AgFest

This past weekend we took the kids to the agricultural festival here in Salem. The kids could only last a couple of hours, but I could totally see going to this with an older kid. You could spend the entire day there, it was so big!

Here's Riley (and Jacob) on the pony rides. She had a blast! I love her little waves to people as she goes by. :)









Here's Riley (and Tygh and Jacob) checking out and petting some animals. She got to see llamas, goats, bunnies, sheep, cows, horses, pigs, and more! She did really well with all of the animals.









Of course with all there was to do, the kids had the most fun running through an empty alley way behind the back of a building and finding an empty sand lot to play in!

Birthday and a Song

Continuing with the birthday party theme (I know, I know, these are now a month old), here's some videos of her and Tygh at Chuck E. Cheese, riding a car together.





Not two posts ago we were saying how she could get most of the alphabet in any given attempt. Here's a video from just a couple of weeks later where she gleefully gets through the whole thing (and makes a lot of funny faces in the process!).

Playdate Madness!

Yesterday Riley's friend Tygh came over to play and make some playdough. It took them a while to warm up to each other, but after they did, they really started to have fun. It was really neat to see Riley playing with, rather than alongside, another child.

Here's a cute video taken of the two of them. Sorry about the quality in some spots. Something happened with the youtube upload, but since it took forever to upload, I didn't feel like doing it again.




After Tygh left, Riley stood at the door for a few minutes saying, "Tygh? Tygh? Tygh?" We kept answering her (that Tygh had to go home to eat), but she wasn't buying what we were selling. :)

Our lil pumpkin!

Last weekend, Cam and I, along with our friends Greg and Erin, decided to take our little ones, Riley and Tygh, to go pick some pumpkins from a pumpkin patch.

The place was huge! On one side of the farm was the patch of pumpkins, which as soon as we got there and got out of the car, Riley found. Here's a video of Riley not moments after we arrived trying to pick up one of the pumpkins (a common theme throughout the day).




On the other side of the farm were all these attractions. There were zip lines, apple slings, apples shooters, a hay maze, a petting zoo, plus more. After spending a few minutes laughing at Riley's vain attempts to pick up pumpkins, we met up with Greg, Erin, and Tygh and decided to see the attractions. Now, technically you were supposed to pay $10 per adult to actually do any of the activities (kids were free), but you could walk around for free. So, we walked around, although admittedly we went in to the petting zoo (no one was monitoring anything really) so the kids could see the animals.

It was super cute because when Riley saw the cows she starting saying, "Moo!" She was also brave enough to have the goats eat from her hand. We got a picture of it, but when we tried to video it she had decided that she didn't like it.



After we toured around some more (and got some kettle corn, which both kids LOVED), we headed off to find our pumpkins. The great thing about going to a patch like this is that they give you a wheelbarrow to cart your pumpkins around in. Or small children. Whatever works.

Here's Riley and Tygh exploring our wheelbarrow.





Here's the picture I referenced in the video. I just love the look on Tygh's face.



Unfortunately we don't have any great videos of the two kids trying to pick up a pumpkin together. It was kind of hard to keep up with them as they just went every which way, enjoying the open space.

After spending a couple of hours running around, both kids were pretty wiped. Good thing we had that wheelbarrow. As Riley can attest, it sure seemed like the way to travel!





Hopefully when we move to Michigan they'll have pumpkin farms like this. I never went to one as a kid (not that I remember anyway), and I think that it would be super fun to go every year and make it a family tradition!

Out in Left Field

Riley's first trip to the ballpark brought us to Volcano Stadium to watch a Single-A short season league game. Here, the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes ummm...erupted the Everett Aquasox (I know, right?) 7-3, giving the Volcanoes a 4-game lead in the Western division of the Northwest League.

We met up with Riley's best friend Tygh at the game. As you can see, they had a pretty good time. The first picture wasn't at the game, but cracks me up.

Here's Riley with her new second best friend, the foul pole:



And what ball-game would be complete without snacks?