Horse Riding

Our friends the Kelly's have horses so they invited us over for dinner and to let us ride them. They were perfect riding horses for young kids because they are really old horses, like 20+ years so they like to go slow. Perfect for a fat, pregnant lady...you should have seen me try to get up on her with a belly in the way!
Billy and Koye got to ride the more "spunky" horse. You really have to control her and not let her control you. Koye was nervous about getting on her at first but after this he loved it and went a couple more times.
He got brave enough to ride by himself and let Billy walk the horse.
This little girl would not get off the horse. She wanted to keep riding and riding. She went with me at first and then did it all by herself with no one walking her. It's such a gentle horse. We showed her how to turn her left and right and how to stop her. She even had her trotting a little bit. She rode her about 30 minutes just around the field and now wants a horse to put in her backyard.
Crew on the other hand did not enjoy the whole horse experience. He was alright if she just sat still but the minute she started to move he would freak out. He liked the two cows a lot more! He loved feeding the cows apples and I think it was the whole "an apple for you.....a bite for me", thing. We caught him eating these almost rotten apples and was loving every minute of it. He then found some dirt clods and would throw them at the cows and say "paple". Thanks to the Kelly's for having us over and letting us enjoy the horses. The kids loved it.

Hotel fun

Since Oregon was having a heat wave (104 degrees) we decided that it would be fun to get a hotel and let the kids go swimming. This is out of order because this is bed time after swimming. Crew loved these beds, doesn't he look comfy.
This is Madisen and Koye all set for bed. Koye really liked those Spider Man goggles, I think he wore them all night. He's such a crazy kid!

Swimming

Madisen stayed close to the stairs most of the time.
Crew was freezing, he wasn't too interested in the pool. He had more fun running around the pool and checking things out.
Koye really liked being in this tube. He would just kick his way all around the pool.
He LOVED the Spider Man goggles, in fact he is wearing them right at this moment.
They both liked wearing the goggles but didn't really like to go under......go figure.

This is how Koye started out....just testing the waters. It was actually pretty cold.
Crew liked to just sit and splash in the water.
Billy was trying to teach Madisen how to swim, notice the panicked look on her face.
Same thing with Koye, Billy was trying to just teach him the basics but he was a little nervous.
This is Crew's face right as Billy put him in the water, he was not too happy about it at first but ended up liking it.

Shake, shake a shake it......

Crew loves music and to dance! Billy had this song on the computer that says "shake, shake, shake, shake a shake it"! He loves this song because the beat is so fast. We left the room for something and he climbed up on the computer chair and started shaking it!

Off to work

We had to take this picture of dad on his way out the door to work. We thought he looked cute in his pink shirt. We had to capture it because someday down the road he may not remember that he actually wore pink shirts.

Going...Going....Gone!

Billy, Chad and Brent went white water rafting with some friends of ours. This is the Dechutes River in Central Oregon. Here they are about to go over a class 3 rapid. Billy, Chad and Brent are in the front. Be sure and watch where Billy is now and see where he ends up in the last picture.
They just hit the rapid, about a 4 foot drop. Chad is totally covered in water.
The whole boat gets soaked. I don't see Brent in this picture, I think he was falling inside at this point.
Here Billy is hanging on by one leg.
And now he is totally gone. Notice how they are all looking over the edge for him. He got tossed right out and took a nice trip down the rapids by himself. The guys had a blast and came back totally sunburned!

Blackberry picking

Blackberries grow like crazy along the sides of the road so we decided to take the kids and let them pick some. They have a ton of thorns all around them so you really have to be careful. Here is Madisen picking some. She only picked a few because she kept hearing Billy and I yelling "ouch" from getting poked.

Koye had fun eating them. We gave them each a bowl to put their berries in. Koye's was always empty because as soon as he picked them off the vine they went straight into his mouth. We made him pose with these two for evidence that he did pick some.
Crew was the same way, instantly went to the mouth. I couldn't pick them fast enough for him. Here is our finished product. We thought these might be good on vanilla ice cream. Guess what we are having for dessert tonight!