The Smith Family Adventures

On Saturday evening during a break in the weather, we decided to take advantage of our luck and go play at the park. I’ve been a couple times with Elias now that spring has arrived, but Nathan hadn’t really gotten to see Elias play at the park since he’s been walking and climbing.

Elias loves the slide so we did that first. He can climb up the stairs, sit down safely, and slide down the slide all by himself. Then he can scoot off the end and walk around to do it all over again. He thought it was fun to play peek-a-boo on the play structure. It is so much fun now that he is more mobile.

After the slide we decided to have some fun on the swings. After some other little kids left, Elias encouraged Nathan and I to swing next to him. We had a Smith family swinging moment. Then I left to get the camera. Nathan was going quite high. I was trying to encourage him not to try to jump off the swing…after all we are getting into our upper twenties. But Nathan swung as high as he could, and after successfully landing a jump said, “I still got it.”

We finished our park time by making Nathan extremely dizzy on these spinning chairs that didn’t exist when we were little. Elias enjoyed spinning his ball.

We had nothing planned for this weekend, so Kim and I agreed we had to tackle one of our bucket list items. Sadly after a week of mostly-sunny weather, it is raining today. Much of our list is comprised of outdoor activities, so the weather would limit our choices. Luckily one item was easy to fulfill: “Learning something new at the Oregon Historical Society.”

So we packed up Elias and headed downtown. Now surely you are wondering what we did with a 17 month-old at a museum. Well, he stayed in his stroller for parts, enjoying a few snacks and playing with the program. But we also let him get out and push the stroller, climb on benches, and generally explore. He didn’t hurt anything, and was not so distracting that I didn’t get to enjoy the museum.

The exhibits were very well done. I was fascinated by what I saw there. They had a wide range of history represented, from Merriwether Lewis’ brand to John Kitzhaber’s jeans. Sometime I might like to go back and spend a bit more time taking everything in. What I learned is that the USS Oregon was known as “the bulldog” because the wake it raised made it look like “she was carrying a bone in her teeth.”

Snow at the zoo in March!

This morning was crisp and clear…such a beautiful morning in the northwest. I thought I’d take Elias to the Oregon Zoo to see some animals and get some fresh air. I bundled us up…because the sun doesn’t bring warmth this time of year. In fact, when we got to the zoo, there was snow in many places where the sun’s rays had not shone yet.

Elias was really excited by some of the animals in the Great Northwest exhibits. It was a perfect day to go. There was almost no one there so we had almost all the exhibits to ourselves. The

Elias was quite interested by many of the animals. Here he is watching a mountain goat.

animals were active since it was sunny and cool. We saw a few things we’ve never seen before. The black bears were super active and playful. They were digging in the snow right in front of the window, and were playing together. Elias and I realized how tall they are!

Here are a few of Elias’ favorite animals (judging by his reactions as we watched them):

Playful black bears. The glass was super reflective so it was hard to get a good picture. Elias watched these bears for a good fifteen minutes.

Elias pointing out what he sees.

Mountain goats

Bald Eagles

Elias loved the duck area. He kept talking to them, saying "hi." He especially liked this white bird which flew across the pond and landed right next to us.

One of the first things Elias did this morning was carry his Thomas book to Daddy to read together.

Elias is loving his Daddy more and more every day. “Daddy” is one of the first things Elias always says in the morning when he wakes up. I get sad on work days when I have to tell him that Daddy won’t be home for a long time. Elias thinks pretty much everything his Daddy does is funny. It is very cute to watch.

Nathan and I are just loving this age. Especially now that spring is coming, Elias is able to get out and run around. He is learning to play ball, climb on play structures, and explore the outdoors. He is able to have fun…and we can tell! It’s so much fun to have a little boy who can start to get messy and (occasionally) a bit rowdy, but still loves hugs and kisses from Mommy and Daddy too.

Today since it was sunny we took Elias to the park to run around. Then while I made some homemade soup for dinner, Nathan took him back out to the gravel patch to play. Here are some pictures:

Enjoying the park

Tree bark is interesting.....

Running after Daddy.

Elias had fun running down a small hill.

Pretending to be monkeys on the monkey bars.

All the cousins (and Auntie Erin) getting acquainted.

Elias has been so lucky to be able to play with his cousins for the last two days. Cousins Audrey and Sonya as well as Auntie Erin are visiting from New York. Elias has only gotten to spend time with them one other time in his life (when he was three months old). Nathan and I were very excited to see them.

Elias being the first child, and me being a stay-at-home mom makes it difficult for me to create play opportunities for Elias

Elias took to Auntie Erin quickly, and asked to sit on her lap. Sonya wasn't very happy to share her Mommy so she got a spot on her lap too.

where he interacts with children his age. I take him to story time at the library once a week, and we also go to art class once a week. Occasionally we have play dates with friends. But for the most part he interacts with adults. I was excited for him to get some play time with his cousins…and to see how he would react. He is generally very shy around other kids.

I was very pleased because it seemed that Elias recognized his cousins and Auntie from the pictures of them we have

Elias: "But Mom...those bees are mine."

displayed around the house. When I opened the door the first time, he said hello to his grandma, then immediately pointed to Audrey. The kids had an hour or so of play time before we had to do naps. Then we met again for dinner and more play time. Then we played again this morning at Grandma’s house. The kids seemed to play pretty well together. Elias seemed to have a bit of a hard time getting used to the fact that other people were going to play with his toys. But he was generally good-natured about sharing.

The time went way too fast, but we’ll see them briefly again next week, and soon they’ll be moving closer so we’ll see them more often. A few more pictures:

Elias was happy to share his play-doh with Sonya.

Everyone playing together.

Sonya kept trying to give Elias a kiss, but he kept pushing her away and saying "no." Poor Sonya.

Well March is here, and although it is not officially spring (and in fact there is snow on the ground this moment), it is time for the Smith Family Spring Bucket List. The first time I made one of these was last fall. We had a blast. Then in the winter, we also did some fun family activities as well as start new traditions, learn new skills, and help out at the Food Bank. I like the bucket lists because they help us to try new things, and to make time for us as a family. We are hoping to do lots of fun stuff in the next couple of months. The spring bucket list will run from March 1st through May 31st. We’ll see how it goes! You can click on the image to make it larger!

Update: I’ve added a copy of the bucket list that can be modified. Feel free to use it as a template to make your own Spring Family Bucket List!

• I created this document in Libre Office. You can download Libre Office or Open Office to your computer for free.
• This is it: Smith Spring Bucket List 12