The Smith Family Adventures

Last weekend was my 29th birthday. We packed up and went off to Sunriver. Ama and Baba came too! The whole weekend was fun, but I had an especially good birthday. My family was there. The weather was good. We got to go swimming. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Here was my 29th birthday in pictures:

We went swimming as soon as the pool opened. We went to the lazy river first. Elias liked floating along in the tubes. Nathan and I left for a bit to go on the water slides (that was a summer bucket list item), but then we came back to join everyone in the pool. Elias loved doing jumps the most, but he also loved the zero entry pool where he could walk around.

After the boys got too cold, we got out to warm up. Here is our little burrito:

We got Simon dressed and then my Dad helped him down for a nap:

After everyone was warm we went out to eat a picnic lunch. Here are Baba and Simon. Simon kept trying to grab Baba’s coke!:

And here are me and my love. One of the first things he did when we woke up was point at me and say, “You’re old. You’re old. You’re old.” over and over again. How romantic. (He turns 29 nine days after me and he’ll never let me forget it.

After the picnic we went back to the pool for more fun:

Baba and Simon played cards in the shade for a bit after we were finished swimming:

Then we went home to get cleaned up. We got to eat dinner out at the Village Bar and Grill. My aunt and uncle, who were also in Sunriver, joined us for dinner. Here is Elias guzzling his H2O:

After dinner we were going to go to Goody’s to get a birthday treat, but the line was out the door so we settled on a train ride instead. Elias had a great time. Here is my little man:

And our family on the train:

Finally, we walked around the Village mall a bit. Simon’s eyes are so not brown. This picture proves it. Sorry Nathan:

I am pretty embarrassed to put this picture on display. But it is a good illustration not only of what my kitchen looked like after working for a week and taking care of two young children…but it represents what life feels like for us right now:

Yes. Embarrassing. But I didn’t teach today so I got to stay home with my boys. I got to catch up on laundry and vacuuming and playing and loving. I saved this job, though, for after Nathan got home. Today is the only week day in five weeks that I had to spend with the boys and I didn’t want to waste it cleaning the kitchen. After we ate dinner, Nathan took the boys outside to play “bat and ball” and I tackled the mess.

I can breathe deep again. The dishwasher was humming, the leaves rustled through the open window, and I went out to enjoy the rest of the weekend with my family. Life is good.

We had two people working full time outside of the home this week. The short story? We made it.

Here’s a bit longer version:

This is the seventh summer in a row that I am teaching summer school. I choose to stay home with the boys (2 and 4 months), but I do miss teaching. The summer school program I teach for is a really awesome one, and it helps me stay in the game teaching-wise. Plus I think it is good for my sons to see me being successful and happy doing something I love (besides care for them).

But it is not something I would want to year round. The boys are with my parents (thanks mom and dad!) so I don’t have to worry about them during the day. But I still miss them. By the time I got home, cleaned/sterilized the bottles, cooked and got everyone fed, and repacked the bags for the next day, I had only one hour or so with my boys before bed time. That meant that I couldn’t do any chores or anything for myself if I wanted to see them. Needless to say…the house got pretty messy. And dinners got pretty simple.

I’m not trying to complain or anything. I guess I’m just trying to say…I don’t know how people who work full time do it. I’m so thankful for this opportunity to teach summer school each year, but I also am always reassured in my decision to stay home with my boys during the rest of the year.

The whole week I just kept telling myself “I will survive.” And I did.

This morning, Nathan and I spent a couple hours getting everything back in order around here. In the evening, we went out to enjoy the weather at a nearby park. We had a few fun events. First, Simon tried out the swing!

While Simon tried out the red swing, Daddy and Elias went on the blue one!

Then Elias wanted to try the “big boy” swing by himself. We’ve been trying to get him to try it for awhile now, and he finally worked up the courage. He kept saying, “I’m doing it!”

At the end of the evening, I was sitting with Simon in the grass watching Nathan and Elias play together on the play structure and swings. Simon has been working on sitting up. I still wouldn’t say that he can “sit up” on his own. But I prop him up with his legs wide apart and both arms on the ground, and he can sort of hold himself up. It’s pretty cute.

As you can see, though, he sinks closer and closer to the ground and slowly bends himself in half:

It was a wonderful finish to our Saturday!

This morning when we woke up we did not know what we were going to do with our day. After entertaining a few different ideas, we decided on heading to the coast for a day of fun. We were very glad that we made that decision! Our day was packed with family fun at the beach.

We arrived a little before noon, and promptly stopped by a shop to purchase a kite. It’s something that Nathan has been wanting to do with Elias for awhile now, plus it is Kk week here so it worked out perfect. Then we went to the beach to set up our spot. Nathan set up the umbrella, and Simon got his first look around at everything:

Then we had our picnic lunch:

Elias enjoyed watching the gulls flying and walking around. Simon just took it all in as usual. Here he is laying in the shade of the umbrella:

Nate and I had to get a picture of ourselves in there as well. We were just happy to be there!

After lunch we played in the sand for a bit, and then decided to go check out the ocean. As we were walking toward the ocean, Elias said, “There’s the pool!” Nate and I had a bit of a chuckle, and Nathan explained that it was the ocean, not a pool. We stopped for a family photo. Here’s the best one we could get:

Elias absolutely loved playing in the water. He ran and splashed back and forth, back and forth for as long as we let him!

He wanted to go deeper, but Nathan held him back.

Simon got to put his toes into the Pacific for the first time as well. He didn’t seem to mind the cold water, but enjoyed standing in the wet sand more than just getting his feet dipped into the water.

After we played in the ocean for a bit longer, we decided to head back to our spot to get dried off and warmed up. Elias played in the sand again and said that was his favorite part of the beach. He instructed Nathan and I where to dig our holes.

At this point, Simon had had enough, and got quite upset until I was able to put him down for a nap. He napped in the shade while Nathan tried to get the kite set up.

Unfortunately, Nathan’s engineer brain was not able to be creative enough to put together a kite without instructions. He toiled for quite awhile and Elias played in the sand and watched. He got sand everywhere!

I jumped up to try and help with the kite, but it did no good. We were probably the comic entertainment for our section of the beach trying to get that kite into the air. It just kept flying for a second or two, and then it came crashing into the sand. Finally, Nathan figured out what was wrong, and we got the kite up. Elias even got to fly it!

We let Elias choose any kite he wanted. He chose the cow kite. Here he is flying it:

After the kite flying, Elias played in the ocean again. We were all exhausted by the time we got home. What a fun day!

Last night we attended the opener for the Hillsboro Hops. When Nathan found out that a minor league team would be taking up residence nearby, he immediately decided we’d be fans. As the opening day got closer, we bought t-shirts and a mini plan that allows us front row seats for four games! Last night we went with a huge group of family and friends for a night of fun.

Unfortunately, the game did not start until 7:05 so it was quite late for both boys. We left after seven and a half innings and still were not home until after 10 p.m. But both boys did well. It was Simon’s first baseball game (other than Nathan’s rec league softball), and Elias loves baseball right now so he was super excited. The stadium was full, the weather cooperated, and the Hops delivered. They won 12-0! Elias even got to see a genuine homerun! He talked about the game all day today, saying things like “those guys wore green and the Hops wore white and grey” and “he got three strikes he’ll try again next time” and “we said no more fireworks” (Elias hated the fireworks at the beginning of the evening….that was part of the reason we left early…there were more fireworks promised at the end).

Here was our Hops opener in pictures:

Uncle Scott snuck this hat on Simon before the game started. Don’t worry Duck fan friends….Nathan promptly knocked it off of his head….but not before I snapped this picture!

Elias and Daddy watching the game

Elias had fun clapping to all of the songs and crowd energizers that played over the loud speakers.

Simon took a nap around 8:30 or so. It is amazing how babies can sleep through all that noise! He even slept through a small rain shower!

Simon woke back up but was so tired. He just looked at us with that “what in the world are we still doing out and about” kind of look in his eyes