We spent today at Enchanted Forest in Salem, running through the land of fairy tales and rides.
We managed to keep track of all seven kids for most of the day... one might have still been in the gift shop when we loaded up at the end, but an empty car seat made it pretty obvious before we actually drove away:)
Click here for pictures!

We spent the morning laying-low on the farm and in McMinnville before heading over to mom & dad's tonight to meet up with the Alaskans who came in this morning! Sheri, Riikka, mom, dad and I have not all been together since Scott & I were married in 1999 - and now we have seven kids following us around!! It's likely to be a long time before we're all together again with our families so we're looking forward to some good outings, as well as some good down-time over the next week.

   

The Finns are here! The Finns are here!
The first of our summer company has arrived - my "Finnish sister", Riikka, along with her hubby, sister and daughter arrived into Portland on the train this afternoon. Carson and I went and found them at the station and we all spent the evening hanging out and celebrating Riikka's birthday. I haven't seen Riikka since she was here in 2004, which means this is the first time we've been together since we had kids!! Watching them play together is priceless!! Depending on how you feel about noise:)

Today was the Summerfest parade in Dallas and the theme this year was pirates!!
Carson was very excited about the proposal of getting to dress up and go a parade and he spent the morning shouting, "Argh" and "Ahoy Matey" to people who passed by. Once we found our places along the road, Daddy helped draw out an entire Pirate mural on the street, complete with a treasure map, treasure and two pirate ships chasing each other. Kids sitting 100 yards away were coming to join the adventure! And when the parade began, Nolan  took to the role of chief candy-grabber as soon as he caught on to what was being thrown. Shiver me timbers - what a fun day!

   

We've been tackling projects this week trying to get ready for a house-full of company coming in this weekend! It cost me a day of vacation, but the painting is finally done most boxes are unpacked and I think we're almost ready! Here are some pictures of Scott cutting a hole in the wall behind the TV upstairs to make a cabinet for our DVD/VCR and kids' movies.

   

Chris brought Jaden, Mackenzie and "M" down this past weekend so we got to spend a couple days showing people around the farm once again. Seems like each time we find something new to explore! Here are some shots of the kids taking advantage of farm life... hunting eggs... playing in the hay... Jaden and I even grabbed a couple owl pellets from the barn and dug out all the mouse bones for a while. Good clean fun:)

Carson had his first “camp” this week - soccer camp through Skyhawks Sports. He was very excited about it right up until about 30 seconds after he took to the pitch on Monday, when he decided he was the only one who didn’t know how to play soccer and we spent the rest of the time in the van just observing (very Carson). Tuesday morning he got up and declared he was ready to try again, and he did great! The rest of the week he was out there, kicking the ball, listening to the coaches, trying to figure out the drills and having a great time. 
It’s given us a lot to talk about: teams, teamwork, the value of trying hard and the importance of not walking away from something new – even if it makes you nervous. Way to stick with it Carson – we’re proud of you!

Probably my favorite project of the entire move so far was letting the boys paint their bedroom doors. The girls that occupied the rooms before them did a great job of personalizing their space to reflect themselves and we wanted to continue the tradition with the boys. The deal was they could do whatever they wanted on the back, as long as they did what Mommy wanted on the front. They seemed to enjoy the deal! And I love looking at them every day... right in the middle of our house.

Our weekend company (Grandpa Burke, Nana and Aunt Karen) weren't afraid of being put to work and after a few hours of fixing up the chicken coop on Saturday we set off on a little adventure on Sunday to get some chickens! I swore as a chicken-egg-checking-child I'd never do it again, but here it goes:)

Despite kids who don't want to sleep (thanks to long summer days and Nolan's new "big boy bed") and a zillion things that need done both in and out of the house, we're finally coming up for air - and starting to get the blog updated!

Rather than putting up one long, drawn-out post with all the things we've been doing over the past few weeks, I'm back-dating the entries... so be sure to scroll down and see what's hiding below the scroll-line over the next few days! Entries will be added in no particular order... just as I manage to find the pictures that go with them:) Enjoy!