The summer has been flying by!  I am still really enjoying the new location.  I spend so much time at the lake, either for my workout or just walking around taking pictures.  It is so nice to have that mountain of mine still around for a shot now and then.

I could not let summer get past without making sure that Emily and Joshua spent a  week with us.  Especially since they have not been able to spend much time at the new place yet.  Their first day here, we rented a paddle boat at the lake.  It was way more work than they thought it would be!  Kind of like being on a workout bike, except it was way more  fun.  Josh decided it would be easier to stand up and paddle...check out his technique.Josiah and Arianna came over and spent time with us too.  

And once again, we made a trip up to the Alpine Slide.  Josiah has not done it before, so Jessi took him up.  He loved it as much as Emily and Joshua.It was a gorgeous sunny day, Emily got sunburned, Great Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Cyndi drove up and joined us for lunch.

There is so much to do up there, canoes, ponies, rock wall, trampoline, tubes slides...it goes on and on.

 

Second favorite to the slides are the race-cars.  This was the first year that Joshua was allowed to drive his own.  It was hilarious watching Emily race around ahead of him.  For a while he was ahead of her, but she kind of accidentally crashed her car into his and made him hit the edge as she zoomed on past him.  She is a natural at it...look out world, she gets her permit in 6 more months!!!

We have never done the Jet Boats in Portland, so we made a trip downtown to the Willamette and took a ride.  Wow!  it was so fun!  We had seats in the second row and got drenched!  Every time he stopped the boat, water rushed over the front onto us.  We saw so much along the way, even eagles and osprey in their nests, and we got a river view of Willamette Falls.  The best part of all was the 360° spins that the boat did as much as possible. As you can see from the blurry spots in the photos, my camera got a little wet too. Luckily it was a hot day and we dried off just fine before we stopped off for lunch afterwards.

Our last day we went to Lloyd Center and ice skated.  It was something that my Grandma Harman always loved to take my sisters and me to do when she was alive.  I still like skating and it is fun to now be the Grandma taking her grandkids skating.  I wish she was here to go with us still.  

This is just a random shot that I love.  It was taken at my friend Irene's garden.  Her husband Wally was busy picking me a whole bouquet of these and this one caught my eye with its pretty hat on.  It is a garlic flower.  They are so pretty and don't smell of garlic at all.