Tiptoe through the Tulips

I finally got to go the Tulip Festival in Woodburn with Tish! I have been trying to get there for a few years now, and this past weekend finally worked out perfectly. I had a dinner meeting in Vancouver for work, so instead of driving home friday we stayed for the weekend. I was so amazed at how many tulips they had in the fields! The first picture is only half of the tulips: Yes, the yellow beyond the mixed tulips are all yellow tulips!

Jude had a great time on this bungee jump thing. There were a lot of really fun things for him to do.

Before we left I took a few pictures of Gordon's most recent project. He built a new tailgate for the pickup and incorporated the spare tire. That's about all he's built lately, but I'm sure there are more things in the works, because Gordon loves to build and there are no limits!

Mall Carnival Extravaganza

Jude has been all about telling me how he's ready to ride the roller coasters now that he's not at Disneyland. He puts up a good talk, but is still a bit timid about the rides, especially if it has the possibility of going into darkness. Well Friday evening we went with Summer, Maile, Kai, Ty, Tori and Brody to the little carnival set up in the mall parking lot. We went the first night it was open, and I don't think that people had noticed it yet, so we had a great time pretty much by ourselves. We didn't have to ever wait in line and the kids rode rides that I was pretty surprised at. Jude rode the Drop Zone which raises you up really high (you had to be 45 inches the ride) and then drops you to the beginning point. He held on tight, looked a little frightened at the end, but asked if he could go again. I told him we needed to try some other things and if we had tickets left we would go again at the end. He rode all the other rides instead of riding that one a second time. (I took the picture through the fencing, since it was raised up on a platform.) I can't believe that he's big enough to go on the big kid rides at 4 years old!!! We went on some easier ones too. Jude and Maile sat across the ride from Summer and Kai and here they all are before the ride started:

And here is Kai during the ride. He liked when the dragon went up in the air, but got this concerned look on the way down!

He still trusted us to go on a few more rides, but my camera battery went dead, so this is about all the pictures I got. Even without more pictures a good time was had by all!

Early Easter Bunny!

Our ward had an early easter egg hunt for all the primary kids, so we took Jude, Maile and Kai and went a huntin'! We went to a family's house in our ward and they had a couple of mini horses, goats, cows, and rabbits for the kids to look at before they got to find the easter eggs. It worked pretty well actually...they had each family bring 1 dozen filled plastic eggs per child that would be hunting, so it keeps it simple and fair. Jude and Maile counted their own and stopped at 12, but had a good time helping Kai find his last few. Once Kai figured out that the eggs were filled with candy (one of his had 2 quarters in it, and he really wasn't that interested in that one) he would open the egg and toss it aside once he had his candy! He liked putting 4-5 jelly beans in his mouth at once, because I think he thought that Summer or Maile would eat them! This is what he looked like:

Catch-up!

I haven't posted in forever and I realized that I have been a super slacker on taking pictures lately, so I have had to ask for everyone else's pics. February and March have been pretty uneventful, but we've done some fun things during that time. We went to Wildlife Safari with Summer and her kids and Ty, Tori and little Brody. We packed my car and took every available seat belt, it was awesome! Jude, Maile and Kai sat in the very back seat and have become super great travelers! The secret you ask? Yes, we let them watch movies on the portable TV's, but I make Jude wear earphones, so that I can still listen to the radio or talk with others in the car, and Maile has been converted to them as well. I got a sweet deal on some closeout noise canceling earphones that cover their ears completely, so I don't have to constantly put the little ear buds back into Jude's ears. Honestly, you would think that with his ears being so big, he would be able to keep ear buds in, but sadly no, it's a constant battle.

Anyway, we had a great time driving around checking out all the animals. Jude and Maile spent most of the time on the middle console looking out the sunroof, and Kai would climb back and forth from the front to the back, Brody was mostly interested in the door handles of the car, but Tori took a picture of them when they were all in the sunroof.

Jude actually went into the petting zoo with Uncle Ty, which he wouldn't do before, but I got a picture of him petting a goat. And a cute one of he and Maile as animals.

We had great fun and hope that the rest of the family will be able to go the next time!

Then, two weeks ago I cleaned out my trailer and Monica and I took the kids to the coast. Gordon decided on Friday that he would come with us and we all had a great time (and Gordon actually slept in the trailer! He usually takes a tent, but he didn't mind not having to worry about setting up a tent in the rainy dark!). We left after he got off of work on Saturday and stayed till Monday. Yes, it rained on us, but we had fun anyway. We went to the West Coast Game Park (it's a small version of a zoo) and checked out all the animals. Jude pet a llama, possum, ferret, albino skunk, goats, and a baby black panther. I was amazed at how soft her fur was and that her fur was spotted! I was hesitant on petting the skunk...even albinos spray, but the "helper" kept a firm hold on the skunks tail while everyone pet it. We also visited Prehistoric Gardens south of Port Orford and Jude had a great time "checking out the dinosaurs" with Monte and Jared. We spent some time in Brookings walking around and then went to the lighthouse and the beach. Again, left my camera in the car, so these pictures are courtesy of Aunt Monica or Munica and Jude and Maile both say.

So last but not least, I have some randoms pics that are cute: Jude with Brody at work, Jude and Maile in the park after their "circus" at school (they were both acrobats). I took the day off and Summer and I took the kids to the park after school and had a picnic, played at the playground, walked up to the duck pond and had a great time.