More Oregon

My parents came into town a few weeks ago, and we had no shortage of fun.  Rocky is obsessed with trains right now, he LOVES seeing them, hearing them, playing with them... We actually rode one when mom and dad came down!

He was so excited when we pulled up.  I'll never forget how happy he looked when he inched up to this train and touched it with his finger!

 

We sat right up in the front, and the train whistle was SO LOUD.  Rocky never took his hands off his ears, although he still said he had fun.

They had a fun playground at the train station too.

We also visited the Tillamook Cheese factory after the train ride and got some free samples. Yummy!

We also picked A LOT of blue berries.  I think I mentioned my love for the berries out here in my previous post...

We skipped some rocks at the Willamette River, probably only 2 miles from our house.

This is my favorite picture right now. Rosy wearing my hat, sitting on my dad's lap, wearing his hat.  On the banks of the Willamette. 

These next pictures have a little story behind them.  When Rocky was little my dear friends of the Grow family sent Rocky these adorable red Converse shoes. I was so excited, they just seemed so 'Marlis Grow' to me.  She sent them when Rocky was about 2 months old.  He was only able to wear them for a month though because he grew so fast that first year!  I put them in their original box and packed them away, I just recently found them and put them on my girl, hopeful they still fit.  Guess what? Perfect fit and she's 8months old.  If that gives you a little idea of how much bigger Rocky was when he was Rosy's age... She is such a doll baby.  Thanks again for the red Marlis shoes, Marlis.

Joe had some time off from work this weekend, and we had a beautiful day in the mountains at the Santiam River.  It's rare when you get a day to do just about whatever you want, with no time constraints whatsoever.  That's what it fell like at the River.  We skipped rocks, swam, looked for fish and bugs and ate our fill of wild blackberries.  We would make an excellent mountain man family.  whatever that means.

No one was there to take my picture, but I just felt happy and wanted to document the moment!

Rocky didn't want to take any pictures, he was too busy being busy.  This kid is something else.  He's always been good at anything physical, but I realized yesterday he doesn't slow us down at all, even when he has rocks as big as he is to hike over.  He's such a fun kid to be around.

Our day did not end there.  Joe found a drive-in theatre not too far away so we packed all of our blankets and pillows in the land rover and went to watch the flick.  I remember going when I was a kid, poppin popcorn and packing drinks... It was fun to take the kiddos.  We got there in plenty of time to set up.

They advertised that they had the biggest screen in Oregon! (In the smallest town of Oregon...)

We Made It To Oregon!

Well we are officially residents of Oregon!  It already feels like a lifetime since we left Arizona, even if its only been 2 months.  While I miss so much more about AZ than I thought I would, there are definitely perks to living in Oregon.  For example, did you know black berries grow like a weed out here?  The streets are literally lined with wild blackberry bushes.  They are at every park, and along many sidewalks.  We live so close to a couple U-Pick blueberry and raspberry farms too.  I ate a blueberry that was no-joke, the size of a quarter! I didnt even know that was possible.  My parents came down last weekend to deliver the remanider of our stuff, and we went berry picking 3 times in one weekend!  That tells you how delicious they were.  We are living in a temporary 4-plex, and we are trying not to unpack anything we dont need.  Joe did most of his training in Portland during July so the kids and I stayed in a hotel for 2 weeks.(That's a story on it's own, one I dont wish to re-live...Let's just say, no car or stroller, Rosy and double ear infections, sick kids, no sleep...blah blah blah) So we really have only been here (in Albany at our 4-plex) for less than a month.  We were so used to living with so little since we left our 'stuff' behind at my parent's house that now that we have our boxes I still haven't unpacked much.  For example, we have one knife, and it's about 100 years old and it's still the only knife we have. I dont' know why I mention that, just that it makes me laugh when I find myself washing it 20 times a day.  The funny thing about living somewhere you know to be temporary is it's hard to ever feel organized.  No matter how hard I try I seem to still feel like a mess. 

 We did let Bear stay with Joe's parent's while we were making it work in a hotel.  This is the happy family at Multnoma falls on our way to visit the parents and drop off the dog.

Between study intervals (at this point in the summer Joe still had to take both of his Pharmacy tests- just ask him, BIG headache, he was convinced he had failed, but actually passed with flying colors) Joe and Rocky rode the lawn mower at his parent's house.

Rosy making cute baby messes at his parents house.

Look at that sass face!

So here we are, adjusting to life in Oregon.  For those of you who read that, it was a lot to read, but I have been MIA from blogging for a while!