Sweet Summertime!

 Maren: 

This month was absolutely fantastic!  We ended the school year on a very positive note with lots of fun activities as the sun was shining more.  We started the summer with a bang on the second annual family raft trip.  We were scheduled to go down the John Day River again this year but plans changed at the last minute due to water levels being really low and we tried out a new river.  The Grand Ronde River is in the North Eastern corner of Oregon and turned out to be really amazing.  The water was quite a bit colder than the John Day so we didn't do quite as much swimming as normal.  The river also travels at a much faster pace so it basically was a continuous rapid and we were constantly saying.. "WEEEEE!"  Since the water was moving so much faster we were able to cover a really large distance in a shorter amount of time.  As a result, our time on the water was less which meant that we were able to spend more time in camp with more layover days.  The campsites on this river were really fantastic... big open spaces with lots of room to run around.  Mommy was really happy because there was no evidence of snakes, scorpions, or cacti!  Though we didn't really need it, the adults were really great helping us find stuff to stay busy while we were in camp.  Mommy brought a bunch of paint brushes and paint and we spent a good couple of hours painting rocks on the river bank.  Then before we left that site, we scattered our painted rocks around the campsite for other folks to enjoy. 

Nonnas birthday is June 30th and we got to help celebrate her special day with a visit to a nice winery the weekend before.  Uncle Frankie and Miss Michelle joined us and we had a really nice time.  

Maddox: 

As sissy mentioned we started out the month with a great raft trip.  The Grand Ronde was pretty amazing but I was a little disappointed in the lack of fishing.  Other than that, I loved the camp sites we stayed at and our ability to have multiple lay over days.  While we were in camp we built forts and spent lots of time playing in the hammocks.  One of the days we were off the river on a layover it ended up raining pretty hard for a while.  Thankfully the parents had planned ahead and set up a few shelters for us so we could wait out the storm.  One of the best things we did on the trip was have "River Olympics".  Mr. Jimmy came up with the idea and set up a bunch of fun activities for us to participate in.  We split up into teams with Abi and Kasey as our team leaders and did a number of fun relay races.  We did a fill the bucket relay, a rope wind/sleeping bag stuff relay, a boot shuffle/kayak carry relay, and a talent show.  It was a super fun way to spend our day and we all had a great time! 

The other day I said something rather funny that mommy just had to write down to share... I was running around being silly and I said something about a Naked Norwegian (a reference to an quote made by Olaf in a Disney Movie).  Someone asked me what that was and I said... "Well, its a naked man, and these (while pointing to my privates) are the Wegians!"  Everyone got a good laugh out of that!   

I also lost one of my upper central incisors this month.... bring on the Chicklets!