A Tale of Two Torins

Mother's Day

Father's Day

Sometimes, you're just not in the mood to take a family picture!

Early berry season continues

We have had such a warm spring that, not only were strawberries on early, but raspberries were too. Lots of hands - some more helpful filling buckets, other better at filling their own mouths!

We picked a lot of different types of berries, 2 different raspberries, blackberries, boysenberries, and a few different blueberries.

After we got home, we made a new recipe of boysenberry ice cream - it was delicious!!!

Together Time

We love together time as a family! We try to do things that are interesting for all of our kids - and Kate loves painting fingernails and toenails, whether daddy or mommy does it with her.

 

We love to serve together. One day, clearly after Jared played ultimate (in that crazy outfit), he and the kids joined the missionaries in helping a family of one of Claire's classmates move. It was a big job, and the kids all helped in the loading and unloading, but were happy to help!

We enjoy time reading together. The kids really enjoy reading Calvin and Hobbes (or "Calvin and the Hobbes" as Kate calls it). We're pretty sure that none of them find it nearly as funny as Jared does, but they still ask frequently to read it as part of bedtime. We love it when the big kids read to the little kids - including when the biggest kid curls up in the bean bag chair with one or more of the little ones!

 

We also love together traditions, like our traditional St. Pattys meal, which includes the normal corned beef, cabbage and potatoes and adds a few other greens like Jello and virgin mojitos!

We enjoy Sunday afternoon walks, especially when it's sunny and warm outside.

When mom and dad go away for a trip, the kids all hope for a treat from wherever they went. After Cancun, it was a giant sucker (which was filled with little suckers)

Kate loves taking selfies with Dani!

The front doorstep is the perfect place for treats, especially popsicles and doughnuts!

 

Family Home Evening games are typically pretty quick, but we have fun with them!

End of School

It's the end of the school year. Kate and Liam ended their 4's year at Valley Christian

complete with a preschool graduation ceremony with Grandma and Grandpa. It's a little anti-climatic given that they'll be back for Pre-K next year.

Jacob ended their 4th and final year at Lowrie, looking forward to their 3rd Wilsonville Elementary School next year - Boeckman Creek.

Now, on to summer!!!

"The Lord knows your heart, Kate"

Kate has commented a number of times about how she has felt the holy ghost, how she feels good and happy when she is feeling it. She has a sweet, growing testimony of the gospel. We have walked into her room on various occasions seeing her praying on her bed.

This last Fast Sunday, Kate decided she wanted to bear her testimony and spent a good portion of sacrament meeting discussing with Claire what she would say when she went up front. In the middle of the meeting, Kate decided she was ready and went up with Jared. Once she got to the front of the podiums, she turned and went back. A few minutes later, Jared bore his testimony, and when he returned, Claire and Kate were writing things furiously. 

At the very end, Kate deciding she wanted her big sister to accompany her, she and Claire confidently walked up to the front, making it a step or two further than the previous time before turning around again!

Bishop, having watched this, sweetly commented that, "The Lord knows your heart, Kate."

Torin Turns Two

Our sweet boy turned two today!!! We love thinking back to the day he was born, the tranquility and calmness of him as a baby. It is fun to see and hear some of his opinions.

On his birthday, we served some of his favorites - fish sticks and cheese, fruit, chicken.

 

We invited the McKnights over for ice cream. Dani made an ice cream sandwich cake, and Torin was pretty excited for it! He was super excited for the trains in his book that he was given!

 

We love little Torin. We love how much he makes sure to be part of everything that is going on, how he knows the 'right way' to do things and makes sure that every step is taken (like how he makes sure he is part of scripture study every night).

Some favorites:

- Fish Sticks

- his stuffed animals (now including a little doggy)

- Taco Bell!!! Taco Bell!!!

- Monkey George

- Blueberries

We love having this little guy in our family!

Pool of the Winds

We found a new hike on the Washington side of the gorge that would be perfect for our crew on a hot day - the Pool of the Winds.

The pool was really cool - literally. The small opening where we could see the waterfall had a constant cool breeze coming out. It felt great!

 

Below the falls, there were a bunch of boulders, and the kids loved climbing over them and all around the little creek.

It was a beautiful day for a family hike!

Biking with the family is the best

We have spent a lot of this beautiful spring out on our bicycles. In Wilsonville, we love biking over to the Korean War Memorial park, to Memorial Park, and to get treats.

This weekend, we went for a ride in the Tualatin City Park trail over to the Cook Park trail and down by the Tualatin River. Overall, we rode 8+ miles.

There were some steep hills around the turnaround spot past Cook Park! Everyone had to walk their bikes up the trail a bit - it was a struggle for Jared with his bike and trailers!

Picking strawberries - in May!

This spring has been super hot and sunny. We have enjoyed so much being outside. One of the side benefits of the warm weather has been early season berries. We were also thrilled to realize that Lee Farms had moved its strawberry fields to one mile from home - just off of Boekman!

Liam loved picking strawberries. He always needed to be carrying a bucket, and half of the time, he was taking berries out of the bucket to eat (or maybe to drool onto his shirt!).

We got a fantastic picture of tough-guy Torin with his bucket!

Choir and Orchestra

This year, Jacob joined the Lowrie choir. They had a couple performances, and Jacob really enjoyed being part of that choir.

Claire joined the Strings program. Their final concert was in West Linn High School with the other elementary school strings programs. Somewhere in that sea, is a little red-headed 4th grader

She's made some good progress and really seems to enjoy it!