Seaside and Sun River, we're coming!

Tomorrow's the day! I am so excited to go on a proper vacation! We have done several mini ones in the last year, a few days here, a few days there, but this will be the first time we are going somewhere other than home with all three kids for a whole week! Tomorrow we drive to Seaside, Oregon to stay in a beach front hotel for two nights. Right now the weather isn't looking super awesome, but not hopelessly rainy (yet!). On Monday, we get back in the van and drive to interior Oregon to stay at Sun River Resort! I am really excited for that one! We have a two bedroom condo for 5 nights, coming home next Saturday. We bought Lynsey and Adam both new bikes for the occasion (yes, I know that Adam isn't wearing a helmet in the picture but he does have one now!) and we are going to be the active family! Well, probably only a small part of the time, but we will certainly make an effort:). Adam does not want to pedal his bike yet, but he likes riding on it and being pushed, so we are hopeful that he will slowly but surely start experimenting with pedaling when he thinks its fun enough. He knows how to pedal and pedals the tricycles at school, but he doesn't really stay interested long enough to do it for the duration of a bike ride. We wanted to buy him a big tricycle, but they aren't easy to find for his size and I thought of it too late to get one before our vacation (even Amazon let me down!). Anyway, we decided that we would try a bike and if it really just doesn't work, Nathan will use it one day I'm sure! So, wish us luck on our vacation! Should be a fun time:).

What else is new . . . not a whole lot! School ended last week Wednesday and we've been enjoying some downtime with a few outings here and there. It's really nice to not have a schedule and just play the whole day by ear. Lynsey has been spending LOTS of time at our neighbor's yard playing with the two little girls there which has been nice. I feel a bit conflicted about it because I don't know them really, but they are always outside and Lynsey has a lot of fun, so I think it's okay. I chatted with them over the fence the other day to let them know that they should just send her home if she's ever overstaying her welcome - they seemed really friendly! The girls are never allowed to come here, I think because their Grandma watches them a lot. I'm sure we'll figure out a balance through out the summer. I know even last summer with Anessa, Lynsey hardly knew any limits, she just wanted to play with her all the time. She is such a social girl! I hate to put a limit on it if there is no harm being done (I don't do random limits) so we'll just stay the course for now and make changes if/when necessary.

Nathan is just a fun little guy:). His newest thing that he says is, "Oh that's right" - pretty much before he responds to any questions, it is so cute! He loves having Lynsey home, and I've even caught him and Adam having some fun here and there:). I have noticed that he really overreacts when Adam gets close, acting hurt even when I can see that Adam didn't hurt him (on that particular occasion). I will really have to be vigilant about not letting him become the victim all the time and blaming Adam for things that he isn't doing. I hope that as Nathan grows older he will learn more how to interact with Adam and we won't have some of these issues going forward. We also of course hope that Adam will learn not to be rough with his siblings (he still pulls Lynsey's hair sometimes, so frustrating!). One thing I have noticed is that he sometimes hits adults kind of randomly, but we have never observed him doing this to another kid other than Nathan and Lynsey. I don't know his motivation behind it, making it super tricky to correct, but I'm not terribly worried about it. I think he's just experimenting a bit with what he can do.

I guess that's all until we get back! My next post should have a lot more pictures - what has happened to my picture taking anyway!!