Grandparents Russell, and Portland!

Friday the boys went to breakfast with Grandpa Russell, they went to Goldy's. 

That afternoon we all went over to the hotel Grandpa and Grandma were staying at. The pool is on the 5th floor! Guy and I hung out in the lounge chairs while Grandma and Nico swam.

After swimming we walked downtown to The Lemon Tree sandwich shop and had an early dinner. The food was very good, just like I remember.

After getting home that night we let Nico open his birthday present. We told him he was going to need it the next day. The Nintendo Switch! This boy saved up $150 to cover half of this, and we paid for the other half for his birthday.

Saturday was party day! We had 17 kids total, and we met at a trampoline park called Jump Time. We had the place almost entirely to ourselves! 

Sweaty kids eating pizza

Jason, Liz, Rory, and Lexie

When it was time to open presents, everyone gathered around him in the corner to watch.

Saturday night was pizza night, we watched episodes of a show called Corner Gas, a 90's Canadian comedy series that Grandpa and Grandma introduced us to. Nico loved it, as did we all.

Sunday we had a busy church morning and met up back at the Clubhouse that afternoon and evening.

Saying goodbye.

We said a temporary goodbye as we would see them later that week (read to the end and you'll see why and where!)

Monday was Nico's actual birthday. We bought him a small gift that he could open that day (some pokemon cards), and I asked him what he wanted for dinner that night. He said Pizza Pie Cafe, so that's where we went! At exactly 5:57PM we sang him Happy Birthday (the time he was born). That hasn't ever been a thing we do, but this year it was!

Then we drove home and cut into the cake I made for him earlier that day.

He has been playing the Switch every moment he can. We have been purposefully lax on the rules for screen time because... it's summer, it's a new game system, and, it's summer! We took the Switch downstairs several times to hook it up to the big screen.

On Tuesday was Grandma Camp! They mixed up some meatloaves, went to the Creperie, and went to see The Lion King.

At the creperie. They have gluten free crepes??!

Wednesday was prep day for our trip to Portland for Tom and Emily's wedding! We went grocery shopping, packed, and... played the Switch. Very important.

Then this morning, off we went! We caravanned to Portland because I am leaving from here to Spokane on Saturday while the boys head home. We were prepared with Walkie Talkies so we could always be in touch. Most of our chatter was, "Nico found an Alabama license plate", or, "There's a rest stop in two miles, let's go". At every rest stop, they checked license plates.

We stopped near Portland to see Multnomah Falls. We climbed up to that bridge you see in the picture, and Nico and Guy walked across it. I couldn't bring myself to. I fall over from dizziness when I'm near high things these days, so it was safer for me to stay on the side. They said you could feel the spray from the waterfall.

We arrived to our Airbnb in the evening, and then went to the rehearsal dinner. It was SO good to see Tom and Emily again.

The dinner was at a Chinese buffet and Nico tried some new things. Sushi with imitation krab, and clams! He also tried a crab leg. He said his favorite was the clams.

Tom and Emily!

We cannot wait to see them married tomorrow!

Then we went back at the Airbnb and the boys played Battleship.

Birthday and a Boo Bash!

Friday after school Nico and I went on an hour long bike ride on the greenbelt. Nico brought home an activity calendar from school and you can color in a star every time you spend 30 minutes exercising. If you fill in all the stars you get a free pass to Wahooz.

For dinner that night we made "Crabby Patties", Spongebob style. Nico even put onion and tomato on his burger because that's how you actually make one on the Spongebob show! Eating Crabby Patties while watching Spongebob, we thought it was appropriate :)

While we were over at Grandma and Papa's house last Tuesday, while Nico was home from school sick, he discovered a drawing book in their living room that Rory must have left there. He practiced drawing from it, and when we got home that afternoon he gave me cash so that I could purchase him a similar drawing book from Amazon. It arrived on Friday! Here he is drawing.

Saturday was Guy's birthday! We went to Touch-A-Truck in the morning. Nico got to sit in a lot of different kinds of trucks.

After that we went for a little walk on the greenbelt, we hit the post office and the library.

Nico wanted to catch a leaf that was falling from a tree. We found some trees that were dropping lots of leaves, and he caught one!

That evening we made pizza and watched Matilda downstairs in the basement because Jeff and Allicia and the kiddos were out of town. Then we cut Guy's birthday cake and ate a few pieces of that! If you remember, we were trying to get to the bottom of Nico's tummy aches. We went a few days without one, we pulled all sugar out of his diet. On Saturday night we let him have a piece of Guy's cake, and the tummy ache came back! So we know sugar is involved somehow!

On Tuesday we went to visit GG and Aunt Pat. Melody was there and Nico brought out the US map that he had brought with him and they looked at that together for a while.

After leaving GG's house, we stopped at the Farmstead. We met Guy there, and Jeff and Allicia and the kiddos. First stop was the huge inflatable monster maze. 

Then tonight was the Boo Bash at Nico's school. He is going to be a ninja again this year for Halloween. Yes this is the THIRD year Nico is wearing his ninja costume! That was quite a good investment! Not that it cost much.. he he.  Here he is walking with Ivy.

Nico won the cake walk on his first time. Apparently Evelyn won the cake walk on her first time, too. It was a strange coincidence. Nico picked out these purple spider web gluten free cupcakes. Evelyn picked out a spider cake! Evelyn was standing on #1, Nico was standing on #2. Not at the same time, they had to be in different rooms because the 3rd - 6th graders were separate.

It's tradition... eat some of the cake you won at the cake walk this very night!

That's it for this week!