Sourdough Willy's and Cedar Island

One of our favorite places to spend time as a family is at Cedar Island. We discovered this gem a few years ago, during our first summer here in Portland. It's a small, horseshoe shaped island in the middle of the Willamette River, full of so many wild blackberry bushes that you can make yourself sick. For the whole first summer, we swam to the island, since it wasn't too far from shore. We spent many afternoons here, soaking up the Portland sun (if that is even possible), skipping rocks, eating wild blackberries, and lots of open water swimming. It was perfect. The next summer, we were blessed with a beautiful newborn baby girl. We new we had to find a way for all 3 of us to get to the island. Jokingly, we practiced treading water holding wet towels over our heads, thinking we might be able to swim across with Oaklyn that way. Nope. Pull her behind us in an inflatable raft? If only we had one. Hmmm. What we discovered next was nothing short of a miracle. We found that the back of the island was connected to shore by a little bridge - you just had to do a little hike to get to it. When the water is low, the bridge spans the whole way, and you don't get wet at all. We have been enjoying Cedar Island ever since!

A trip to Cedar Island is never complete without a trip to good 'ole Sourdough Willy's. You would never expect it, but this tiny hole-in-the-wall, or more correctly, wall-in-the-hole place, bakes the most delicious sourdough bread you will ever eat. we always stop here on the way. In the summer, we make grilled cheese sandwiches by putting cheese between the bread and inside tin foil (When we remember foil...). Then, we put the sandwiches inside the hood of the car and let them roast on the hot engine in the hot parking lot while we swim. By the time we get back, we have perfectly made sourdough grilled cheese sandwiches. So many good memories here!

Michael teaching Oaklyn to skip rocks

For once, we wore her out. Usually it is the other way around.

Halloween at the Village

Halloween. Picture. Overload.

This was from our ward Halloween party. I'm calling it right now that every year at least one member of the family (if not everyone) will be wearing a sports jersey for Halloween.

On Halloween day, we walked to Multnomah Village, right by where we live to go trick-or-treating to the different stores. On the way there, we saw this horse tire swing made out of an old tire, so of course we had to take some pictures of our little cow girl.

Apparently, suckers are Oaklyn's favorite. She definitely got a sugar high. : ) It was pretty cute to see her so hyper! Maybe we should give her candy more often : )

I love this excited little face.

No words : )

This was when we got home. Priceless.

The Giant Pumpkin Regatta and Silver Falls

This is the before picture. Take a look at those huge pumpkins. On our way to hike Silver Falls, we stopped at the Tualatin Giant Pumpkin Regatta to see all the massive pumpkins. This was just before they were weighed to win prizes. After the weigh-in, most of the pumpkins were hollowed out and carved into canoes to be raced across the lake later that day. So, in the mean time, we went hiking at Silver Falls.

One of the reasons we love this hike is because right at the beginning is one of the biggest waterfalls of the whole hike. The trail goes right behind the waterfall.

Here is the same waterfall from the bottom.

Back to the Regatta!! It was so much fun! And, the weather was like summer! There were all sorts of different races and some racers dressed up in costumes.