A Wavy Thanksgiving

After a lovely few days at Grandma and Grandpa Maguire's we hoped in the car and (very, very, very) slowly drove to Lin.coln City to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa Hopkins (plus a lot of other relatives).

Our first order of business on Thanksgiving morning - the beach!

Immediately a wave chasing challenge was issued:

A lot of rocks needed to be investigated:

Then it was time to teach the newest generation how to properly wave chase:

After everyone was run out, it was time to play in the water:

Then we introduced the boys to Alex's Rock:

Arianna laid down a challenge - could anyone touch part of Alex's Rock?

After several attempts and no success, everyone took a break from trying to touch the Rock. 

GreatGrandma and McColley decided they needed to help some kelp get back into the ocean:

B saw that the tide might be cooperating, so it was time to try and touch the Rock again:

With most of the adults busy, Grandma and the boys got some digging in:

Uncle Mark did finally touch the Rock (and only got a little wet).  With that out of the way, the entire McHopWardMaguireWells family posed for a picture:

Then it was back to our hotel rooms for Thanksgiving dinner!

Cracking Eggs

Brayton decided to help B make pancakes this morning.

Things didn't go as planned:

Fun And Games

We arrived on the West Coast Friday night, and after a brief stop over in S.eattle, we drove to the Tri-C.ities.  B's family was anxiously awaiting our arrival.

Saturday morning B and Michael decided it was finally time to set up Grandma and Grandpa's W.ii:

And then they got to be the first ones to play:

Sunday morning the three grandsons got to play their very own special game of bumper cars:

After a fun morning at the house, we headed to the Sp.udnut Shop and met the rest of the extended family for a little cookie decorating:

McColley and his sous-chefs decorated a whole tray of cookies... and didn't eat any of them!

Once his cookies were done, McColley's artistic talents were needed to help build a gingerbread house:

Brayton had actually slept through the entire cookie decoration party, but when we got back to Grandma and Grandpa's house he did enjoy inspecting the gingerbread house:

The entire family reconvened for dinner and then had a small party in honor of Brayton's birthday next month.  He got to open a stack of presents:

He really enjoyed ripping apart the wrapping paper - it was a whole body experience:

Grandma got him a super cute cake in his favorite theme:

Brayton was super excited by the cake... although he refused to believe it was in honor of his birthday:

But he blew out the candle all by himself!

On Patrol Again

The troopers ride again!

Patrol runs smoothly when you work as a team:

Halfway through the shift, it was time to check in with dispatch:

All good officers help type up emergency calls as they come in:

With dispatch under control it was time to go back out onto the road:

Trying Out Options

Uncertain about sitting in his plane seat for seven hours, Brayton decided to try out out what it would be like to ride in Keira's travel crate:

Nope... not better than a regular seat.

Time to try out Orlando's travel crate:

Now this has potential!

Little Rough Rider

He has geared up and mounted his donkey:

Now he just needs a hill to take:

And I Am A Total Slacker

So... B took some pictures of us at the park (yesterday).

It was colder and windier than we'd realized:

We managed to do a bit of swinging:

And the boys 'raced' before we headed back home:

But my slackerness has a cause!  Last night B.est Bu.y had a special event and we got a Bl.ueRay player!  We've been playing with it all day... everything is so pretty.

Running Their Coats Off

We decided to go up to L.ongwood Garden.s again today and explore some outside areas we had missed during our last visit.

The temperature has dipped so I overdressed the boys just to be safe:

The boys had a great time running around:

I thought I had found the perfect spot to take a picture with our timer... but as I got myself into the picture McColley moved on me:

When I showed him the picture and complained that he had blocked Brayton, he replied, "But you can see his hat!"

I then shepherded the boys toward the pumpkin playground:

They both wanted to be in control of the wheelbarrow:

Luckily they agreed to a system:

And both of them got to control the wheelbarrow for a bit:

After they had worked up a sweat I let them take off their jackets.  They also took a rest to discuss plans for tomorrow:

With their plans set, it was time to run again...

In all directions...

And then once the hats were ditched, they went straight toward the trains:

The boys timed it perfectly.  They got to watch the conductor replace one of the trains: