Full Circle

What a blast from the past and a great day in Oregon on Sunday! Both Savannah and Sophie had their own Birthday parties locally. Sophie at Chuck E Cheese with the Parris's and Savannah at the Children's Museum with her friends from school and some neighbor kids. Each were great, but over the weekend we headed to Oregon to celebrate with our families and friends. The weather reports were ominous as was the threat of a nuclear cloud as they had just imploded the Nuclear Plant a little north of Portland. That didn't scare us though. We stuck with the plan and met at Willamette Valley Vineyards for a picnic, some Rice Krispie Cakes and presents. What better place to celebrate your fifth or second birthday than at a winery right? It really was great. There was a bit of wind and it looked like it wanted to rain, but the sun came out and we had a great time. I was able to sneak into one of my favorite places on planet Earth, the WVV Wine Cellar to take some photo's. I had never been able to go down there myself before and it was super cool to get to do so this time. Later in the day I was able to sneak Robb and Sydney in to check it out too. I even got Robb to taste a couple different Pinot Noir's. He confessed to me that he oxygenates his Diet Pepsi in his mouth to get more flavor out of it like many seasoned wine tasters. He is a natural wine taster and it is now going to be my personal goal to make him a wino.

After the girls got to open their great presents from our friends we headed to the Enchanted Forest. I should mention that my baby brother Pete whose blog you can read by clicking on his name where he leaves obnoxious comments about me here got my two year old daughter Sophie a gun that shoots BB like objects and Savannah a guitar that she loves to play right in my ear when I am on the computer. It's not that she can't carry a tune or anything...well, yeah actually that is what it is....oh well, Pete has three kids that I can get my revenge on him with.

So the Enchanted Forest for those of you that don't know is this Amusement Park just south of Salem, OR that has been there for like 500 years or so. It is exactly as I remember it from when I was a kid. I was filled with a sense of nostalgia from the moment I got out of my car and it didn't leave until long after we had left. The weather was absolutely perfect and when we got in we quickly realized that we practically had the place to ourselves! There were no lines for any of the rides, the kids (and the parents...and the Grandparents) were able to go down the slides and rides over and over again with no waiting, no whining...it was perfect! We hit the Western Town and it was like a ghost town..till we got there :) Lot's of running, screaming, laughing, playing...the kid's thought we had gone nuts. It honestly was so cool. We were all able to stick together for most of the day and one of the ladies at the park took the group shot for us. It came out pretty good too. Next, those brave enough entered the Haunted House. Lea led the way and she gave genuine screams more than once. As did all of us for that matter. The advantage to going first is that we could hide around corners and really scare the crap out of our group. It was awesome! Sydney braved it for the first time in years and even 5 year old Clayton made it through. He is very adventurous. After the Haunted House we hit the Roller Coasters...they are pretty fast for being at such a small Amusement Park. Savannah did both the big ones and both times she was in the front seat of the front car! She loved it! Anyway, I took so many pictures that uploading them filled my hard drive to maximum capacity so it'll be a while before I get them all done. In the meantime I'm going to put a few up here for y'all to check out. If you are reading this and you were there yesterday thank you very much for going! It was the most fun I can remember having in a long, long time and it wouldn't have been the same without each and every one of you. We'll have to make it an annual tradition for sure!