Keeping Up With the Kocubinskis: Summer Fun 2012

I can't believe another summer has come and gone! Summer of 2012 was most definitely a great one for us. This year we picked a whole lot of berries, visited with Grandmas, had some fun play dates, did the Portland Bridge Pedal, made a few trips to Oaks Park (more on that in another post), played in the sun, watched Max participate in his first race, took some more swim lessons, celebrated the arrival of Ma and Tyler's beautiful baby girl (much more on THAT later too), and wrapped things up with a quick trip to Seattle. In short, we crammed a whole lot of fun in to a short couple of months.

Sue drove the kids and I back to Portland after our Montana trip (Matt had to come back earlier for work) and stayed with us for about a week. We had a lovely, relaxing visit. The kids enjoyed playing outside in the perfect weather and we even took a trip to Portland's GORGEOUS rose garden.

Sue and my little rose at the Rose Garden

Love this picture captured by sue.

Shortly after Sue left, my mom came for a visit. We kept pretty busy while she was here. We had to make another trip to one of the local berry farms to pick some raspberries (mom's favorite), went to Oaks Park, and yep, played outside.

The kids and mom (Max could barely keep his eyes open after a very busy morning)

Max has inherited the raspberry addiction that my mom and I have

Evelyn found a way to make jumping on the trampoline a bit more exciting

Matt signed up for the Mount Tabor Doggie Dash with Margie. The old girl is getting a little thick around the middle, so he thought it would be fun to do an 8k with her, although I'm not sure how much she enjoyed it. He also signed Max up to do the 1/2 mile kids fun run. Max did such an amazing job and was oh so proud of his purple participation ribbon. He has the bug now and wants to do more races with daddy. I'm sure Matt will oblige.

The racers

Evelyn had a fun day too. She'll be old enough to run next year

The kids doing a little race of their own

Stretching is important before a big run

And he's off!

Almost to the finish line

So proud

Matt and Margie finishing their race.

We signed the kids up for swim lessons again. Max had his first solo lessons and did great! I was worried he would want me in the pool with him, but I don't think he even noticed I wasn't there. I was in one of the other kiddie pools next to his with Evelyn, so I still got to watch him in action. Evelyn did great as well. Her favorite part was jumping off the edge into Matt's or my arms. I wasn't at all surprised. :)

Happy little swimmer

Jumping!

Concentration

Every summer, Portland has an event called the Bridge Pedal. Portland is known for all it's bridges crossing the Willamette River to downtown. There are 10 bridges total. When you sign up for the Bridge Pedal, you have the option of going over all 10 (30+ miles), going over 8 bridges (16 miles, I think) or going over 6 of them (13 miles). We did the shortest one since we didn't know how the kids would like it and since it's been quite awhile since we've ridden our bikes for more than a couple of miles. Boy, were we glad we made that choice. I was exhausted at the end- some of hills were pretty tough! And I wasn't even the one pulling the kids behind me! But we had a blast. The scenery was fantastic, there were bands on some of the bridges, and treats were offered at the end. We can't wait to do it again next year!

All ready to go!

Taking a quick pic on our first bridge

Beautiful Portland

Before our trip to Seattle, Matt's sister Julia came through town with some friends doing the Hood to Coast Relay. We got to see her briefly as she ran through town, then again the next day when she and some of her teammates stopped by for breakfast before leaving town.

Max giving Julia a good luck kiss

Posing for a quick picture

Then she was off toward the coast

Our last event of the summer was a trip to Seattle over Labor Day weekend. Matt's family goes every year for Bumbershoot, a music and art festival. We stayed at a very cool old hotel right next to the Seattle Center (where Bumbershoot is held) so we could all come and go as we pleased. The kids and I spent Saturday at Bumbershoot, and Sunday with my dear friend Lynn who lives in Seattle. It was a great weekend! AND the kids got to see Goyte. I used to play the video for his song "Somebody I Used to Know" on Youtube and the kids for whatever reason just love it. The started calling it the music show and would get so excited whenever his song came on the radio. So they were pretty stoked to see him live. Then on Sunday we got to play at a nice park with Lynn and visited the Ballard Locks so the kids could see the fish swim through the fish ladder.