Ostara

We had a great Ostara this year.  It was our first time celebrating with others and it was a nice change.  I have been taking classes through Lyceum of Trees which have been wonderful.  The group hosts regular Sabbats and Esbats that are open and often kid-friendly.  We were a little late getting to the party as G also had a birthday party to attend for one of his friends.  So, we missed the egg dying with natural dyes (boo) but everyone was so sweet and reset an egg hunt for my kids.   Here they are hunting for eggs.

I love this last one.  E figured out pretty quick that the eggs had CANDY inside.  Forget this gathering for fun stuff.  He had to stop right then, empty his pockets and start eating immediately.   And since big M couldn't eat the candy and G just wasn't as interested as his younger, sugar addicted brother, E made a right haul.  Below is the haul.  Yeah, we had to drag him away.  Guess what his favorite holiday is now?

Our friend Gina and her kids  loaned us some books, so we read the story of the Rabbit in the moon.  After eating some candy, we enjoyed the potluck.  Mmmm, yummy food!
Then, with a slight break in the rain, the Lyceum elders conducted the Ostara ritual.  We held our eggs and thought of something good we wanted to bring into our lives. Ostara is about the coming spring full of growth, potential, things taking root.  This is literal as we watch plants start growing again, but also figurative as we begin thinking of new projects and areas of our lives we want to improve.  So we held  our wishes in our eggs and promised to take them into ourselves as we ate the eggs.  I'm bad at describing it, but it was beautiful, I promise.  :-)
At home, we talked some about the newness that Spring provides.  I love Spring.  I love watching the flowers start to bloom.  I adore trees in bloom!  We have sung "Popcorn Popping" about a million times. More or less.  And I am thinking about the garden.  I planted some kale, spinach and kolrabi.  I am waiting for the new moon when I will plant the rest of my seeds. I'm running a little late, but better late than never I guess.  Those seeds will hang out in the greenhouse until the temperatures rise a bit and the rain stops pelting so hard on a near daily basis.
Anyway, Yay! for spring.  May all the good you are hoping for take healthy root in your life, and may the warming sun give you strength in your endeavors.

New Year, New Projects

If you know me, you know I like to have projects going.  Mustn't be bored.  No! NO!  Not that my life has much risk of leading to boredom of any kind.  But better safe than sorry right?  So, some of my projects for the new year...
First, a crafty project.  I love, love, love crafts.  You may have picked up on that.  Did you?  One craft that I haven't done since I was little is embroidery.  I like it, it's beautiful, I just didn't feel much need to do it.  But I have been drawn to it again.  The universe aligned and I'm back to embroidery.  :-)  My kids are getting a little bigger and a little more independent.  So having a needle, thread and work with teeny stitches is becoming more realistic.  Then, Alicia Paulson came out with her new book, Embroidery Companion.  If you craft, you really should check out her books.  The other is Stitched In Time.  It is a beautiful collection of crafts.
Anyway, the amazing Annette at A Simple Breath is hosting a year long sew-along for the Embroidery Companion.  "Just the thing," I thought!  A group of crafters, all working on the same project each month, providing me with some motivation and accountability!  So, I am currently working on the first project--Tea Towels!  Fun!  I am enjoying it very much, but I am having to do it in such teeny-short bursts I fear I am going to have 12 more UFO's at the end of 2011.  Some things to work on in 2012 I guess!

Next up is a more intellectual pursuit.  I have been feeling for sometime that something is missing and that something is ritual and seasonal awareness.  Apparently I am not alone!  I have found that several of my friends were feeling the same way.  To support each other in attempting to bring this to our lives, we have started a blog called, Motherwheel: LDS Families Celebrating the Seasons.  We just launched this week!  Currently there are introductions to the families participating and some basic information.  We plan to share our experiences as we celebrate the 8 Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year.  I am also currently working on some book reviews to share as well as some informational posts. One about references to the New Moon in the Bible and one about some history of the symbol of the serpent. Aaaand, I am taking a year-long class related to this project.  The classes are once a month and sound just about perfect.  My brain is swimming I tell ya! Hopefully I get really good at the embroidery so it can allow my brain some wandering time.

Of course, later in the year, I also have the garden to keep me busy.  This will be the first  Spring I can plant super early, so I am making some plans of what to plant.  Yum!  I hope this is the year my kids magically start liking vegetables.  LOL
I talked to the kids some about their role in the planting.  They are looking forward to being a part of the garden again.  They really do enjoy it.  M and G are thinking about starting extra seeds this year to sell to people they know.  I think it would be an excellent way for them to make some extra money.

And finally, for now at least (ha!), I took the plunge and purchased the kit from LearningHerbs.com.  Hooray!  I love herbs and we use a fair bit of herbal remedies, but I get frustrated with my lack of knowledge.  I had looked into herbalist classes in the past, but couldn't figure out how to make the time and effort to do that.  But this is a kit that takes the learning through project by project.  Hopefully, by the end of my kit experience, I will have enough basic knowledge to continue to self-teach until I feel ready to take full-on classes.  Or maybe I will be satisfied for a time with my level of knowledge.  Who knows? At any rate, my kit should arrive in a few days.

So, now that I write that all out, I can say I look pretty crazy.  Good thing one of my other projects is to work on including the kids in more housework.  I apparently just scheduled my 24 hours and didn't leave room for much else!  If you see me dinking around Facebook, ask me how I'm doing and if I have time to be there.  The answer will probably be No.  At least I have guaranteed no boredom for another year.  :-)

Trip to Rockaway

Several months ago, my mom asked if we would be interested in taking their week at the beach. She had bazaars and Dad had meetings so they couldn't go this September. I jumped on it! So, ight near the end of the month, we packed up and headed to Rockaway Beach, Oregon for a week of family vacation time.
The thing I love about Rockaway, well 2 things really, is how peaceful it is. Quite a few towns on the coast are so touristy and busy. Rockaway really isn't. The other thing is how much beach there is. Not a rock for miles. At low tide it feels like you are in an entire county of smooth sandy beach.
The unit we stay in has a bed, kitchen, dining in one studio-type room, plus a bedroom with two queens. It was far from E proof--but nothing really is. So that kept us hopping. It also made sue we got out and about everyday! Lots of walks on the beach and trips to the swimming pool.
I never did get a picture of the kids in the pool. They were so cute. Baby M decided the pool was just grand. She splashed her little heart out. :)
Here's a few of the pictures from the adventure.

C helping E fly a kite

M on the same day. For some reason, when everyone else was in shorts, M was bundled. *shrug*


We took a morning trip to Oswald State Park. C took the older 2 over to see some tide pools. They naturally walked in the surf on the way back. Something happened (dunno what still) and G totally went down. Face first. Into a wave. That frosted look to his hair is all sand. His mouth is fine btw, he just needed, like, 5 crackers at once to feel revitalized. He was completely fine. We were just glad it was G and not M that ate it. Or the rest of the day would have been miserable. G is such an adventurer.

The evening walks were more apt to get chilly. Especially for wet little toes. Here's my little E and me, finishing up a walk.

G displying his kelp find. He was too chicken to touch it for awhile, but warmed to the idea eventually. Not long after that, we found a dead squid that had washed up. It hadn't been dead for long, but we don't have a clue as to cause of death. I didn't have my camera and C is a bit squeamish about that kind of thing. So we don't have pictures, but I wish we did. It was huge! And in perfect shape. M had a great time poking at it as we did a semi-science lesson. I would guess the body was a little over 2 feet and the tentacles a bit longer still.

Walking back from town. The boys are racing. You can see just how vast the beach is here. Baby M took all her walks in the wrap, of course. :)

Suprise!

You have to watch those practical jokes.

A couple of weeks ago, I started looking at the calendar trying to figure out when that beloved relative of mine was due back for a visit. Hmmm, she's a little late. I didn't think much of it. After all, 7 years of infertility leads you to not think much of that kind of thing.
So, the next day, I decided take a pregnancy test to get things started. That is the best way to start your period, y'know. But, I decided to have a little fun with my poor husband. I would come downstairs all excited to see how he reacted. Kinda mean, maybe.
As I sat waiting to see the results of my test (why do I wait when I know what it's going to say?) and planning my facial expression, I started paying more attention to what was going on. See, normally, it takes a few minutes for the test line to show up, and then, if it is positive, the "pregnant" line starts to darken over the course of 3-5 minutes. In theory, any line--no matter how faint--is a positive.
But mine didn't work that way.
No, not at all.
The "pregnant" line showed up nice and dark. Before the test line.
Jokes on me!

Naturally, I made C run to the store and buy another test. Actually, he volunteered. That was a digital test. It was an agonizing minute while I watched that annoying hour glass flash at me. I think I'd rather just use the old fashioned-watch-the-pee-creep-across kind if I have to do it again.
Finally, it flashed my answer. Pregnant.
So, apparently I am. 7 weeks according to my calculations. That puts us in line for a May baby. Right around J's birthday. I'm not sure I will totally believe it until I hear a heartbeat or feel a kick or something. It still seems a little unreal. Remember-that's 7 YEARS of infertility.
One starts to believe a certain view of the world, and it is hard to switch a brain over to a new reality. But I'm trying! My body is helping me too. I feel pretty good so far, fortunately. I felt a little nauseous yesterday from not eating lunch (church). I'm also very tired, but that could just as easily be from E waking up all too frequently! LOL
And then there are the frequent trips to the potty and sore chest, and the very slightly growing belly. That seems a little unfair to me, honestly. I mean, only 7 weeks, or rather 5 weeks of a growing kiddo, and I have already put away at least one pair of pants? And some of my others are decidedly uncomfortable. I'm trying to make them work anyway.
Guess I get to head the the thrift store for pants and skirts to re-work soon!
I'm glad our families are so excited. And I really am looking forward to this baby. It's exciting to have a child I didn't have to work quite so hard for. ;) And I'm hoping to finally get my homebirth!

Backlog

I have gotten so very far behind on the blog. Apologies. I shall try to update you on our happenings.

First, Father's Day. The Primary (children's organization at church) had this great idea of making ties for the dads. The kids glued and glittered themselves silly a few Sundays before Dad's day. They even decorated some old ties! Dutifully, they kept the secret. On Father's day, a few of their teachers handed out ziploc bags with ties inside to each dad. They even had lots of extras so some special men at church didn't get left out. The men were asked to change out the tie they put on that morning for the new improved one. Here is C wearing his creation. You can't see too well from the picture, but it has lots of sequins, rhinestones and pom poms. Buttons too I believe. Whaddya think?

Thanks to fuel prices, we are joining hoardes of fellow Americans in selling our pickup. It was nice to have (Thanks PaR!!), but it just doesn't make sense anymore to have 3 vehicles. Especially when one of them would cost over $100 to fill up. So. if you know of someone who needs a pickup in pretty good shape for a good price, let me know!


Baby news. My things go fast. First off, wherever we go, the first thing we hear is some derivative of "Look at that Hair!!" E has great 'fro and he wears it well. But what is under there? Cute eh?
So, the skills are blooming. Last post was about E trying to learn to stand. Here he is giving his adorable wave. He's got the wrist thing down! And really, would you even want to follow through on a goodbye to that face? Only the stoniest of hearts would I tell you.


Wednesday, I heard a noise upstairs and figured G was playing in the upstairs hall. I called out to see what he was into. He replied, but his voice came from the living room. Hmmm. I called to M. His voice also came from the living room. Double Hmmm. I run upstairs. There is E, all the way at the top, extremely proud of his accomplishment. I was cautious because I didn't want him to lunge toward me (more on that in a minute). but he calmly turned around and started climbing down the stairs. Wow. Seems all the time playing on the floor pillow has taught him how to get down off a ledge. Phew. I still put up the gate.

When M was learning to walk, he was very cautious. He spent months holding anyone's fingers while he walked around. He didn't actually let go and walk until 15 months. When he did, it was a pretty good walk and he rarely if ever fell down. He is still a very cautious child.
When G was learning to walk, he practiced standing and pulling up. He cruised. He cautiously let go and walked. He took little trips, falling gently. He is still amazingly good at risk assesment. Some people look at him and think he is a daredevil. Not so. He is very talented physically, and very good at deciding how much damage he is willing to sustain.
E is now in the learning to walk stage. I told my mom I think he has decided walking is for chumps and he'd rather fly. He has been practicing letting go and falling back down on the pillow. He pulls up and cruises. When he decides he doesn't want to cruise there, he turns away from his support, spreads his arms out and lunges. Really, just like a giant belly flop. He flies onto the floor and starts his funky crawl. I don't know how he doesn't hurt himself. I think he is going to be one of those kids who dives into things head first.

I will post more later. Currently I need to help a very obnoxious 9 year old. He didn't want to unload the dishwasher this morning. I am a cruel and unfair mom. I haven't been fair since the time I was born (direct quote from 9yo). So he pulled the drawer face off one of my cabinets. Yeah, no shopping trip for me today. We'll be staying home doing chores out the wazzoo to work off the drawer. Oh Joy! Maybe I should list him with the truck. Twofer.

My new washing machine

10 years ago, when we found out we were expecting M, we figured a washing machine would make like a whole lot easier. Given our student budget, I think we did very well in our Sears machine. It was tiny, but it served three people very well and survived several moves.
A few days before leaving for Idaho though, it started screaming at me. Literally. You could hear it through the whole house. I called the repair guy and he guessed at the problem over the phone and said it would be in the neighborhood of $150 to fix. Much cheaper than a new machine so I almost said yes. But after talking to C, we agreed that we had gotten our money out of the old one, and it was time to upgrade to something bigger.
We did some online research, I talked to my mom who recently bought a new machine, and we did some legwork in Boise. I decided on the GE Profile based on the recommendations of the salesguy at Jim's. The great thing is, that when we got home, I got a great deal.
I called a few places around the area, trying to stick with non-box places, but I did call Sears too, just for a reference. Walt's in Sherwood gave me the best deal. They normally carry the washer for $549, but had it on clearance for $499. Jim's quoted me $548 for a contractor price. To sweeten the deal, delivery and hauling of the old machine is only $50. And get this, when I asked when it would be delivered, the woman asked if between 1 & 4 would be okay. Today?? Yup, same day. So I had my new machine up and running by 3:30 that day. Good thing too! I had 4 big Rubbermaid roughtotes in the living room brimming with laundry. All that? 5 loads. Wahooo! I'm in love. And it's sooo quiet. Due to the extended spin cycle, the dryer gets done at just about the same time too.
Now for the real experiment---
M has decided that unloading the dishwasher is horrible and boring. Well, he decided that a loooong time ago, but I digress. I made up a list of the chores that have to be done. He picked laundry. No joke. We'll see how long it lasts. He did his and G's laundry yesterday. I don't think I really want him to do mine and his dad's. I can see that being a bit of a disaster. He of course refuses to have anything to do with washing diapers. Wimp.

We're Baaack!

What a fun trip! We went to Idaho to meet up with Lanna and family at C's parents house. It was such a treat to see them. My boys enjoyed having full-time playmates, E enjoyed being held all the time. The adults enjoyed catching up. GramRe and Papa enjoyed having the whole family together.
No problems keeping busy. I can't even remember what all we did. The bad thing is that I hit a camera snag and didn't get pictures of everything. Hopefully I can harvest from everyone else. Please say yes?
Here's some of what I remember:
Birds of Prey, where we saw lots of cool birds and learned about the awesome birds of prey in Idaho and around the world.
Boondocks, where we completely wore out the kids (and big kids!) riding on go karts, playing putt-putt golf, riding on bumper boats, playing arcade games, riding the kid-size go karts, riding on the slicks. Whew, it was exhausting, but we had perfect weather that day for being outside all day.
Funny enough, the day after Boondocks, where we all got just enough sun to give us a "rosy" glow, was family picture day. Tyler from CPX photography did a great job. We can't wait to get our photos to hang on our walls. We had some great outdoor shots in grandma and grandpa's backyard and some indoor shots in the living room.
I think--and I'm a little fuzzy on this, but I think that the next day was the day the girls went shopping. We found oodles of delish yarn at Handmade in Eagle, ate food at Quiznos and Cold Stone, and found toys for Nyssa at the Children's Store. It was hard to decide what to get, but she made some decisions. I think Lanna headed out the next day or later that day for a new suitcase.
Oh, and we had dinner at Red Robin and headed over to Krispy Kreme for dessert. Then the boys headed to Cabella's for a true American Experience and a selection of the women went to Craft Warehouse for beads.
It seems we just ran and ran, but it was so much fun. It was hard to say goodbye. I really hope we can find a way to all get together again soon!

Trillium Festival

Saturday we went up to Portland to Tryon Creek State Park. They were holding the annual Trillium Festival and native plant sale. We didn't buy any plants but had a great time at the festival!
We saw lots of mud of course. G insisted on this photo:
M did a great job answering questions at the booths to get free stuff. We learned more about native landscaping and local ecosystems.
We had to dress for the weather because it did rain a little bit. We went on a guided nature hike where we learned a lot about the plants and wildlife in the park.
I have the best looking guys around! I snapped this picture on the way out.
2 pictures I didn't get and wish I had were of the trilliums (duh, I forgot to take the camera on the hike) and the woodpecker we saw. As the rest of the group was heading on, I heard a tapping. Knowing how much M loves birds, I waited to see if I could get a look at the woodpecker. Sure enough, right in front of me on a tall Aspen, was a gorgeous Pileated Woodpecker. He put on quite a show for us and we had a great view of him before he flew off for juicier bugs.
There is a trillium picture I took last year at the end of this post. Of course, there are lots of photos if you follow the links in the park link above. They are really neat flowers. Three leaves, three petals, hence the name.

For your baby fix

E's first time in the stroller. I hadn't really intended for him to ride in one so early (I prefer to wait until they sit very well and do better at regulating temperature and are too heavy to carry), but I threw out my back and was glad to have a way to take him outside for a walk. It helped a lot! E really seemed to like seeing the world in this way too.

Grandma J gave E a gift certificate for Christmas. He got some snazzy new contour diapers (organic!) and a sweet doll with a rattle in it's head. It is organic, colorgrown cotton too. He also has a new T-shirt on back order. It is sage and natural stripe. We'll show it off when it gets here.

E is my only child who has been so determined to remove his diapers. Yes, yes I know, I should be doing EC, but can't figure out how to work that in yet. Maybe soon. Anyway, with a gift certificate we were given for a shower gift, I got some adorable flannel. I sewed up this diaper yesterday as a sample. It snaps instead of velcro--much more baby proof. He likes it! But he kept grabbing the front of it as I took a picture. The pic of the diaper I have is all funky because of the lighting. I'll take some pictures when I get more made. Just look at those chubby thighs!

Snow--Yay!

My boys have been wanting snow ever since the last heat wave of summer. We got lots of it during our Idaho trip. I decided to put all the snow pictures together.

Imagine a grandpa's suprise and delight when his grandsons beg to shovel snow! Here they are out in the dark, all bundled up and having a great time in the snow. Grandpa has a shovel on hand for everyone, so there were no conflicts there--phew! They actually did a fairly good job too.

After work comes play! Here they are with their wonderful snowman. G and M made sure he had all kinds of interesting features. I think Grandpa had a lot of fun with it too--can you tell?

In my parents' town is a park with a great sledding hill. After the snows that came a few days after Christmas, this is how PapaCoyote, C, M, G, UncleD and AuntH and L spent the afternoon. They had so much fun!

M with UncleD on a sled being pushed by Papa

G and Dad getting ready for the plunge

Of course, then there's the back-up-the-hill bit. Good thing Papa is willing to help.

Fun trip!

We had a great trip down to see family. First stop was GramRe and PaR's house. The tradition there is for grandkids small enough to still be lifted to "Say Hi to the Birds." This is E's first. He doesn't look all that excited about it. When he gets older, he'll be just like the other kids, screaming for Grandpa and the birds as soon as they come in the house.

C in the middle with his sister, J and is dad. They are very goofy. And very fun.

After Christmas at C's parent's house, we went to Papa and Mama Coyote's. My brother and his fabulous wife have produced the world's cutest little girl. G and L had so much fun playing together, and we had a blast watching them. It was pure entertainment. Both of them are potty-learning right now, so they each had their potties set up in the living room. It was like dueling potties. Whenever one would head over, the other would go too just to be social I guess. I think it helped, they both stayed dry! I have pictures, but I don't think I'll post them. If you're family and want a copy, let me know. ;)

GrandmaJ has a living room with lots of cushions. Sometimes they are on the couches, but they seem to prefer this:

E got sick while we were down, darn it. He rested pretty peacefully in PapaCoyote's arms while I packed stuff up to get ready to head home.

The trip home was eventful only becuase it was so smooth! With E's cold and the older boys showing signs of coming down with it, I was seriously debating waiting in Idaho another day. But then, that would have turned into waiting till Monday with the storms coming through. E was happy enough Wednesday afternoon we decided to chance it. Since C is in Asia for business, his mom and sister drove home with us. Aren't they wonderful? Anyway, we all expected to be stopping about ever hour at least to tend to the baby's needs and were ready to stay in a hotel for the night if need be. Were we ever shocked when we made it halfway without stopping! Then just a couple of stops after that! We left at 8:30ish and were in the front door of the house and car unloaded by 6pm!! We even stopped at Whole Foods for dinner and groceries. I honestly thought we'd be lucky to make it home by 8pm or so.
Of course we did this because E slept so much in the car. He made up for it last night. He's asleep again in my lap now. I guess we have to learn about night and day again. Oh well, we're home and I'll work on it when he feels better. For now, I'm going to take advantage of him sleeping. By sleeping...

Drying out

We figured out the rucksack carry, although the wraps I have aren't really ideal--not as comfortable. E seems to enjoy it for a little while, but then wants the security of being on my front. Fair enough.

E has arrived at the time that is my favorite thing about nursing--the nursing giggle. It's where they look up into your eyes and are so happy to be eating their favorite food that they risk havin to re-latch and giggle. I LOVE baby nursing giggles. It's absolutely the best. It seems to say, "Yay! We made it through the tough beginings and now we can just relax and totally enjoy each other."

This is turning into a total E post--anyway, he learned a new trick! If we help him figure out how to open, then close his fingers on his rattle, he can get it to his mouth. Victory!

And, finally, the finished longies. I'm really happy with how they turned out. And they work great. I made them way too long, but I'm sure E will take care of that in no time!

The "Storm of the Century" as one news station called it. Whatever--here's our teeny bit of snow that then turned to gushes of rain.

The storm has finally passed on! Well, I guess that should be the plural, storms. We got hit with a triple whammy this weekend. 3 storms in 1. Yuck. I'm still not sure exactly how much rain was recorded here, but I heard that Bremerton, WA recorded upwards of 10" in 24 hrs. We didn't get anywhere near that, but both local rivers are flooded, and many more in the area are as well. Our street was partially submerged for a few hours--you could drive on the other side and the water-logged side was passable still.
Growing up in Idaho, we sometimes had flash floods from sudden downpours, but living in Oregon has taught me lots about rain. For example, I used to read stories where the author would refer to "lashing rain." Now I know what lashing rain sounds like--it's rain being blown at your window at over 50 mph. It sounds like it's going to come right on in for dinner.
The kids are happy to be able to play outside again. Not that I'm against them playing in the rain by any means--I'm all for it. This weekend was just a bit too much for my tastes.
That reminds me--I forgot to tell the last G rain story.
I sent them out in their muck-muck boots, rain coats, hats and gloves to play in the rain a few weeks ago. It was pretty cold, but not freezing. Well, G, my child who is usually the last to ever come inside, comes up to the door and is just shivering too much to talk. I ask if he wants to come in and he nods. "Fffffeeezing mommmy" he manages to get out. I start stripping clothes off him. His boots have a few cups of water each I pour out, his pants look like they've been dunked, even his shirt and lining of his water-proof coat are literally running waterways. I ask him what happened. "Go fimming mommy!" he says proudly. Seems he decided that the gutter, having roughly the water level of a kiddie pool, was a great place for a swim on a blustery day, so he tried it out. Yeah, um, not so good. I don't think he'll do it again. It took awhile to get him warmed back up. At least he had the sense to come inside!
My kids....

Hike to Mirror Lake

Sunday we decided to go for a hike near Mt Hood. Mirror lake is gorgeous and an easy hike for the kids. We packed up and drove out to the trail head. It was so busy, but we managed to find a parking spot and get started. G carried the small pack for all of 5 minutes before handing it off to M. He was fine with that though. G did a really good job and made it almost to the lake before hopping in the backpack. We looked at the lake and then decided to head on up to Tom, Dick and Harry mountain. I get a kick out of that name. Maybe I should look up the history of it.
C was amazing! He carried G the rest of the way to the lake and the last bit up to the mountain. Then he carried him all the way down! That's about 35# of kid plus the Kelty pack. Needless to say, he was a bit sore the next day, and still is.
M was great too. He hiked all 7 miles with (almost) no complaint and set a good pace for us up to the lake. Fortunately for us, the huckleberries were in bloom. G hiked as far as he did for huckleberries. He'd walk a while, then get a handful, walk awhile, get a handful and repeat. It was slow, but effective.
At the top of Tom, Dick and Harry we were rewarded with an amazing view of the lake, Mt. Hood and the surrounding area. There were clouds over Hood, which made it even cooler looking I think. M was impressed by the fact that we got to walk through some clouds on our way down. They were blowing up over the ridge into the valley where the lake is.

Dad and the boys at the summit

Mom and the boys at the summit. Yes, the sun is in our eyes--big time!

Aww, init cute? Sun still in eyes...

My two sweet peas. They had a lot of fun finding rocks and things to climb up onto.
A note about the shirts. Everyone picked out their own clothes entirely on their own. I realized when we all got downstairs and started loading up bags, that we had all picked out tie-dye. So, now here are pictures of our creations in use. It was funny too, because people kept commenting on the trail about how cute it was that we matched. I guess we all just really like our tie-dye!

The Fair

So, yeah, it's been a week now. And the pictures have been here on the computer all along. I'm just slow.
We had a great time. M was a little uncertain. He thought it was just going to be another hot and noisy fair. He wants to go back next year! I love how well the property is managed to have such terrific trees and paths and bridges and everything. We loved the people and the music and the shows. We even met a couple of MDC mamas. And M found a frozen treat at Springfield Creamery that he could eat. Whoo Hooo!

The boys had a go at a community art project. It was so sweet to watch them work together on it. They just were so absorbed in the creative spirit.

We stopped and rested a while at the dragon fountain. M had fun exploring it and seeing all the details of this amazing creation. He took this picture himself.

M also took this picture of drummer we listened to for a few minutes. His entire set was made of plastic buckets and glass bottles. Very intriguing. It actually sounded good too. Either my boys weren't that impressed, they forgot, or aren't very musical though because I haven't seen any recycled bands taking shape around here. I kinda thought I might.
M's favorite area of the fair was definately the archeaology area. He found an arrowhead made from blood obsidian (which I can't find a picture of anywhere online--I'll just have to take on of his and post it later..) that the guy at the booth sold to him for $12. He's so proud of it.
Then we watched a man give a stone-age fire demonstration. He started a fire with a stick, a piece of bark and some dried moss. We were duly impressed.I'm very glad we just went on Friday though. It was a little crowded and I can only imagine what Saturday must be like. I also think that we'll leave the stroller at home and figure out how to get the wagon to the fair if we go next year. That was a Pain! All in all it was a great experience, the temperature was just right and we all want to go back next year.

More of our North Idaho Trip

More! I promised! I delivered!

My parents and my brother and sister-in-law at a bbq outside. The resort had lots of grills for use by their guests. It was nice to eat outside. Fortunately, we also had very nice kitchens in our units--and A/C!

The highlight for M was the day we spent at Silverwood theme park in Hayden, Idaho. We began the day by taking a ride on the steam engine. It took us on a loop around the park where we saw the land around the park and even some bison with 2 babies. The first part of our day was spent in the main part of the day riding rides and seeing the sights. C and my brother and his wife all rode the roller coasters. G just could not figure out why anyone would willing subject themselves to something like that. We watched Dad on the corkscrew (right over our heads!). When C came back, G looked at him, looked at the ride and turned back to dad. "You want do that, Daddy?!" he asked in wonderment.

Then we moved over to the water park.

At this point, it was just the 3 of us while M played with Uncle D. G wasn't sure what to make of this toddler area at first. He didn't want to get in. So he headed straight into the wave pool instead. Wish I had a picture of that one! But he came back here and had a blast.

Of course, all that playing was quite exhausting!

Fourth of July found us in Clark Forks, Idaho. We had a thoroughly small town 4th.
We began with the CF parade, where M got lots of candy and even taught my niece, L, how to run out and gather the colorful stuff up. There were lots of great cars, including of course fire trucks and motorcycles, so G was happy.
After the parade, we went over to my Aunt's house. She looks great and it was so awesome to see her again. I think she is wonderful. Then we wandered over to the high school lawn where they were having races. D took little L on the father-daughter race. She had a great start, then realized she had no clue what her crazy dad was up to. M and I ran in the mother-son race and he got a quarter at the finish! The picture above is D and me in the brother-sister race. He ran, I tried to hold on and not fall over. It was a pretty hilarious sight I'm sure!
Afterwards, we headed out to see the old homestead and then over to Montana to see my cousins. It was very relaxing to be at their place at the lake. The boys had a great time and I had fun too, catching up with my aunt and cousins. My family is so great. I miss being with them and the way they interact. My husband thinks they are crazy and wonders how on earth we keep up with each others conversations. I gently point out I'm just like them. He also points that out to me sometimes. What a doll. :-P