Out "adventuring"

It started as one of those lazy-day Saturdays without ambition or plan. But we decided that we should give up our homebody status for a day and go be spontaneous. So we threw the kids in the car and went exploring or "adventuring" as the girls called it. We took off down the Fruit Loop and stopped at a number of farms ...

This was the view, by the way, behind that swing:

I could've stood right here all day. It smelled incredible. We did leave this stand with the best homemade, half-frozen apple cider we've ever tasted. Yum.

And the kids got to feed the kids, and later a bunch of alpacas, which I didn't take any photos of, even though the 3 week-old alpaca babies were adorable.

Dude was very interested in the animals unless they came too close. The mama pig made him quite nervous.

Down the road a ways we found a great playground at some park/campground area, which was of course, gorgeous.

And Buddy finally got to get out of the stroller, for which he was quite happy.

We couldn't believe the views. This was just us stopping at some deserted intersection in the middle of nowhere to take a picture. Can't imagine waking up and seeing this out your window every morning!

Then we decided to stop by the beach in Hood River so the girlies could see all the river action. It was unbelievable. These guys are nuts! And those things are HUGE! And there was just this constant flow of people coming in and going out, just a mass of humanity. The energy was awesome.

I'm not sure the girls cared much though. They played in the water, oblivious to anything else. And after a really, really hot day getting in and out of the car, I don't much blame them.

The best thing of all about the day ... the kids were amazing. They were so good, no complaining, no fighting, no crying - even with us having neglectfully left our backpack full of treats and drinks and extra diapers on the kitchen table. Brilliant move. Way to go me. But to top it all, on the way home the girls shouted, "this was the best adventure day EVER!" Ahh, sweet redemption. No mention of missing rice krispie treats in their prayers that night. Ha! In fact, M said the family prayer and listed individually every single thing done, including things like finding a shell in the river. It was a really long prayer for a little girl, and it made the whole day really, really worth it for her parents!