Marion County Fair

We went to the Marion County Fair in Salem, Oregon. My girls love going to fairs. They love the rides, but their favorite part is all of the animals.

This is the biggest bunny we have ever seen, he was huge!

Darrick promised the girls a bunny or a guinea pig when we move back to California. They both ask eachother if they can hold eachothers and then get upset if one of them says no. Darrick and I laugh because we don't even have one yet!

Jordyn has no fear of animals, sometimes she makes me nervous!

On our way home we asked the girls what their favorite thing about the fair was...Jordyn said this llama! Go figure...

The perfect size pony for Ash

The petting zoo

Ash said this little pony was her favorite thing about the fair!

After I took these pictures I asked her about the chicken. She said she wanted to pick him up, but saw a lady there and thought she would get in trouble.

You can see, she is so close to doing it and then decides it's not a good choice.

The girls could've watched this all day. I don't know what it's called, but the riders were being timed on how fast they could ride their horse around the barrel, grab a flag, and then race back to the starting line and stop their horse.

Jordyn got a beautiful butterfly...Ashlyn waited in line for 2 minutes and lost patience. She sat with Daddy and watched the magic show instead.

This was cracking Darrick and I up. They couldn't find their way through the glass house and they were laughing so hard! They did this about 10 times!




Jordyn wanted to go on the swings so bad and I was so afraid that she would be afraid once they got up in the air.

So Daddy went with her and she loved them. I should've known!!

The dog racing finals...we have seen so many events here in Oregon that we've never seen before. The girls enjoy anything involving animals!

Inside the back of an ambulance

The police officer had a Saint Bernard there. This is my absolute favorite dog ever...someday I hope to have one. Jordyn said, "Mommy do you really want all the slobber all over our house?"

Jordyn in the police car

Once again, Jordyn wanted to ride this so bad. Darrick and I get nauseous riding the rides so she went by herself. I was a nervous wreck! She of course loved it!

We were just about done at the fair and Jordyn wanted to ride the swings one more time. By the time she got on them, it started raining so hard. She was swinging around up there while it was pouring. This is her when she got off. We had a long ways to walk back to the car and we were all soaked. Except for princess Ashlyn who took cover in the stroller. Her pants were just a little wet.

Notice all the teenagers...and then there's one little 5 year old in the white jacket. That would be our Jordyn!!

Graduated from Swimming Lessons

Both girls finished their swimming lessons. Jordyn learned the back stroke and some other things that she is so excited to show me at Nana's pool when we go there to visit.

Ashlyn is a lot more confident in the water, but not swimming yet. She puts her face in and goes under water now, so that's good. Really don't have the opportunity to be in the water much here in Oregon, so swimming will be put on hold until we move back to Cali. Next summer, we'll have a swimmer!!
I'm so proud of you girls!!

Ashlyn's 1st Day of Preschool

Well I finally had to do it...Ashlyn started preschool. I just can't be selfish and keep her with me forever. She was so excited to go. We decided to start her over the summer so her and Jordyn could go together for a little bit before Jordyn starts Kindergarten in September. They only go about 4 half days a month, but I sure do miss my little Starbucks/Shopping buddy. She assures me that she is having a lot more fun at school. I was worried about her being so shy, but she has no problems making friends and opening up to her teachers. She feels so "big" now because she goes to school like Jordyn.

Oaks Park

They have Pre-school days at Oaks Park and the girls and I had so much fun. It's only for ages 6 & under so it isn't crowded at all and the girls can ride all the rides together. They are finally at the age where they both like the same rides!! Yay!

Ashlyn used to be too afraid to ride this...now she loves it!

The hotair balloons...Jordyn spins them very fast

Ashlyn loves "Chipper" the Chipmunk!

Here is a video of the girls on the rollercoaster together...Ashlyn actually put her arms in the air this time. She's trying to be like her sister.

Swimming Lessons

Today the girls had their first day of swim lessons. Jordyn already knows how to swim, but I figured since we're already there she might as well learn some more things.

Here's Ashlyn learning how to kick
Here they're taking turns putting their face into the water.

Jordyn (2nd one from the left)
Ash in the back kicking
Crawling on their arms and kicking their feet
The only girl with two little boys...perfect for her.
We have 2 weeks of these so hopefully Ash will be swimming at the end...

4th of July

If I had known that fireworks are legal in Oregon, I would've been excited for the 4th when I moved here. We started seeing fireworks stands, so we stopped to ask if they were legal. The guy looked at Darrick kind of funny and said "Yah". Darrick explained that we're from California where they're illegal. So knowing that they were legal, we stocked up. We were so excited that Darrick had to try a couple out for the girls that night. We were all on the countdown until the 4th! Now it doesn't get dark here until 10:00pm, so I made sure the girls napped so they would stay up for the excitement.

They were on their way to the park with Daddy to kill some time until it got dark




Getting all ready...they had their water cups and a bag of M&M's

Here's all of our fireworks

Start the night off with some Sparklers

Now we're ready for the fun stuff!

Not that exciting in pictures, but we were lovin' it

Ash sat close to me the whole time. Towards the end of the night she was so proud of herself that she didn't have to plug her ears anymore and wasn't scared of the loud ones.

Ashlyn and Brian (Darrick's friend & co-worker)
These are the big illegal fireworks that our neighbors got from Washington. Legal ones stay on the ground, illegal ones shoot up in the sky. I was glad they had the illegal ones because I'd be too nervous to do them, but they were so great to watch. They were the girls' favorite!
Here are some video's of the fireworks.