Since Darrin was going to be gone today at the Duck game, we decided we would go and do something fun. We decided on Enchanted Forest and invited along Poppa, Grandma, Uncle Eric, and Aunt Cagney. So we get all our stuff together and load 2 excited kids into the car and we are off! We get there and wait for everyone else to arrive then make our way up to pay and begin our exploration! After a brief potty stop, we make our way up Storybook Lane to the first stop, the Castle. We stop on the bridge to look into the moat
and on one side is a crocodile and on the other side are two turtles. The kids thought that was pretty cool. We pause briefly to take a picture of the kids with Poppa and Grandma,
then make our way through the Castle.
We make it through the castle along the way checking out all the little displays along the way. We emerge from the other side and continue on down the path passing some little forest creatures
and Humpty Dumpty
to make our way up the path to The Gingerbread house of the witch from Hansel and Gretal.
Walking through the Gingerbread house you see the witch getting her oven ready for cooking the children!
It was a little scary even for me! So we are making our way out and I am walking backwards, trying to get a picture of the kids coming back up the path,
when BAM! There was a tree that was leaning over the path a bit and it smacked me right in the side of the head.....OW! I survived and we continued on. Next along the path was Mary with her Little Lamb trying to take him to school.
Followed by Alice in Wonderland and the Rabbit Hole! There is a tunnel carved out to climb down and through and the kids had a blast going around and around and around.
I went down with them the first time just to make sure that they would be okay going through, and of course I should know better but there was a camera held by my father at the end of the tunnel to capture me climbing through the rabbit hole.
Thanks Dad! The next item to explore that came along was a twisty colorful maze. Poppa led us through
and after only a couple wrong turns
we made it out!
We climbed up the hill some more and came upon Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs house.
Inside Snow White was sweeping up with some forest animals, and when you looked in the upstairs window
you could see all the Dwarfs beds and a couple little critters making the beds and sleeping. The kids thought this was pretty cool. Next up on the Storybook Lane was the Dwarfs mine.
It was a dark windy path through the mine with lots of glowing waterfalls.
As we came out on the other side there was a little bench and I got the BEST BEST BEST picture of my kids with Uncle Eric and Aunt Cagney.
As a brief side note, we are going to have to make the most of the next couple weeks as my brother is re-enlisting in the Navy and will be moving away from us. I will miss you little brother! Ok now back to the trip....we come around the corner and come face to face with a HUGE witch. You can stand in her mouth and it looks like she is eating you!
You can walk up through her head and at the top there is a slide and everyone had to take a turn going down it!
After having LOTS of fun sliding, we moved on, making our way past the 3 bears house and then into the Crooked House.
The Crooked House brought lots of giggles as it was very difficult to get your footing at first...being crooked and all.
As we are making our way out Grandma managed to lose her footing a little and bonked her head pretty well!
More laughter ensued! The Shoe Slide was next on the map and was where we spent most of our time. The kids were thrilled with this slide. They spent about 20 minutes before lunch working up a great appetite. Plus I got to go as well as Poppa with the kids quite a few times.
Although I think Poppa might have had more fun then all of us combined!
After sliding, we decided to head on down to the food court and have lunch.
We found a picnic table and sat down to enjoy our lunch.
After lunch we decided to make our way up to where the kiddie rides were. But on the way moseyed our way through Western town. We browsed through windows with little western displays
and then got to watch Poppa and Uncle drive little remote control boats around and try to hit targets.
The kids thought is was really cool! Next as we walked through there was some caves that you could walk through and explore, then after going through we discovered a tepee we thought we would check out, turns out that there was a secret underground tunnel to the caves.
So we crawled through, Ally and I came out and Uncle Eric had taken Dylan up the stairs to check it out and they found a couple little holes in the rock to peek out! Dylan had a huge smile on his face while he was peeking out the holes with Uncle,
he thought it was so cool! We finally made it up to where the BIG rides were and stopped at the ticket booth to buy some tickets so that we could go and let the kids ride the kiddie rides. We stopped to rest for a few minutes, then carried on. We came upon a pit where you could "pan" for treasure.
So the kids got to pan for treasure and both got some really cool stuff
....Dylan even got some fool's gold! Finally we make it up to the kiddie rides! First Ally wanted to go on the Bumper Boats so Ally got in a boat while Poppa, Dylan, and I watched her as she drove around and around.
She had so much fun, but she is definitely not ready to drive a car!
Next they both wanted to go on the Ferris Wheel so we waited in line and then when it was their turn Ally marched purposefully over the the car and climbed right in followed closely by brother.
They were so cute smiling really big as they went around and around.
They even got stopped at the top and thought that was pretty cool too.....no fear at all!
The train was next on the list of rides to go on....So Grandma and I got on with Dylan and Ally.
We buckled the kids in and then we were off around and around the track. There was a button inside you could push and it would make farm animal noises and make the car rock back and forth.
Grandma and I had probably as much fun as the kids! One last kiddie ride...it was called The Frog Hopper. I made Aunt Cagney go on it with the kids.
So they get all buckled in and then up up up it goes. Hop down Hop down Hop down...
it bounces down and then back up this thrilled the kids to no end!
This was probably one of the favorite rides of the day! Next Poppa, Aunt Cagney and I decided to give the Big Timber Log Ride a go.
So Grandma and Uncle Eric took the kids to the observation area to watch us get wet.
This was such a blast although I didn't get very wet....I picked the right seat!
Next we walked back down to Western town for a potty break and a little chocolate snack from Grandma.
We went back up to the Ice Mountain Bobsleds and both kids said they wanted to go on it, so I checked to see if Ally was tall enough and she was....so we decided to go for it! We waited in line for about 5 minutes and the kids were very excited but patient.
Finally we get up there and Dylan, Ally and I get the back car.
Poppa got some really good pictures of us on the ride!
The kids thought this was totally cool and after we got done and back down they were jumping up and down and begging to go again! I have such brave kids! Grandma wanted a turn on the Log Ride and Dylan was wanting to go on it also so we wnt back to check to see if he would be tall enough, and he was!!!! So Grandma, Cagney, Dylan and I went to get in line for the Log Ride, while Uncle Eric took Ally to ride on the Bumper boats again. Poppa went into the observation area to get some pictures of us when we splashed down at the end of the ride. So after about a 5 minute wait it is our turn to get in a log boat.
We had put Dylan in one of the ponchos so he wouldn't get totally soaked! I kept telling him what was coming next so he would know what to expect. He kept telling me that he needed to close his eyes after I told him there would be a hill with a splash at the end....
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at first I thought it was because he was a little scared, but I found out later he just didn't want to get water in his eyes!!!! He HATES water in his eyes!
I got more wet this time and Dylan managed to not get wet at all, besides a little spray in the hair.
Ahh...good times! We all met back up at the end of the log ride and Grandma, Dylan, Ally, and I made our way into the Old Europe Village
while Poppa, Uncle Eric and Aunt Cagney did a ride called The Challenge of Mondor. We went through Pinnochio's playhouse and out through Gepettos workshop.
It was time for a snack and we had made it to the free water and light show so we got a little snack at the snack bar and sat and watched the water and light show. It was so pretty and very relaxing also.
We decided to finish the day up at the shoe slide again and wrapped up with about 20 minutes or so of sliding.
The day ended by having everyone over for dinner and playing. It was a fabulous day with family. Until the next adventure!
We are incredibly blessed to have cousins close in age near by who we get to see very frequently. I was given to pleasure and joy of babysitting Grace and Jude today while Kaydi was at work. So after feeding Jude his bottle we decided to go for a walk down to the park to play for awhile. The kids were really excited and ran ahead to get to the park. 
I had strapped Jude into the front pack and so he was stuck going the Mommy pace.
The kids immediately jumped in, climbing up and sliding down,
swinging on the bars above the slides,
and climbing the "rock wall." 
After playing a while more and even hanging out on the swings, 
we decided to head back for lunch. The rest of the day passed uneventfully....I must say though we are a blessed family. We have such great kids who get along so well and love each other so much. What a BLESSING!
This past Saturday we made a trip down to play at the beach in Newport. Making the trip with us was Poppa, Grandma, Uncle Eric, and Aunt Cagney. We all met up in Philomath at the Safeway and Poppa and Grandma decided to ride in the can with us and Uncle Eric and and Aunt Cagney drove in their car. We made it down to South Beach around 11:45 and decided to eat lunch before we went down on the beach. After a quick lunch of yummy sandwiches and chips, we cleaned up and got into our sandals rolled up our pants and huffed it over the small dune to the beach. We made it over the dune and walked down to the harder sand and came upon a rather LARGE jellyfish hanging out.
He was pretty cool and we made sure to tell the kids to stay back so they wouldn't get stung. We continued on down the beach and it was about this time that Ally started FREAKING OUT. And this was no little whine and fuss, this was all out freaking out inconsolable. 
I am not entirely sure what was wrong but after making our way all the way down to the jetty I let her sit on some rocks and she finally chilled out. 
It was horrid though! As we were making our way down the beach Dylan loved to stop and play in the wet drippy sand,
at one point Uncle Eric and Dylan dug a little hole
and Dylan jumped in and played in that for awhile. 
We continue on all the way down to the jetty where we can play some shallow water alongside the jetty, climb on rocks, and Dylan's favorite thing, throwing sand on the rocks so that it splats! 
We found a crab stuck a hollow end of a log and I had Uncle Eric and Aunt Cagney help get Dylan up onto the rocks so he could see the crab.
He thought it was pretty cool and Poppa got a great picture of us up on the rocks together.
Meanwhile Ally was busily sitting on the rock I put her on with Grandma Jo next to her. 
Finally after about 15 minutes....or more she decided to play in the sand with brother. 
We got out the sand toys and they were building a sand castle and Uncle Eric helped by bringing water over to wet the sand more. 
Ally got bored with that and came over and sat with Aunt Cagney and me and started burying Aunt Cagney's feet in the sand. 
Playing for a bit longer we decide to start making our way back as it is starting to get a little chilly. Ally was pretty pooped, half because she played so hard and the other half was because she had cried so much on the way down there! Needless to say she got carried back half the time by me and the other half by Uncle Eric....lucky little girl! Finally we make it all the way back down the beach....climb back over the little dune and crash at the picnic bench since I had left my bag with my mom and it had my car keys!!!! Once Poppa and Grandma get back we get cleaned up and head into town to look around at a craft store going out of business, then decided to grab some dinner. After a quicl dinner we went to browse the factory stores in Lincoln City. Finally it was getting dark and we decided to head back home....it was a great fun exhausting day. 
so he kept a wet wipe next to him to try to keep the paint on his hand to a minimum. 
They painted all 4 sides and the top then we set them up to dry.
Now they have their treasure chest to keep everything in! They were so excited. They already have little treasures in them!
