Dueck's Roost

We are blessed with so many fantastic, caring, thoughtful, warm, sincere, fun loving, and just overall amazing friends!! One of these friends (along with his awesome wife) have a very kid-friendly zip line at their home, and occasionally invite us over for a ride. This summer when they invited us to "play" another family came as well and was kind enough to take pictures and send them our direction. Who doesn't love a good zip line ride!!? - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Of course most of what makes it onto the blog are trips and out-of-the-ordinary adventures; however, what we spent most of are summer doing was sleeping in, going to swim lessons, doing lots of laundry (from all the trips and camping trips in), hanging out with friends, and spending time at the local splash parks ... Too fun!!! Summertime is definitely THE BEST! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Just as soon as we finished up with the award ceremony at camp, we piled back into the car and continued west toward Seaside. A sweet friend, native to the area, was actually the one who pointed out that we would be no more than an hour away from the coast. Didn't take long for me to decide that we had to go. Okay, fine, didn't HAVE to, but really really would be great to. Fortunately we were able to find a last-minute rental willing to rent for only two nights, so off we went. I am of course from Portland (mostly, at least), and grew up visiting Seaside and the Oregon coast--it was only a couple of hours away. This however, was not the same Seaside. It's obviously been a long time. But, the changes were definitely for the better. Maybe it's just me, but as I remember it Seaside was getting just a tad bit, well, ghetto. Not now, though, there's lots of cute little shops--some oldies some newbies--,many fun restaurants, and of course the standard bikes and fudge and ...

I almost moved on without remembering that while the boys were having fun with the slip'n slide, we had a little fun of our own. Mae organized a couple of play dates--to take full advantage of the somewhat boy-free time. And on the last day before heading to Oregon, we met Auntie Jill and the cousins at NW Trek Wildlife Park. We were all pretty busy getting ready to head different directions, but thought it would be fun to at least venture out on one little tram ride. So this was our tram ride ... Cute cousins. And pretty cute animals too. Especially the babies, of which we saw a few. Sure had fun with these guys (and my awesome sis--well, one of them anyway)! More animals--it is to be expected. And more cuties ... This time brothers. And one last fun pic before saying goodbye. Thanks for hanging out with us, guys. We sure love you!! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Well, they will probably not exactly love the way I'm going to put this, but ... My babies are growing up. Really growing up! I had a dream last night that Porter was as tall as me. He's not quite there yet, but it won't be too long at all! It really is a little sad:(, but at the same time, also terribly exciting!! I love watching my kids learn and develop and strengthen and do a hundred different things associated with getting older. One of those exciting things this year was venturing off for the first time to summer camp, or more particularly basketball summer camp. We found a great program near the Oregon coast that we were really excited about. Instead of being based in a gym for the week, seeing nothing but a polished wooden floor and rows of bleachers, the skills camp was based in a good 'ole fashioned summer camp setting. Complete with a pool, lots of open green space, a stream with plenty of tadpoles for james to catch, and of course bunkhouses ... a very long ...

Okay, so starting out this post for the second time. Somehow what I already wrote got erased ... just a tad frustrating since there are certainly more than a dozen postings I need to catch up on. Yeah, yeah, the story of my life. Cry me a river, right?! Anyway, don't know that I feel like repeating myself again, and not sure my permanent pregnancy brain would allow me to remember, so here's the rundown. We love to camp! We love to camp in this awesomely large tent ... So long as we can find a place for it. As of this year, we love to take a u-haul trailer along to store our stuff in--especially when there are bears around!!  (yes, we saw a black bear...see farther down!). Super fantastic! We love to camp along the river when possible (although prefer the weather not to be freezing cold and windy, as it was for our first day this year). More love for the river ... And more ... We love to explore old stumps, rocks, and logs at water's edge....