Baertlein & Baertlein ~ Family visit

The weekend following our family vacation week we were lucky enough to have MORE family come out when Max & Rebecca made the trek over to Prineville to visit.

Brent of course let me know this two days before they were coming! Just enough time meal plan do some last minute shopping and have the boys at least vacuum their rooms.

Brent had decided to drive home Saturday around the time he had heard that Max was leaving Portland, that way they would all arrive here around the same time...that would have been excellent, except that Brent was BBQ that night. Once he got there he had to run to the store and grab corn on the cob (I had not purchased that because of all the OTHER veggies I purchased). He came back from the store and we started prepping dinner like crazy people. Max and family arrived and we were still prepping. We felt horrible the BBQ took so long and dinner did not get done until around 8 PM at night. We made salmon, Douglas (Brent's deer meat), sauteed squash, onions and mushrooms. We can't forget the corn on the cob, and wild rice.

We ate and then got the kids down. Shortly after we put ourselves to bed.

before anyone arrived I took the time to enjoy a cup of tea and listen to some old jazz music. It was very relaxing...

For breakfast the next morning I made German pancakes or "Puff cakes". I didn't take any pictures of the food, but I got several good ones of the cousins playing together.

While Max and Rebecca went to church I prepared a lunch for us. When they got back we went over the list of "things to do around here". It was decided that we would go to the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. There they have a hike on lava beds, lava caves and a lava cast forest. 

When we first got there we ate our lunch then began our walk through the lava rocks...

(my pics uploaded all mixed up and out of order)

We got to drive up to the top of the butte and look at the crater where all that lava came from. My camera died by this point so I took some pictures with Brent's phone...not too shabby.

Would have been way cooler if we were able to climb up there and look out of the observation deck!

There was someone or something flashing off in the distance...
I was happy I was actually able to catch it in a photo. It looked like a signal mirror or something.

Charlie was insisting I hold him. He was pretty tired after our walk on the lava bed trails...

Miles seemed pretty content and happy!

Looking down on some of the trails we walked...

All my guys holding hands...
although I'm pretty sure Mitch had to hold hands because he was acting a tad like August and throwing things.

The hike at the top lets you walk around the whole entire lip of the crater...however parking is limited and your pass is only good for a half an hour.
It took us much longer with these little legged kiddos...

There were these amazing small purple flowers growing through the gravel on the side of the butte. I tried to take some pictures of them...
It was hard to actually get them to be noticeable.

Once we got home we started our fire pit to cook up some hot dogs.

Max and Becca also brought a contraption to make these stuffed biscuits called "Doughies".

We made a couple different kinds of chicken and onion, strawberry, jalapeno cream cheese, and just regular dough. The sweet ones were rolled in butter and cinnamon and sugar.
Super good. A great contraption for a camping treat, or for those of us with fire pits and fire places.
 

I felt bad because everyone seemed so tired by night time.

Like they just wanted to roll over and drop!

 Max was trying to encourage Charlie to lay on his back while the boys bounced to prevent injury...

 Baertleins & Baertleins
Enjoying some hot dog cooking.

 August smiles at me with a big bite of chili dog in his face...
(Becca looks uber excited to be cooking hot dogs)

 The series of pictures of Charlie getting a bite of his chili dog in his mouth...
Too cute!

 Notice the "Doughie" contraption over the fire there!?

The next morning we made breakfast sandwiches and smoothies.
We decided to just take it easy and hang around the house and around town instead of going anywhere. So to help us relax we played a little Guitar Hero. Then we headed over to the "castle" park.

 Classic Max, we got a breakfast full of impressions. The kids just love it and kept on encouraging him to go deeper into character...

 Brent took Miles to look at himself in the mirror. I tried to take some cute pictures of this, but none of them really turned out. BUMMER.
O'well, there is always next time, right?
Too bad babies change so darn quick.

 Our jam session...

The kids really enjoyed the "Castle" park.
They love running around..anywhere really.
There were a lot of older kids there which was surprising and annoying.

We made our way to a nice grass spot to eat some lunch. Charlie go stung by a bee (or bit?)
He didn't seem to mind really by the time he made his way over to the food.
I had planned on a quick meat, cheese, and cracker deal in case we were hiking again today.
We enjoyed some more of Brent's deer summer sausage, along with some fruit and veg.
It was relaxing.
Rebecca pointed out that all the boys were wearing RED that day. Completely not planned. I should have had them all sit together at some point to get a picture of this...

 My three in RED, with Brent in a kind of magenta/reddish shirt.

 I was holding Miles and he kept grabbing my hand and bringing it to his mouth.
He almost got a bite!
Not quite!

 While Miles went to eat the guys tossed around the frisbee.
Brayden started feeling sick again from his spinning on the tire swing.
He found a nice place to lay in the grass and throw up if necessary.

 August poked a stick at a tree for a long time.
Such simple pleasures.

August found mushrooms that looked to him like "dinosaur eggs"

We all hugged goodbye and then they left to try and give their kids some rest.
 Return to their schedules.
And they know our doors are always open.
We love having them visit.