Catching up...and a picture perfect day!

Where have I been? Well, we were pretty much sick for most of February...you know how that goes as "the bug" makes it way to each and every member of the household. March was a healthy month, thank goodness, but kept us busy I guess as I can't even seem to recall exactly what we did for those 31 days! LOL! I am sure it was full of schoolwork and other things as we are trying our best to finish out this final stretch of the school year. The girls are getting anxious for summer to arrive so that they can have more free time. I guess I can say the same. We will continue some of our schooling throughout the summer, but for the most part we are going to take in as much sunshine as possible and just enjoy the warmer months. I am also hoping to catch up on a bit of my scrapbooking. I am now 3 years behind on the boys' albums and probably just as behind in the girls' albums. Lots of catching up to do!

I know I have posted tulip pictures before...but one never tires of seeing beautiful tulips rights? Once again we took our annual April field trip to the Wooden Shoe. Although this was our 4th year to visit, I never cease to be amazed at the beauty of a tulip field in full bloom! And the weather was delightful! Almost too warm to be in an open field with no trees...but I'm not complaining! Just wish we would have brought more water with us. 80+ degrees and as clear as can be! A picture perfect day indeed!

Happy 150th Birthday Oregon!

Last Saturday, while my dear husband stayed home with two sick boys, the girls and I took a ride on the trolley and visited several historic places in Oregon City. We thought it would be a great thing to do to celebrate Valentine's Day, since it was on February 14th, 1859 that Oregon became our 33rd state. We have also been working on our state study this school year and so we have been trying to sneak in some "field trips" here and there. And as if we needed another good reason, all of the museums in Oregon City were free for the day! :) Now we can say that we have have visited the Philip Foster Farm, the Forestry Museum, the Museum of the Oregon Territory, the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretative Center, Fort Vancouver, the Rose Farm and the John McLoughlin House in our quest to learn more about our great state of Oregon!

Visiting the home of Dr. John McLoughlin, the "Father of Oregon"...

The grave site of John and his wife Margaret...

Meeting the "man himself"...

Overdue Christmas news...

Well, I guess it is about time to tell everyone that we are NOT snowed in anymore. After several weeks of the white stuff, alas it has all long melted. It was pretty while it lasted, but it did disrupt our holidays somewhat. We were not able to travel to the grandparents house to celebrate Christmas together. The kids were a bit disappointed to say the least. And our gift to them was a trip to the aquarium in Newport, that was scheduled to take place the weekend following Christmas. With the snow and all, that trip had to be rescheduled as well. We decided on Christmas Eve that a trip to the grocery store was in order to plan a makeshift Christmas Day dinner. It was the first Christmas Day we had spent at home since we had always gone to eat Grandma's good cooking! My brother had sent his rather generous gift in the mail, and thankfully it had arrived prior to the ARCTIC BLAST, as the newscasters called it, so we did enjoy opening that up on Christmas Day. Here is the expression on Sarah's face when they opened the Wii-

Pretty funny huh? So after spending the whole morning playing in the snow with daddy, the rest of the afternoon was spent bowling and riding cows! Ha ha! It turned out to be a fun Christmas after all.

On New Year's Eve we headed down to see the grandparents. We shot off some fireworks to ring in the New Year and enjoyed our much overdue feast. Over the weekend we headed to the coast to visit the Newport aquarium, and spent much time swimming in the hotel pool. Jesse and Jared thought it was pretty cool to be able to pet baby sharks and rays! That seemed to be a highlight of the trip for all the kids.

Snowed In...

We're still enjoying the snow here...well actually to be 100% honest, I am getting a bit tired of it. It has been coming down hard for the last few days. We now have a whopping 24+ inches! Everything is buried....most likely my van as well. Asa drove it to work yesterday with chains, and when he went to come home the windshield wipers wouldn't work properly so he had to leave it there and catch a ride home with a friend. That ride proved to be a bit of an adventure I might add. It took them about an hour and a half to drive home. (A normal day's commute would be about 20 minutes.) During that time they helped a guy stuck on the side of the road, stopped by a Les Schwab dealer to see if they had some chains for our Honda, (they didn't stay as there were 60 people in line...no joke!) and then they managed to do a 180 on Highway 213 into oncoming traffic. Thankfully, there were only a few cars on the road at the time and they were able to slow down and go around them. His buddy dropped him off at the corner and he trudged home, happy that he was finally getting out of the snow. Perhaps you can begin to understand why I am longing to see my green lawn once again?

My kiddos, on the other hand, are loving the snow and suited up again over the weekend to play in the fluffy white stuff for a bit. I thought they made the cutest little snow bunnies I had ever seen. Don't you agree?

Well, I guess I will have to take a few more pics so that you can see our even more frosty winter wonderland, our buried back yard,and our many hanging icicles etc. We certainly won't be going anywhere anytime soon. They are telling us it will be Saturday or Sunday before this stuff starts to melt. Our trip to the grandparents for Christmas has to be postponed unfortunately. Guess we will celebrate Christmas with them on New Year's day! Oh well...at least I will soon be able to say I have truly had a white Christmas!

Dreaming of a white Christmas?

We just might get one! We had 5 inches of snow on SUN and a lot of it is still on the ground! It has been terribly cold these last few days...in the mid teens at night and in the twenties during the day. BRRR! Another storm is coming tomorrow they say, with even more snow predicted than we had on SUN! HURRAY! We are bundled up inside, nice and warm, drinking lots of hot shlock-o-late (as Jesse and Jared call it.) My DH is out delivering those Christmas packages! Chains have been required off and on so he is driving carefully. We might just try to go out for a bit tonight and pick up a few more pieces of snow gear as not everyone's boots and gloves fit from last year. LOL! Want to be prepared for our next snowball fight afterall. Here are a few pictures from SUN...notice the plastic bags over the tennies! LOL!

Fort Vancouver

We took another school field trip last month to visit Fort Vancouver in our neighboring state of Washington. It was a beautiful day so we just couldn't stay inside!


We learned about The Hudson's Bay Company, a British fur trading company, that came to the Pacific Northwest over 300 years ago, in search of animal furs. We learned about the beaver and how it was trapped, skinned and its fur brought back to the fort and then shipped to Europe.


The girls were such good little students. They were given Junior Ranger/Northwest Explorer booklets when we arrived at the fort and had to look for answers to certain questions, filling out the pages as we went from place to place. They learned about the 200+ people that lived and worked at the fort with their families and the different jobs that each one had to do. There were the trappers who caught the animals in the wilderness and brought back the furs, the Chinook Native Americans that helped the company bring in the furs and animals, which they then used to trade with in the Indian Trade Shop located inside the fort. There were the many laborers who farmed, cut wood and packed furs for shipping, the blacksmiths who made tools and other things from medal, the bakers who made sea bisquits and bread, carpenters who made furniture, doors and other things from wood, and most importantly there was the chief factor, Dr. John Mcloughlin, who was in charge of the entire fort and kept things running smoothly. Since Dr. John Mcloughlin also played an important role in establishing the town that we live in, Oregon City, I wanted the girls to know how he originally came to the area and what his job was before he settled in Oregon City.








The boys were "students" in their own sort of way I suppose. They are very tactile in their learning style and had to touch, climb, pull, push and stick their head into every place possible. That is learning too. now isn't it? LOL! Notice how my son tries to figure out just how this cannon works. Does the big heavy ball go in here mom?



They also had fun investigating "the privy."

Thank God is was not one that is actually there for use!

This was the boys' favorite part of the fort. They called it "the castle." I think they liked it because it had lots more of these inside...

They made a friend while checking out the carpenter shop. He showed them all the neato tools and what they did. Boy things ya know.

Here is the bell that rang to keep the fort running on schedule. It woke everyone up in the morning, rang at meal times and at the end of the working day. I guess you could say it was their "clock."

All in all it was a fun place to visit. We learned a lot, got a little dirty and enjoyed the sunshine. Just what you are supposed to do on a school field trip!

In loving memory...

...of Richard Harland Graves

Faithful husband and father,

and loving grandfather and great grandfather

Born November 9th, 1921 in Bakersfield California

Went to be with his Lord October 27th, 2008 Hayward California

Left a godly heritage and many happy memories for those still remaining

We will miss you greatly but know that we will be together again someday!

I LOVE YOU!

Fall fun....

We took our first school field trip this last week to Fir Point Farms. It's an annual event for us and this year marked our 5th visit! The girls had their friend Ruthie with them, which added to the fun. There is always lots to do and the kids enjoy running here and there exploring the farm. Before we leave we go in search of the perfect pumpkin. The kids had fun posing for me and my camera, so here are some photos of our fun-filled day!

Back to school...

We started school today! What a relief! I do love summer, but this summer break was a little too long I think. Everyone was ready for some daily routine again. We usually would have ended mid June, except this year we went to our church family camp, so we had to finish up promptly at the end of May to prepare for our week at the coast. I had planned to start school the day after Labor Day, but my hubby had a week of time off scheduled for Sept 8-12, and it just didn't seem feasible to start school only to take time off the following week while daddy was home. So, here we are in the middle of September and we are just getting started. I don't think it will be a problem though, as my students seemed all the more eager and ready and if we stay on track we are sure to finish in good time. Bethany is in the 4th grade this year and Sarah is in the 2nd grade. We have lots of fun things planned this school year and I know they will learn so much!

All she wants for Christmas...

...oh well, you know the rest!

Girls day out...

It all started here...

After letting the girls spend their $10 gift cards that they earned participating in the summer reading program at the library, we went here for some yummy lunch...

After eating a few too many bread sticks we headed for Portland to take in this...

Thanks to the elevator operator, who gave us some inside information, we afterwards met the star of the show, "Miss Christine Daae " herself and enjoyed a backstage tour! We saw all the props, fog machines, wigs, costumes etc. backstage and got a real feel for what goes on behind the curtain. It was amazing how many things move up and down and all around on the stage... what a treat!

We then crossed the street to play in the Keller fountain...

And ended the afternoon with some of this before heading home...


It couldn't have been a more perfect day with my girls!

Overheard at my house...

While watching Star Wars with my three year old son Jared:

"Oh no, oh no! Here comes the bad guys! They are going to POW them!""

What to do Wednesday...

Ever have one of those days when you are just feeling lazy and want to do nothing? I think I am experiencing one today. Actually, I did do something this morning. I took the kids to the library and then we had a picnic lunch at a nearby park. There was a cool breeze and it it felt so good to sit under a shady tree and just watch my kids enjoying themselves! And we had the whole park to ourselves! This is why it is my favorite park! There's this little neighborhood park tucked away that no one ever seems to hang out at. Simply blissful! Overcrowded parks with lots of kids running around are never very relaxing for me. I always fear for losing one of the kids in the chaos.

The boys are napping, after I let them go up and down the slide 1oox and the girls are playing quietly. And I am just plain wasting time on the computer! Yes...I admit it! I finally joined Facebook, even though I told myself I never would. ha ha! And have so far reconnected with 4 old friends from many moons ago. It has been fun really! And reconnecting with old friends really isn't a waste of time now is it?

We went on a short camp trip this past weekend with the grandparents. It was wonderful as I really didn't have to do much except show up with our tent and bedding...and the family of course. My mom had planned all the meals and brought all the food. You see, the camp ground was only 3 minutes from her house! LOL! But the kids didn't care! It was a camping trip with "Bob-Bob" and "Tutu" and that was all they cared about! The weekend started out with some rain...OH NO! But then it cleared up, got sort of HOT actually, and we were able to go and play in the lake. The kids had fun rowing around in our blow-up boat. We ate lots of good camp food, including marshmellows, got real dirty and didn't take a bath, oh and woke up on the ground after sleeping on a slow leaking mattress. What camp trip would be complete without that! I didn't take many pictures...shame on me...but here are a few cute moments that I did capture.

Happy Birthday Honey!

Grandpa has gone back to California and we have been resting up from our many adventures! We did something everyday that he was here, be it big or small, and frankly after 12 days I was about to collapse. LOL! It was fun to be together though and do some things that we don't usually do when it is just us. My hubby was able to get a few days off around his birthday and so we did something a little more unusual to celebrate. He has always said that he would like to see the river "from the river" so for his birthday we decided to do just that! We took the Willamette Jet Boat Tour and viewed the beautiful Willamette River from the water. We headed to OMSI in Portland and got ready to board our vessel! We got REALLY WET while on the water with our driver doing some crazy acrobatic spins! We went under many of the Portland bridges and it was fun to go under them instead of over them, seeing things from a whole new angle. Our driver was very informative and gave us some history of the river, the bridges and the surrounding area. We even rode right up into the locks in Oregon City and we could almost feel the water spraying on our faces off the falls. It was incredible to get that close! We saw an eagle's nest and some osprey on the return trip and saw many of the "floating home communities" along the river. It was a great way to celebrate Asa's birthday and everyone had a wonderful time!

Happy birthday Honey! I love you!

A Day full of Dinosaurs...

Grandpa Asa is here for a visit and we have been doing lots of fun things everyday! He arrived a week ago and since he has been here we have...

* visited the library for a children's music program
*picked 17 1/2 pounds of fresh Oregon strawberries
*watched beautiful fireworks at the Oregon Gardens
*had a 4th of July BBQ with friends and shot off some of our own fireworks
*spent an afternoon shopping at the mall and eating Auntie Anne's pretzels
*romped around the Oregon Zoo visiting their cool new dinosaur exhibit
*had a picnic lunch and splashed around in the water at Rivercrest Park

Tomorrow is my DH's birthday and he was able to get the day off so we have another fun and out of the ordinary activity planned...but more about that later!

Here are some pictures from our day at the zoo. The dinosaur exhibit is there for the summer only so we wanted to be sure check it out. I was a bit concerned that the boys would be scared of the dinos being that a lot of them are life size and they do move and make various noises. But I should have known that boys would be boys and that they would enjoy the creatures immensely. It is all they have talked about for the last 24 hours! They were pretty impressive I must say myself. Sarah was afraid of the T- Rex since it was HUGE and roared VERY LOUDLY! She wouldn't go near the guy! LOL! All in all I thought the exhibit was well done. Of course there was some of the usual evolution talk and how the earth is millions and millions and millions of years old etc. etc, but we skipped over all that. We have several books put out by the Creation Research Institute on dinosaurs so I would much rather read those with the kids. The kids also enjoyed digging for fossils that were planted for them to find and each one got to take something home. They enjoyed that too!