Food and friends...

We finally found time in our schedule that worked to have dinner with the Colemans. It has been way too long. Marisa and I saw a lot of each other this summer because of work and various play dates, but our families haven't gotten together for months. We made a delicious dinner (recipe here), stuffed ourselves silly, and then laid around while the kids played. 

Claire is obsessed with "D'Faniel" and takes every opportunity to hold him that she can get. Never mind the fact that he is almost the same size as her and will outweigh her before she turns two. 

We are working on not holding babies by their necks.

Good thing he doesn't seem to mind too much.

Happy birthday, Sydney...

On Tuesday we hit the last of the preschool days at Oaks Park to celebrate Sydney's FIFTH birthday. It poured the night before and the rain kept the crowds away. We practically had the place to ourselves... it was a blast! The kids ran from ride to ride going non-stop all morning. We rode every ride at least once, and a couple we had time to do twice. Grace's favorite was the roller coaster (of course) and Claire loved the tilt-a-whirl. She giggled through the whole ride. 

Oregon Heritage Farm...

This post should be titled, "Proof that it is nearly impossible to take a good picture with more than two children."

You either get a run away...

Or one who refuses to participate...

Or funny faces looking in all different directions...

Or one lounging, one standing, one sucking his thumb, and one looking at the wrong camera...

Or one adjusting the Big Guy so that he will be in the picture too...

Then, when you take away all the other distractions, you can get close to a good picture...

And sometimes, if lucky, you will capture a moment like this... And that somehow makes all of those failed group shots worth it.

The real point of this post though is to remember this beautiful day, the fun we have with these friends, the reason we love fall in Oregon - the sites, the smells, the sweets. 

Evenings at the park...

We are squeezing every drop of sun that we can out of this Indian summer... and loving every minute. 

The best in the world...

Last week the US Women's Soccer team held an open practice at Jeld-Wen Field. I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to see the women play - even if it was just a practice. They are, after all, ranked number one in the world. Thankfully my dad was up for the adventure too.

We met in our usually parking garage and rode the Max to Jeld-Wen field. Some of the spectators were on the field, and the rest of us lined the first row of seats on the west side of the field. We sat in the corner opposite from where our Timber's tickets are. It was fun to have a different view of the field for the day. As we got settled the Canadian team was wrapping up their practice and heading off the field. The first player from the US to come out was Hope Solo - the goal keeper. I didn't think she was traveling with the team since she has been busy Dancing With the Stars.

A few minutes later the rest of the team walked out to great cheers from the crowd. The crowd was mostly made up of young girls' soccer teams - 8 year old to high school. I was so impressed by how many parents made this a priority, even though it meant missing school.

We had a lot of fun watching the goal keepers practice - saving ball after ball from the net. This one actually got past Hope Solo's outstretched arms, but I like the picture nonetheless.

As we were sitting at watching all of the action, dad and I were talking about Dancing with the Stars and wondering how she does everything. No sooner had we finished that conversation than we heard someone mention that Maks, Hope's professional dancing partner, was in the crowd. We had to search him out to snap a few pictures. If you know my parent's at all, you will know that they love dancing and all things dancing related, so seeing Maksim Chmerkovskiy in person was a pretty big deal.

The practice lasted just over an hour - the perfect length considering we were melting in the direct sun, and getting hungry for lunch. The girls sat and watched, played on the stairs, made a few friends, and enjoyed time with grandpa. They also took turns being too hot, too hungry and just a little grumpy. Over all though they did remarkably well.

I love living near a city that allows fun mid-week activities like this for my family. We had a great time. Thanks for joining us dad... and thanks for the yummy lunch. We had a great time. 

Wordless Wednesday...

 

A busy Tuesday...

From September 20th: 
Sometimes I know ahead of time that a certain day will be busy. Tuesday I didn't plan to be away from home for 14 hours, but that is exactly what happened.

8:40 am - left the house, toaster waffles in hand, and headed out to start the day.
8:56 am - sat in line at the Starbucks drive through window waiting for a pumpkin spice latte.
9:10 am - arrived just on time for the first session of Motherwise (so fun to be back in that group again!).
11:15 am - collected the girls from their classes, packed up and headed out.
11:44 am - stopped at Wu's Open Kitchen to order lunch
11:50 am - walked next door to Subway to get lunch for Grace
Noon - picked up lunch from Wu's.
12:15 pm - got to Angela's house for a lunch date and visit... after her near-death experience last week we were in desperate need of some catching up and hanging out. The girls and I way overstayed our welcome, but couldn't help ourselves. The only bummer is that while we were relaxing in the backyard, enjoying the sun and eating blueberries off the bushes, Grace managed to get stung by a yellow jacket. That sort of disrupted our calm and quiet afternoon. Thankfully she recovered quickly and showed no sign of reaction to the sting (her first ever).
3 pm - we finally left Ang's house and headed home. I took the long way - through Sherwood, past my old church, on back roads - hoping the girls would sleep. They didn't.
3:45 pm - we stopped at Oregon Heritage Farms on the way home to pick up some fresh apples. We picked up 10 pounds of fresh, organic apples and a gallon of cider. The girls had been awesome all day so I treated them to a caramel apple and we got to stay and bounce in the big apple.
4:35 pm - when we were about to turn onto our street Merrick called and said, "Let's go to the zoo!" We stopped by the house to drop off the cider, the Chinese food and put on some shorts before hopping right back in the car to go pick him up.
5:04 pm - Merrick finished up work and jumped in our car.
5:23 pm - Pulled up the zoo. The parking lot was empty and there was a big sign that read: Zoo closed at 4 pm today. Sorry. We decided to head further in to Washington Park to dink around a bit.
5:36 pm - stopped at the archery field to watch a group shooting. They had incredible weapons - gorgeous bows and arrows - and were very good.
5:58 pm - We pulled up to the playground in the park to let the kids run free. The kids love the structure there, the swings, the slides, the tunnels and the monkey bars are among their favorites.

6:37 pm - a little time spent in the sand pit before leaving

6:50 pm - decided to head into Portland for dinner.
7 pm - found a great parking spot in the Pearl and started walking.
7:07 pm - hopped on the street car for a quick ride (the kids love the "train").

7:22 pm - decided to try out Little Big Burger for dinner. Fantastic! If you haven't been, you must.

7:53 pm - headed up the street to Whole Foods to pick out a treat (power cookie and a pint of fresh figs, of course).
8:14 pm - back to our car.
8: 23 pm - we drove home through NW Portland over Cornell hoping the kids would crash. They didn't.
8:42 pm - stopped by the Ceder Hills Library to return a few items.
9:03 pm - returned to Merrick's office... where he stayed for a few more hours.
9:15 pm - after getting stuck in construction traffic I made it to Freddy's gas station.
9:36 pm - more construction delays, but finally home. Both girls hunched over in their seats, exhausted, asleep and drooling. Neither slept a wink all day long.

Tuesday was a long day. It was a good day!

FYI - these times are all approximate. I didn't not really keep track of our day by the minute. Some times I know because of the pictures I took. Others I am estimating and noting simply to prove a point. =)