10.26.11:
Date afternoon, on Brent's day off, while the older boys are in school.
Japanese garden.
The BEST time to go is in Autumn.
I LOVE the Japanese Garden SO.MUCH. I want it to be my backyard.
View from the Japanese Garden of downtown Portland and Mt. Hood
I love going to places that make me feel like I've traveled to a different country.
Under the wooded areas, a little mushroom hunt:
After the Japanese Garden,
The International Rose Test Garden...
Do roses still bloom at the end of October in the Rose City?
Yes they do!
After our date and we gather our children from the bus,
we spend an enjoyable afternoon at the Wooden Shoe Pumpkin Patch:
Superb autumn fun:
corn maze, hay maze, archery, bb shooting, train, hay ride, pumpkin cannon, lots of fun!!
Autumn can make me so happy. How about you?
10.22-10.23.11
If ever I had a second family, they are my beloved Norwegian family. I met Marianne when I was in first grade. By second grade we were best friends and spent all our spare time together. We went to family dinners, sleepovers, camping trips, boating trips, vacations, to church, and much more together. Marianne's family taught me so many things. Health, fitness, feminism, acceptance for those of different faiths and different opinions, and respect to name a few. Marianne's family took me in the week after my dad died (when I was 10) and kept me busy and safe. Marianne's family moved to the Seattle area the summer after 8th grade, and we tried to keep in touch but eventually drifted apart. Several years ago I got back in touch with her parents and then Marianne, and now that we're living in the Northwest we try to get up there to see them every once in a while. Marianne's parents Inger and Alan are so gracious to allow us to come stay at their lovely waterfront home.
Katie+Mar=bestfriends4eva! And I'm pretty sure that Inger is the bestest 2nd mom anyone ever had (besides my mother-in-law, Jane :). And if that wasn't enough, our two little guys are only three weeks apart! Goody gumdrops!
In turned out that it was pretty rainy. Yeah, in Seattle...I know, what a shocker! I didn't bother us girls at all because really all we wanted to do was sit and talk; catch up. But Brent (who loves to sit and talk and listen to my childhood stories very much) was really hoping to go kayaking! It did not bother him that it was raining...no, not one little bit. So he borrowed Inger's really nice kayak and went for a spin around the lake!
Later that evening we went to a fun little Halloween party at Mar's older sister's house:
the festivities abounded, as pumpkin carving, treasure hunts, very spooky decorations and dinner were enjoyed by all! It was really good to see Marianne's older sister again too!
The next day was great because even though it was cold, the rain cleared up for the afternoon and Alan took us on a boat ride! Inger packed a delightful picnic lunch.
Joshua and Toby LOVED going on a *fast* boat. They ride on our slow boats all the time, so this was a thrill ride!
{just an aside, Toby decided on his own that he is an Oregon Duck fan. The rest of us are neutral.}
such well-behaved boys!
ah...I LOVE these ladies.
one of my favs... hydrangea.
It's always so much fun visiting our friends up there, and we can't wait to come back in the summer when there's swimming, hiking, water-skiing abounding.
CHRISTMAS DAY!
trying to figure out my new toy (camera)!
Merry Christmas in heaven to my angel Elsa.
Merry Christmas in Heaven to my dad.
Our lovely tree is missing all the ornaments on the bottom half. I'll give you one guess why. I gave up on that after the first two days of having the tree up.
I ordered two sets of Christmas cards this year because I couldn't decide between the pretty swirly red Christmas-y designs, and the beautiful color pictures. Either way, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
There! I posted about Christmas ON Christmas. Now I need to go back and catch up some more.
10.13.11
(well, we've had one for a while now)
After taking his first wobbly steps just shy of 14 months old ( a couple of weeks before this picture), I finally got a good picture of Oliver walking!!
so far, he's been the latest walker of all the kids. And that's been just GREAT! He was up and going so quick and didn't stumble and get hurt as much as the other kids did.
I also recorded that, at around the same time, Oliver started slapping his face when you ask "where's Ollie". He also signs "more" when he wants more food, which is almost all the time. He has been saying mama and dada for quite a while, but he has started walking around the house saying "Josh?" when he's looking for either one of the boys. So cute!
now...for the grandmas:
here is a little video clip of Oliver walking, and patting his face when you say "where's Ollie?"
08.30.11
It turns out that I should've done this post BEFORE the
Cape Perpetua post. I just wanted to sneak in a little update on our
Elsa birthday butterflys. I tried writing butterflies, because I know that's proper...but I really like the way it looks as "butterflys" instead. Anyway, we had a really tight schedule with the butterflys for Elsa's birthday. We left for Utah 4 days after her birthday, and were REALLY hoping they would emerge from their chrysalises before we left. They did not. I was thinking we were either going to have to bring them with us or leave them with a friend. Ooooooops!! In the hullabaloo of packing and leaving we forgot to do either!! OH NO! I was so worried and a little bit scared to come back from Utah and see what had become of our neglected Elsa butterflys. There's just too much irony in the fact that these butterflys' purpose was to celebrate her life, and her soul living on...to come home to dead butterflys. Yep. That just would not do. I was worried.
The first thing I did after getting home was to gingerly enter the kitchen and look in the butterfly habitat, and they...were...ALIVE!!!!!!! GOOD butterflys!!!!! You pulled through for me!
after giving them a day or two to eat sugar water, we released them in our backyard...
in Elsa's little garden. (What a lucky little girl to get all this loving!)
here's Ollie checking out Elsa's garden AND pushing a chair around, as he's practicing to walk
Then we took a delightful stroll through the neighborhood woods.
