Donaldson Crew Adventures

Since Noah's birthday was officially on a monday/school day, we decided to do the main part of the celebration this past weekend on Saturday.  Our luck with the weather was good and it stayed dry for our day trip up to The National Showcaves Center for Wales about an hours drive from our house.  Noah brough along his friend Emrys as well.  We spent the day here - exploring the tourist caves and the large dinasour park.  After we got home we opened presents and had cake!

Today on his actual birthday, the weather cleared up after lunch so after the kids got off school, Kelly took them down to Southerndown beach for an hour or so to play before we had a birthday dinner of pancakes - Noah's favorite food!

After about 7 months of process and paperwork, today I was naturalized as a US Citizen in Los Angeles California!  I celebrated with Kelly's family this evening back in Coto de Caza.

Its been about 3 months since my achilles surgery so I thought I would try a light hike in the mountains around Bend.  I chose to head up to the Tam MacAuthor Rim trail which is about 20 minutes out of Sisters Oregon.  Its still early season for this altitude.  There was snow right down to the parking lot at 6500 ft.  The snow was good and solid up to the top of the rim.  at 7700 ft.  Weather around was very unsettled, but made for pretty skies.  The achilles held well with no pain!

I'm back in Bend for a week with work, and this weekend Bite of Bend was on!  Lots of great food, local brews and music with friends from work!

Very nice fathers day with the family.  Kelly and the kids got me an outdoor fire pan which will be put to good use this summer on the cool welsh evenings!  After a nice sunny morning, it clouded over in the afternoon but we decided to head out and go for a walk by Marcoss beach.  We hiked along the coast trail by Nash point, and then went down by Marcross beach.  We couldn't walk too far at the beach due to high tide but a fun time nonetheless.

Between our house and Cardiff there is the Museum of Welsh history on the grounds of St Fagan's Castle - a 16th century manor house.  Its an open air museum that covers about 500 years of welsh history.  There are over 40 original structures transported and re-erected from different historic periods.  What great about this attraction is that its FREE via support from the Welsh government.  This weekend the weather was good on Saturday so we packed up a picnic and headed to St. Fagans for a few hours.

Here is a video of the boys riding a hand cranked amusment ride:

Here is another video of the smithy.  The boys were enamored with the blacksmith and I had to pry them out of there.  Hunter says he wants to be a blacksmith so he can make swords.  He's about 500 years too late.

Before we left, we wandered over to the Castle and Gardens.  A great spot for a picnic next time we visit!

Wednesday was my birthday and also my dads last day in before heading back to Canada, so I took the day off.  We had a birthday lunch with the kids. 

For dinner we got a babysitter for the kids and Kelly, Dad and I went out and tried another new pub for us.  The Pelican in her Piety near Ogmore by the Sea.  A little more expensive than the average pub but the food was excellent, well presented with a nice pub atmosphere.