Airplanes

When we found out we were moving to Oregon, Brad got wind that the Spruce Goose resides in the state.  He wanted to make an effort to see it while we were here.  In honor of Brad and Christian's birthday, we decided to cross this off the Oregon bucket list last week.

However, the airplane festivities did not start in McMinville on Thursday when we had scheduled our trip to go see the monstrous wooden plane.  Because I have a reluctant napper in the house, I sometimes drive around Albany in the car with the kids in order to get Ivan to fall asleep.  We have a well established loop that I drive through the fields on the outer parts of town.  There are lots of sheep and beautiful green fields, so the drive is fun for the kids and relaxing for me.  Well, Wednesday we were out on our regular route when I saw a plane flying low to the ground up the road a way.  I decided to veer off our normal course and follow the plane assuming it was a crop duster hoping the kids would get to see it.  Well, they did, and it was quite a show!  The crop duster crossed the road just a head of our car at least two or three times and we got to see it release it "vitamin-a-mulch" (as Christian called it) as it dove down close to the ground.  Then right before it finished, it flew up parallel to the road really low to the ground right past our car and then flew up into the air and flew off.  It was so so so fun for the kids to see, and actually quite fun for me too.  It seemed like the pilot knew we were on the road just to see the plane, and he put on a show for us.  Boy, that really geared the kids up for our trip the next day.  They had a lot of fun telling Daddy about the plane when he got home from work.  

As exciting as the crop duster was for us, we had a lot of fun at the Evergreen Air and Space Museum as well.  Out camera ran out of batteries before we got to the space building, so enjoy the planes.  

Celebrating Dad's birthday.  We showed up at his office and brought cupcakes for everyone there.  Ellie and Chris had so much fun picking a present for Dad this year.  Ellie has an obsession with getting dinosaurs for any and every gift.  I usually try to talk her out of the dino gifts, but we decided on a new dinosaur shirt.  Chris didn't keep it a surprise.  Big surprise there, huh?  

Ellie and Dad by the Mustang.  Dad is proudly wearing his Daddysaurus t-shirt she picked out for him

That is one giant wooden plane!  It's not even made of a conifer tree as the name implies.  It is actually made of birch!

Mr Christian flying a helicopter

Ivan having a go at the pilot seat 

Here's the whole family with our new friend, the Spruce Goose.  Quite an impressive plane!

April, so far...

April is full of fun for our family.  We have two birthdays in April to go along with Easter (most years) and the wonderful spring weather.  We celebrated one birthday yesterday, and are looking forward to the next birthday in another week.  We had a great Easter/Conference weekend as well, so we thought we'd share.

Some members of our ward got together between conference sessions for an Easter egg hunt.  We were lucky that the weather cooperated.  There wasn't any rain, and it was just a lot of fun.  

Aprons on and ready for coloring eggs (Ellie is making bunny ears)

Ellie showing off one of her eggs.  

My mom usually makes hot crossed buns for Easter.  I decided to try the same recipe for our family this year since we couldn't steal any from Grandma's house.  They didn't turn out perfectly (we had one batch that were more like hot crossed pancakes) but I was glad that I tried.  They still tasted great with some frosting on top!

New chalk for Easter.  It has been well used especially since it has been sunny half the day and rainy the other half.  The kids have time to make fun pictures, then they are erased by the rain for more fun the next day.  

Yesterday was Christian's birthday.  It was a pretty normal day besides opening presents and eating cake in the evening. He got to play with his new light saber all day since Ellie woke up first thing in the morning  and couldn't keep her present to him a secret any longer and proceeded to to get him all excited about the new light saber.  We let him open it.  He then picked out a blue outfit to wear all day to match his light saber.  

Christian is loving all the legos he got!  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Christensen!

Thanks for the book Janel! We made sure to read it before bedtime last night

Christian is a big "site" fan. He loved to help decorate his birthday cake.  

 Christian is such a funny boy to have around.  He is very opinionated and doesn't back down easily.  He has learned well the meaning of time out, but doesn't really care. He loves to say "told ya so" when he knows the outcome of a situation.  He loves playing with his "site" trucks, making almost any object into a gun or spaceship, pretending to be a restaurant cooker, being a "bad guy", leading music,  and of course, he loves to bug his sister.  We love him and can't wait to see how he grows in the next year.