My wife and I live in the same small town that she grew up in, Willamette.  I grew up in the same area, only about 4 miles away, so we really feel at home here.  Our son, Alex turned 2 years old in July, and is becoming quite independent.  He loves to explore the neighborhood, and Willamette is a great place to raise children.

We started off last evening walking to the grade school after eating dinner at about 6pm.  We played on the swings, slides and elaborate play structure for about 20 minutes, then he exlpored the school grounds, climbing stairs, rolling balls down ramps, running through the field and generally having a good time.  We then headed “uptown” as we like to say.  Alex loves going “uptown” because there are so many interesting things to see and do.  We saw several motorcycles, bicycles, 3 Jeeps (he loves jeeps), 2 ski boats on trailers and even a Hummer.  We stopped by the pet shop and visited the kitty cats, walked by the insurance office and looked at the model cars in the window, and then we headed over to the fire station for an up close look at the big, red, fire engine.  A few steps away from that and we were looking through the window at a young lady making pizza at the local pizza restaurant.  We watched her knead the dough, spread the sauce and sprinkle the cheese.  Alex and the young lady exchanged smiles and he skipped (literally) along the sidewalk to his next favorite spot, the waterfall.  The local deck and landscape company has an elaborate water feature and flower garden on it’s property.  After being satisfied with the waterfall, we then made our way back toward our house, only to see Mom heading our way with his little sister!  Then, we continued the adventure by going back uptown with the whole family.  When we finally made it home, it was about 7:45 and time for Alex to get ready for bed.  It was a (typical) great evening.

It’s fun to see the excitement and interest on a 2 year olds face when experiencing normal, everyday things that we adults sometimes take for granted.  That’s one of the big benefits of being a parent, you get to be young at heart again. 

This evening was the Farmers Market, which comes to our town every Tuesday.  The adventures were everywhere tonight, and even included a 15 minute turn in the big, air inflated jumping room complete with slide (which we both did many, many times.)  We listened to the live singers, petted several dogs and met quite a few people (little kids, especially his 5 week old sister, are magnets for attention from others.)  All in all, another great evening in the neighborhood.   

That’s one of the benefits of living in a community like ours, we walk everywhere.  Within literally 7/10’s of a mile of our house we have 10-12 restaurants, a grade school, a big park with 3 baseball fields, the river with an excellent boat dock, many small shops and business’ as well as historic homes, a fire station, 2 churches and even a meteorite! 

I think it’s a great place for Alex to grow up, and we will continue to explore and frequent all the hot spots in our neighborhood!