BIG "D" TURNS 4!

Jim and I went to CA in September to celebrate Dylan's birthday. "D" as everyone affectionately calls him, turned 4 on Sep. 12th. We went to Dancing Tomatoes to eat lunch.

 That night we had a family party.  His party theme was Army and camo.

 Good gifts.

 Good eats. When we sang Happy Birthday, he screamed "STOP!" the whole time we sang.  He is soooo like Kelly, doesn't like the spotlight.

 On the weekend the "little soldiers" arrived for the Go Army birthday Party. The yard was filled with army adventures. Two camo forts to hide and shoot during the squirt gun wars.

Kelly laid out a spread of food that could feed an army.

 Camo cupcakes, green, tan and black.

 Camo ice cream cups, vanilla, chocolate and choc. chip mint with "dirt" sprinkles on top.

 Army activities, obstacle course for the real trooper.

 Target practice with nerf guns for the sharp shooters.

 Can you say serious party goer, helmet included.

 Each party enlisted soldier got to tye dye t-shirts into camo colors.

 Pin the tank on the army field.

 Take a swing at the army tank pinata.

 Squirt gun wars of a serious nature.

 Grandma Burks armed and ready to saturate the soldiers.

 Gift bags for the little enlistees.

 Interested soldiers check out the packages.

At the end of the party, cousins check out the new gifts.

 Grandma and grandpa get to play with the new toys too.

 But at the end of a army adventure day, there's nothing like a rest in your favorite box.

Happy birthday "D", you big 4 year old.

AUGUST, SCHOOL BEGINS, BIRTHDAYS AND BEAVERS

For our grand kids, school begins in August. 100 degrees and off to school they go. Addy, 11th grade

 Sophia, 6th grade

 Dylan, first day of preschool (he actually began day after Labor Day)

 Alex, 8th grade

 Payton, Kindergarten

 Owen, he and cousin Dylan, are at the same preschool.

August also brings 3 birthdays.  Addy turned 16.

 Guess where she went the following week!?  That's right, DMV.

 Here she goes on her first solo drive.

 Payton turned 6. She had her birthday in Santa Cruz because Ryan had a business trip there. Later in the month, she had a swimming birthday party with her friends.

 Alex turned 14, he is the best big brother there is!

 And does this look familiar from my last post.  Nope, this isn't Dylan. It's Payton.  She slipped and fell after her bath onto the tile floor and cut her chin in the same place Dylan cut his chin in July.  What are the odds????

 She also received the super glue chin fixer job.

 And finally, how about them Beavers? Smiths came up to watch the game against Wisconsin.  I first thought, that's a long way to go to watch a loser game.

 Turns out I was wrong. The stands emptied onto the field after the big WIN.

That was August in a nutshell. Our garden is growing great guns and we've started getting some produce. The berries are berrilicious and I've done some jam. Yaa for summer! Hope your summer is going well.

JULY WAS THE TRAVELIN' MONTH

Kelly's family and their friends the Harris' and Cordle's went to Disneyland.

A little Sophie "sugar" in the teacup.

They also went to Universal Studios.

Dylan fell in the fountain at Universal and visited Urgent Care. Super glued the chin.

Crystal's family went to the Oregon Zoo with Alex's dad and family and Ryan's brother, Matthew.

 

McKenzie with Owen at Lake Billy Chinook. They were in Bend staying with Jessica's family and went here for the day.

Payton learned to paddle board on Lake Billy Chinook.

Swimming with friends in Albany.  Crystal's family made a couple of trips to Oregon in July.

When Kelly's family came for our July party, Sophie bought her new smart phone with her own earned money. "Suri" rarely leaves her hand.

We also went to the beach while they were here.

Later in the month, we met up with Kelly again in Grant Pass. We had Alex with us and we kept her girls. Kelly went up to Albany for a wedding. This is the hotel pool. I told them to stand on their heads all at the same time and I'd take a picture.  It took about 20 tries for them to do it simultaneously.

We had fun with an underwater camera.

Next day we went on the Hellgate Jet Boat rides.

This is Hellgate Canyon. Several movies have been filmed here, like Gunsmoke and Rooster Cogburn.

Ready to go.  Yes, that is us on the front row.  Jim starts to walk to back of the boat and the 3 grandkids plant themselves on the front row, so here we are.

It's a blast when they pull a 360 turn in the middle of the river. A wall of water comes up around you and there's a lot of screams, both of delight and horror.

They fed us "all you can eat" lunch at the beautiful outdoor patio behind where the kids are.  Salad, rolls, BBQ chicken, potatoes, cobbler, mmmmmm

After the jetboats, we went to Wildlife Images.  A place where they help hurt animals. Sometimes they go back in the wild and other times, this becomes their home. We asked if they'd keep our 3 "wild animals", but no such luck.

Jim's favorite-Clark the Cougar. Just his tail weighs 30 lbs. We stood this close, only the double screen between us and him.  We could hear him purring (probably thinking how good we'd taste for dinner).

This is a movie star.  This little otter was in "Evan Almighty".  There were lots of other animals, bears, wolves, eagles, bobcat, and many others.

After leaving the Grants Pass area, we headed home.  We took the girls to Silver Creek Falls.

There's something neat about walking under a waterfall. You can see the trail in between the rock wall and the green hillside.

A few days later, we went horseback riding at a place between Scio and Gates. The girls were ready to ride.

Other July fun. Addy drove the tractor by herself. No bucket or mower attached, but still plenty big to maneuver.

Alex finally passed up mom, uh oh.

Payton and the other grandkids spent several hours one afternoon catching, tadpoles, frogs and 1/2 frogs from our pond.  They named them, tried to convince us they could "keep them and take good care of them", but at the end of the day the frogs were back to their home in the pond, which made us all happy.

Payton's great accomplishment was learning to ride her bike with no training wheels and she did it before she turned 6.

Summer is 1/2 over, it is flying by too quickly!