Safari Sam's

It might not be much to look at from the outside:

But, inside, this place is a family favorite - the biggest indoor "jungle gym" in Oregon. The manager is also a Christian, so to make the experience even more fun was the playing of Christian music on the loudspeakers...

For a moment, we got them to all sit still (or hang still) - but let me tell you, it took lots of tries.

I don't think we look all that much like twins in this picture - there's that thing about her being leaner - or me being more "blond-processed"...

I sure love this dude - can't believe he'll be a 7th grader as of next Thursday....

And, this one, my youngest, will be a fourth grader. Sigh.......

The bummer to this picture is that my little "point and shoot" camera opted to focus on the rope in the foreground vs. on Michele and the "girl of honor", Ellie - who turns 8 tomorrow - and inspired this trip we've turned into an annual tradition.

Natalia will be on to middle school next fall. She was the recipient of an American Legion award among all of her fifth grade class this last week (their last day of school was Wednesday). The description that was read aloud in front of all of the parents at the award ceremony was beautiful - I got to read the write-up that was laminated along with her framed award. She's one amazing girl......

And finally - gasp! - our TEENager! As of May 31st, Traig is now 13 and is truly growing into such a wonderful young man. Their whole family would agree that their "tough time" with him was from the years of 11 to 12. So far, for us with Brayden, it was third grade. Let's just hope that our young men continue to bring us nothing but delight in the future! (Ha!!)


What a lucky girl Mikayla is to have girl cousins both ahead of her and behind her in age, on any given day I'd be hard-pressed to tell you who she plays with more when they are all together. It almost makes up for the fact that she doesn't have a sister =(

A couple of shots within the jungle gym...




We sat underneath the big structure again - in our own little room. To make the place even better, they have GREAT food (and not too terrible of prices) - Pizza, bottomless soda, and Elephant Ears were our choices (though I didn't do anything this time but nibble on the Elephant Ears as they weren't up to par with the one I had at the zoo....I'm too recently tainted by that high quality indulgence!)

Our experience ended with an extended game of Tag - involving all seven of us. I'm telling you, the littler kids have so much more advantage when it comes to ducking in and through and beneath all the obstacles - but it was, as expected - SO MUCH FUN!!!