We made a quick trip up to Oregon a little while ago to visit everyone and have Christi do my hair. Lala and Poppi are in a new place and although it's no longer a farm, the yard was in no way short on fun for the boys.
There was still plenty of digging...
...climbing...
...and building to be had!
Since Jenn and Emmie had come up with us too, there was also no shortage on cousin time, which was so, so fun!
How cute is Elsie??
She loves her Auntie Jenn!
More than cousins, digging, building, and climbing though, was time spent on The Great Worm Hunt. One morning early on, the boys had discovered, in all that glorious digging going on in Lala and Poppi's backyard, that, behold, there were worms in that soft soil! Huge, squishy, perfectly findable worms in mass quantities. The boys came squealing in asking for a container to put them all into and thus began The Great Worm Hunt....an event that lasted the entire week.
When I say the boys were huge on finding worms in the yard, I mean huge. We had to bribe them to go to the park. Say whaaaaaaat??
It took Tanny a while to find a worm on his own, but when he found one it was by far the biggest worm the boys had found that day....
So of course, the big boys wanted to see and hold it and have Tanner share it, which clearly he wanted no part in...
...because he had big plans for his worm. It couldn't be shared! There were slides to make it go down!
Eventually the girls caught The Great Worm Hunt itch and joined in too.
Since the weather was beautiful and clear the entire time we were there, much of our time was spent playing outside, so when the boys weren't on The Great Worm Hunt they were out riding bikes and playing outside.
Tanner managed to sucker Lala into pulling him around on his bike. ...And don't mind the seemingly all on her own Elsie in the background. Auntie Jenn was a step or two behind Elsie but just outside of the photo :)
I laughed at these three photos. It was the ever expanding picture! I asked Elsie to say "cheese!" so I could take a picture,
then Emmie came running in and wanted to be a part of things,
...and then Collin! Thus, the ever expanding picture!
This is how TanTan holds his glove to play catch right now...one hand on top of the glove and the other on the bottom (neither are actually inside the mitt). He then will tell you to toss the ball into the scoop he's made. So basically, as he's standing in this picture is the exact way that he would stand across from me and tell me to throw the ball in. He doesn't move. At all. It's a tricky game of toss I tell ya....
When Poppi wasn't out fishing with the Big Boys, Tanny would snag him to play piano.
Emmie also had a go-round of piano playing....with her toes.
At home I've been letting Collin trace his name, but he usually won't write it on his own. At Lala's house though, he was proud to show me he had written his name on her chalkboard all on his own and completely from memory. Wahoo!
C-O-L-L-I (big, long "I")-N
Lala's chalkboard is where she keeps her to-do list and menu things, but for the week we were there, it looked something like this (plus or minus a kid or two), each and every morning.
Tanny also started "drawing" me pictures while we were there. Love.
And finally, while we were in Oregon, Tanner fell in love with "Pink Pony", a little rubber pony that Elsie had. He took it everywhere with him the whole time we were up, bed included. When it was finally time for us to leave, we were just barely able to convince Tanny that Pink Pony's home was in Oregon with Elsie. In fact, I'm still not even sure we actually convinced him. I think we just managed to get Pink Pony out of his hands long enough to hand it back to Elsie.
Anyway, a day after we got home, a box arrived for Tanner from Auntie Christi and lo and behold, what was inside? His very own "Pink" Pony who has done everything and gone everywhere with Tanner since its arrival...
...and of course Pink Pony had to sleep in his bed, right alongside Olaf from Christmastime (Tanner's bed is getting crowded)!
Returning home meant a return to the normal boy shenanigans around our house....
...dog piles....
...and helmets at the dinner table! Never a dull moment...
