Celebrating Tori's birthday!

On Sunday Tori celebrated her 9th birthday. Instead of having the traditional at home party we decided to celebrate her birthday in downtown Portland! We went to Pioneer Courthouse Square http://www.pioneercourthousesquare.org/ which is known as Portland's living room! Yoshida's Sand in the City event was taking place and we had the opportunity to view some amazing sand sculptures!

Made in Oregon's sand sculpture!
Tori with a dragon sculpture behind her!
Kids on the block sand sculpture!
After doing some shopping at pioneer place and having lunch we headed to "Saint Cupcake" http://www.saintcupcake.com/
This quaint little bakery has several different gourmet cupcakes and much to our delight they were FABULOUS!

Ryley, Tyler, Brandon, Ryan, Tina, Sarah and Tori enjoying our cupcakes!

Beverly Beach State Park

The kids and I took a trip to Newport, Oregon and stayed in a yurt (that's as close to camping as I can manage with 6 kids!). The weather was great and we had a fabulous time! Next time hopefully Matt will be able to take some time off and join us...with his new job it wasn't an option this time around!

Canby Grove Day Camp!

Brandon, Ryan, Ryley, Tori and Tyler spent this past week at Canby Grove Day Camp! It is a fabulous non-profit Christian Camp located on acreage in north Canby! The kids spent their days swimming, BMX bike racing, fishing and rock climbing. You can check out the camp website at http://canbygrove.com/SummerPrograms.html. They can't wait to go back next year!

Tyler, Ryley, Brandon, Tori, Ryan, Sarah and unknown lady at the after camp barbecue Friday night!

The kids stopped for a photo at the entrance of a tunnel that led us to the swimming pool, soccer field, volleyball court and BMX track.

The kids on the BMX track...Ryan had to show us the tree he crashed into!

Fourth of July celebrations!

One of our favorite things about living in Canby is the city's Fourth of July celebration they host every year. The city closes the downtown streets to traffic and they have an open air festival with booths, activities, etc. all centered around the downtown playground. It is what you might imagine as a "Norman Rockwell" festivity. Everyone around town comes down and you simply spend the day relaxing and visiting with friends.

Brandon, Ryan, Ryley and Tori spent the day at summer camp (they didn't want to miss out fishing, bmx bike racing, and swimming) so Matt, Sarah, Tyler (who was recovering from being ill and skipped camp) and I spent the afternoon downtown.

Mallory Block, Sarah, and Morgan Block turned to smile at the camera while watching the Canby parade!

That evening we invited the Block family and the Woll family over to celebrate with us. The best part about living in our neighborhood is the city fireworks are set off at the school two blocks from us. So, we just walk down to the end of our street with our chairs and enjoy the show.

Matt, Brandon and a sleeping Tori watching the fireworks!


We finally finished celebrating at midnight! Tori and Ryley had headed off to bed already!

Saturday's baseball tournament