9% of my days with my grandparents who still lived on part of this land after my uncle bought it and fortunate enough to have most of these activities as part of my daily fun :-) growing up!

At the end our our first week we spent some time back with Nathan's parents Papa and Nana and Auntie Heather. The older three had so much fun running around and playing outside (they live in a great area with a bunch of oak trees) and two mornings we even saw deer about 10-15 feet away from us just walking through :-)

And I have to include the photo's of our fun time we had with Auntie Heather... she introduced the boys to the fun of a magnifying glass :-) Heather has just start a job as a preschool teacher is she going to be great or what!!!!!!!