Carson gets to have his first sleep-over guests tonight... oh my!

At least 54 people (at least we think that was the final count) made their way out to the farm today to say, "Hello" to Sheri & Riikka while they're here. Family and friends ate, laughed and chatted until late into the evening hours. THANK YOU to everyone who made it out to see my sisters and their families - I think I can safely say you made them feel loved:) Here's a picture of us all together - more pictures posted here.

Uncle Larry invited us out to a local farm this morning to play on the tractors - and play we did!
The kids loved climbing all over "Franks" (if you haven't seen Cars, that's a combine, or a swather) and watching the seed cleaner at work in the barn.
That afternoon the Alaska crowd headed back to the beach for some more shopping while we and the Finns headed for Portland to find Reetta who had taken an early train up to meet a friend. We found the gluten-free bakery and then caught the tram for a bird's eye view of the city before strolling over to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. (Which, by the way, is an EXCELLENT place to dine if you have food allergies!! Every time we've been there with Carson each server has known exactly what does and doesn't contain dairy and they were completely on top of their gluten-free options as well. Yeah!)

 

What a beautiful, exhausting and wonderful day it was at the beach!
Shopping... Mo's... Starbucks... and a lot of SAND!

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:)