Micah saves the day

After returning from Crater Lake we stayed close to home for the remainder of Travis & Natalie's visit. There were pool parties, trips to the park, food cart lunches, and the Newberg Old Fashion Festival.  We braved the heat watching the "groovy" parade on Saturday and spent way too much money for the girls to ride the carousel at the carnival.  But we did collect enough candy to hand out on Halloween this year.  The forecast for Sunday was in the 90's, so we took a day trip to Barton Park in Estacada where tubing down the Clackamas River was the trendy thing to do.  Luckily we got there early enough before the Sheriff had to turn cars away.  The kiddos loved tubing….except for Piper.  That explains the plethora of pictures I took of her.  After our tubing and while I was squeezing water out of some cauliflower, Tessa crawled for the first time to Auntie Natalie.  I saw her face light up, and she began to squeal and just like that, my baby was fully mobile.  But the most memorable event was when Benji asked Micah to hit the ganglion cyst on his wrist with a book.   All it took was one, good whack, and the cyst dissolved instantly.  Our five-year-old nephew saved Benji a trip to the doctor and gave him back his wrist mobility.  We had such an amazing time with Travis, Natalie and the boys!  We are already looking forward to next summer when we will jump in Crater Lake together.

Our brand new pool.

Brunch at Henry's, a food cart in Carlton, which serves the best biscuits and gravy I've ever eaten.

Tessie loves to swing!

We had front row seats on the parade route, but those seats didn't have any shade.  See below.

Mary Poppins sat with us a while.

The kids suit up in their life vests, waiting for the sun to come out and the temperature to get a little warmer.

Piper preferred hanging out with Momma, eating Babybell cheese.

McKinley, on the other hand, got upset when we let Travis & Micah have a turn with the tubes.

The Clackamas River.  We would drop our tubes in here and float a little past the bridge.

Tessa gets really comfy in Aunt Natalie's arms.

This was just before she went down for a nap in the BOB.

Always that tongue!