Friday, July 24, 2009

Brayden's New Big Boy Bike!

Brayden finally started showing an interest in learning how to ride a bike this week! Since he's too big for the tricycle, we decided he needed a "real" bike to ride around the neighborhood. After 2 days of searching local bike shops, Toys R Us, & Walmart.com, we finally decided to spend a little extra money and buy him a good quality bike that should hopefully last another 3+ years. Thanks to Grandma & Grandpa Macnab for contributing to Brayden's early birthday present!

Brayden sporting his new helmet! He was waiting so patiently for us to take him outside to ride his new bike for the first time.
Off he goes! He's had a few minor crashes, but he gets right back up on his bike!

He's mastered all of the sidewalks in the neighborhood, which I think shows how well he's able to steer his new bike. I can't believe that a week ago he didn't even know how to ride a bike and now he's riding all over the neighborhood! We've also taken him on the old logging road behind our house a few times (it's paved for bikes and pedestrians). I love having a safe, car-less area for him to ride his bike!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Hammerle Park

July 4th weekend, we took the kids to Hammerle Park in West Linn. This is the same park that I took the kids to last year...almost 1 year ago to the day! You might remember that Brayden fell face first into the pool and has since refused to get into any sort of water. Well, they redid the wading pool so now it does not have any standing water...just 5 or 6 fountains to run through. I really thought that the kids might want to run through the water, but all they wanted to do was play on the playground equipment, which included 2 very tall and scary slides (the kids weren't scared, I was scared watching them on the slides!).

Luckily there was a big slide for Brayden and a smaller slide for Sienna. It was perfect!

Of course, if Brayden was going down the big slide, Sienna wanted to, also! I was pretty close to a panic attack every time she started climbing the stairs to the big slide! Just like a dad, Chris had no idea why I kept freaking out!
There she goes up the big slide! I tried to close my eyes so I didn't have to watch her, but it was like watching a car accident...I just couldn't look away!
Next time I will definitely NOT put her in a tank top because she got burns on her arms from her poor little arms rubbing on the slide as she went down. You would have thought that would have stopped her from going down...I couldn't be so lucky!
Up she goes! I'm not sure when she mastered going up ladders? This girl is always doing something new to amaze me!
Brayden really wanted to go down the slide at the same time as Sienna, but they were just a bit too big.
I absolutely LOVE this picture of Sienna!
Hanging out together on the playground!
Sienna LOVED this curly slide on the big kid playground! It was a long walk around the playground to get back on the structure, but Sienna amazed me by figuring it out all by herself the first time!

You can see the new fountains in the background of this picture of Sienna crossing over the bridge, making her way back to the big slide. My goal is to get the kids in the fountains by the end of the summer! We did manage to get their feet in the fountains before we left, though...baby steps!
More slides!
Both kids really wanted to climb on this structure, but they eventually settled for just hanging on the bars they could reach.
Big kid swings!!!

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Sienna's New Sprinklers!

Sienna got new 2 new sprinklers for her birthday! I really thought the kids would have a blast running through the sprinklers on hot days, but so far we haven't had much success.

First we checked out Sienna's new Dora sprinkler. We had the kids stand right in front of it while Chris turned it on, slowly. Here they are waiting for the water!
Once the water started coming out, they weren't sure what to think!

They quickly figured out that they didn't want water in their face and they took off running!
Although, we did talk them into running through the water once...
Poor Sienna is just the right height to get all of the water in the face! You can't tell in this picture, but her face was completely soaked! And, she cried!
Brayden decided to retaliate against Dora with his bubble shooter!
A few days later we got out what we thought was sure to be the coolest sprinkler ever! But, as it turns out, it doesn't work very well. Most of the little nozzles just point into the ground, no matter how high the water pressure is. At one point we had turned the water up so much that we were watering the neighbors yard...over the fence! But, the kids still had fun making it through the "obstacle course". Chris told Brayden exactly how to make it through without getting wet!

Sienna wanted to try it after she saw Brayden do it...
But quickly decided she'd rather just watch Brayden do it!Hopefully as the weather gets warmer and warmer, we'll get the kids in to kiddie pool and/or sprinklers!

Friday, July 17, 2009

Our 2nd trip to Oaks Park!

Tuesday morning, Chris took the morning off from work and we headed back to Oaks Park. The kids and I were so excited to show Chris all of the fun rides. Our first stop was the Tilt-a-Whirl, which we did not go on during our first visit. All 4 of us piled onto the bench and waited for the ride to start. I was a little nervous about Sienna because we had just been to a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese a few days earlier and she was freaked out by most of the little cars and things. As soon as the ride started, Sienna wanted off! She was able to stick it out, but we definitely won't be going on that one again. Chris and I thought it was fun, but we were a little surprised just how forcefully we were turning in circles! Even Brayden thought it was a little too wild for him.

The next stop was the Big Pink Slide! The first time, all 4 of us went down at the same time (Sienna sat on Chris' lap). Brayden had so much fun that he wanted to go down a 2nd time. Sienna, of course, was scared and didn't want to go again. I was actually surprised because the last time we went to Oaks Park, she went down the slide 2 times! As you can see, Brayden took off before me, once again!

This time we decided to let Sienna check out the rocket ship. We've figured out that she likes the rides that go in circles as long as they don't bounce, rock back and forth, etc. She had a blast!
Next stop: CARS!
Another new ride we got to check out this time was the roller coaster! I LOVE ROLLER COASTERS! I just have to say that I purposely wore a hat to the park...I hadn't washed my hair that morning (I wanted to wait until we got home from the park). As Brayden and I were getting situated in the roller coaster, I didn't even give my hat a thought. That was until the girl came by and told me to take it off. Uh oh!!! I was so embarrassed to take my hat off, but it was too late to back out. Plus, how could I give up the best seat in the house...the front car! Once we started moving, I was having so much fun that I didn't even care about my hair!


Brayden had so much fun that he wanted to go again. Being the good wife that I am, I let Chris have a turn, too. ;) Unfortunately they got stuck in the last car, so it was really hard to get pictures of them.


Since Sienna and I did NOT enjoy the tug boat ride last time, so decided to take a brake while Chris and Brayden went for a ride. Chris and Brayden are in the second to last row...you can click the picture to get a closer look.
Last time we went to Oaks Park, I didn't let Sienna ride on the Frog Hopper. Brayden of course couldn't wait to go on it again since he had so much fun the first time. And, Sienna really wanted to go, too (I have no idea why she thought she'd like it!) Since we figured that she would probably be scared, I decided to ride on it with them. Here is the only smile you'll see from Sienna, and it isn't even a real smile...and it was before the ride even started.
As soon as we started dropping, Sienna started crying for daddy (I'm guessing because he was safe on the ground where she wanted to be)! I thought it was way more exciting than I expected it to be (I thought it was going to be boring)! Have I mentioned that I can't wait to take the kids to Disneyland???
I tried to comfort her during the ride, but nothing was helping! She kept trying to climb onto my lap. The poor thing!

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Our Anniversary Celebration at The Nines!

For our 7th anniversary, Chris' parents babysat so we could have 24 wonderful hours of freedom! We started the day off at the movie theater watching The Hangover. When the movie was over, it was still 2 1/2 hours before we could check-in at The Nines, so we decided to eat a late lunch (we were starving!!!). We picked up a couple of burritos from Chipotle and headed to our favorite wine shop (WineStyles). Chris and I go there every chance we get...where else can you bring your own food and only pay 5 dollars for a glass of wine??? Oh, they also have board games so Chris and I played a game of Yahtzee. I LOVE WINESTYLES!!! After lunch, we headed downtown, hoping that our Jr. Suite at The Nines would be ready a bit early. As luck would have it, it was!

The Jr. Suite - Club Level
When we made our reservations, we decided to splurge a little and get a Jr. Suite on the Club Level! You actually had to swipe your room key in the elevator before you could push the button for our floor. Crazy! Check out our room...it was amazing! I'd have to say this was the nicest place that we've ever stayed at in Portland.

The bathroom was GIGANTIC!!!
With such a gigantic space, why in the world didn't they put two sinks in the bathroom???
There weren't two sinks, but there was a shower and a bathtub! It was a pretty tough decision as to where I wanted to take a shower, but the shower finally won out. Unfortunately, the water pressure was so awful that their "Rainforest" shower heads didn't really do much for me! I was so thankful that I have short hair, or I would have been stuck in the shower for hours trying to get the shampoo out!
The view from our amazing room!
Here we are relaxing in our room! We watched a movie (New In Town) and drank fancy wine that Chris surprised me with. Unfortunately, we had forgotten to run by the video store before heading downtown, so we ended up spending $13.99 for a pay-per-view movie...YIKES!
We had dinner reservations at Departure, which is the restaurant at the top of the hotel. But, before heading to dinner, we decided to check out the Club Level Lounge!
The Club Level Lounge
The main benefit of staying on the 12th floor is that you have access to the Club Level Lounge. They offer free appetizers & drinks until 11pm and then you can head back in the morning for a free breakfast. And if you need one, there is a concierge in the lounge who is available only to the guests on the 12th floor.
Departure
At 7:45pm, we headed to the 15th floor for dinner at Departure. When Chris made the reservation, he had requested a table outside. But when we arrived, they told us that they didn't take reservations for outside. What?!?! We were none too happy since it was a beautiful day out! We decided to go ahead and eat inside, instead of waiting for hours for an outside table. Chris ordered chicken teriyaki and garlic fried rice. I ordered the calamari. Everything but the rice showed up, which they promised was on it's way. Well, we finished our food and still no rice! We were still a little hungry because the portions were tiny, so we decided to split another order of the teriyaki chicken. Again, they promised that the rice was on it's way, but eventually the 2nd order of chicken showed up and we still didn't have the rice! By the time we were done with the chicken, our waiter came back and we told him to cancel the rice...it had been over an hour and we no longer wanted it. We were pleasantly surprised that without us even having to ask for any sort of compensation, our waiter comp'ed us our 2 glasses of wine! Even though we did enjoy the food we ate, we probably won't go back to Departure...we just had too many other issues during the short hour we were there. There are too many other good restaurants in downtown Portland, even if the view was amazing!
I guess we should have asked someone to take our picture together, but I hate disturbing others.