What a WEEK!!!! Silverwood Amusement Park, Idaho)

I sincerely apologize to all the fans of "Artistically Denied" (ha, ha) who have been waiting for my next blog entry. So few comments, so little affirmation, makes me just put off a new entry and put it off some more, until it's been OVER A MONTH since my last one. But, I do have more pics and more comments to add, so here goes!

We spent our last vacation days (I started back to work on Monday) visiting Brian's side of the family in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The next few blogs will be about this trip!

Our first full day in Coeur d'Alene was spent at Silverwood Amusement Park. When we entered the park we stopped briefly at some of the carnival games. Here is Caitlin and Joe standing by this crazy huge game! This picture if for Josiah as he seems to like these types of machines and this one had the biggest CLAW and animals I've ever seen. We didn't actually play this game as it seems to me that JOSIAH is the only one who ever actually gets a toy out of one.

This is a cute picture of Caitlin, but also of the newest attraction at Silverwood called "After Shock."

This ride has you sitting in seats with your feet dangling and a harness support . It brings you up one side and has you dangle in the air facing straight down. (*I must say here that I am not one to believe in the harness keeping me from sudden death. Johnny's daughter Helena said it best when she said, "What if one of those workers accidently bumps the button that releases those harnesses? So true in my head!) Anyway, once the ride is released, you go down, spin around the loop and then do it all backward up the other side. It's quite a rush, I assure you and we got EVERYONE (Daniel, Mike, Diane, Joe, Brian and I) to take a ride on it! There's another part of Silverwood that is a water park. There are these big slides for people to slide down and experience the oh so unpleasant suit up the dupa feeling (at the end). They are pretty doggone fun, especially as you end up going pretty fast and sometimes catching some air on the way down. Here's Mike (who enjoyed these slides just as much as his kids, if not more)!

Here's Brian coming down the "bumpy" slide. This is the one where the first bump throws you in the air a little and it's really oh so fun!This is why we were having so much fun at the Water Park! Grandma Diane had the kiddos set up during their naps and watched them for us while we got to play on all the fun water rides! Thanks SO MUCH Grandma Diane, we really appreciated this!We think that Cody is going to be a real water baby. He sees water and immediately wants to be put down so he can play in it. This day was a little bit on the cold side, so Cody just got his feet wet in the wave pool. Here's Brian, Daniel and Joe as we wait to get on the wooden roller coaster, "Tremors" (? I think).

Here are two of the signs you see before you go on this roller coaster. The first is because this roller coaster has a camera stationed to take your photo, the second is because it's freakishly scary tunnels make you feel like you're going to get your head chopped off. I ducked each and every time, whew!

I'm not sure why we have no photos of Gma Diane or any of Johnny's family, but apparently we were more concerned about riding all the rides than taking photos. I sincerely apologize to Diane, we promise to have more photos of you in the next few entries!

CAITLIN'S BIRTHDAY! Yeah!

Caitlin turned the big 4 on Monday! First thing Brian did when she woke up was to sing her Happy Birthday AND she got to have two birthday parties on her special day!

Her first party was at her preschool. Her teacher, Ms. Becky had a Hawaiian themed lunch party for her. We brought everyone small cupcakes and "good for you" junkfood cookies (that's what they were called).

Here's Caitlin making a wish (I hope).

Here's she's blowing out her one lucky blue candle.

About an hour later, we had her second birthday party. She invited all her friends (that weren't at her school), Wyatt, Nicole, Margaux, Michaela, Kylie, Hannah, Braven and Lucas. We had the party at the park near our house.

Here's a picture with her and Wyatt (a friend for quite some time) deciding who will ride the swing first. (It was so cute because we saw Wyatt pushing Caitlin on the swing!)

Here she is sliding down the windy red slide showing how old she is! Wyatt is showing that he is 5!Here she is just hanging around with her friend! (He was one of the first to arrive (and incidently one of her first friends) so we have a few more pictures of him than all the rest!)Here is Cody, just hanging out having a good time at the park!Here are Caitlin and Nicole (whose birthday is the exact same day, just one year older) swinging, while Daddy, Cody and Michaela watch and push when needed!

Here we are back in the covered area where Caitlin gets to blow out the candles on her baseball cake. (We went to Costco and she got to pick whichever one she wanted and this is the one she picked! It is a baseball diamond with a baseball glove and ball on top of the diamond. It does say Happy Birthday Caitlin though!) Luckily, it was a white cake with strawberry mousse filling! Yummy!The top picture is the "gang" except for Hannah who was sleeping and had to come later! The bottom one is an up close shot of the cake and Caitlin blowing out the candles! She had four and one to grow on (just like we always did it in my family).

After cake and juice, the gang headed over to the pond where they could all feed the ducks!

This is the gang coming back to get all packed up. It was really a nice time and fun day! Happiest 4th Birthday Caitlin!

Family ties...

Brenda, John and their family came up on Saturday. We decided to go to the Willamette River and let the dogs be in the water, and the kids just have fun at a park. It's cheap, easy and everyone always has fun! Portland is really a great place to be in the summer!

Here is Brian in the river holding Casey (spazo dog) so that she doesn't chase the stick he threw for Abby (the old lady). I think Sam is mining for gold in the back there! ha, haI want everyone to notice that Cody is NOT crying while Aunt Brenda is holding him. He loves the water and isn't as finicky as Caitlin was about people holding him, as long as they love him. =) Here's Sam playing "got your toes" with his favorite birthday cousin! Caitlin always has fun with her cousin Sam!You would almost think that Uncle John and Josiah didn't have any fun at the park, until we got out the whistling football that makes any person look like an NFL quarterback! Here's Aunt Brenda always taking pictures! Brian is back there trying to wear Casey out a bit. If I had 1/10th of the energy that Casey does, I would achieve greatness! ha, ha, ha

Here's a somewhat good family shot. Cody is trying to show everyone that his Daddy has a caffeine addiction. "WON'T ANYONE LISTEN??? LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THIS CUP!!" That is what he is saying! (Oh yeah, I think that cup belongs to BRENDA! Caffeine addiction must run in their family!)Finally, here we are trying to get everyone rounded up, while I try to take photos of my cute kiddos. Brenda is trying to help me, while Brian just lies around snapping random photos of people with dogs running through the shot.

We had fun, we always do. Come on back, you guys, so we can do it again!

Noon Tunes

Brian had started this and only wrote one sentence! I'm here to finish the job! In Pioneer Courthouse Square ("Portland's Living Room") on certain days throughout the summer they have what's called "Noon Tunes." It's local bands playing live music in this mini amphitheater. It's quite fun. You see a lot of people that you know are on their lunch breaks, in all their office wear, hanging out just listening to whatever music happens to be playing. It's very casual, and allows you to have your children with you when you are listening to live music (very exciting for us)! Anyway, Caitlin had a grand old time. She danced...

found a friend who danced beside her...
and played with Cody, who wished he could be out there dancing. (I just know it!)

Cody just "chilled out" with his Daddy, eating a nectarine . He sure likes to eat! Yeah!

I don't even remember the name of the band, but it was kind of funky, bluesy voice, Portlandish type of sound. Pretty good. Made many little kiddos get up and dance. (As well as a few brave adults.) It sounds like once a week they will have this live music during the summer. I hope we get to more of them. (Brian's station promotes it and has a live person there doing live shots.)

Here is the actual Courthouse, and it's pretty fantastic (old and all)!

Finally, as we were walking towards our car, on the sidewalks of some of the streets downtown, there are these fun water sculptures. Caitlin decided she wanted to sit on the seal. Makes you wish you were a little kid too!

I feel like I wish we could enjoy more of what makes Porland, Portland, you know? I really always enjoy these types of outings where you can just enjoy what Portland has to offer, especially the music. Hopefully, there will be more to come...

4th of July

This year, since Caitlin is a bit older, we decided to buy some fireworks. {Brian ended up spending the whole time in the "tent" (the fireworks store) saying he couldn't believe how expensive everything was!} We ended up buying some "snakes," sparklers, a few fountains, and some crazy twirler things.

Caitlin was having fun with the sparklers. I didn't know that they didn't make those wire ones anymore. Apparently, they are too dangerous. (Isn't fire/fireworks dangerous in general?)

It seemed to take forever to get dark, but finally twilight arrived. We all had fun with the sparklers in the front yard.

Here is Caitlin standing behind the "snakes." They weren't that impressive to us, but Brian said they were to little kids (ha, ha).

My favorites were the fountain ones. They shot up into the air (but not more than 6 feet), and then crackled a bunch of times at the end. (Can you see us through the firework?)

We had fun, and now Caitlin seems to think we can just go buy and shoot off fireworks any old time! She really loves her holidays!

Ahhhhhhhh, the sights and sounds of summer...

Thursday, July 3rd!
Today was a pretty fun day. Of course I didn't bring the camera when we went to OMSI this morning, but we did have it this afternoon when we went to the off leash dog park over by Oak's Park (right on the Willamette River). SO, we have some pictures to share!

Here I am trying to run some energy off of Casey. That dog goes until you just CAN'T TAKE IT anymore and then you just have to hide her toys so she'll stop bugging you! She's great for a game of fetch though (until your arm falls off).

Cody's latest triumph is his ability to point towards someplace. We don't really know what he's pointing at, but he does it pretty emphatically and it looks so cute! He did point at his Daddy today and then pushed off me to try to go to him. (Little stinker.)

Look at how high the water is! Usually we can go down these steps onto a beach that's about 15 feet wide. The river is really high right now. I'll take a picture later this season to show the difference. It's pretty incredible! (Apparently, it was up even higher a few months ago ~ all the way to the picnic tables.)

Abby and Casey love to get in here and chase the stick. Abby doesn't have quite the "get up and go" that Casey does, so she usually just pretends to go after the stick and takes a leisurely swim. Casey goes and takes it from her if Abby ever does get it anyway.

When we got home, we barbequed! Brian had caught some fish last Friday (see previous post, ha, ha) and froze it. He thawed it out today and he did it up on the grill (along with some corn on the cob which was de-li-cious!). I just know that Brian would be happy to see his fish on here. He's quite the grill master.

Lastly, we had some corn on the cob that we boiled. (I just like it that way!) We got sweet white corn and man it was really yummola! Caitlin really likes it a lot! This was the vegetable that (last year) she ate all of without us having to bug her about it. She's done well with it ever since. You just can't beat it, can you?

Cody got his first taste of it today. He's already proven that he likes corn (most things actually), so this wasn't too much of a stretch. {Grandma Nabozny would be so proud, wouldn't she Dad?}