Grandma's Visit

The kids were so excited to have Grandma here for a week visiting. We were able to celebrate 4th of July with her, take her to Dorena Lake for a nice hike, and just hang out at the house being us. We already miss her and are ready for the next visit!

I already talked about some highlights of Liz's trip...so here are a few pictures from our week:

Celebrating like an Oregonian

Sparklers

I have had a few people who are not originally from Oregon, comment on how much we love our fireworks. I never really thought it as being more so than others...but we definitely do enjoy the 4th of July show. A few were from Cali, where they said fireworks have been illegal for most of their life. This was their first Independence Day in Oregon, and I guess they were all taken by surprise by all of the noise...that lasted very late into the night...on a day before going back to work. The poor guy had to sleep part of the night on the floor of his kids' room because they were scared. 

I do remember the kids being scared our first year in Oregon. I guess for non-natives it is a shock to the system. Now, three years later the kids love this holiday. 

Chores

The kids were sweet and volunteered to wash my car. I should take an after picture, they missed several spots. Still it was fun and an easy way to cool off. Meli was a little sad to soak her "holiday" dress.

Grandma & mae

We got to show Grandma Liz how to celebrate the holiday with Oregon flare. I think she had fun watching the fireworks and throwing the snap-its at everyone's feet. After we said that she was off limits. Ha, ha...sneaky Grandma.

With getting ready to move and work,  I have not really been in a cooking mood...but the holiday helped bring that back for me. I had a great time cooking, baking, etc. We made banana bread, festive cake, and a few new recipes. I should have had Liz try Blue Apron out with me. I did not plan that one out. Bummer.

More 4th fun

I hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th. I really enjoyed the time with family. It was a very nice 4 day weekend. More about that to come!

More with Grandma Liz

 

Here are some more pictures from Grandma's trip to the west coast. We really did have such a good time with her. The kids were not happy that she had to leave us so soon. The picture above is Grandma and Meli during our B family dance party.

 

Liz definitely gets Colin and his cute, quirky personality. She brought him the owl hat and crocheted a cool scarf. He still wears both to school in the mornings. I love that Liz crochets. She does such beautiful things. She made me, Will and Meli a few things as well.

 

The two of them have such a sweet connection. I adore watching Colin interact with Liz.

Meli enjoyed her snuggle time with Grandma. She saw a lady today that kind of looked like her. She started getting so excited. It broke my heart trying to explain that Grandma is far away.

One of our outings was to Oregon Electric Station. Seriously delicious food, wine and desserts. The restaurant uses old train parts for the building. So neat. You can eat in the boxcars. I just love it!

                                   Miss you, Liz!

WildLife Safari with Grandma B



My favorite picture

Will had to go back to work on Monday. It was so nice having him off for 2 weeks. I just love that his work closes for the holiday break. The kids and I decided to show Grandma Liz Wildlife Safari. We wanted to take advantage of this bizarre winter weather we are having.

 

We got there right when they were opening, so for the first hour we practically had the place to ourselves. The animals were active, which was a nice change. When it is too hot they tend to just lay around. We did not do the driving part of the park. The kids and I enjoy just doing the walk-thru portion (Bonus: it is free!). 

I loved this little guy

The goats were very excited to be fed.  Colin was pretty sure they were biting him. I tried to assure him they were not. He still tossed them the food pellets. Silly kid. I loved the goat below that looks like he is smiling. He would not move from his stump. He just watched us. Staring and smiling. It was so incredibly weird looking. Creepy but cute. I would love to know what he was thinking!

The petting area

Feeding the goats



This guy looks like he is smiling

Meli on a rock, barely reaching

Meli really only cares about the playground portion. She has fun running around to the different animals, but her main goal is to make it to the slides. We were able to tire the kids out before heading to Red Robin for lunch. I also showed Liz the cookie shop that was my first job out of high school.



Playground time!



Cute siblings

I wonder what their conversation would sound like!

~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

The B Family

King Estate

Tasting

We had plans to take Liz to a new winery this trip, but due to poor planning on my part we got to the vineyard an hour before it opened for tastings. Several nearby opened at the same time. Such a bummer. Luckily, King Estate opened earlier and was close by. Even though Liz had been there before it is such a great winery that multiple trips are a must. A bonus was that their tasting list had changed. I enjoyed all of the wines they had this time. I really liked the Paradox, Croft and Signature Pinot Noir. We did not eat this time, because we had a big breakfast at Buster's Main Street Café (after dropping the kids off at my dad's) in the Grove. I love that restaurant! Their Eggs Benedict (Florentine) is seriously delicious. We tend to be in the Eugene area a lot since a set of our babysitters are in that area. It is a great place to explore!

My sweet mom (in-law) and I

The weather was very nice for her visit. It was a little chilly, but not too bad for January. The sun was out most of her trip. I am glad she got to see the prettier face of the NW. Not the gray, dismal part that it can be in the winter.

Billy & his mom

My sweet husband

Christmas with Grandma

This Christmas season was made very special by a visit from Grandma Liz. The kids were thrilled to have her fly out right after Christmas. They get to spend some time with her and have Christmas extended! Poor Liz's trip was postponed by a day, due to some bad weather and flight issues.

 

Learning to take turns

 

We kept our Christmas decorations up to keep the festive spirit around. Plus, Meli did not want our tree to go away. (It is gone now. Meli was very distraught, but she got over it when we started rearranging our furniture to fit in a new lamp).

Liz with her apron I made her. She got the upgraded version with a pocket!

cutie

  Meli wearing the hat and scarf Grandma made her.

Meli's cowl from Grandma.

My sweetie

Colin with his scarf from Grandma.

Cuddles

Sunglasses that take photos and videos!  I am excited to try them out

Will's gft from Liz. So sweet. An old spelling of Gallagly.

Meli got a wood dollhouse from Grandma. It is so neat and beautiful! Will and I had a good time putting it together...then Meli wanted to help. It will keep her attention for hours! That never happens. She wanted dad to come to the door and say "trick or treat". Then she grabs the pretend candy from inside the house and says "thank you". A little backwards, but cute!

 

Helping Daddy

Her house!

Easter Sunday

Even Superman dyes eggs!

 
 




















Having Grandma visiting, made Easter extra special this year. The day before, the kids got to dye the eggs with P-pa, Mi-ma and Grandma. So special to watch. Meli was more of a participant this year. We ended up with some pretty cute eggs. A lot of pink ones! Meli kept sneaking eggs and dropping them in the pink dye. She is obsessed with pink. I was trying to show her the neat idea of two colors...but no, she just wanted to drop it in.

The kids were very excited to leave out their baskets for the bunny. Colin thinks it is so funny that the Easter bunny likes to hide our eggs. "Such a silly bunny". Kids are too cute! The kids were so funny trying to find all of the eggs on Sunday morning. Meli did a very good job, but I do not think she really had any idea what was going on.


 Liz was sweet enough to go to Sunday service with the kids and I. We let Will stay home and recover from his 20k race. The kids enjoyed the Easter egg hunt after service. Colin was so sweet and stayed in Meli's age group to help her out. By the time he got to his hunt they were all done, but some very nice kids gave him a few eggs to put in his basket. Love my sweet boy

 

 

Grandma's turn

I have always enjoyed Easter. The traditions of the Easter bunny, egg hunting and baskets full of candy are so exciting for kids...but I honestly love the religious aspect of the holiday. I love the Easter/spring story of hope and renewal. Such an inspiring story of the Bible.  Very uplifting. Even as a girl, who hated dresses, I looked forward to dressing up for Easter. One of the few "girlie" rules I had to follow as a kid, was that I had to wear a dress to church. For some reason, I was OK with that. I would fight it any other time, but not on Sundays. My mom usually made my dress for Easter (I was very lucky to have a mom who could sew very well)...I cannot wait until we start to make dresses for Meli. I still love the getting all dressed up for this holiday. I am so glad that Meli loves dresses...

Her dress was so pretty

 It was so hard to get a picture of Meli. All she wanted to do was twirl in her dress and run. I still managed to get some super cute ones of her.

 

My sweetie

My family

With Grandma

with Grammie

Worn out by a very busy weekend