the end of the summer, the beginning of the school year

The boys had another wonderful summer with Amelia- they had many adventures and spent the last day of summer vacation at OMSI.  We are so happy that she can come back next summer- the boys will miss her till then!

The Wednesday after Labor Day, the boys headed back to school.  Both are at Zion Lutheran School, Ben starting Kindergarten and Owen starting 4th grade.  Ben has the same Kindergarten teacher that Owen did, which we are all thrilled about.  Ben and her already have developed a nice relationship.  Ben is very ready for Kindergarten- he has been doing some fantastic reading and pushing his math skills.  Sterling is in his class, so socially he is all set.  Owen hit the 4th grade running this year.  His teach, Mr. Walz, is fantastic and engaging.  Owen's first project is learning about a country- he has chosen France.  For the first week of school he had to memorize all the books of the Old Testament, then the books of the New Testament in the second week.  He did great at both of them.  His friends Isaac and Sophie are still in his class, plus his Cub Scout friends Evan and Cole.  We suspect this will be a great year for both boys.

labor day weekend at the coast

We went to the coast for the last weekend of summer vacation and got lucky with some pretty good weather.  The boys were even convinced to play for a while on the beach- running up and down the sand dunes.  Ben isn't shy of the water regardless of the temperature and as usual got pretty wet and sandy.  We spent an afternoon at the aquarium (busy place labor day weekend) and enjoyed the Newport bay front.

Back in Corvallis we took a bike trip at OSU farms.  Richard has been inching up Ben's training wheels to wean them off the bike.  Not successful yet, but I think next summer it will happen.

shine bright like a diamond (lake)

We headed back to Diamond Lake this summer for some camping, boating, fishing and biking.  The fish, once again, had nothing to fear from the McManus clan.  We took a patio boat out for a day of floating/ reading/ playing/ fishing/ eating.   The weather wasn't bad this year- warm when the sun was out, chillier when it went away, and we didn't have some of the high wind that we've had in past years.

We took our bikes around the lake and Owen climbed the hill like a pro (or more precisely, like a son of Richard).  The boys enjoyed the paddle boats, the bumper boats, and especially enjoyed the ice cream at the resort.

august in corvallis

August weather was unusually hot for Corvallis, and very dry.  Ben continues to enjoy his karate classes, and is working towards his yellow belt.  We all enjoyed the HP company picnic, including launching water balloons, listening to music, eating cotton candy, and topped off with a wonderful fireworks show.

We celebrated Richard's birthday with a family bike ride- which was enhanced by some piano's lining the sidewalks - and dinner out.  Richard and the boys are enjoying his new chess set.

We all went to the zoo to watch a Huey Lewis and the News concert.  We'd been working up to it for months by introducing the boys to his music, and other than the very high volume I think they liked it.  The venue is right next to the elephants, so Ben enjoyed watching the elephants as much as watching the concert.

That weekend, Richard and Owen went on their first canoe camp trip down the Willamette.  Ben and I dropped them off up river with enough gear for an overnighter.  They did quite a bit of paddling on Saturday, camped out on a rocky island Saturday night, and paddled into Corvallis on Sunday morning.  Ben and I took a trip back up to the zoo and we saw ALL the animals this time.  Owen and Richard had a blast and are planning their next canoe trip.