Merrick : 5 1/2

On August 14th, Merrick turned 5 1/2... so did Berkleigh but this post is about Merrick.

He has finally come out of his shell. Change did not do well with Merrick. When we moved from California he became more shy and had a hard time when Tyson or I left him.

Now, he is back to his normal self. He waves at everyone, says hi to random people, and loves his friends.

He is so sensitive, to discipline this little guy all I need to do is give this little guy my "teacher look", he doesn't need much more than that. He is an intense little boy and loves to draw maps, eat chocolate and build random spaceships with his legos.

Merrick

(From his own mouth)

I am so excited for kindergarten cause I can count to 100, I can spell words, and I know all the letters and the sounds!

I love shooting daddy's guns fake guys, cats.

I like to have parties with Mackenzie and Brooke... (probably because they are on their way here as I write this.)

I like building statues with legos.

If I could go anywhere I would go to a newseum. 

My favorite song is about Pork and Beans. (Weezer)..

My favorite food is peanut butter jelly sandwiches and baked ziti.

My favorite super hero is Superman.

I like to dress up like a dinosaur and super heroes.

We love this little guy. He makes life so fun. 

Kenzie and Brookie

Tyson's sisters came in for a visit during a their break between school.

We had so much fun with them...

We went to the Farmers Market, downtown, and the Capital.

 We went to visit the temple...

We went to Silver Falls and had a picnic and enjoyed nature on the Sabbath...

Some people decided to put Quincy's bow in the middle of her head...

And then she hammed it up...

(Megan, she sorta reminds me of Nataleigh when she was little...)

We jumped at the falls...

 We kept Portland weird...

Had some waffles at the Waffle Window...

Had Voodoo Doughnuts...

Walked around the Pearl, went to Powell's Book, saw the Portland Oregon Sign.

And relaxed in the beautiful weather...

 It was so fun to have them here... and give us another reason to go to the waffle window. hehe

no training wheels

This happened approximately 5 months ago and I am just getting around to posting it...

THE KIDS ARE TRAINING WHEELS FREE!

Woohoo!

It is so nice, but still a pain sometimes.

Learning to get on and off by yourself.

Bike safety.

There is just so much that comes with learning to ride a bike...

But they LOVE it, and so do I.

 We go on bike rides. The kids ride their bikes and we walk with Quincy. We usually ride to the community garden by our house.

There is always fruit and vegetables to look at. 

We love the community garden.

Merrick had gone ahead of us, and when we rounded the corner into our drive we saw this...

Where do you think he learned that?

movie night

Guess what this means!!

MOVIE NIGHT!

Merrick dressed in his super hero best and jumped to his hearts content, flying and saving people one air mattress jump at a time.

Sunriver, OR

This was our first Medical Conference were the kids and I tagged along, and someone else paid for our trip. hehe

It was pretty fun!

We have never been to Sunriver or Bend, and I have just heard such great things about both places...

We were really excited to go and see what all the fuss is about.

I basically decided Bend/Sunriver is to Oregon what Palm Springs is to California.

A great get away, hot, golfing, shopping, lots of outdoor activities, swimming and great food.

Can't go wrong with that!

Well, we left at 4 in the morning to get there by 7 for Tyson's conference.
So we had ALL Friday to play...
This is our view from our room. It had a great deck with rocking chairs. So relaxing.
We relaxed on the deck.

The room had everything we needed during Quincy's nap...
Free wifi for me.
TV for the twins.
Fireplace for all of us.

We went out to eat a lot.
Quincy loved this french fry.

 We swam.

We biked.

Some of us crashed in the car  on the way to dinner from all the fun.

We partied in Bend at night.

Had lots of goodies.

 Caught some people kissing on the bridge.

And hiked.

There were sometimes we even forgot we were in Oregon...

Oh wait, nope, still here. :)