California

Ian keeps getting so excited anytime the GPS says anything about California, and keeps asking when we're going to California. We've tried explaining that we're already in California, it's just a really big place, but I think he's confused since this whole time we've been saying we're going to California to see Grandma & Granddaddy, and we haven't seen them yet. But we will soon! Tomorrow we're off to Sunnyvale, California which is very close to Jeremy's family. We're looking forward to it!

We've had a nice time here in Redding, but I think the better part of a week was just about right. We went to the (one and only) museum, but it was geared toward much older kids and there wasn't a whole lot for Ian and Rinnah to do except outside. We had gorgeous weather at the beginning of the week but with the rain the last few days, outside parks and playgrounds aren't really an all-morning sort of option. We did go to the Kids Kingdom in a park here, and saw the hugest and possibly the best playground we've seen yet. There wasn't a way to get a good picture-it's a labyrinth of a wooden play structure that goes on forever with all sorts of twists, towers, and crannies to explore. Here's one pic that I'm borrowing from someone else of it:



Aside from that, we've just been catching up on laundry, recovering from colds, and enjoying playing outside any chance we get.

Sick day

The museum was finally open today but we couldn't go. The kids seem to be picking up this mild cold thing that we've had, but it's been hitting them a little harder today. Rinnah had a fever this morning of 101 so I decided to keep them home and try to get her some extra rest. Poor Ian was so upset that we weren't going to the museum-he was feeling just bad enough to be extra cranky, but not bad enough to get any extra sleep. At any rate, it seems to have done her good because this afternoon and evening she seemed to be almost back to her old self and no longer had a fever. Hopefully both kids will sleep well tonight and we'll be able to get to the museum tomorrow.

Redding

We are now in Redding, California. It is so wonderful to be in summer weather again! Here I thought I would have to do laundry this week but instead we're just busting out the t-shirts and shorts. It's been in the 70s, bright and sunny-a welcome and refreshing change after the 50 degree rainy weather we'd gotten used to in Washington and Oregon. It's amazing how yesterday morning we were freezing cold since the furnace wasn't working (battery too low to blow the hot air), and today we're opening the windows and Ian's complaining about it being too hot outside.

Today was pretty low-key. The kids got to play outside quite a bit for the first time in a few weeks, which they loved. We even let Ian get out the sprayer he has so dearly missed. We took a quick trip to Walgreens to keep my register rewards from expiring, but otherwise spent the day here at home enjoying the weather and the fresh air. I made lasagna in my new pan (Target clearance! I'd never had a lasagna pan before) and we had a nice early evening.

There is one museum here in town, but during the winter hours they are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so we have to wait awhile longer to get there. I'm hoping to get the kids to a playground tomorrow. We've missed our evening walks to parks and maybe this will be the week we can reinstate them.

Roloff Farms

On Friday Jeremy took a vacation day and we all went out to Roloff Farms. The Roloffs are on the tv show "Little People, Big World". I haven't seen all the episodes, and I haven't seen any in at least six months, but I'd seen enough of the show to be curious about all the things they've built on their farm. During weekends in October, they open their farm to the public for pumpkin season. They've got the typical harvest-fest type of things in a really nice setup.

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We started out at the pumpkin patch. Rinnah even learned to say "pumpkin", although it sounded more like "bump"!

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Ian surveying the pumpkin field

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They had a really neat hay maze for the kids

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Ian was so excited to pull one of these wagons through the pumpkin field.

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Rinnah thought it was a lot of fun!

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Plenty of cute photo setups but the kids weren't exactly cooperative

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Another wagon ride for Rinnah

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There was this giant chair to sit in

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Amy Roloff was out as a clown doing balloons for the kids

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I think Ian was scared of the clown outfit....

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Checking each other out at the petting zoo

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We also got to take a wagon tour of some of their farm, including their Old West Town and their sports fields, and drove by their house. It was pretty cool to see everything we'd seen on tv! Matt really did build the 'ultimate playground' for his kids-it looks like an awesome place to play outside.

It was also great to just have an extra day for our family. Jeremy takes vacation days pretty rarely, and it's usually because we're visiting someone. That's nice, but there was something special about taking a day to do something with just our family of four. We enjoyed it. And this is just the sort of thing that we never would have taken a trip to do, but an opportunity came up with our RV life and it was a fun experience.


We then spent the weekend driving and have now made it to Redding, California. The RV park is nice, tucked behind a used car lot but very well maintained and (best of all!) they have a great internet connection so far. Jeremy and the kids were even able to do a Skype call with Grandmother & Granddaddy W. tonight. We will definitely appreciate a reliable connection!

Pumpkin patch

We went to Roloff Farms today and had a great time! Pics are up, whole story to follow tomorrow.

Roloff Farms Pictures

Children's museum

Yesterday I got to take the kids to the Portland Children's Museum. It is very nice and the kids had a great time. We were there for almost an hour and a half but only saw about half of the exhibits. As usual, Rinnah loved climbing up and down the stairs, and Ian loved building things with blocks and pipes. They both really enjoyed the grocery store exhibit where they got to shop and check out (with coupons!).

Speaking of shopping, Ian is figuring me out. He used to just ask if I would buy something and I'd say, "No, I don't have a coupon for that." Now he finds something he likes and says, "Mommy, you see you have coupon for this?" Or he finds the sale tags and says, "Mommy, I want buy this! It on sale!" And he gets so excited when I let him hand the coupons to the clerk. It's the coolest job.

Still working on pictures. The internet here works MUCH better than it did in Seattle, but it still seems to have a personal vendetta against me uploading pictures. Whenever I try, the connection goes poof. Hopefully tonight I'll get some up.

Ian is napping right now. We've had a LOT of struggles with naps lately, so we're experimenting with a new schedule of bumping lunch up by an hour or so and trying to get him in bed by 12 or 12:30. It worked well for Rinnah today, but Ian still took awhile to settle down. If he wakes up in time we'll be able to all go back to the Children's Museum together which would be very nice.

Errands

Not an overly exciting day today. We had to stop at the office this morning to make sure we could stay parked where we were, and I needed to pick up a few (free) things at the grocery store. I also picked up some free chocolate covered fruit from Edible Arrangements, which was fun. They make some amazing bouquets of fruit! As a side note, I got to parallel park our massive truck in downtown Portland, which was a whole new experience too.

I think it's good that we didn't have a big agenda this morning, because the kids were less than cooperative.

After naps (yes, they napped today, thank goodness!) we drove down to the marina that's nearby. We're on an island, so it was close. We walked around for a bit with these huge gorgeous houses on one side and the marina full of boats on the other. It was really pretty, just a tiny bit chilly. The kids loved seeing all the boats.

Edited to add: Hey, I finally got a picture uploaded! The internet works a lot better here than at the last place, but just as I was trying to get pics uploaded last night it started to flake out on me. Here's one picture of the marina at least.

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