Hiking and Catching Up With Old Friends

 Last weekend Carl's friend Pete came to visit us with his family. It is always fun to meet up with college friends now that we all have kids.When Pete visited last, we did a lot of hiking- we thought it would be fun to do that again. We thought wrong.  It was really tough.  Between the 3 kids we had 6 scraped knees, and lots of tears.  We joked that with all the crying we were keeping the bears away.

 Seeing the gorge.  This was always fun to see, but now with kids a little scary as there is a sudden drop off.

 Sophie did a great job hiking and only cried when she fell.  She walked all 5 miles.  She did awesome!

We made it to the top!  The kids had fun splashing their toes in the freezing lake.  Now we have to get back down...

Quick Portland Trip

 We did a super quick 3 day trip out to Portland.  We crammed a lot of stuff into those few days!  One of the kids favorite spots is the Portland Children's Museum.  This summer they added a whole outdoor section with climbing trees, water features, sand boxes, and fun climbing rocks.  The kids were in heaven!

 We should have came prepared for the water- If I had thought it through I would have packed their suits.  Since I didn't they had a blast running through the water and getting their clothes all wet. At least it was a nice day!

 Cade at the clay station.  He had messy clay and a hammer.  He happily sat for a good half-hour.

 It was great fun to meet up with cousins Claire and Miranda again!

 Rock wall climbing.

 For whatever reason, my kids love to dress up in hats.  This always freaks me out since I am afraid they will catch lice.

 The construction room.  Another favorite spot, another hat.

 On our last day we met up with Claire and Miranda again for some good old fashioned slip-n-slide fun.  This was a lot of fun!

Perfecting the belly slide.

Frozen Dance Camp

This summer has been the summer of trying new things.  Now that Sophie is 5 she seems to have hit a magic age where they offer lots of camps and classes.  So far this summer she has done dance camp, karate camp, VBS, and swim lessons.  Sophie has such an outgoing personality that she will try anything and does not care if she knows anyone or not. Her absolute favorite so far has been the Frozen dance camp.  The girls danced around to Frozen songs, dressed in costumes and made a frozen craft everyday.  It was great!

Trip to Cincinnati

 We had a fun trip to Cincinnati.  It is so nice playing with Jen's kids- the older kids are sooo much help with our little ones.  Sophie follows Bekah around everywhere and thinks she could do no wrong. Jonas was real sweet with Cade and helped us chase him around, it's nice to have an extra set of hands!  Since we drove all over Ohio, we had lots of time in the car.  Sophie and Bekah  sang along to the Frozen soundtrack- over, and over. Cade would get in the car and say," No, let it go. " We all felt that way.

 We went to the Children's museum- it is wonderful.  The kids played and played.  There are a lot of hands on/physical activities that are perfect for our kids.

 This was Sophie's favorite spot- they had a giant rope climbing course.  We were very thankful that Bekah was willing to do it with Sophie for an hour straight- and we didn't have to!

 We also went to the aquarium.  The kids had a great time watching all the sharks, fish, jellyfish, penguins, and playing in the touch ponds. For whatever reason, my kids always try to get into the touch ponds and I end up carrying them away embarrassed and dripping wet.

 I am not sure why, but Cade was mad at this 15ft crocodile.  He kept going up to the glass, tapping his finger on it and yelling, "NO, NO."  I was thankful that there was a thick plate of glass to separate them, because lets face it- Cade would have made a tasty little snack.

 Wanting to swim with penguins.

 Posing with penguins.

 We had a girl trip to American Girl. I think I loved it almost as much as Sophie.  It was such fun!  They brought chairs for the dolls to sit at the table, and served the dolls tea.  Everything was pink, flowers and stars.  They also treated our girls like princesses for the day.  I would happily go back.

 There are stations around the store that will fix your dolls hair, pierce her ears, and even a doctor station where they can repair dolls. These stations were fun to watch, but we did not do them as they cost roughly the same amount as your first year of college tuition. 

Sophie and her doll in matching outfits.  It is so much fun being with the Yu family.  Our kids play so well together that I always leave wishing we lived closer together.  Luckily, the kids are getting older and easier to travel with so hopefully we can continue to see them often.