Oaks Park!

Warning: lots of pictures.  21 to be exact.

So, I went to upload pictures from our cameras a few days ago since Miriam wanted the ones I took of her & Sidney, and I discovered that I had pictures from Easter still on there.  Yup, hadn't gotten around to uploading pictures for the entire months of April, May, and June.  It's been busy - I got a job!  That's a whole other post.  Anyhow, I'm going to be a good girl and blog about our latest fun adventure, and maybe catch up on some other stuff in my spare time (ha!).

So, Katy turned 5 on Sunday, June 3rd (another post I should do...).  We planned on taking the kids to Oaks Park the day before as her big birthday thing (i.e. instead of doing a party).  That morning she woke up with a fever and owie ear, head, and throat, so I took her to the doctor instead, and we promised we'd take them soon.  In the summer they have b1g1 on Tuesdays, so we knew we'd go on one of those.  When Miriam decided to come visit us before moving to Wyoming (sad!), we decided to go with her and Sidney!

The day was overcast, drizzling a little, with at least 3 or 4 sudden downpours that lasted a few minutes each.  Other than the first time when the boys were stuck on the Spider, we were pretty successful at just going undercover for a bit.  And because of this less than ideal weather, the park was pretty empty!  It was awesome!

Time for the pictures:

 Last summer when we went Nathan was just a teeny guy, so I didn't realize all the great stuff they had for toddlers!  It was so fun to watch him and Sidney ride all by themselves!

 Or together...that was pretty cute, too! :-)

 Katy loves this roller coaster so very much.  We counted that night, and I'm pretty sure she went on it 11 times!  A few times by herself, a few times with me (sometimes with one of the babies), a few times with some girl she made friends with, and twice with a 5 year old boy who told her she was pretty.

 I love how much the big kids love Nathan.

 I guess I lied, we got caught in the rain, too.  Also on the spider.  Dang it!

 I don't know if you can see her face very clearly, but this is one happy little girl!

 While riding the motorcycles Nathan turned around to wave at Sidney. :-)

 Miriam and Sidney about to go up in the "hot air balloon."

 Around 4:30 I think Sidney had finally worn herself out.  Her pregnant mama was pretty tired too, so Dan and Nathan took them home.  The rest of us, we were only halfway done!

 Part 2 of Oaks Park, where I see my other children.  See, when we first got there we all went on the carousel.  Then the boys wanted to do a big kid ride, so Dan stayed with them while Miriam and I took Katy, Sidney, and Nathan on little rides.  After the boys got soaked on the Spider, they ended up going roller skating (it's included in the bracelet price) for over 2 hours!  Nope, I don't have any pictures of that.  And that's why I don't have any pictures of the boys from the first part.

I got Ryan to go on a ride with me (it appears from this post that we spent a lot of time on the Spider.  We did not.  I think it's just that you have so much time while waiting for everyone to get on and off, so I kept snapping pictures!).  It was nice. :-)

 This year the boys wanted "Deluxe" bracelets.  They cost just a few dollars more, and included bumper cars and 3 or 4 of the biggest rides.  Ryan is just barely tall enough to do bumper cars, which he was thrilled about!

 Katy got more and more courageous throughout the day.  I'm pretty sure she went on every ride she could (besides a few of the baby rides).  She started saying she wished she had a deluxe bracelet, but I don't think she's even tall enough to go on any of those rides!

Also, yes, Katy and David are the only people on that ride.  The park got even more empty as the night wore on, and we could often just walk onto a ride.  It was awesome!

 Katy convinced me to go on Rocko, which was like a ferris wheel where you're caged in and can rock your cage upside down.  We did NOT do that!  It was scary enough just riding it!

 Since it was another of those rides where you have to wait while all the people are loaded on, one spot at a time, we had some time to kill.  It's hard to be a crazy face with one hand, I discovered.  I look like I'm just trying to show you my teeth.  Lovely, aren't they?

 I don't have many pictures of David, because I still wasn't with him much.  I let the boys do their own thing, they just had to tell me if they were going to change which ride they were going on (since they would often do the same ride over and over again).  The park is fairly small and the crowds were fairly thin, so I felt pretty comfortable with that.  I can't believe they're getting that big!

 They spent a lot of time on the bumper cars like this (Ryan is in the red car, stuck against the middle, and David is in the blue car, stuck against Ryan's car).  Ryan eventually got the hang of it.  David decided to go on other rides instead.

 Another solo ride.  I wish I'd gotten a picture of the time Ryan rode Looping Thunder, the big roller coaster, all by himself, but Katy and I were on the scrambler and not really in a position to be taking pictures!

 David, Ryan, and a friend they made are on the bottom in this picture.  David had fun hanging out with him, and was disappointed that he lives in Salem so we wouldn't be exchanging contact info.

 Brave, brave Katy, riding rocko again.  Pretty sure this is when I started sitting out because I had finally had enough spinny rides and needed a break!

 My princess and me, riding the ferris wheel.  It was our last ride of the night, at 8:58 or something.  When we got home we tried to remember all the rides Katy went on, and we came out with an even 50!  It was 49, but then Ryan reminded us that they'd gone on tilt-a-whirl together.  We counted up Ryan's too, and it was a bit less because they'd spent so long skating, but still really amazing.  I'm pretty sure we're spoiled by that.  How can we ever go to Disneyland and wait in hour long lines after that?

The view from the top of the ferris wheel.  That's downtown Portland off in the distance.  It was really beautiful.

I don't know that we would have had anywhere near that much fun if we'd gone on June 2nd like originally planned.  It was fun to be there with Aunt Miriam and Sidney!  And awesome to have so few people there!  So Katy, sorry you had an ear infection the day before your birthday, but it turned out great!