Gram-Mo & Pop-Pop to the rescue!

Gram-Mo & Pop-Pop came up to help the boys get the most out of their first Spring Break. They trekked the zoo, explored OMSI, and took in the Forestry Center. McDonald's, Burger King, Chevy's, and Sweet Tomatoes were all on the menu. They all had a great time keeping each other occupied...and knocked two more items of the 101 Before 12 list.

FARM - Woodburn has an enormous tulip farm and hosts a festival every year. The boys seem to have enjoyed the bounce house and rubber duckie gutter racing more than the flowers, but it still counts!

GREENWAY - After going crazy in OMSI, the boys took Gram-Mo & Pop-Pop on a walk along the East Bank Esplanade...otherwise known as a greenway. Must love multi-tasking!

A Cave :: Ape Cave Lava Tubes

In our quest to take our kids 101 cool places before they are 12, we needed to find a cave. We figured we'd work in the Oregon caves into one of our trips south...but then there was a blurb in the paper about the Ape Cave (named after the discoverer. Sadly, no actual apes.) IT IS FANTASTIC.

We had a healthy hike to get to the site because crews were clearing the road of enormous downed trees, and there was still snow on the ground (double bouns for the Burke Brothers, I assure you)...but once we got to the entrance, it was amazing. Definitely worth the trip. But, bring a lantern!

Hayden was such a trouper, with both the hike, the steep stairs to get into the cave, and navigating in pitch darkness. We opened for the lower trail once inside. It's a 3/4 mile hike through the tube. The floor is a bumpy hardened lavaflow scattered with large rocks and mud puddles. Absolute little boy heaven. Bayley so wanted to see a bat, but they must have been in the other trail.

(In case anyone scoffed at my having an indoor playground be our 'superlative place', I'll have you know the Ape Cave is the largest intact lava tube in the continental US!)

Advice from one brother to another...

Do not drive a truck into Daddy's butt. He will stop building the rocket ship.

Superlative Place : Largest Indoor Playground in Oregon

Bayley has been looking forward to mini-golf for weeks. It's too bad the one closest to us is...well...not nice. We had a coupon (shocker) and trekked to Safari Sam's to try out their course on the first sunny day of Srping Break.


We get there and find out it's indoor! AND, boasts the Largest Indoor Playground in Oregon. PLUS it has video games so they boys were able to play skee-ball, race cars, stomp turtles, and try and get a mechanical arm pick up candy. Most of the games spat out tickets, which the boys exchanged for a lovely collection of bouncing balls, google eye stickers and army men.


After games and golf, they set about climbing the massive play structure, where we learned Bayley can climb a rope. Who knew? This place is twice as great as Chuck E Cheese. We're going to have to take Eddie there.

Haircuts!!

For some reason the boys WANT haircuts now. They both decided today was the day (actually, yesterday was the day, but we were booked). Hayden insisted on 'spiky' which is too cute, and Bay pointed to a kid on the wall and said "I want that one."

Afterwards we went to Costco and they bemoaned the travesty of having the same DVDs with different Thomas trains as the 'free train'. It's just wrong, I tell you!

Insectarium & Sculpture Park - Zoo with the Trasen Brothers

Who knew we could knock two off our list with a simple zoo playdate? Lucky for us, the zoo has both an Insectarium (check out the hissing cockroaches...or don't. Your choice.) and Sculpture Park. Now, why this is always a bigger hit with the kids than the animals, I don't know.