carnival

 They had a fun little carnival for a hot air balloon festival at the park across the street from where we lived so we decided to take the kids one evening.  We didn't see much of the hot air balloons since you had to get up at dawn to watch them take off and the weather wasn't that good that weekend.  They had a bunch of different booths and fun rides.  Tori liked building her bug house and James had fun building his helicopter at the home depot booth. 

 

Ellie had fun watching everything in the stroller. 

 The kids each picked their favorite ride to go on and had a blast. 

Oregon Coast Aquarium

We had to go on one more fun day trip before we left Oregon.  Our kids love the beach, even though it's usually quite cold, so we went to the Oregon coast and visited a really cool aquarium.  Above we're eating our lunch outside in the sun.

 They had a lot of cool outdoor exhibits and fun things for the kids to play with.  They liked standing in the shark's mouth with dad and walking through a tunnel made of glass so you could see sharks swimming all around you as you walked through - it was quite a sight.

 After the aquarium, we stopped by the beach on the way home. The water was really cold, but the kids still had a blast building sand castles.

 And Ellie enjoyed eating the sand.

Below James and Ellie are all cleaned up and ready to fall asleep on the way home.  What a fun day! 

Happy Birthday, James!

Our sweet James turned 3!!  He was very excited for his birthday, especially his cake.  Tori was really excited that he got a wagon for his birthday and she could pull him and Ellie all over, now.  We kept all the kids' birthdays in Oregon a little low key.  James really wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese's and so we went there as family.  The kids always have a blast, even though it is usually a little crazy. It's fun to see him grow up into such a big boy.  He is loving playing with his sisters, doing anything outside, walking Tori to school and he enjoys his nursery class at church.  

Tori's Try-athalon

The school district in Oregon where we were put on a "Try-athalon" for kids.  They had different distances for each age group. If I remember correctly I think for Tori's age it was swim a lap of the pool, bike 2 miles and run a half mile.  Tori was so excited to be a part of it.  She tried to train by running and riding her bike to school and going on runs and bike rides with Dad.  She did it with her best friend, Natalie, which made it even more fun. 

 Above Tori and Natalie just finished the swimming portion (Natalie's mom and older sister, Evie are behind them).  Below Tori is doing the bike riding part.  She did well with this part, but there were a few hills and turns that she didn't like to take fast.

 Below she is finishing up the running portion with a big smile.

 Below you can see James doing some running of his own behind the girls. 

 The cutest thing about the whole day was how thrilled Tori was to get the blue ribbon she is holding below.  It's the first time she had gotten a ribbon and she couldn't stop talking about how cool it was.  It is still kept in a special place a year later. :)

 Even Ellie had fun running around and cheering for Tori.