Summertime!

Memorial Day hike at the Columbia River Gorge

Summer time is here and the boys are growing up quickly-too quickly!

Nicholas got his first two wheel bike this week and was riding it a few days later, no training wheels!  He started out on a balance bike when he was three, which is a bike with no pedals. The idea behind the balance bike is that pedaling is the easy part, balancing is the difficult part; so why not teach them to balance before they pedal?  It works!   I am so proud of my big guy!  It's a very exciting milestone, on par with walking and first words in my book.

And, in other news, my other big guy, Christian, is singing his ABC's!  He has been on a language explosion lately, and so cute to hear his conversations!  He is also in a screaming stage right now, (can you say terrible two's?) and I hope it passes quickly!  Good thing he is so darn cute!

We had a fun little hike on Memorial Day weekend this year, the Gorge is full of many trails with numerous waterfalls, so there is still so much more for us to explore!

Growing up, my birthday on June 23, was always the kick off to my summer.  Over the years you're not as excited for your birthday but it is fun to see how excited the boys get with any birthday or holiday!

Strawberry Picking!

We went to Sauvie Island to strawberry pick with some friends.  Christian and the other little girl his age ate, and ate, and ate.  Not a single strawberry in his pint.  Nicholas and his friend were actually quite helpful!  Yum, fresh Oregon strawberries are delish!

Nicholas insisted we make strawberry jam virtually the minute we got home, thanks to his Highlights subscription, courtesy of his Ranalli grandparents.  We read it in his magazine that morning.  He cleaned them and mashed them, and boy did he LOVE mashing them!

 Lots of summer reading too, we pick up new books from the library every week.

     

Summer hiking dates!  It's so cute to see how much fun kids have together with nothing but nature!

We have been swimming a bunch!  Christian just moved up to the next level in his swim class, which is without me, it's kind of sad.  He is doing great though!  Both boys love swimming.  We also belong to an outdoor swim pool this summer and Christian cleared out the wading pool with a little poop accident, EMBARRASSING!    I am so thankful he did not do it in the big pool, I would have felt terrible to evacuate that one. Something for his memory book for sure!

 Yes, he has that much energy all of the time!

Fly fisherman in training!  Getting ready to go fish with Dad!

It's almost July, can't wait to see what else this summer has in store for us!  Lot's of trips and visitors coming up!