summer arrives, and we look forward to having the schafer family back in town for a few months! for the years that we've known sarah & ray (and now their twins, solomon & sophie, shepherd's age), they've spent september-may in japan where ray plays basketball. they live mainly in oregon city for the summers, so sarah & i take advantage of the time we have living near each other, & pack in as many adventures in homemaking as we possibly can! beyond the sweet fellowship we share, we love tackling crafting & baking projects together--with the kids when they're awake, then power-packing the naptimes while our hands are free!
this week we went berry-picking together, then came back to our house to can our raspberries for jam! two days later ray was out of town, so i invited sarah & the twins to join us for the day, & then to spend the night! we had such a fun couple of days with this family we love. here are some pictures that sarah & i took of the good times...
: wagons at sauvie island farms :
(heron loved pulling her little brother along)
: ray watched the kids so sarah & i could do some serious picking & chatting :
: tractor rides! :
: heron's dirty face got sprayed by the sprinklers & she loved it :
: she braved the prickly marionberry bushes with us :
: and picked some dahlias for sarah :
: that afternoon we canned :
: (and ate) the fruit of our labor :
: two days later, they spent the day in our portland neighborhood :
our favorite local activity on a sunny day? the peninsula park splash pad!
(sarah & i are both usually behind the camera & don't appear in many photos, so we made sure to take lots of pictures of each other with our kids!)
: josh & our friend chad witt joined us for an outdoor dinner at pause :
(this is the best place to take kids--there's a huge yard where they can run & play & make new friends while waiting for food)
: sophie & sheppy are buds :
: after all that playing, time for a group bath :
(heron loved being the rascally older sister to all the babies in the tub)
: sarah captured a more serene moment :
hooray for summer schafer days!
