It's good to be a twin!

Dani got this picture of Kate and Liam laughing with one another - they both thought it was really funny!

We love when the babies play and laugh together!

Hiking Silver Falls

After a fun evening at Champoeg, we decided we wanted to go for a hike at Silver Falls State Park.  Silver Falls has a lot of waterfalls in the area and we've gone there a few times, but we've done the same hike both times, so we decided to explore another place to see some different waterfalls.  We parked at the group camp area (and were the only car there... it made us a little nervous) and went down a pretty steep trail to get to the canyon trail.  We immediately encountered Twin Falls, the first of the 5 waterfalls we would see on our hike.

It was another beautiful day - sunny and over 70 degrees again.  We're making sure to take advantage of all these nice days since we're not sure how long they'll last!

Middle North Falls was the second waterfall we came to.  We could hear it from a little ways away because it is a pretty big waterfall with quite a bit of water going over it.  We could walk behind it and see it from behind and from the other side of the creek.

Claire stopped for a moment to get a picture behind the waterfall.  It was pretty wet behind there.

Silver Falls has moss all over the place!  With spring coming a little early and the trees budding and leaves coming out, it was super green everywhere!

The last waterfall we saw was also the last one we saw - Double Falls, 178 feet tall.  It was a short spur off the main trail, and Jacob and Claire were quite excited when they discovered it.

Kate and Liam were good little hikers.  We've had some experiences hiking with Kate where she was a little short on patience, and fortunately, she was good for almost all of the hike.  She decided she wanted to wear my hat for part of the time.

As usual, Liam was just happy to be outside on a hike.  Going up and down the steep slopes at the beginning and end of the hikes reminded me how heavy Liam is!

Here's a picture looking downstream of a little bridge over the creek.

Before going back up the steep trail to the car, we got ourselves a little snack. Jacob and Claire were good little hikers!

Family Pictures

One of Jared's former co-workers who moved to LA came to town and spent some time taking pictures near St. John's Bridge in north Portland.  It wasn't easy, but we got quite a few that we were happy with.  It wound up that there were some themes.

The Family Pictures

The Park Bench

Grey Wall Goofiness

 

Kate and the Dandelion

In the Grass

  

On the bridge pillar

 

Abby Road style

 

It was a little bit of a challenge to keep Kate around.  She wanted to go explore

I usually don't like the super cheesy poses, but this one looks good!

On the way back to the car

We were happy to get a lot of good pictures.  It was a little chaotic at times, and not all of our pictures were great... but we had a fun time anyway!  And Dani looked great the entire time!

Playing in Champoeg

It was so beautiful on Friday (80 degrees and sunny!) that Jared decided he needed to be home to enjoy the weather, so he left work early so we could go to Champoeg State Park.  We brought our bikes for a family bike ride.

Now that Claire feels confident in her riding, it is a lot of fun to go as a family.  Kate and Liam like bike rides (for the most part).

After our ride, we grilled hot dogs over charcoal.  Jared played some pepper with Jacob, and Claire led Kate and Liam around picking little daisies.

After we ate, we packed the babies in the jogging stroller and played some disc golf.  Kate and Liam understood quickly that the objective of the game was to put the frisbee in the basket, so they joined in.

Claire found herself a nice frisbee-launching pad.

We played until sunset, then topped off our day with some frozen yogurt.  We enjoy these days that we can get out as a family!