Okay, maybe the word “hints” isn’t the most accurate. It feels like summer is here in the PNW. We are experiencing a heat wave and it has me completely fooled into thinking it’s summer… right now. With just a week of school left, the weather is messing with my head. It’s making me want to ditch the books and head outside for all the adventures. Now, don’t worry, we will finish and we will finish strong. I might have already printed our “last day of school” signs… I was so tempted to use them on Monday, but I didn’t give in. Only 5 school days left. We can make it! Hooray! Summer break is right around the corner!
Mother’s Day weekend was a fun one! On Friday, I selected our activity of the day as a way to celebrate Mother’s Day. I requested a visit to the historic waterfall highway outside of Portland, OR. Jeremy and I started visiting this highway of waterfalls when we were dating and it’s been a place we’ve returned to many times. It’s a family favorite! Multnomah Falls is the most popular waterfall on the route and now requires reservations over of the summer tourist season. My goal was to visit it before permits became required at the end of the month. We stopped at Multnomah Fall first and then we did a new hike to Ponytail Falls. If you hike to the top of Horsetail falls, Ponytail Falls is beyond it. The trail takes you behind the waterfall which was a neat experience. We all enjoyed seeing a new sight and hearing the powerful pound of the water in the crevice behind the waterfall. We also hiked down to Bridal Veil Falls before heading off to lunch and errands in city. It was a beautiful day to visit one of my favorite places with my favorite people.
Saturday and Sunday, we celebrated Mother’s Day with Grandma and Nana. It’s a blessing to be close to our parents and to have such wonderful grandparents in our boys’ lives. We enjoyed Chinese food take-out with my mom and had our first BBQ of the season with Jeremy’s mom. Usually, Memorial Day is the unofficial kick-off to summer, but I would say Mother’s Day weekend took that title this year. On Saturday, the kids ran through the sprinklers around our house. On Sunday, they had their first swim in the pool. It was a weekend full of sunglasses, sunscreen, water fun, and time with family. Full on summer vibes here!
With the school year quickly coming to a close, so is our co-op. We had a field trip last week were the boys learned flower pounding and floral arranging. We brought home lovely flowers and art to display. Yesterday was our final day of classes for co-op. The kids wrapped up nature journaling and PE. Our family gave a presentation on birds and I handed out a sweet “tweet” (bird cookies) to the class. We will get together next week for a end-of-the-year celebration and then break for summer.
I realize we have another full month of spring ahead of us, but the weather and the end of school are giving off strong hints of summer. These hints look like good times with family and friends and smell like sunscreen, chlorine, and briquettes. I’m daydreaming of the summer days ahead. They’re almost here!