~ Mother's Day weekend

So brace yerself... there's a whole month's worth of updates coming...

For Mother's Day weekend we started out by spending the night at my best friend Denise's house in Philomath... her girls are grown and out of the house, and I think both she and the dogs enjoyed having kids in the house...

This is Claire-bear, her daughter Nicki's dog... 

The next morning we gorged ourselves on a DIVINE, super-delish breakfast and then headed outside.

The boys were going to fly the spy plane again but that took a back seat to the dirtbikes.

My darling husband who has never ridden any type of dirt bike before (city kid, poor guy...) suddenly developed a new passion... he got the feel of things on the little bike, then went to the bigger dirtbike and took off, ripping it up everywhere. He was really going fast, and I was a little glad that the winding driveway didn't allow him to go as fast as he wanted to go, crazy boy... 

Denise's husband Joe took the boys on some hairy rides in the woods... they have 80 acres of hills and woods at the base of Mary's Peak (the tallest point in the coast range) and I think he and Calvin were gone for an hour or two... which apparently involved scrambling up some hills. I was frankly amazed that Calvin hung in there and didn't complain... he came home exhausted but super happy.

In the meantime, Kizi and I walked down to the barn...

and had a pony day! 

She felt pretty special that Nicki let her ride her AMAZING mare CC 

(the one who jumped over a car... ask me about THAT story sometime...), 

and I was happy as a clam to ride Chippie.

Caleb got his fill of dirtbikes and welding, and made friends with a little dog that was visiting.

Jonathan informed me that I was in big trouble. Uh huh. He said, "Forget the horses. We're getting dirt bikes!" How 'bout both, honey?

I missed getting photos of Caleb welding, but got some of Calvin. 

(He's pretty sure he's almost ready to make an Iron Man suit now...)

It's pretty comical to sit and listen to Calvin and Joe talk. Joe's a "man's man" but he's also a brilliant physicist who makes million dollar crystals that make billion dollar lasers... or something like that. So he can talk about tractors or ions... either way, he keeps Calvin mesmerized and challenged. And the welding was cool...  

Of course Denise let Kizi "drive" back up to the house, and she and Caleb thought it was sooo cool to be able to sit in the front seat...

We played allll day, and then quickly drove over to the coast that evening to see our friend Janelle perform in her high school's production of "Seussical the Musical." She was fantastic! 

We stayed with Janelle and her mom Peggy (one of my horse friends) in their guest house... and this is the view we woke up to! So pretty...

After another divine breakfast we headed over to the beach. We have since regretted skipping church that day... but at the time it was soooo nice to spend Mother's Day in pajamas, eating a great breakfast while chatting with friends, and then luxuriating in the sunshine at the beach. 

Janelle came with us and we went to Taft beach... one of the few places at the coast where I can actually relax and not be paranoid about sneaker waves coming to steal my children.

That's the Siletz bay, and behind Kizi (in the photo below) is the beach house that a few of us couples stayed in last fall for General Conference weekend.

The weather was perfect, and the company was the BEST. :) We thoroughly relaxed and enjoyed ourselves.

I think this was my favorite Mother's Day ever... 

:)