Oregonia

Since Tara is now pregnant with our 4th child, which is due next summer, we realized that we were probably going would have to cancel our trip to Oregon next summer, so we bumped up our trip and headed to Oregon for the Christmas holidays. We had the kids open a few presents a few days before we left, so that we'd have fewer presents to haul with us, and then took off for Oregon on Christmas Eve.

Below are a few fun pics of the kids with their Christmas presents:

Aria got an American Girl doll, which she'd wanted for a quite a while.  She's been reading a bunch of the American Girl doll books recently.

Zade got a Lego ship, since playing with Legos is his favorite thing to do:

 And Tara picked up some Waldorf dolls for the kids as well.

 Ryzen received his own set of play dishes, which he put to good use.

Once we got to Oregon, the kids got a second round of presents from Grandparents. Yeah, spoiled, I know. :)  Ryzen was quite thrilled with the Duplo Legos.

After the festivities ended, we tried to give the kids plenty of opportunities to build some memories:  

Papas Pizza is a favorite of all. For some reason they didn't turn on the heat in the playroom, but that didn't slow us down. :)

We went to Get Air, a giant trampoline arena with my sister Kari and her kids.  Vivian enjoyed summer-saulting down into the foam blocks over and over.  

Bowling with my brother Derek and his family.  Shortly after we got there, they started the cosmic bowling, which the kids thought was pretty cool.  My dad got the high score in the 170s.  I got three strikes in a row (i.e., a turkey) and got a score in the 160's.  My brother got a similar score, and everyone else did well too.  

Zade's also really been into making his own potions, so we took him to Grandpa's laboratory.  

There in the lab, Aria decided it was time to show off her math skills. :)

We also stopped by Grandpa's office. It looks just like I remember it when I was a kid: piled high with papers. :)  We capped off the lab visit with a trip to DQ for old times sake. 

The Crazy Bounce House:

We also went to Eugene and hung out with Tara's best friend from college: Jenna. We went to the mall and enjoyed some frozen yogurt, where U of O fans were everywhere to be seen.  (By the way, it was fun to watch the Oregon / Florida State football game on new years day.  That 3rd quarter was action packed!)  We also enjoyed checking out the foothills of Eugene with Jenna.

For New Year's Eve, we hung out with the Christison's, but forget to bring our camera, so we don't have any pictures of that. It was fun to catch up with them, since we hadn't seen them in roughly 10 years.  They now live in Corvallis!

Additionally, we enjoyed some good quality time hanging out as a family:

Here's Zade and Ryzen with their cousin Duke. This was the first time the boys had ever met Duke.

The kids also managed to just enjoy having some down time.  Here's a Tea Party Aria set up for everyone: 

Zade also made sure to take advantage of the fact that at Grandma and Grandpas he could have Chocolate Cheerios in chocolate milk for breakfast.  He was loving it!

Overall, it was a fun trip (despite several tantrums by the kids at various points).  It was definitely a nice break from the cold of Pennsylvania.