New school year and new adventures

Maren:
I am officially a First Grader!  I was so excited for school to start, to meet my new teacher and to meet new people.  I will admit that I was a bit nervous that some of my friends would not be in my class but mommy reminded me how much fun it is to meet new people. I was also a bit bummed that Mrs. Safko would not be my teacher again this year because I absolutely LOVED her but so far Mrs. Whitehead seems pretty awesome too.
Not long after school started we had a great adventure as Maddox will tell you about below.  I loved going to the Zoo but the water park was amazing!  Sadly (to my mommy at least) I am a solid enough swimmer that she allowed Brody and I to explore on our own which meant that we could ride whatever water slides we wanted to!  One time I really made my mommy proud when Little Lilly went missing (she had a tendency to run off without telling people).  Miss Andrea had put me in charge of watching the 3 young kids for a few minutes while she took Owen potty.  Well, one minute I turned around and Lilly was gone!  I didn't panic, I went straight to a life guard and asked for help.  Within seconds he recruited a group of people to track her down.  Mommy and Miss Andrea were all gushing over it... using big words like "responsibility" and "maturity"....

Maddox:
Last week daddy and Mr. Jimmy went on a hunting trip together.  This is a new thing for daddy as he is trying out archery for the very first time.  Well, mommy and Miss Andrea had a great idea that when the dads are gone we should have some fun too!  So, one morning they loaded us up into the Oppelt Suburban, all 7 kiddos, and we headed on a road trip! For having 7 kids in the car we really did great though our biggest struggle was who got control of the devices.  Miss Andrea did a great job passing out snacks to keep our bellies full and we were in Portland in no time.  We made a couple hour stop at the zoo in Portland to stretch our legs before making our way to the final destination.
None of us had ever been to the Great Wolf Lodge before so we didn't know what to expect.  We had one big hotel room for all of us which was great fun!  The water park was amazing, with a huge wave pool, multiple sections for little itty bitty kiddos like me and we even had some big slides to ride.  Emma, Lilly, and I played for hours and had a blast!  We definitely wore ourselves out and got our money's worth at the park.  I can't wait to take Daddy back so he can see how amazing it is too.

 

 

 

 

Summer ended with a bang!

Maren:
The end of summer is fast approaching and it has all been a bit of a whirlwind.  We have been so very busy with so many things going on but it has been a blast.  We got to finish the summer off with two camping trips right in a row in our new camper, both of them to the beach.
Our first weekend we tried out a new spot called Ludlum Campground.  It was a small, quiet little campground way up the Chetco River, just south of Brookings.  It was a really beautiful place and super quiet but the mosquitoes were kind of out of control.  I also had a really bad allergic reaction to something one of the nights and I blew up like a balloon!  Mommy hadn't gotten there yet and I scared daddy enough that he ran me to town thinking we might end up at the emergency room.  Thankfully some liquid benadryl did the trick but I had to take it every 4-6 hours for two straight days!  I had lots of fun riding my bike around and there were a handful of kiddos to play with too.
The day of my birthday was while we were there and even though I forgot, mommy and daddy didn't.  When I crawled into bed with them in the morning mommy immediately started singing happy birthday too me.  Then, that night, when we thought we were just getting smores for special treat mommy surprised me with a tower of cupcakes!  She heard me say to daddy while she was getting it ready "I bet mommy made me a cake!"  Boy, do I know her!
Our second trip was also really special because we went to family camp with our church.  One of my most very favorite people in the world, Mrs. Safko, came with us!  She pitched her tent in our campsite with us and was a part of our family.  While we were there I ran into one of my old friends from Sonshine Early Learning Center, Kolby.  We had a great time riding our bikes around the campground and playing on the beach.  It was a wonderful final weekend of summer! 



Maddox:
I love to camp!  And I love the beach!  So camping at the beach is the best thing ever!  With sand everywhere I can dig for hours!  Give me a tractor and a shovel and I'm happy but I will even take my toys and share them with the other kiddos on the beach so we can play together!
I really enjoyed both of our camping trips but I have to say that Sunset Bay was my favorite.  The beach is really protected and there are no major waves which makes playing in the water really easy.  I met new friend while we were there named Roland.  He loved tractors and shovels just about as much as I do so we really had a lot of fun playing together.