Oh Summer... not my favorite season (ok, I love it for about a month and then I'm over it) and especially Summer 2020... really not my favorite. Anyways though.. we continued on after our Sunriver trip and tried to get as much COVID-approved fun as we could!
Here is what we were up to:
Neal is so good at finding new hiking spots near us... he discovered a great park that has trails, river access, frisbee golf.. all kinds of fun. Including big walls to sit on!
The park also had beautiful views of the river!
Sadly... no great views of any critters. At least not on that day. It might have been too hot. The boys got to see a few birds at least!
The fun river access spot! Well, one of many spots. The boys promised to take me on a weekend to show me all the fun things about this new adventure!
Sometimes Austin is just so annoyed with everything Owen does. Owen decided he wanted to swim and was splashing around in the pool when (several minutes later) Austin wanted to join in, but then barked at Owen for "splashing him and getting him wet".... ok Mr. CrankyPants. That is the point of the pool, you know???
But then... 90% of the time they are bestest friends and so close with each other. So close there is almost an obsession there.. where one won't do anything without the other. Sometimes I worry they won't grow up with enough independence from each other. Hopefully that won't be an issue, and I do love how much they love each other!
Someone lost a 2nd tooth in Pandemic 2020!!! Don't mind the odd picture, he was swimming so he's all cold and shivery and wet from climbing out of the pool to show me his great achievement!!
What do you call a two-hump camel that wears glasses? Give up??? An AustinOwenPushMePullYou!!! (ok, go look up the old 1960's version of Dr. Dolittle if you need to find out what a Push Me Pull You is.. ) The boys thought it was hilarious to walk around the house like this, pulling each other in all directions, banging into things.. just another typical day!
The boys have taken to wearing masks so well! They never complain, they never try and take them off... they know it's what we have to do and they almost like it. Its been nice since we've been able to go places easily (I mean, everywhere that we can actually go.. which isn't many places) without having to worry about a Battle of the Masks.
Oh this kid... he won't stop growing!! We measure the boys every year on their actual birthday, and then on their half-birthdays. Austin just consistently goes up and up and up. Look at the growth from his birthday to his half birthday!!! Over an inch in just 6 months. I love watching them grow, but I am starting to get a little sad. Austin is reaching the age where he's really not going to be an innocent little kid much longer. We are creeping really close to pre-teen years.
We've made some good friends this year (despite it being a weird year and we have to stay away from people for the most part) with the families the boys play sports with. They are a really good group of people, so I'm really thankful we have found a "group" in Oregon City now. They showed us their special spot on the river and we went there a few times on hot weekends. One Sunday there was a HUGE creature washed up on shore!!! It seriously looked like a shark, but apparently it was a sturgeon. I didn't know they got THAT big, and according to men who fish who know these things.. this is a fairly "small" one. Holy crap.
What's summer without ice cream??? Remember how crazy popular Cold Stone was several years ago? now it seems like there are hardly any of them around. Neal found one somewhere and took the boys. Of course the concoctions they put together were enough to turn any normal person's stomach!
We sold our house in 2020 (more on that to come, maybe.. I'm thinking of doing a post about that disaster) and one night we got a text from our realtor that someone wanted to come look at our house that evening. We had JUST sat down to dinner, but we wanted to sell our house, so we packed everything up and tried to find a spot to eat. We ended up at the End of the Oregon Trail museum and ate at a picnic table. After dinner we wandered the grounds and looked at some of the outside displays. The boys loved the oxen! We only had to tell them 1,487 times that they were NOT allowed to climb on them.
Little DoDo came to work with Mom for 1/2 a day and got down to business with Fluffyhead by his side (the eagle stuffy). He was busy making deals and coloring pictures. :-) Meanwhile....
Neal took Austin to his eye appt. Due to COVID, Owen couldn't come along so that's why he was with me for a bit. The eye Doctor had to dilate Austin's pupils so he was rocking the sunglass layer they give you to put over your glasses. He LOVED the sunglass thing and kept wearing them for weeks afterwards.
Another hot weekend morning, and another trip to the river with friends! This river spot is awesome because there is a sandy beach. The kids have more fun playing in the sand and finding little tiny crabs than they do being in the water. This picture makes my heart happy. They both took a snack break in the shade and were chatting and laughing with each other.
One of the boys' favorite games to play is Headbanz. Our little owl lover was SUPER pumped he randomly to be the owl!! He's just so cute and I love his little obsession over owls. I never really gave owls a second thought until Austin was really getting in to them, but now I have a new love for them. They are pretty cool adorable animals!
Oh Henny... he climbed up onto the kitchen table and licked up some spaghetti sauce that was still on there from the night before (thanks messy kids!!) and then promptly fell asleep on a placemat. All cozy.
One random and beautiful Saturday, Neal went golfing so the boys and I decided to try the zoo. We hadn't gone in a long time, and definitely hadn't gone since the pandemic started so I wasn't sure how it would be. Well. It was AWESOME and I hope they keep some of the regulations in place even after the pandemic is over. I loved buying tickets for a certain time slot ahead of time, it really kept the crowds down. I think because there was less people, the animals were WAY more active. I've never seen the elephants play in the water before!
I let the boys pick out something from the zoo giftshop afterward because they were SO good about wearing their masks the whole time. They both chose stuffed sea turtles and Austin started wearing his strapped to his chest. He's a good turtle Daddy!
By the end of summer we were running out of ways to keep busy... we started doing puzzles and the boys got really into it! For about a week. Then they were over it and Neal and I had to finish it up. Haha.
I've had these skateboards at my office for over a year... and I always told the boys they could have them when the time was right. They were at my office one random day and were playing with the skateboards in our warehouse and I finally told them they could take them home. THE EXCITEMENT THAT FOLLOWED. WHOA. :-) They are now skater boys!!
Hiking!!! I hate how I miss out on a lot of summer adventures since I have to work during the summer. Neal and the boys had discovered this really cool trail near us that went down to the river, so they took me on a weekend. It was a cool State park with views of the mountains, and then the trail led down to the river in several places. I wanted to see if we could get across, and we did... but we all fell off rocks at some point and soaked our shoes. Whoops. Squishy foot hiking after that!
Isn't it great when Mom finally gets in a picture, and this is what you get? Thanks Neal.... haha. Anyways.. we got a lot of use out of our little pool this year! The boys were in it almost every day; diving, splashing and being explorers of the ocean floor. We wanted to get a bigger pool, but pools became one of the hardest items to get in 2020. Between factories around the world shutting down and everyone buying pools since they were stuck at home, we had to ride out another summer in our small one. Hopefully next year!
My little man... Henry has gotten closer to Austin this last year (still low key hates Owen though) so Austin took advantage of that and made Henry his little buddy (probably to rub it in Owen's face a bit too).
One of our sports family friends has property about an hour away that has a small lake on it (more like a pond...) the boys got to go out there one day and fish, jump off the dock, swim around and have a blast. One of the things that makes summer hard for me... I have to miss out on days like this unless they are planned days off... but I'm glad that Neal gets to be home with them (usually, unless my jealousy gets the best of me) and they get to experience fun things like this.
Well, that about wraps up summer 2020!!! On to Fall, online school, and still staying pretty isolated in the pandemic. Till next time!
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