Three Little Monkeys: A tour of Lala and Poppi's farm

I've been procrastinating on writing about the rest of our trip to Oregon only because there were so many pictures to sort through. I still have more to post from our visit to Auntie Kim and Uncle Dana's house in Washington that was part of this trip, but that will be for another post.

My parents moved out to a beautiful piece of property a few months ago and our visit at Christmas was the first time we were able to see it. In talking with my parents about their new house in the months before we came up though, the boys started calling it "Lala and Poppi's Farm" and it seems to have stuck. Anyway, we drove in at night and really couldn't see much, but when we woke up, we woke to this:

....gorgeous green all around us! (The pictures really don't do the color any justice). We just don't have open green fields like this in our neck of the woods...not without a lot of water anyway!

The boys wasted no time in heading out to explore the next morning. The neighbor next door runs horses and mules on his property and the fence line is shared with my parents, so the first day we were there my Dad asked the boys if they'd like to go out to feed the horses. The boys asked what we would feed them and well, funny you should ask sweet babies because Lala and Poppi's house conveniently has its own small apple orchard....

The apples are definitely out of season by Christmastime, but the tops of the trees still have fruit so my Dad brought a tool out to pick the apples down.

He'd knock them down, the boys would pick them up and collect them in the bucket.

Then, out we went!

These guys were so friendly! (Me thinks my parents have been out here a time or two doing exactly what the boys were doing....)

Right next to the horse pasture is this amazing barn and I'd be lying through my teeth if I told you I wasn't the slightest bit jealous of it! Country roots die hard and I'm telling you, there is just something about a barn...

The barn has a traditional hay loft that the boys got to go up and explore with Daddy and Poppi

Auntie Kell has moved out of my parents house when they moved, but we managed to rope her back home most of the time we were visiting :)

On the other side of the property is the river. My dad can actually kayak to work if he so chooses these days. Supposedly it's a 10 minute float to his office. Rough life they lead, right?

The leafy part at the bottom of the picture is the top of a small hill at the edge of the property that leads down to the river.

Kai is one happy little puppy to be back on some land again!

Kai-bert getting some lovin'

Tanner spent our outside time warm and bundled up in the Ergo pack. Thank goodness for the Ergo! That's really what this picture is about, but can we just pause for a moment to talk about my love of muck boots? It was great to finally have a legitimate excuse to wear them again! (Something tells me that if I were to dawn a pair as I walked my kids to the park, my neighbors might give me a leery look or two)

Poppi taught the boys how to throw rocks into the river. They grabbed little rocks...

...Poppi grabbed enormous rocks!

They also couldn't resist the mud. Never mind that the highs during the day were in the low 30's and the water was cold!

I love that the trees stay green even with no leaves because of the moss and ivy that grow all over them.

Down the property a little further is my parents' beach. Because they've only lived in the house through the winter, they're not sure exactly how big the beach will be come summertime. Even if it stayed the same size as when we saw it, there will be plenty of sand to play in.

So standing on this platform, which is the top of the stairs down to the beach, if I turned around, this is what you would see:

The white in the center of this picture is their house, so the river really isn't far.

At the top of the hill right next to the stair platform is this fun little tidbit....a fire pit! Can't wait to come use it in the summer!

In the front between the river and the house is this awesome field the boys deemed their soccer field.

There's also a long, paved driveway in that loops near the house. Lala and Poppi have pint sized bikes and the boys were in heaven being able to ride without being told to stop or turn back..

Although Collin can semi-ride by himself, he was much more into coercing someone else to push...

...or tote him around.

And when the big guys got tired of both of those options, they started tying twine to Collin's pedal to help him make the pedaling rotation.

The people who lived in the house before my parents had small kids (or grandkids) that they built a clubhouse for. It needs some new paint and a few of the floorboards fixed, but the boys still had fun exploring the areas they were allowed to.