4th of July Weekend

We had a great 4th of July weekend! Loved it. Here are a buncha buncha pictures...

Pickin'

We spent a great Saturday morning at Kruger's farm on Sauvie Island...surprisingly were able to accumulate a whole flat of berries to take home...despite the dozens of berries that ended up in our bellies. Sam was a very diligent picker, perhaps a future career? As for Amy, we just tried to keep her from eating the berries that were in the box. Here are some pictures to prove we were there. Cheers!

Green Hair!

Just like the Joker!

We love May!

OK, so after a few weeks of inactivity, its time for a bit of a photo dump, but with some context.  May has been a fun and busy month, and as we now sit in the middle of a sunny and warm 3 day weekend in Portland, OR, its time to look back a bit on some things we did this month as we get ready for (official) summer!  

Continued thanks to all of our great family and friends who we love spending (not enough) time with!   Enjoy!  ~The Ericksons

This is a new trick, making "paint" out of chalk dust and water, and then doing cave paintings and hyroglyphics on the cement.  A bit creepy but very fun...

Another Superhero Sunday with our good friends the Bruggers: 

Because Sam's birthday is in July, his preschool class teachers have set up special "birthday" celebration days for kids who have birthdays during the Summer.  And on a birthday day, the birthday kid gets a birthday crown to wear all day.  Just so happens that his birthday celebration fell on our snack day, which is nice....

Sarah and Liz took the kids to Multnomah Falls for a nice mid-week hike: 

We had a great visit from Sarah's grandma (GG!)

Sam made Amy a crown, too (it's pink and she liked it):

Hanging out with our good neighbor Molly: 

Dad went to Seattle last week for a 3-day conference and both kids got Ichiro t-shirts.  Ichiro!

Saturday morning painting distraction so that Dad can make waffles and coffee in peace.  Not entirely successful, but fun anyway...

Lunch at Cousin Kaja's house...

Bath time!

Bike trip to Sellwood Park tonight for a picnic dinner, and Amy's new favorite thing...the big red slide.  

This was today, too.  This is hilarious and cracks me up looking at it.  At Sam's urging, the kids dressed up in life jackets, helmets, and sunglasses to be "spacemen".  The kickboard is Sam's spaceship.  He is taking it very cool and seriously, as you can tell...

Crazy Week

We have had a week of lots of Happy to you songs, travels, tears, help from friends and family and then most of all "hold yous". 

Last week we spent the weekend celebrating my mom's 60th birthday at the beach. We had a wonderful time as a family. We met the "new Sarah" who is Court's new girlfriend. I am not sure if she is the new Sarah what that makes me... It was an ideal weekend with tons of fun on the beach and lots of family time. 

As Sunday rolled around, my parents and brother and I left Portland to join my dad's family in California to celebrate my uncle's life. As many of you know he had been sick for about a year with cancer. The service was an amazing tribute to what a wonderful man he was. It was very good to see my dad's side of the family. It had been at least ten years since I had been there and seen a lot of my cousins. How we had all changed. 

Chris and the kids did an amazing job of keeping the house in one piece and everyone very happy. I can't tell you how happy I was to see them when I got home. I have been doing a lot of "hold yous" since coming home.

The link below will lead you to photos of GG's farm (stopped by on the way to the beach), the beach, and the week without me.

 To photos

Mr. Mom

Sarah is away with some friends for the weekend for a long overdue girls weekend, so Saturday was a Daddy solo day, and it looked kind of like this: 

1. Wake up at 6:00am (Sam - told to go back to bed)

2. Wake up again at 6:30am (Sam - no longer worth telling him that)

3. Everybody awake 

4. Snuggle & jump on Daddy for a while

5. Go downstairs, make coffee, eat cereal

6. Play

7. Go to Sam's school (Childswork) for a work party (digging, etc.)

8. Donuts @ 11:15am (59th & E. Burnside)

9. Powell's Books on Hawthorne

10. Hot dog lunch @ Otto's on Woodstock

11. Watch buddies Quinn and Jack play soccer at Berkley Park

12. Nap (Amy)

13. Mow lawn & pick weeds with Sam

14. Amy wakes up - everybody gets Hershey bars!

15. Check mail - new Tessy & Tab

16. Read Tessy & Tab - they are making smoothies!

17. Make smoothies!  

18. 2 games of Candyland

19. Ride bikes to Westmoreland Park

20. Eat pizza & oranges

21. Feed ducks, swing, slide, climb, etc. 

22. Ride home

23. Bath

24. Watch rest of "Cars"

25.  3 books

26. Bed

27. Dad drinks large glass of bourbon & blogs about fun day. 

The End?

Beach Trip!

We spent the weekend at Gearhart a couple weeks ago (happy birthday Papu!) and the weather was incredible for early April...warm, slight breeze, very nice.  We did a lot of beach playing.  Here are some pictures...

The leader in the clubhouse for the '09 Xmas picture...

Find stick...throw stick...repeat.  

Walking the long path back to the beach house.  I took this with my cell phone...technology is amazing. 

Auntie Liz and Sam did a LOT of running together...up and down the dunes about 100 times, then in and out of the water another 100 times...

Cousin Kaja...

Amy taking in the sights...

Kaja, Amy and Sam...they can swim, right?