City Adventure

Yesterday Kate, Papa Jack & I went on an adventure to downtown, via the city bus. It was a great new experience for Kate and we all had a good time. Here she is waiting for the #11 bus.

Wide-eyed on the bus. She sat perfectly quiet the entire way, taking everything in!

First destination: Panera's for lunch!

We then walked to the river to throw in grass & water sticks. She was definitely in her element here!

There was so much to see downtown: big buildings, construction and tons of people! It was definitely a fun way to spend the afternoon.

9 Months

Andrew turned 9 months last week. He is such a busy boy--he is lightning quick with the crawl (especially when motivated by something he wants), pulls himself up on furniture & occasionally cruises around while holding on, and has deemed himself too big for baby food, opting for finger food instead.

Stats

Weight: 20 pounds 10 ounces (54%)

Height: 29 inches (77%)

Below is the reason I am a week behind on this post: it is quite difficult to get this little man to hold still for a picture!

Cubbies Trip

This weekend Jason and I road-tripped with my family down to Kansas City to watch a Royals vs. Cubs baseball game. The trip included some shopping in the plaza (my mom & I headed down a few hours early to spare the boys), some mouth-watering BBQ (after an hour wait in line!), and a fabulous night of baseball.

Sadly, the Cubs couldn't pull off the W for us, and ended up losing 2-3. They did get two back-to-back home runs and 9 hits though, so at least it was an exciting game!

Summer Fun

Today we got out the pool for the first time this summer. The kids played in it for almost 2 hours and as you can see the had quite a good time!

Portland

Jason & I just returned from an awesome trip to Portland, Oregon. It was a much needed vacation that included just the right amount of relaxation & fun.

The first day we took a hike, which lead us to the top of Beacon Rock. This overlooked the Colombia River and the view was amazing.

These are the switchbacks we climbed to get there.

This is near The Bridge of the Gods, just some place we stopped along the way to take in the view.

Our second hike of the day lead to this gorgeous waterfall. The path was secluded and we were happy to have only run into a few people on our 4 mile climb.

At the end of the first day we met up with my old college roommate and her husband to take a (almost) full moon kayak trip.

Both Jason & I agreed this was our favorite part of the entire trip!

On the second day, we drove about 2 hours to Cannon Beach where we stayed at a wonderful hotel right on the beach. This was our backyard:

On the third day, we drove through the scenic forests and had fun stopping along the way. Our trip ended with 13 hours of travel and we are glad to be home. Many thanks to both sets of grandparents for watching the little ones so that we could enjoy our time away!

High Trestle Trail

Today we went on a bike ride on the High Trestle Trail, about 25 minutes away. Sadly, my camera died so I didn't get any photos that did the trip justice, but it was an awesome ride.

The kids waiting for dad to set up the bikes & trailer.

The bridge. Kate is rubbing her eyes because she was so tired. Amazingly, both kids slept for the first 10 miles.

The view from the bridge--it was incredible!

The boys.