Mommathon

Tomorrow it’s back to the grindstone, so today we went on two separate outings to get the most out of our last day of Memorial Day Weekend. We started off at Tryon Creek State Park. I don’t even remember where I first heard about it, but I am so glad we went because it was a beautiful hike.

Checking out a snail

It was quite a drive from Tryon Creek to our next destination so we stopped for a bite to eat first and then headed to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum. The boys and I went to the adjoining water park last December, but didn’t make it to the museum. Holy cow! This museum is on par with the air and space museum in Washington, D.C. It was fantastic.

This is a game to test and see if you have the same kind of skills a pilot needs to fly a plane…slow and steady. You have to keep the ball up in the air and maneuver it through a hoop, back around, through the hoop again, back around the other way and back through the hoop again. The ball is kept in the air with air that is blowing through the tube, but maneuvering the ball without it dropping is not easy. (Do you see that GINORMOUS airplane in the back? That’s the Spruce Goose. The picture can’t capture how incredibly huge it is.)

The Mercury 7

This was the day of gardening. We started out by going to Home Depot to rent a tiller. Then went to our local nursery to get some worm castings and then Starbucks to get some coffee grounds for the garden.

Sean tilled while the boys and I picked out the weeds that he’d tilled up and then we put down the worm castings and the coffee grounds.


After all of that hard work it was ready to go. (We really should have taken a before picture so you could truly appreciate all of the work that went into getting it to look like this.)

After going to the grocery store and the library and then back to the nursery, the boys and I came back to the garden to plant our seeds and plants. We planted watermelon seeds, carrot seeds, radish seeds, and lettuce seeds and then we had tomato and strawberry plants. We planted four different types of tomatoes and at least two different types of strawberries.


All done, pretty dirty and ready to go home.

We have been wanting to go to Ft. Vancouver ever since we passed it last July on the way back from Seattle. You can see it from the highway and it looked really neat. Colm is currently obsessed with Laura Ingalls Wilder and all things pioneer and Liam’s 4th grade class has been studying the Oregon Trail for a large chunk of the year, so this was the perfect outing.

The tall walls were needed to keep out the wolves and the Americans. The British didn’t like us too much.

John McLoughlin’s house…he was in charge of Hudson’s Bay Company at Ft. Vancouver until they found out he was being too nice to the American settlers, so he “retired” and moved to Oregon and eventually became an American citizen.

She was baking bread in the oven while we were there. She was also warming up water on the fire so the dishes could be washed.

Blacksmith

I loved that this book is told from the perspective of the dog and that it takes place in the Pacific Northwest. It reminded me a lot of “A Dog’s Purpose” by W. Bruce Cameron which I also really liked.

Memorial Day Weekend started a little early for us since the boys didn’t have school today, so we are going to be enjoying a four day weekend. There is no complaining around here about that. The weather was beautiful today so we decided to do two things that I have really wanted to do with the kids for over a year now and we FINALLY got around to doing them today!

Our first stop was the OHSU tram. This was a surprise for the boys…they had no idea this was on the agenda for the day. We have seen them numerous times and about freaked out the first time we saw them and today we got to actually ride them.
This is what they look like. There are two of them…this is the one we weren’t riding that passed us while we were up in the air.


There’s quite a view from up there…see Mount St. Helens in the background?



So we rode up to the top where all of the hospitals are and then stayed on and rode back down. The only part that’s a little disconcerting is when you sway a little…I wouldn’t want to be up there on a windy day, that’s for sure.

Then we had lunch and headed to the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals. Liam learned about rocks and minerals in third grade, so this place has been on my radar for a while. Colm was not at all interested in going to this place, but it turned out that it was actually kind of cool. (Like I knew it would be.) 🙂

These were one of our favorites…they look fuzzy.

Glow in the dark rocks…

Pretty rocks…







They also have a ton of fossils and one whole huge room that is full (and I mean FULL) of petrified trees.

At the end the kids get to dig through a pile of rocks and take one home. The boys were determined to find a fossil and/or a thunder rock in that pile and, although it took a lot of digging, they were successful.

We had a busy day today that involved getting one cast off, another cast on, Jog-a-thon, violin lessons, making our first s’mores of the season and playing 4-square out front with the neighbors.

One cast off…

and a new and much smaller and lighter cast on.

Then it was off to Jog-a-thon…in the rain.

Afterwards, the kids got popsicles, but hot chocolate might have been more appropriate.

Then the skies cleared (a little) and it was Colm’s turn.

Out in front ready to get started

After violin lessons and dinner we had our first s’mores of the season. Yum!!!

Lastly, a little pre-bedtime four-square with the neighbors.

I got this book for a dollar at the library book sale, so I figured if it wasn’t any good then it was no big deal. It turns out that was a dollar well spent. Let me forewarn you, this book will make you cry. I thought it did a good job though of depicting the troubles that couples go through and how a tragedy like the one that this couple suffers could really stress their relationship to the max.

I love it when we have unexpected visitors. My cousin came to town for work and we were able to have dinner with him this weekend. It was so interesting to learn about his work with wind energy. The work he does is so cool, especially since alternative energy sources are so important right now.

This is, by far, our favorite spirit day of the year. This one never gets forgotten or overlooked.

Green hair spray with teeny tiny hair clips in their hair.

One Halloween sock and one pirate sock, both turned inside out.

We started a Mother’s Day tradition last year of planting our garden on Mother’s Day. Last year we planted pumpkins, tomatoes, cantaloup, watermelon and carrots. The problems is, you see, that in between last fall and this spring our little garden plot turned into a mess of weeds…more than I could tackle on my own. So, I brought in the troops.

We still didn’t get rid of all the weeds today. It was hot and we didn’t have any water and Colm got sunscreen in his eye. BUT we did manage to get rid of all of the weeds except one small corner. Next weekend we are going to rent a tiller to break up the soil that is as hard as a rock and MAYBE, just maybe actually get some seeds planted in the ground.

What are we planting? I am so glad you asked. We are planting watermelon, radishes, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and strawberries this year. We are also working on getting some raised beds and/or some large pots at our house, too.