The Smith Family Adventures

Cooler weather didn’t stop the Smiths from having some family fun this weekend. Saturday morning we relaxed and played. Then we headed out to the library to pick up The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown Blu-ray which I had placed on hold, and to Michael’s to pick up a few items we needed for arts and crafts fun.

Elias painting leaf magnets.

After lunch and nap time, we made leaf magnets! Elias absolutely loves art class these days so I wanted to try and do more arts and crafts at home. I cut leaf shapes out of craft foam, then let him paint them. Then we stuck magnets on the back and “Ta-Da”! They turned out very cute, and Elias was very excited to be painting.

After painting, we decided to watch the Charlie Brown movie. Elias had never watched a movie before, so we thought this would be a good start…it’s short. He had fun watching, and commenting on what Snoopy was doing.

Then, Nathan and I went to our church auction, and Ama and Baba came over to spend time with Elias. We keep worrying that all these wonderful in town grandparents are going to get babysitting fatigue, but they all vehemently deny that that will happen. Nathan and I had a fun night out, and Elias was put to bed at home for the first time without us. We are starting to practice for when the baby comes.

Elias with the pile of books he has just finished reading.

Today we headed off to church, and mostly relaxed the rest of the day. Elias got a lot of time to play at home with his toys. We did a little more fall art with some leaf stickers and some markers. Then Elias made his own fun. He set himself up on the couch next to his box of books, and pronounced to Nathan and I, “Elias reading.” He took one book after the other and read them. Some he just looked at pictures, but some he knows well enough that he actually did say all the words aloud. It was very cute to watch, and it made me very proud.

The first apple that Elias picked. It required a bit more force than he thought, but he loved it!

Yesterday we took advantage of our good fortune with the nice weather and decided to go apple picking. Last year, we discovered the Hood River Fruit Loop, and Mountain View Orchards (one of the stops on the fruit loop). We loved it enough that we wanted to go back.

This year was different because Elias was able to walk well, and he was able to actually pick some apples. We had a bit of trouble getting him to be gentle enough when setting the picked apples in our wagon. We ended up with a few bruises before he got the hang of “gentle” even though he said it every time he set one in the box.

Elias helping Daddy pull our wagon.

I think Elias would have picked hundreds of apples if we would have let him. He loved it! He was excited and kept saying, “red apples, green apples” and “apple picking.” We also walked by a few pear trees, and he wanted to pick those. We let him pick two of them, but we mostly went for the apples.

For some of the trees we had to lift Elias up so that he could pick the apples, but on others, there were good apples close enough to the ground that he could just reach up and pick them himself.

Elias finds one right at his level!

After buying all of our apples, we went on the free hayride that they offer. Elias excitedly said, “hayride” even as dust was clogging our eyes. We got to see about a quarter of the orchard, and we stopped to feed the animals. Elias was excited to see a “horsey” a “goat” and a “moo-cow” (Texas Long Horn) as well as some alpacas.

Elias and Daddy getting ready for the hay ride

After the hayride, we ate a picnic lunch in the sun, enjoyed the view of Mt. Hood, and then drove home for a nice Saturday evening at home. Have some fall fun…mission accomplished!

Elias and Daddy playing amongst the trees

Elias bends down low to avoid low branches, and searches for apples!

We took Elias to Cannon beach for the weekend on his real birthday. We’ve had a few celebrations already…with more to come! But we wanted to have something special for just the three (four?) of us. The weekend was perfect. It was beautiful and not too crowded. It was typical Oregon beach…we had to wear fleeces…but there was barely a cloud in the sky and hardly any wind.

Elias had so much fun. He was very excited when we arrived on Friday evening. He climbed on the bed and was laughing and playing as we were unpacking.

We decided a swim in the pool would be appropriate since we had to skip swimming class to get to the beach, and we wanted to let off some energy. Elias put on his own shoes to walk down to the pool. Notice anything funny?

Elias and Daddy had lots of fun doing jumps, bubbles, and motor boats.

Saturday morning, we headed for the beach. As usual, Elias loved making sand castles and digging holes.

Then he went exploring with his Daddy. They explored a couple logs, and then went out to see some sea gulls and the ocean closer up. (No swimming in the ocean today. It was too cold)

We had a beautiful view of Haystack Rock.

After playing on the play ground for awhile, we headed inside for some lunch. Elias also got to open some of his birthday presents from Mommy and Daddy. Nathan got him some Star Wars action figures. Elias can now say Chewbaca, Yoda, and D2 D2 (R2 D2). Mommy gave him an Elmo doll. Elias promptly started pretending it was time for Elmo’s nap, so we thought it would be a good time to segue into nap time!

Saturday evening was spent exploring Sea Side. We drove into town, rode the carousel, and ate at Norma’s. Then we went back to our hotel where we again went swimming!

Sunday was Elias’ real birthday. We took him to breakfast at our favorite breakfast place in the world! (Although I have to admit we haven’t been to very many places, we really do love this place….) The Lazy Susan Cafe!

Then, we took the birthday boy to explore the tide pools at Haystack Rock, and to play in the sand some more before packing up to go home. We got to the tide pools just in time. We spent about ten minutes there before the tide was too high.

It was a fun way to spend Elias’ 2nd birthday. Even if he doesn’t remember it, I know he had lots of fun while we were there!