Wonderful time at the Children's Museum

There is a new exhibit that opened on Earth Day 

 

 Garrett loves digging. I stayed with him in the campsite area and let him sit and play in the dirt while Cherise and the other kids went to check out the...

She called down to me to bring Garrett up there too. It was pretty great!

 This huge sandbox was just what these guys needed. 

It reminded them of the days on the beach in San Diego. 

 There are fountains that turn on periodically throughout the Outdoor Adventure area. We were able to get buckets of water from one of them to carry back to the sand table. They've pretty much thought of everything.

I think they could have stayed out there for several hours playing. That would have required some sunscreen but we had the entire indoor space to explore.

Indoor performance area

Building fun
 

 Water fun 

Camera fun

Snacks and time to go

 Kids of all ages are fascinated by these things. There is something mesmerizing about watching those coins roll around and around before they eventually drop into the container for donations below. These guys cleaned me out of small change.

 Garrett and Anabelle got their faces painted in the creative play area. Bellie is a kitty but Garrett wanted to be a chipmunk.

All three kids had fun with the hand stamper at the entrance desk.

The big kids had graham crackers and Quinn had a bottle. We had a bit of shopping to do at Washington Square for a July girly's birthday present. She didn't pay any attention to what her mom was buying. She is going to LOVE it!

My old old stomping grounds ;0)

It's been almost 33 years since I last worked here. Sears is just barely visible over my left shoulder in this selfie. It was at that Sears where I had my one and only job in Oregon. Harlan spent many a Thursday and Friday afternoon walking around this mall waiting for me to get off of work. His shifts at Intel were 7 p.m. til 7 a.m. Sunday through Wednesday. I worked Mon-Fri from 9-5. It was nice to walk down memory lane.

Next time I'll have to bring Har!

Bunch o' bouncers

Spending time outside in the back yard

Our back yard has been one area that has been neglected for far too long.  We just added a new addition to have more reasons to be out there in the fresh air and sunshine…a trampoline!

We used to have a pool back here years and years ago. In fact we had three of them! The raccoons loved to poke holes in them. A trampoline, especially one with a full net surround sounded like a great thing for the grandkids to enjoy.

I find that I am enjoying it too, along with several other adults in our household and visiting adult children. It was a wise investment.

I'm going to need to spend lots of time bouncing on that trampoline if I'm going to be enjoying many of these babies.

It's asparagus season! YUM!!!

Went to the zoo, zoo, zoo. How about you?

It may be June but we're looking back at more stuff that we did in May

We used my George Foreman grill 

We made kabobs a plenty on our electric grill. This little indoor outdoor grill is pretty slick. It's going to be a great addition to our party room!

Cherise, her kids, Garrett & I visited the zoo

"A great place for a big family" It was not that many years ago that this was a great place for a Valentine's Day proposal. The former elk meadow where Kiel surprised Cherise is now part of the Elephant Lands exhibit.

I love that we have access to the porch of the farmhouse again. That wringer washer brought back some memories though the one we had was a newer model than that one.

We got to see the triplet lion cubs

The cubs are getting so big! Daddy lion tolerates them but isn't overly affectionate.

"A new zoo"

Next time I'm at the zoo I'm going to look more closely at this map of all the changes that are being made to the Oregon Zoo. I thought it was pretty awesome the way it was but it looks like it's going to be pretty great when they finish all of their projects too.

Learning about animal care

There was a trailer in the parking lot of the zoo that was a Smithsonian Exhibit with several interactive things to do. It was geared to more of a school age audience but we walked through while Cherise nursed Quinn. Henry loved the ap that told him what sort of pet he should have. He ended up with a cat or a hermit crab. He has neither at the moment. They only have chickens :0)