Family Birthday Adventure Weekend #2

Bethany turned 7 on Oct 5. We had a little family party that day and will have another get together next week but like the other two, she chose a weekend away as her main birthday celebration. So we spent the weekend in Bend, in Central Oregon. We found a great place on the internet to stay. Our room overlooked the river and we had a nice fireplace. Of course a swimming pool was a necessity and the kids spent a lot of time there. They have advanced to floating and to putting their faces in the pool and are so proud!

On Saturday we met up with a family who adopted a little girl from China using the same agency we did. I had met them previously at a picnic but this was the first time we'd spent time with them. Their kids are 7, 6 and 3 and they are adopting an adorable little boy who turned 2 on Bethany's birthday. The kids really hit it off- they came to the hotel and swam for a while, then after lunch we visited a pumpkin patch. Everyone went on a hay ride through a "Scary Fun Barn," and they did a couple crafty-type things. The family was nice enough to invite us over to their house for dinner and the hardest part of the day was getting our kids to leave.

Bend is a beautiful town, surrounded by mountains that you can see from just about anywhere. We were there in between the summer hiking, rafting, etc season and the winter ski season. The weather was gorgeous, a bit cold which made us enjoy the fireplace even more. Definitely a place we will come back to.