Wildlife Preserve

I was happily surprised to discover that Mike had a day off today. I get so busy with the humdrum stuff of life that I forget about things like holidays! We headed out to Basket Slough Wildlife Preserve, which is only about 15 or 20 minutes from our home. There is a relatively easy hike that the boys can do (though Sully rode on Daddy's shoulders for quite a bit of the loop) so we like to go out there when we have the chance.




As we pulled in to the parking lot, Mike overheard a woman say she thought she saw a cougar. She described seeing something "small and gray" far off in some brush. We didn't really believe it was a cougar but told the boys to stay close just the same. ;o)


When we do see deer at the Preserve, it usually isn't until we get up a hill and into a treed area. Today, however, we saw a buck right away. He's in the first picture here. He didn't let us get too close before he ran off to be with another deer (of undetermined gender) up in the trees.

Keats always looks forward to climbing inside this hollow tree. This was the first time Sullivan was able to get in on the action.

We saw something, I think it was a very tiny fawn, in the brush while we were still in the trees. Mike was concerned that it was a cougar, or possibly a fox, so we stood still to see what it was. I saw ears & a head that looked like a deer, though I suppose it would have been something like a fox. Anyhoo, we really perked our ears up after that and told the boys to be quiet. It was like you could feel that we were going to see something neato. I could hear the thump of hooves, some breathing, and just general "something is nearby" sounds. I saw a creature walk out onto the path in front of us, walking away, and it looked to me like a deer butt...so we quickly but quietly followed.

As we exited the trees, Mike pointed to a whole herd of deer! The above picture is Keaton being excited when he noticed the herd as well.

Here are two of the three fawn we saw today.

This little guy walked on to the path maybe twenty or thirty feet in front of us. I assumed he was going to run away but he stayed on the path and walked it, away from us, for several feet. He had no concerns about our presence.

I assume this is Mama with one of her babies.

We were sooooo close to them! I wish I had a better zoom but still caught a few good shots.

Big-eared cutie.

Can you find the two fawn in the above photo?

(hint: one is on the left, one is on the right)

Peaceful, mellow baby after the hike.

We were going to stop for lunch on the way home but decided to skip lunch and have ice cream first. Keaton was, as you can imagine, terribly excited that we were going to eat ice cream before lunch! We stopped at a little fruit stand/restaraunt and the boys had some yummy ice cream cones that they thoroughly enjoyed!

Evergreen Aviation Museum

This very, very brave soul took Sully, Keats, and their friends Ty & Kyler to the Evergreen Avaiation museum in McMinnville. Only about 25ish minutes from my home. I swapped kids the day before, so Melina had my boys Thursday and I took her boys Friday. I wanted to take them somewhere so decided this place would be the best shot as it is indoors (doors are GOOD when you have a runaway three-year-old!). We had a great time and everyone behaved themselves.

I bought a membership to a museum in Dayton, Ohio that allows us to get into places around here for free. There's a problem with local museum memberships: you don't get free passes to anything within a certain amount of miles (like fifty) from the museum where you hold the membership. So I heard through the MOMS Club that this place was a good deal. I paid $69 for a one-year membership and it got all five of us into the aviation museum for "free" and I believe it will work at the zoo and OMSI as well. A little sneaky, perhaps, but we more than make up for it with food & gifts. I spent $39 just on lunch for the brood!!! Unreal. Anyhoo, if you want to know the museum I went through, just let me know.

Ty, Keats, Kyler, and Sully at the entrance to the museum
The Spruce Goose.

Cheese!

Inside the Spruce Goose.

Kyler was great for giving Sully piggyback rides when Sully got too grumpy from all the activity (we were there allll through his normal nap time.)

I just thought it was funny that they stopped to read all of these informational stands.

The boys had to sit down, and buckle up, in every single airplane seat in the museum. And there were a LOT of them! Love how Sully is trying to figure out how it works...

Checking out more seats...

In the childrens play area

I have a pic of Keats in this same 'copter when he was one :o)

LOVE this shot!

Sullivan was fascinated with this display that talked about wind velocity and other exciting things

I almost couldn't drag these two out of their fighter plane...

Sully, checking out the little plane. "I a PILOT! I a PILOT!!"

The boys were able to ride these planes three separate times, all included in the membership deal

Ahhhh...the Air & Space Museum has seats too! Awesome!

Huge rocket...

We climbed down a few flights of stairs and are standing under the rocket in the picture above

This was a cool display about the Apollos

This is the closest Sully would come to posing for me.

I don't remember what this thingy is called but it went to Mars, and therefore the boys wanted their picture in front of it!

The playground outside had this neato helicopter playset

Two tired boys after a very fun day!

Discovery Meadows Park

This is the park formerly known as "The Devil's Playground" to us. Each time we have tried to go, one or the other boy decided to make life miserable. This is the first time I took them by myself but I'm not sure if that had anything to do with how much fun the boys had. Hopefully they are just getting older & more in control of themselves. (Hey, I can dream, can't I??!!)

A teeter-totter-y thing

This sand mountain may not look like much but it is VERY difficult to climb! Slippery and frustrating to the little kids. This is the first time Keats was able to climb all the way up without any trouble. Sully couldn't make it up more than a couple of feet. :o(

Giving the baby brother some pointers on how to work the heavy equipment

I love this shot of Sully!

Keats LOVED this slide!

After about 27 trips down the slide, they realized they could go together and double their fun.

I could hear them giggle the entire way down the slide!

Concentrating on the teeter-totter

Keats is hard at work while Sullivan tries, and fails, to climb the sand mountain

Mud puddle!!!!

The Moores go marching two-by-two...

...hurrah, hurrah...

It wasn't very warm this day but Keats insisted on running through the splash pad

Snack time!