We had a gorgeous summer day today - I was off from work, the kids were happy to be adventurous, and we had made a list of places to visit and things to do. We started off with berry picking on Sauvie Island, at Columbia Farms - we got blueberries, raspberries, and marionberries.
They were quite literally inside this blueberry bush, because there was a "jackpot" of huge ripe berries in there. They were giggling together and I was so delighted.
A good morning's haul! We will probably return for more blueberries in a week or two, but we had enough for now - enough to make a berry crisp and a 4th of July flag cake. We returned home to have lunch and so that Sebastian could watch the World Cup match between England and Colombia, and then piled back into the car and headed to Oaks Amusement Park.
We rode all of our favorites: the carousel, the ferris wheel, the giant slide, the tilting boat, the hot-air balloon twirl, the train, and the bumper cars. It was so fun - really delightful to be with them and to be playing and enjoying the rides together.
This was the funniest ride - the bumper cars. They insisted on being together and were clearly gunning for me the entire time - and I was aiming for them! We both slammed into each other multiple times, to everyone's great delight. These are their fierce faces, which are just utterly ridiculous. Sebastian did a great job of driving this time, much better than last year, and managed to keep his car moving and maneuvering.
Neither child won the prize, despite four balls each and seemingly endless baseball seasons. Sigh.
Oooh! The frog-hopper!
In the day's biggest surprise, Sebastian decided to ride the roller coaster with us. Not the giant new one, which looks terrifying, but the smaller one -- he's never agreed to get on it before, and it was clear that it took all of his determination and brave powers. I was so proud of him. He was a little queasy afterward, but survived!
The face of someone who is wondering if they've made a terrible mistake.
We stopped for some Hawaiian shave ice at Wailua on the way home -- we hadn't been there before, and it was really fresh and tasty.
After we got home and had dinner, we went over to the school field for our usual nightly routine - playing soccer and baseball, riding bikes and scooters, romping with Jasper, and happily meeting up with various neighbors and friends.
On an unrelated note, the kids were home yesterday with Steve, who was busy and working most of the day and only nominally supervising. So they played a card game, took Jasper for a walk, read books, and then got hungry and needed food. So Sebastian made them both lunch and then texted me a photo, with the caption "Check out what I made all by myself!". That kid can drive us crazy, but he's gonna be all right.
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