Mother's Day outing to Suttle Lake

It was a beautiful Mother's day, such a treat to have such nice weather this early in Spring.

I enjoyed a full weekend of sleeping in for 3 days in a row and waking up to kids fed and breakfast waiting for me.

Way to go daddy!

Getting our little boat out on Suttle Lake near Sisters with all six of us (including Mango) was quite a squeeze.  

We motored around, found a beach to play at and have lunch.  Then found another spot to jump in the lake from.

The mountain lake water was cold, so it was a quick dip!

Here are a few pictures from the days adventure.

Thank you you Piper, Calvin and Jett for making me a mom!  The best job in the world!  I am gladly enduring all the whining, testing and challenges for the LOVE you have let me experience in being your mom.  Your snuggles, your charm, your innocence, your energy, your interests and your sweetness all fills me up with love I never knew before you arrived in my life.

I know our journey together is just beginning, but the pride I feel watching you live and experience life fills me with joy.  Piper riding her new 16 inch wheel bike, I can't even keep up running behind her.  And the boys tearing up the trails on their balance bikes, having so much fun with this new skill.  It's going to be no time until we are all mt. biking together, and probably too soon for comfort that their skills will surpass mine when they launch off boulders or smoothly take the log rides off the trail.

For now I am enjoying the hours we spend cuddled up reading books.  I love that Piper has been devouring big chapter books.  We have recently finished the Little House on the Prairie series, Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little.  Even the boys will sit and listen to book after book after book.

I think we are all happiest outside, looking for bugs, inspecting tree bark, watching birds fly, throwing rocks and sticks in the water.  So this Mother's Day outing was a perfect way to spend the day enjoying each other under the blue sky above.  Even if the whining didn't necessarily stop just because it was Mother's Day!

You three monkeys make me smile!

Peeing outside is such a bonus of summer weather!!

Brave polar bear swimmers unite!  

Pulling out the old traveling hammock has been such a hit.  Literally hours of entertainment for all three kids!  Piper doesn't always take naps anymore, but WE still need the "rest time" enforced.  One afternoon Piper spent over an hour swinging in the hammock, singing and talking to herself the whole time.  Such a great thing!

And of course to our own Mothers, now Grandma Linda and Grandma Alice, you will always be "Mom" to us and we thank the world for all your support, love, and belief in the unique and dare I say amazing individuals you helped shape David and I into.  Love to you both!

Sun and Snow part 2

We had another beautiful weekend recently where we got to enjoy the sun and the snow.  It was Earth Day and we participated in the annual procession of the species parade.  Jett was a frog, Calvin sported the elephant costume which was it's third appearance (Piper wore it one year for Earth Day, Jett wore it for Halloween last year and Calvin barely squeezed into it this time, so it will finally be moving on to a new home!) and Piper was a blue morpho butterfly.  It was so cute to see all the kids and many adults dressed up for the parade, though for this parade it seems like there are more people walking than spectators watching.  

After the parade we checked out the Earth Day fair where the high light was this obstacle course set up for bikes.  David and Piper rocked it on our trail a bike, but mostly Calvin, Jett and Piper ran the course over and over again.  Seriously they probably did it more than 10 times each.

That afternoon it was still hot enough to run through the sprinklers!  Yay summer! Here is a short video of the fun:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKBX3QOzOtg&feature=channel&list=UL

Sunday we hit the Mt. Bachelor sled hill again.  

Calvin was starting snow ball fights with our friend Quinn.  He took it as much as he dished out, but the fun was over when snow went down his shirt on to his bare skin!

Mango on the other hand will take a snowball to the face all day long!  This puppy pants LOVES the snow.  It is so fun to be a puppy head.

I love this picture of Dave and Piper.  The flowers on our trees were popping and smell so good.  Such a beautiful time of year to see all the vegetation wake up from a long winter snooze.

That means it is also time to get the finishing touches on our raised bed green house that Dave built last year.  The boys were all about helping daddy with the power tools.  We got it started too late in the season last year to really benefit from it, but this year we have high hope and planted tons of seeds.

We also added blueberry bushes and grape vines to our already planted raspberries, plum tree and strawberry patch that we got established last year.

We have had some challenging "terrible twos" moments with the boys lately, but man they are fun.  We are finally getting pretty mobile!  We went on a pretty decent family hike with no stroller this past weekend and on several occasions the boys have rode their bikes for outings as well.  They have been telling knock knock jokes at the dinner table, which never make any sense, but we laugh anyway.  For example, "knock knock" "whos there" "window who window you mommy!"  Ha Ha Ha buddy.   They love to rhyme words with Piper who has been quite the rhymer lately.  Calvin and Jett still love playing mommy and baby with Piper, it is pretty sweet to hear them all talking and playing in the playroom. The three of them do push each others buttons, but when they decide to be cool, they really do have a lot of fun together.

Snow to Sun - Spring in Bend

Check out the works of art by the Staley crew.  We got immersed in the paint as you can see from these proud individual portraits.

We had a fun snow day with Piper and David on the ski hill and me and the boys sledding and eating snow.  What a beautiful blue bird day!

I guess it is spring and most people have moved on to bike riding, it felt like we had the whole mountain to ourselves.

Here is a sweet video of me and Jett Sledding down the big hill: http://youtu.be/dztAEJl57JY

And the next day it was off to play in the river!  Dave has had a project he has been working on for the last several years.  It started at our house on the river where he made the goal to jump in the river at least one time each month of the year.  By this year the only months he had left were January and April.  January was left for obvious reasons, but actually in the past April has been one of the coldest months.  This year we have seen several "nice" days even in the dead of winter.  I think it hit 80 on more than one occasion this April, so the project is now complete. Way to go Dahveed!  I guess I didn't get a picture, but he did go all the way under water!  =-)

The kiddos were inspired to take a dip as well, what brave little fish we have.

I couldn't not capture this bare bums picture.

More on this soon, but the boys have officially started riding their balance bikes.  We are super excited that they are excited to ride.  Even though these pictures don't show it. =-)

Spring Skiing

We stuck around town for Spring Break this year, and even though it was a pretty dreary rainy week, we got out and enjoyed our time with Piper out of school.  

The rock gym was a big hit.  The boys ran around, used the belaying ropes as rope swings and played on all the bouldering mats.

Piper kinda liked climbing, then all of a sudden really liked climbing and got motivated to climb higher when someone put dum dum suckers  in high holes up the rock wall.

Funny how much this kid is motivated by sugar.  The cross country skiing and snowshoeing excursion with her friends went a lot smoother when there was a reminder of the cookies waiting for her in the shelter.

 Thank you Quin and Lily for the yummy baked goods.

We have been doing so much cross country skiing this year and not too much down hill, but Dave recently got some new skis and even a spring pass at Bachelor, so squeezing in some runs will be top of mind for him.  Actually last week we found a babysitter for the boys while Piper was in school and together got an amazing day on the slopes.  The snow was perfect and so much fun.  Yay spring skiing!

Weekend morning pancakes!

Super fun Easter party at Kaden's grandparents house in Sisters.  What a view!  I am sold on living close in town where we do now, but man the wide open space at Shannon's parents house really made me miss our first house in Tumalo.  Love those mountain views!  There was a big turn out for this second annual Easter Egg hunt party complete with crafts, yummy food and fun friends to hang out with.

The Easter Bunny even visited Calvin, Jett and Piper at our house too.  

I even got to sneak in some great girl time with some friends cross country skiing a big loop then out to dinner.  Yay...FUN!