I haven't even looked at a blog in months.
For one thing, I never get on the desktop computer anymore now that I have an iphone. And even though it doesn't document our life as well, facebook and instagram have taken the place of all the documentation I used to do on the blog. Go find me- Kate H Jefferies and spideylark...if you haven't already. ANYWAY... I'd really like to get back into the blog again, just so I can finally get around to making a book out of our most important milestones.
Another reason is that we have been extremely busy moving...moving! Holy moly! What a summer!
Back around the time I last posted, in May...Brent learned that he FINALLY got accepted to the post-doctorate fellowship that he was hoping (read: fixated on) to do since he had graduated 6 years earlier. Well, this fellowship happened to be at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. So we packed up 6 years of living in Oregon and moved back to Utah! It was bittersweet. One the one hand, so happy to be living close to our old family and friends again! So happy to experience all our old fun spots! So happy that Brent was finally getting a chance to do the research he had been hoping to do for years. But sad to leave the beautiful, green lands and the friends we have who are like family to us.
Well, we moved to Utah at the end of June ... and it was apparent almost right away that the research program he had been dreaming of was not the same one he had dabbled in during school. Maybe it changed in 6 years, or maybe Brent changed...but the biggest factor in him not liking it was that he realized that it would require much more of our family time than we were willing to sacrifice. So, Brent resigned just a few weeks into the program...with a heavy heart...but early enough in the fellowship so that they could still replace him. We really wanted to stay in Utah, but after looking high and low we found there were not many jobs open in his field (much to our surprise!). There were a LOT of jobs open back in Oregon, so we packed it up and moved on back! This time we are residing at the beautiful, wild coast!! We arrived in Lincoln City the very beginning of September.
Our summer in Utah was a great big, fun vacation!
All CrAzY, all bittersweet...LOTs of big changes for us and our kids in a short time. We are really hoping to settle in here and stay for several years though, and think we will be really happy here. It is the smallest town we have ever lived in. It is very touristy! The BEACH is only 1 block away from our house now.
Come visit!
In the spirit of catching up:
Here are some Easter pictures from last year. LAST YEAR! (I am NOT pregnant again.) I already mentioned that I'm a year behind.
We hide the Easter candy all over the yard, and the kids hunt for it on Easter morning. It has become our little tradition. We have ways of making sure the kids get equal amounts (or the amount we think they should have).
Easter 2013
Just a few pictures from this year.
Oliver LOVED finding candy, and Milo was adorable! The big brothers were great helpers.
We got back from New York just a few short days before Halloween. I had a plan to have all the Halloween costumes ready
before we left for our trip...or at least have all the materials assembled so that I could quickly make them. But since I have never been very good at juggling a billion things like packing, grocery shopping, cleaning, getting house ready for sitters, AND making costumes...you can guess that the least important thing didn't happen. So I didn't get around to making the little boys' costumes and the adults' costumes (the adults were going to be trees and the little guys were going to be owls...riding on the trees). But the big boys' costumes came together nicely, in a fast and furious kind of way. Finished just about 10 minutes before their school costume carnival! Whew!
But first:
10/25/12 - The day after we got back from NY and saw our precious children again!
the big guys wearing their I ({heart} NY shirts that we got them in Chinatown. Can you guess which boy does NOT like wearing a shirt with a heart on it? Partent FAIL!
And we were not up to the challenge of getting a picture with all the kids holding still, apparently.
Joshua and Toby thoroughly enjoying their Magnolia Bakery cupcakes.
Ollie too!
Mmmmm hmmmm...yum!
And now...on to the Hobbitses:
Here we have Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee with their hot out of the sewing room costumes. Actually, it wasn't too hard. I only had to sew one cloak (the other one was from our jedi costume), and the suspenders. I bought the pins and THE RING off of amazon. And I bought shirts, pants (which I cut off) and wigs at the Goodwill thrift store. I know that Sam wig is a little gran-gran crazy! It took me a few days to get it to relax.
Ollie photo bomb!
pretty Hobbity, right? I made them wear actual shoes outside of the house.
I gave up on the idea of making a costume for Ollie and just decided to go with something we already had. We thought this Leiderhosen grandma sent from Austria was ADORable!
On actual Halloween he wore a cute owl hat with it and looked like the Tootsie Pop owl. I would like to post a picture, but the pictures are on my phone and I'm having a hard time figuring out how to get them on blogger with my new imac. URGH.
Here they are on Halloween, with the Sam wig looking better. :)
Happy way late Halloween!
10.23.12
Of all the iconic NYC landmarks, the Statue of Liberty is the one I ALWAYS dreamed of visiting. We finally got to use the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island portion of our City Passes on Tuesday. We went down, all the way to the end of the line in Manhattan with my sister (who had never been to Ellis Island after living in NYC for 7 years!). Excitement.
The subway station at the end of the line: Battery Park.
I absolutely LOVED riding the subway around Manhattan. Every station is a little different. This station was a lovely little art museum by itself.
The weird thing about this station is that after we got back, and Hurricane Sandy happened less than a week later (!)...we saw pictures of this subway station completely under water. :(
we saw this park on the way from the subway to Battery Park...just proof that we were thinking about our other kids back home!
That, and I found it interesting that all the playgrounds were fenced in with these signs on them. I wish playgrounds were like that everywhere. It would be much easier not too loose a wandering toddler!
At Battery Park, we ducked into this old Fort called Clinton's Castle so my sis could buy her ticket. I was struck by the contrast of old and new. New towering above the old. Old sandwiched between the new. That beautiful, old house in the middle of two modern office buildings is the James Watson House.
inside Castle Clinton // Old & New
The view from/of Battery Park
This statue was right off the pier where we were waiting in line for the ferry. The rescue. Hmm...
Waiting in line for the ferry, our first pictures of Lady Liberty and Ellis Island.
 |
| The different views, angles and details of the Statue. I LOVED seeing her up close. I must say she is a lot smaller than I had imagined. We really wanted to take the tour up into the statue itself, but it turns out that the tour was closed until November. :( But after Hurricane Sandy blew through {the WEEK after we left!!}, the ferry to the Statue and Ellis Island are closed indefinitely. So we feel pretty lucky that we were able to squeeze in this trip before the devastation. |
On the Ferry and arriving at Ellis Island.
some of the views from the ferry...terribly sorry about the splotches on the lens! I think I took care of it.
We couldn't spent all day in the museum at Ellis Island. It is all about the Immigrants who came to America. Anyone who came in between certain time periods, came through this big building at Ellis Island. It so happens that our grandmother, great aunt and grandfather (Elfrieda, Johanna and Fritz) came through Ellis Island from Eastern Germany (now part of Poland) on their way to Salt Lake City, Utah between WWI and WWII. It was fascinating to take the tour and follow in the footsteps of our family. Literally.
And I DO mean literally! This is the stair case where the people would leave after being processed...and the stairs have grooves worn in them from all the people who passed through here! The stair on the right was for people who planned to stay in NYC, the stair on the left was for people who were heading elsewhere in the country, and the stair in the middle was for people who were not allowed to enter the USA.
Just a few panoramic shots of the GREAT room where the people had to wait in order to be processed:
We ate lunch in the cafeteria with a smiley baby.
...and we were PROCESSED! What a cool place! The workers there are so enthusiastic.
Here's an example of one of the processing labels on the left,
and information about how to find out if your ancestors passed through Ellis Island on the right.
Here are some of the interesting things I saw in the museum:
the language tree, with many words we use today and the countries they originated from
a picture of young women being checked for a certain contagious disease. If they had it, they were sent back to their country of origin.
looking down from the building
walking around the building
building detail
 |
| Beautiful skies...getting back on the ferry and heading back to Manhattan. We would've stayed longer, but the museum closed. :( |
The view on the way back.
Back in Battery Park
