Daddy's birthday

Today is Ed's birthday!  Emma had fun decorating the "party house" for him before he got home.  He was greeted at the front door, but later Emma said she had wanted to hide and jump out yelling "surprise" at him!

She even got the animals ready.  Zoe got a bow on her collar, and a paw print hat that only stayed on for 5 seconds once she let go of the string!

Emma was proud to wrap all the presents herself, and then she was very organized in the distribution of her gifts to Ed.  (Plus she had him wear the birthday sombrero she got last year!)











These are a couple of real party animals here...

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

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Hops baseball

The Portland area has a new professional baseball team.  It's the Hillsboro Hops, and they are the Arizona Diamondbacks Class A team.  We've been wanting to see a game this summer, and today when we were trying to figure out something fun to do we realized they had a home game tonight!  It was a near sellout, but we got tickets.

It was incredibly beautiful out - but also quite hot to sit there.  We had our cold drinks and were all sunblocked up!












Barley, the Hops mascot.  Kind of weird :)

I told Emma they were playing the "Baby M's" - the Everett Aquasox.  They are the Mariners Class A team.  She borrowed one of Ed's hats to wear!  Teddy boy came too.  She had a hard time deciding between him or Woof - she said they both love baseball!

Dancing to "Hop Around."  I had to sneak the video of her, and as you can see at the end she didn't want me filming!

The Hops lost the game 6-0, but it was still great to be out at the ballpark!
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Forest foraging

Emma and Ed went out into the forest today to go exploring.  Emma also loves shows like "Survivorman" and wanted to practice some basic skills, so they started a fire to boil some water.  They had a pot and chicken noodle soup, and they cooked soup for lunch.  They didn't have bowls, so they cut open a water bottle and Gatorade bottle, and made instant bowls!  She loved it.

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Turbo

The fam took Emma to see Turbo this morning!  It's about a racing snail, if you haven't heard of it :)

University of Oregon

Today we drove down Eugene, to the U of O.  Miranda had been there all week at a summer music camp for marching and leadership (drum major), and we were going to meet up there and watch the performance for the families.

We arrived about half an hour early, and noticed that you could go directly onto the field.  I just had to get a picture of Emma in the O in the center of the field!  And, well, maybe a few (dozen) more pictures while we were at it....

Playing football with Ted!  The turf was incredibly soft and springy to run around on.

The 5 on the 50 yard line for her age, and E in the "OREGON" endzone for Emma!

Of course the real reason we were there - Miranda and the other campers!  They played three songs, and then did a number of marching and dancing routines!  It was fun to watch :)

Roller girl

Today we went to a local skating rink to try out roller skating.  We had a lot of fun!  I know I haven't skated for over 20 years, but I managed to stay upright.  Emma and I circled around a few times, and then went to a back lane where it's just rolling hills.  This was really fun!  We went back and forth and then Emma wanted to do it by herself.  She used a shuffle step to get going, and if she fell, she just got right back up and kept going!  She already wants to go back.















Skating cousins!















Rolling on the whoop-di-dos!

Archery

We may have found a new hobby for Emma - archery!  Last year Ed got a Groupon for a local indoor archery range.  We have to use it by the end of this summer, so we went in this afternoon to check it out.

We each got a bow and five arrows, and with some quick instruction and the range rules, we were set free to practice.  We each had our own target and just kept firing arrows down range.  We were there for about an hour and a half, and Emma wanted to stay for longer!  We can still go back two more times for free and will definitely take advantage of it :)

4th of July

Yesterday to celebrate Independence Day, we went to the St. Paul Rodeo.  We went to the evening show so that we could see fireworks afterwards.  There's just that extra special something about the rodeo that is so patriotic, and it's a wonderful place to spend the 4th!  I love watching the presentation of the colors with all the horses following.

The first event was bucking horses.  This horse is named Darth Vader!  The rider went the full 8 seconds before getting thrown off.



Emma enjoyed the rodeo clown - Troy "Wild Child" Lerwill.  He tricked us into thinking he didn't know how to ride a motorcycle, and after goofing off and running it all around the arena, he jumped a ramp over his truck and trailer!

Beautiful sunset!

We had a really good time and can't wait to go again next year!

We walked back to the parking lot during the fireworks show and watched from the back of the truck.  They were out in the distance in a field.  It was a great show and the perfect ending for the 4th!

Rock Creek camping

This weekend we went camping on the east side of the Mt. Hood National Forest.  It was at Rock Creek Reservoir, so Saturday morning Ed and Emma headed over to fish.  It was hard to find a good spot, and it was getting mighty hot out.  (Sure was pretty though!)











After a little while we headed back to camp and put on swim gear.  Emma wore a life jacket and learned how to float in it, which is something we wanted her to get comfortable with anyway.  There was a paved walkway that went way out into the water, so we never actually had to stand on muddy ground.  It was kind of weird - and kind of nice!  Zoe loved swimming too, she would run out on the walkway and paddle over to Emma and Ed!  The water felt soooo good on the hot day.

They were swimming like Navy Seals!











Later we drove a short way into the nearby small town.  We got ice cream that we had to eat very quickly as it was melting fast!  It was nice to have a break in the air conditioning, and Zoe slept in her bed while we drove around.  We saw two deer!  We also saw the other side of Mt. Hood that we don't normally see.  Emma said with this cloud over it, it kind of looked like it was erupting!











Our campsite was near the entrance sign, and I thought it'd be cute to have Emma peek over the top.  Only trouble is she was a couple of inches too short!  So we went around to the other side and she struck up one of her poses.

The campsite was pretty roomy, and we could find shade when we needed it.  Emma tended to Boss Daddy while she let him relax!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If Emma was stranded on an island, two of the things she'd want to have with her would be paper and pens.  She just draws and draws and draws!  Now she's writing about what she is drawing too, she's sounding out words and attempting to spell them.  It's good practice!

We finished off the evening with a glow stick bow tie!











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