I recently checked out a book from the library about things to do with your kids in Portland and the surrounding area. The librarian told me about another place that she thought probably wasn’t in the book. I am so glad we went. The boys got SUPER dirty and had a lot of fun.
Colm putting the worm on Liam’s hook. LOVE the look on Liam’s face.
You might be wondering if the boys caught any fish. The answer would be no and I was SUPER happy the answer was no. Here’s why. You catch it. It’s yours. Oh, and you have to clean them before you leave too and I don’t mean with soap and water. I am talking about cleaning it with a knife. A gal I talked to at church said they had caught THIRTY fish when they went there. Can you imagine me cleaning thirty fish? Uh no. I was literally praying to God while the boys were fishing that they wouldn’t catch anything. (Thank you, Big Guy, I owe you BIG TIME.)
So we gave up on fishing and decided to hop in the paddle boat complete with water guns that you can shoot at other people who are also paddle boating. Good times.
This place also has Frisbee golf. We tried the easy course (they have three). I am so glad we opted for the easy one. One other thing they have here are peacocks…about 30-40 of them. They are everywhere-young, old and everything in between. I took a zillion pictures of them, but none of them came out too clearly since they were either in the shade or camouflaged. I will say, however, that peacocks make an awful sound.
Time to go home…Otter Pops with the resident dog.
(Project 365-8/26/11)
Dirty feet! We went home and made a beeline for the pool. That got them cleaned up in a jiffy.
We picked these five beauties from our garden today. We have about five more that will be ready soon and lots of pumpkin blossoms with promises of more pumpkins in the near future. Now what to do with five pumpkins in August. Any ideas?
School supplies came today! I love getting school supplies. You know what I love even more? Not having to schlep all over town to find them. They are delivered to the school and all I have to do is pick them up AND the school earns a little money, too. It’s a win/win as far as I’m concerned.
So summer is going to be over here before you know it and we still have a lot of things we need to do. First stop, one of the boys favorite places to go and it’s turning into an end of summer tradition around here.
(Project 365-8/22/11)
And because we weren’t already tired enough from traveling all over the city this weekend to all of Liam’s soccer games, we decided it would be fun to take the boys to go see some sheep dog trials. It was very cool and I am glad we went no matter how tired I was once we finally got home.
The boys thought it would be a good idea to climb on top of these tall hay bale bleacher-type things they had set up. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but the boys quickly discovered it’s no fun to sit on hay bales while wearing shorts.
So the dog and the handler would go out into the field and the handler would use a series of whistles to direct the dogs and tell them where to go and what to do. First, the dog had to find the first herd of sheep.
Then he would round them up and head them down the pasture and direct them through some gates. Then he would have to go and find another herd of sheep and do the same thing with them.
Then they had to use that herd of sheep and separate the ones that had on the red collar from the ones who didn’t. It was fascinating watching the dogs work and listening to the whistles. I had no idea that was how the dogs knew what to do.
Another thing I thought was interesting it that there were two handlers who stopped their dogs because the dogs were getting too hot. One of the dogs jumped in this tub of water (that I think was meant for the sheep to drink from) and wouldn’t get out. We didn’t stay for a long time, but I am so glad we went.
Liam’s team played five games this weekend at various locations across the city. It was a long and tiring weekend. The boys played their hearts out, but they were playing up a level and didn’t win too many of those games. They did, however, learn a LOT. When you are playing at that level you have to step it up and FAST. I can’t wait to see how what they learned this weekend translates into their practice and playing in the weeks ahead.
