Summer Fun!

Floating the river is such a "Bend" thing to do these days.  You can see floaties of all types making their way down the river.  We have the cream of the crop floatie, a gigantic island with built in mesh bottom for secure water play for the littles. Floating is fun and a great way to spend a hot summer day, but really I think the kids like the floating island best either pre or post float when they can use it as their own personal bouncy house.  

We also love spying into the backyards of all the houses along the river and of course pick out which property will someday be ours.  Piper is insisting on one with a fence, so Mango doesn't float away while chasing geese or ducks out of the back yard.

Lake days are a constant go-to activity every weekend.  This is Cultis Lake and we all loved the paddleboard action.  Quite a balancing act to get all SIX of us on board...such good family fun!  This summer is so much easier than last summer with the boys. They can hang throughout the afternoon and skip or postpone their afternoon nap and not be a total wreck. All three kids love the water, they have so much fun floating, swimming, paddling or even just throwing rocks for Mango.

Sticks are a favorite toy these days which I think is awesome, so long as no one looses an eye! Usually the sticks are fishing poles, sometimes paddles or stirring tools.

We took the crew out to the Deschutes County fair to see all the animals when Gma Alice came to town.  The bunnies and goats were a highlight, but the favorite was getting to go on the kiddie rides.  Not looking forward to shelling out the big bucks when one ride each doesn't cut it anymore!  =-)

We will have Grandma Alice here until we leave for our trip to Italy the end of this month.  Lots of fun to be had before then.  Lots of Gma time for the kids and even more when she stays to take care of the boys while Piper heads up to Seattle to spend the 2 weeks with Grandma and Grandpa.

We are so lucky to have the love and support of our parents, not to mention their confidence to take on the kids for 2 weeks on their own!  Such a gift to Dave and I to be able to have this trip to celebrate TEN years of marriage.  Yeah for Grandparents!

Love these braids on Piper...not for long though, Piper has asked for a new haircut...I'll add some pics at the end of this post.  Piper is super cute either way, so fun to switch things up with a new DO!

Camping redeemed!  You may remember our bum camping trip over Father's Day, well we had just enough time to forget about that and summon the courage to try again.  So glad we did, this Sparks Lake camp out was fantastic.
Dave and I scouted out a sweet spot when we had gone out for a day time paddleboard picnic a few weeks ago when the kids were at farm camp.

Luckily we scored with a group just leaving as we were headed out. Me and Piper on
paddleboard and Dave, Mango and the boys loaded to the gills with all our "car camping gear" in the boat.  The gigantic tent, grill, hammock, queen size blowup mattress, boys individual sleeping tents to put in our big tent, food, beer, floaty rings, etc...

This camping spot really was the best I have ever found before.  Big points for having to boat in, but the site itself was decked out with logs cut in half to be used as tables, more logs set in just the right positions for benches and a place to store your campfire wood, the coolest campfire ring, hammock hanging trees and best of all was all the cool rocks and caves for endless exploring and
fort making possibilities.  

The camp spots were pretty spread out, so we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.  We were at the end of a curving inlet.which had clear deep water for swimming. Even logs secured for walking off the plank.

We stayed two nights and no one wanted to leave.  So I am proud to say that camping has been redeemed and we will do it again, YAY!

Such cool caves, the kids loved crawling through the passage ways.

What a little angel!

Yeee HA!!!!

Hammock time...endless entertainment!

Check out the sweet fire ring!  Boo yeah, this place rocks!

No wonder the kids like camping so much...they got marshmallows for breakfast!!!

Here is the new haircut, she loves it! It is longer in front and cut in an A line towards the back.  So cute, and a far cry from my bowl cut as a kid.  

What a cute little goalie.  She really did stop a ball from going in the goal! 

  

The boys have so much fun at soccer too, I am impressed with their dribbling abilities already. We have the boys in a class at 5:00pm and Piper at 6:00pm.  With lots of friends in both classes this has been a fun way to spend Thursday nights this whole summer.  It becomes a big night with biking to soccer, then heading across the bridge to Drake park for Munch-n-Music for dinner.  

Farm Camp and Coast trip with the fam

Farm Camp for 2 full days was a hit all around.  The kids had a blast playing with lady bugs, checking out the school pets and doing art projects. 

 

Dave and I took full advantage of the free days and caught a glimpse of what life might be like with kids in school.  We enjoyed a paddleboarding excursion on Sparks Lake one day and hiked around Smith Rock the other.  

    

The teachers commented over and over what a great big sister Piper was.  She watched out for the boys and was a big help interpreting some of the things the boys said.  Calvin and Jett were stoked to be at school, they were so proud to wear their backpacks and had no qualms getting dropped off.  So nice to have a built in buddy, I think it really does give them security and confidence to have each other in new situations like this.  What ever the case, it was nice to see their independence so we weren't worried about leaving them for the day.

Piper and I had a special date riding bikes on the trails down in Sunriver resort.  She has been doing great on her new 16 inch wheel bike, but I haven't been confident to take her out on the neighborhood streets with cars while I am riding next to her.  And she is too fast on this bigger bike for me to run with her like I had been doing when she rode her 12 inch wheel bike.  So these paths made for a perfect practice ground.  What a fun day we had, we rode a big loop with a stop midway at a park for lunch.  Then topped off the afternoon with a big scoop of ice cream!

 

The BEACH

We just got back from our 6th annual Oregon coast Droullard family trip.  We went to Lincoln City and stayed in a lincoln log cabin that had lots of quirks, but the upstairs was perfect for all the kids to sleep and play while we were getting meals ready.  We were bummed that the weather was predicted to be very cool and coast like.  But looking back, the weather really did turn out just fine, we got to swim in a near by lake after hunting down a few letter boxes in a State park.  Searching out creatures in the tide pools was a highlight, especially the hermit crabs and little fish that Dave caught and put in the kids buckets.    

The aquarium was a blast for the whole family.  It was a big day, with no naps, so the kids were exhausted, but worth the adventure south to Newport.

The sea horses were one of my favorite attractions and the jelly fish exhibit was pretty impressive too.

 It is always fun to get hands wet in the touching tanks.

We saw seals and sharks!

There was a fun touristy trap collection of shops near by the aquarium that had colorful statues of pirates and all sorts of treasures. 

Grandpa Skip and Jett picked out their favorite pirate! Auntie and Garret found their favorite!

One of the foggy days we set out on a beach exploration and found people catching crabs.  Jett had his net that he was carrying around trying to make a catch of his own.  When he wasn't looking, one of the crabbers put a small crab in his net and Jett really thought he caught the crab.  So proud and so cute!

This section of beach had an amazing collection of logs that had washed up over the years.  Other people have made some impressive log shelters to check out.

Great shot of team Smith if I do say so myself.

Must learn balance Danielson! High Ya!

Mango got to enjoy lots of puppy crazies on the sand.  He LOVES the beach and the way the sand tickles his puppy toes when he runs.  What a lucky puppy to get to go on vacation too!

 Calvin is overcoming his reservations of touching bugs and slimy things!  Yay for catching fish!

Uncle Kevin is the family photographer and I caught a shot of him in action!

Here are a few of my favorite that Kevin captured of the kids...no easy task I assure you. =-)

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for continuing this treasured tradition.  A special time to have all the grand kids together and enjoy each others company.  We love you and are grateful for your LOVE too!