Spring has sprung and so the Bryan's are heading outdoors again. On April 5th we took this little hike down by Benham Falls. It felt so good to be out in the sun!!
These are the remnants of an old train track for a lumber loading station back in the sawmill hay days.
There ARE some disadvantages to having a white dog...
and kids hiking in the spring
Brad took this picture. Think you know what it is?Brad took the kids on April 19th to the head of the Metolius river and hiked along the river for a few hours (while I had meetings) I really want to go see this. The river just spews out of the ground... and this is where the river begins.
I am excited to participate in this event as bear crawls were an exercise that initially, literally terrified me when I started bootcamp. Every time they asked us to bear crawl across the gym my heart started racing and I didn't think I could do it.
Last Wednesday, however a couple friends and I bear crawled 1/2 way up the butte before we ran out of time. I am sure by May 9th we will be cruising as we crawl up the Butte.What is a bear crawl? Here is a video of someone doing a bear crawl
Let me know if you can support me with $1, $5 or more. Checks can be made out to "Partnership to end Poverty" I also have a Paypal account if it is easier for you to send it that way. Thanks for your support!
Doesn't this picture say it all? (this poor little bird from the zoo is so ugly he's cute)
Monday we headed out for Portland for a trip to the zoo. It was cold and wet and rainy... but we are troopers and went anyway.
*note to self: take a cue from the animals next time and stand under shelter and go inside where it is warm; instead of wandering around outside in the rain watching all the animals watching you wondering why YOU are walking around in the cold and rain!!
After our trip to the zoo and a quick warm up at the hotel we met our friends the Birnel's at Big Al's bowling alley and I finally got to hold Finn!! Yay! Last time we visited the Birnel's I was sick and didn't get to hold him or anything :( Finn is the most AMAZING baby... he never cries! Just sits there and looks cute! Isn't he a cutie??
Sadly the wait for bowling was too long, so the kids just played in the arcade, which they seemed fine with. Then we took a trip over to Baskin Robbins. Abby was so excited to see Lily again. She kept asking at the zoo what time it was and was counting down the hours until we could see Lily again. Tuesday we made our trip to OMSI (Science museum) where the kids played around for 6 hours
We got lost leaving Portland... AGAIN! So, we got out of Portland an hour later than planned and a bit hungry, we stopped at the Tollgate Inn in Sandy. I mention it so any other weary traveller friends that read my blog will know that it was a great stop!! The service was super quick and the food was good "homestyle" cookin' and really quite reasonably priced. We will definitely stop here again before the long lonely food-less trip over "the pass".
Wednesday was an errand running day, and Thursday I babysat a friends little girls and spent some fun time at the park and playing outside.
Friday I got to meet up with a friend in the morning and hike the Butte with her, came home, picked up the kids, grabbed some lunch at the drive thru at DQ and headed down to Shevlin Park for some wild and crazy letterboxing!!!
The person who carved these stamps really is amazing.
Near one of the letterboxes was this covered bridge where we stopped to rest for awhile.
This was the cool stamp at the letterbox we found by the bridge.
The clues were great so our finds were easy and we went 3 for 3. Ethan of course had to search for critters.
Ethan is actually getting really good at skipping rocks
So after spending the morning outside with my girlfriend and 3.5 hours out letterboxing in the afternoon, would you believe I got a sunburn?? In March!!!
We got a kick out of the silouette the charm left on my sunburn. Can you see it?
Saturday we went to see Monsters Vs. Aliens.
It's an OK show. Not great, but what else are you going to take your kids too? Abby probably liked it the best. The scenes are really scripted and set up to try and make jokes and it gets old, and the story line is lacking, but kids don't really care about that stuff anyway.
Sunday Samantha decided to have a little "Photoshoot" with the kids during "quiet time" and she actually came up with a few cute shots.
Last Wednesday while the rest of Bend was stripping off their jackets, riding their bikes and working in their yards, we were bundling up looking for boots and mitts.
Friends thought we were crazy, but it was the perfect weather for sledding just 25 minutes up the mountain. It was probably 40 degrees which meant the snow was pretty wet, but we had a great time and weren't cold at all (at least until the sun went behind the mountain and we started to feel the cold on our wet hands)
The weekend before last we had a "Servipalooza" for our Quarterly Enrichment meeting. I came home with extra yarn and circular looms and the kids went to town on Sunday.
All the kids just hung out in our room for a couple of hours and made a bunch of baby hats.
Even Abby and Ethan could make them! I was super impressed!
Here are a couple we finished. With a 20% off coupon from Joanne's I think I paid around $3.50 for the looms, if you're interested. Pretty cool!
Doesn't everyone have fond memories of the EZ Bake Oven?
What could be more fun than taking an hour to make two tiny pans of cake? (what you probably don't remember is this... 6 little dirty bowls, 6 little dirty spoons, and 2 cups. Grrr.) Oh, the excitement and thrill once they are done cooking
Ah, perfection!
Too bad her BROTHER ATE THEM when he got home from school before she could!!
There ARE some disadvantages to having a white dog...
Brad took this picture. Think you know what it is?
Brad took the kids on April 19th to the head of the Metolius river and hiked along the river for a few hours (while I had meetings)
I really want to go see this. The river just spews out of the ground... and this is where the river begins.
Ethan of course had to search for critters. 
Sunday Samantha decided to have a little "Photoshoot" with the kids during "quiet time" and she actually came up with a few cute shots.
With a 20% off coupon from Joanne's I think I paid around $3.50 for the looms, if you're interested. Pretty cool!
Oh, the excitement and thrill once they are done cooking
