Apparently today is my anniversary with WordPress, which means I’ve been doing this little blog thing for two years now. That seems crazy, but then I have to two year olds, which is even crazier. 🙂
We have had some insanely busy weekends lately. It seems like we’ve always had something schedules for at least the last month, if not more. This weekend wasn’t really any different, though the busy schedule belongs to Ken and not to our family as a whole. As the school year winds down and graduation starts to cast it’s momentous shadow over the land he is going to be a very busy guy. I am trying to squeeze in family stuff where I can. This past week for example he was home Monday and Tuesday night, gone Wednesday, home Thursday, but was sick so I don’t feel like that counts, gone Friday night, will be gone tonight, and is working most of tomorrow. That’s a lot of time away from his girls. And a lot of time for the girls to be away from him. I feel like if we go and do things then we are able to focus more on spending time together whereas when we stay home dishes/laundry/housework/fixing things all seem to weasel their way into our focus.
There’s a little… amusement park, I guess, just south of Salem called Enchanted Forest. I have very found memories of going there as a child. It’s quaint and little, but still entertaining for young kids. As Ken put, it’s Disneyland Lite. 
Beware: there are very few pictures of the girls faces. Getting them to look away from everything and at me was a challenge, but I’m also a little obsessed with the back of their heads at the moment. I cannot begin to explain why. There’s something about their blonde heads next to each other (YES! They are both blonde now.) that I just adore. Like they are constantly in cahoots with each other.
FYI, this park is exactly the same now as it was 20 years ago.
I love that the girls are still free when we go to things like this. I am going to be a sad momma when they turn three and we have to pay admission for them.
See? Two blondie bears. I miss Hazel’s brown hair. The blonde is beautiful, but I was in love with how dark her hair was when she was born. I’m still interested to see if Haley’s hair will darken like everyone thinks or stay brown. With how much the girls like to be outside and summer just around the corner, I pretty confident I will still have two yellow haired girls in the fall.
Peeking in Snow White’s cottage. I love this. They adore Snow White and Hazel was walking around singing “heigh ho, heigh ho, heigh ho, heigh ho”. They also had the dwarves cave to walk through with black light and colored rocks and a vignette of the dwarves working away. And then there was this.
Haley refused to go in. Ken and Hazel went, but when I asked him what was inside, he couldn’t remember.
How gorgeous is Oregon in the spring?!?! Yes, it is a little chilly, and wet for what seems like an endless amount of time, but it is beautiful. And in my secret heart of hearts I think I would miss the rain if we ever left. But don’t tell anyone. 🙂
Their first (kinda) ride! I’m having Splash Mountain flashbacks looking at Haley’s face. Now I understand why my mom loves that family photo so much. This is a winner. I am going to keep it forever and ever and use it for their high school graduation, wedding, and any other important life events that require a photo slideshow.
There is also a western town, and a medieval village, but I quickly forgot about taking photos because I was enjoying having fun with the girls and I didn’t want to hassle with the camera. They do have some rides. One is a Matterhorn knock off that Haley is tall enough to ride, we didn’t try it, but I do want to go back and see what she thinks. Hazel needs to grow an inch before she can go on it, or I need to buy her cowboy boots before we go back. There was also a log ride, but the height requirement was 42″. And then there was a kiddie section with bumper boats, a mini ferris wheel, a frog hopper, and (ding ding ding! we have a winner!) a little train. Which they loved and wanted to ride again and again and again.
Have I mentioned lately how much she loves her daddy? They have such a great bond and it makes me so happy that he has someone who loves him best of all. Especially after going through a very mommy-centric phase (which Haley is still in, by the way), it’s nice that there is a girl for both of us.
After the train ride, we only had four ride tickets left. Which was just enough for Ken and Hazel to go in the haunted house. The creepy, run down haunted house. I still cannot believe Hazel went in with him. But Ken was saying he really wanted to go in and Hazey piped up with an I go too, Daddy. They walked up the stairs to the house together. About halfway up a werewolf howled and Hazel stopped on the steps and looked up at the house. Ken asked if she still wanted to go in and she said yes, bless her little heart.
If you follow me on Instagram then you’ve already seen this picture. The haunted house is right next to the Western Town.
Haley and I parked it on a bench near the exit and munched on popcorn and dried cranberries while we waited.
She came out in Ken’s arms, but wasn’t in tears or even seemed to be afraid. Ken said she flinched once when something moved and watched most of the house with her head resting on his shoulder. I’m so proud of her. She’s so brave and I’m so happy Ken has a kid to do the haunted house/roller coaster stuff with, and that I have a someone to keep me company while they are gone.
We left pretty quickly after that because the girls were starting to get tired and a little over stimulated and Ken is still recovering from a nasty cough. I think we will definitely go back at least a couple more times this summer, I know my mom really wants to go with them, and I would like to try some more of the rides. They do live outdoor performances of fairy tales as well and I think that would be fun to get the girls use to the idea of going to the theater.
Does anyone have suggestions for other lesser known things to do this summer?
hsquaredblog 