Railroading

On our Monday night, for Family Home Evening, my mom arranged an evening at the Railroad park in Medford. I think Ty thought it was Christmas... he was over the moon excited! Luckily, Kelly was there to photograph the evening so I could just play with my kiddies. Everyone had a great time even though it was so hot (103 I think) they had misters going and we had cold drinks (Capri Sun's and Bottled Water) and when the train got going the 7 MPH breeze was pretty nice. I rode 3 times, once with Maylee, once with Ty and once with Emma. 

Maylee with my mom, he ever constant and most favorite companion for the week.

Ty was SO excited, when we got there he asked one of the workers when he could ride (never mind it was only us at that point he was READY) she told him at 5 pm they could start. He asked me the time I told him 5:02 so he ran right over to the train and sat right in the front ready for his ride. He didn't ever get off I don't think... 

Maylee and Me, I think she really liked the train too. 

Dallin Ty and Tanner, OBVIOUSLY related. Cute boys. 

Ty and Tanner

Anxiously awaiting the start of his next ride. 

Uncle Nate, in his Capri's riding with the kidlets. 

EVERYBODY on! 

We still had room for more :) (Spence's x2, English's, Schmidt's and Grandma and Grandpa)

Emma took a ride with Bre even. She enjoyed it. 

Yup, lovin' the train.

The next day for Ty was a tough one. I think it was kind of like the day AFTER Christmas for him. Nothing was going to top the sheer awesomeness of railroad goodness for this little man. 

The Girls' Room

Last Saturday Matt went in to the Girls' room to get Maylee up from her nap. He crawled in bed with her and she woke up but Matt fell asleep! I thought it was so funny to see him taking an hour long nap in May's bed. When I took these pictures, I realized that I don't think I ever posted pictures of my improvements to their room! 

 I made that Mobile above Emma's crib. Suzanne cut a bunch of cute cherry blossoms for me and I used needle and thread to put it together. I love it, and I think Emma loves it too. 

 I stencil painted the background of those letter canvases, Suzanne cut out the vinyl for the letters and the Girls' names. 

 There is the dresser, did I ever post about it? Matt and I sanded painted and put wall paper on the front for texture. I have the changing pad on the top. 

 No, I didn't hang that crooked, I took a crooked picture. 

We're headed down to Medford in a few days. My parents have plenty of plans, like train rides, star gazing, swim lessons and speed boats. We'll also get to meet the newest Spence lady Amber while there too. Poor Matt has to stay home and work. We'll miss him while we are gone.  

Homeward bound

Saturday we came back to civilization and got ready for my little cousin MAC's Baptism. It was lovely and my mom even spoke about Baptism. There were 4 children being baptized and the place was PACKED. I can't believe I didn't get a single dang picture... actually it was probably because I was single Mom-ing it that day. Matt and Will entered an official PDGA Disc Golf Tournament at Art Dye. They Disced all day in the Advanced Amateur category. Matt ended up in 4th with a score of -2. The winner in their category had a -9. Not sure what Will got or where he ended up. Matt said they had fun it just took forever and he got to Art and Mickey's at about 7:30 pm.  

Sunday morning we rolled out. We stopped for gas a few times and one of the times we found a Dairy Queen since the kids were being SO good (we seriously have the best traveling kids, we have no DVD players, no kid music, just a few books with rarely ever a cry or whine) They got Dilly bars I got a lemonade and Matt got a smoothie. It's been years since I have been there. The kids did their best in the melting heat to eat their Dilly bars. 

 Ty about lost it, he can't handle messy things and was yelping every second about the stickiness on his hands.

 Emma just took sips of what we had.

The Dilly bars were pretty gross, my lemonade tasted like straight syrup and I never took a sip of Matt's Smoothie but he said he's had much better.

Note to self: when going to DQ just get a Blizzard, that is all they are good at making.

As we drove along the Oregon Washington boarder on I 84 is it lined with railroad tracks. Ty is ALWAYS occupied trying to spy trains and point them out. Well this trip was made long by poor Ty having a bit of a stomach bug, we had to stop about every hour wherever we could find for Ty to use the bathroom. After one stop a train went whizzing by. Ty was thrilled, he told Matt to go beat the train. So we hopped back in the car and got going so fast we passed the engine. We whipped around a corner and Matt saw a little place to pull completely off the freeway. He pulled over and I asked him what he was doing. He told me it would only take a few minutes. He ran around the car pulled Ty and Maylee out, he held on to May and put Ty on the back of the car. They stood there. The railroad ran right next to the freeway. The Engineer saw our little brood the second she came around the corner. Ty and Maylee were making the whistle action that Matt had just showed them. The Engineer cranked on the whistle of the engine and opened all her windows and waved like crazy. It was really LOUD as she flew by. Not gonna lie, as Ty and Maylee were smiling and squealing with joy, I teared up a tiny bit. Matt is one cool Dad. I would have never thought to do that. Both of us were getting a little irritated with all the stops, but Matt took the 5 minutes out of the trip to do something with the kids that would be the highlight of the drive home. It was awesome and I am forever thankful that I married such a good man.

Coombs Cabin Part 2

The evening of the 4th we did a campfire. Elena was playing in the dirt by herself having a grand old time. 

 The rest of us were hanging out around the fire pit. 

 This is Will's first ever made by himself S'more. I can't remember if he liked it or not... hmm. 

 I shared our friend Ken's S'more concotion with everyone that night, i made sure to make Brownies (just the way Ken and Krista make them) and stacked brownie, Reeses Mallows and Grahams. Yum. 

 My Dad said it was tasty. 

 McKinley was pooped from the festivities of the day. 

 Mom and Dad. 

 Mom tried a Brownie Reeses S'more too, she said she liked it, but since she isn't a big reeses fan it wasn't her favorite. Next time i'll have to get rolos for her or something. 

 Matt roasted many a perfect mallow for me and for himself. 

 After all the kids were in bed Suzanne bought poppers. We weren't allowed to do ANY sort of fire works due to high fire danger so we figured poppers over the fire wouldn't be a big deal... paper confetti and all. 

Wellllll they didn't work like we'd hoped and it was PLASTIC confetti! Arg! 

 So we had to pick up all the little confetti pieces, 

 every.single.one. Ugh. 

 The following day we went and picked up the Razr 4 wheelers. Matt, Preston, Mom and Suzanne had to drive them back to the Cabin. My mom was horrified and vowed to never rent them again she was so scared while they were going through the rocky trails. Notice Preston's reaction to my mothers real fear haha. 

 Maylee anxiously awaited her turn. 

 While the grown ups went for rides, the kids and a watchful grown up went down to the creek. 

 (this one's a framer I think... ADORABLE!) 

 Suzanne and Preston. 

 Dad and Me. We went back through some of the crazy trails my mom was so nervous about, they weren't really anything too crazy and we had some good fun with them. 

 The little each got a ride too. Preston took Jason out. 

 Matt took Ty out, (he loved it, of course... he's his Father's son, not scared of anything like this.)

 My mom even took Maylee for a spin just down to the fence of the cabin property and back. 

 Will took Sierra for a spin. 

 The helmet fit a little loose but not bad but it was so heavy for her little body that she road the whole time with it leaning on the handle bars. She held on like a pro though... 

 There it is, the Cabin that my Great Grandmother bought 60 years ago. My Dad says the exterior hasn't really changed a WHOLE bunch since it was originally built. It's an awesome place and we are looking forward to many more trips out there in the future. 

4th of July!

On the third, we of course had to go to Tucano's for dinner. Can't miss Tucano's while we're in town. It was VERY good. I think I liked the Teriyaki Beef the best this time which is weird because I usually like the Top Sirloin best. 

 Matt liked the Grilled Pineapple, just dripping with goodness. Maylee liked that best too, she liked it so much she kept snaking it off of my mom's plate. 

 We drove up to the Family Cabin in Christmas Meadows the evening of the third. The cabin is my mom's paternal Grandmothers cabin. I had been only one other time, and I was very young so I didn't really remember it. My Dad had done some work up there when my parents we newly wed. It was a popular place for my mother as a child to visit with her family. The cabin wasn't being used/kept up a whole bunch about 5 years ago, then the family came together raised some funds and my Mom's family has been putting a ton of time, money and energy into getting it back into shape. It is AWESOME and now anyone in the family can use it as long as they sign up on the family calendar for it. It think we'll be visiting for years to come. It was SO nice to get away from it all (Really! no cell reception, no internet)

To kick off the morning Suzanne made us all 4th of July Fun Run shirts (we used to do the one in Provo every year so we organized a trail run instead) 

Before we headed outside for the run. 

On your marks, get set... 

 Oh here we are back! Haha We ran around the circle then to the gate and back. It was only 2 miles but for this sea level girl running at the high of elevation was TOUGH! Matt won and the rest of us trickled in. 

 Getting the Pancake breakfast ready. 

 My Dad snuck away for a minute and came back in to tell us there was a bull moose just a little ways from the cabin. We all went out to check it out. Ty thought it was SUPER cool. We all did! 

Look at THAT!!!

 Dad enjoying his Blueberry pancakes for Breakfast. 

 Will has a special super human trick of catching things in his mouth. Matt was throwing Blueberries and Will was catching them. 

 We got the fishing gear out and headed down to the creek.

 My Dad was showing Preston how to cast in a stream. 

 The kids LOVED playing down there, throwing rocks, casting Ty's Fishing Rod and playing in the mud. 

 Dad and Preston fishing. 

 Will pulling the Karate Kid move. 

 Elena enjoying the tree stump too. 

 Ty was really good at casting his Fishing "rog" as he called it. 

 Inside we came back and did a few puzzles after lunch. 

 Naptime Naptime who doesn't love naptime! Kristin and the clever use of her cape. 

 Matt helping the kids with their games? 

 Maylee, doin' it right. 

 We took a walk in the evening and looked for things that were Brown, Black, Blue, Pink, Green and Yellow. (Nature walk, thanks Aunt Linda!) The kids thought the walk was "for long" as Ty says it, all the way to the gate. 

 But they still liked it and made it due to the help of all the adults. 

 The view from the path, it is SO pretty up there. 

 My Dad showed the kids snake grass, the kind you can pull apart then put back together. 

More Fourth of July Pictures to come, Campfire fun.