How Long Does the Puppy Stage Last?

Never a dull moment with this pup... after stealing and eating Aric's sock one day, stealing and burying Taylor's sock the next, he crawled under the deck and got thoroughly stuck. Jeremy eventually had to pull up the boards so we could get him out.

Lucky Number 13!

On July 10th, we celebrated our 13th anniversary with dinner out, complete with a chocolate-covered bacon ice cream sundae. (It's actually reminiscent of bacon dripping with maple syrup from your pancake plate as a kid. The sweet and salty and fatty all work together...until the chocolate wears off. Then, it's just chewing on a hunk of bacon and wishing you could get back to your sundae.) We topped off the evening with a trek in the woods. We've always wanted to hike Silver Star, a mountain that's directly east of us. It's a popular hiking spot because it's relatively close to Portland and offers 360 degree views of 5 volcanoes in the Cascade Range. The night before our hike, Jeremy read up on which roads to take in. The morning of our anniversary, I researched the various trails and decided which one we should try (the shortest, most direct route sounded good to me). As we drove, Jeremy turned off at a different point than I was expecting. He said he'd read that this was the "good road," and the other route up was terribly rough. I shrugged. When we got to the trailhead and I saw the sign, I realized we were at the Grouse Vista Trail, which (and I quote), "is considered the most difficult of the three [trails]." Great! Well, we smiled and started off, determined to have fun anyway. It was a gorgeous evening for a hike, but there was a summertime haze over the landscape so we weren't able to see far. The trail was very steep and forested for the first while before opening up into a beautiful meadow. The indian paintbrushes were just starting to bloom, and the evening light was perfect. We hiked until we went up and around Pyramid Rock (third picture), then decided that was as far as we wanted to hike that night. We saw Silver Star in the distance and knew we'd never make it there and back before the sun set and it got dark. We climbed up onto Pyramid Rock and enjoyed taking in the view (notice Mt. Hood peeking out of the haze in the last picture). We made our way back down to the trail and returned to the trailhead. When we got there, we looked at the trail map and felt VERY discouraged. As the crow flies, it looked like we had hardly done any walking, but we knew we'd had a good workout on that steep section. When I got home, I looked it up and it turns out we actually went in 1.5 miles before turning around, so we were halfway to our destination and we'd had a vigorous 3 mile hike. Not so shabby as we thought at first. I am determined to get up there on a clear day sometime and get to the top. We'll just need to give ourselves more daylight to work with. 

Since we made good time on our way out, we had a few minutes of daylight left, so we stopped and had fun shooting our handgun. We had forgotten ear protection, though, so we only fired one magazine apiece. Jeremy also gave me an anniversary gift - a bike rack so our whole family can bike together! Yay!

I am thankful we had the opportunity to get out in the woods together. I am also thankful for my awesome husband and the blessing of being able to share life with him. Thank you, Lord!

Lake Merwin with the Hendersons

We got to see our good friends, the Hendersons, a couple of times this summer at Lake Merwin. They live in Salem, but have a [wonderful] tradition of spending a weekend in our neck of the woods with their sailboat. It was great to spend time with them. We enjoyed their company most of all, but I think everyone in my family enjoyed the sailboat, and everyone in their family enjoyed the speedboat. For a great post with lots of fun pics, see http://familyblog.adrielhenderson.com/2012/07/camping-lake-merwin.html

The boys loved swimming and log-balancing with Abby, while Ascha and Mim loved playing closer to shore together. My favorite swimming area moment came when Aric was pestering David, who is going to be a high school sophomore this year. Aric filled a water blaster with water and soaked David's street clothes as he was trying to hang out in the shade. Miss Christina said, "You do realize, don't you, Aric, that he can pick you up and throw you in the water?" Aric's eyes got huge and he asked, incredulous, "He CAN?" He then ran to the lake, filled a squirt gun, brought it to David, and begged David to squirt him so they'd be even.

Happy 4th of July!

Jeremy happened to be out of town on the Fourth, so the kids and I decided we'd go to Fort Vancouver for the big fireworks show (something Jeremy has no desire to do...he's not a crowd person. Rather than dragging him, I figured this'd be the perfect opportunity for us to check this off my to-do list and keep everybody happy). 

We took the bus down so we wouldn't have to walk a mile in the dark after the show was over. The kids were pretty thrilled to be riding a real live city bus! 

There were several activities for the kids, including an old-fashioned sack race.

The boys did great!

Ascha was so cute, but she wasn't the most adept hopper. In the picture below, you can see that EVERYONE ELSE has already cleared the field. The host encouraged her as she slowly made her way back. She had the opportunity to participate in another heat, but she declined. 

 As we waited for darkness to fall, we stretched out on our picnic blanket, shared some snacks, and read a book together. 

As the fireworks started, Aric snuggled close because he was cold. Taylor literally hopped up and down from excitement, grinning from ear to ear, and enjoyed every single flash. About 5 minutes in, Ascha stood up and yelled, "Happy Bi'thday, Amewica!" at the top of her lungs. I don't think I could pick a favorite moment. I love each of my kids and so enjoy sharing fun experiences with them! They're the best!

Ascha did get tired of them soon after. It was a 20-25 minute display, and after about 10 minutes, she covered her ears, put her head down, and asked if we could be done yet. When the fireworks had finished, we made our way back to the bus and had another fun ride before heading home for the night.

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We had celebrated with our own personal fireworks the night before. I love the way the kids' personalities come out when you give them a sparkler.

The boys had a lot of fun battling tanks. After battling it out, they continued to pile on the flames whenever possible. This was their most charred tank duo, of which they were very proud. 

Daddy's Little Princess

Ascha's art area sees heavy use. Nearly every day she climbs up and cuts, colors, folds, glues, or stickers whatever pieces of paper she can find. One day while Jeremy was upriver, she spent quite a bit of time on a project. No one helped her with ideas or execution. When she was finished, she said, "Look, Mommy... it's Daddy! He has a little hair, but not a lot." She even wrote "D-A-D-E" on it very carefully, sounding it out as she wrote. 

She is the proverbial "Girl with a Curl." She loves Daddy fiercely, but often plays hard to get when he is home. She is at that age where she's saying and doing funny, sassy, sweet, or noteworthy things fairly often. Here are a few recent examples:

I said, "Goodnight, My Princess." She said, "Goodnight, MY Princess!" and grabbed my face in her chubby little hands and kissed me on one cheek, then the other. Made my night. :-)

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A little tune I overheard: "If you're happy and you know it, play with Hello Kitty. If you're sad and you know it, clean your room..." 
Can you tell what Ascha's biggest chore was today?

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Ascha's sock met an unfortunate demise (the dog ate it). We threw away the matching sock. At bed time, Ascha nearly started crying as the implications sunk in: "My sock will be lonely! The socks were friends!"

 Happy 35th Birthday, Jeremy!

We celebrated Jeremy's birthday on June 28th with buckwheat pancakes (his favorite!). He had picked out his own birthday present (two mini model tugboats) on Craigslist a few weeks prior, but we hadn't let him see them in person until his birthday. Since he didn't get a surprise gift, the kids and I crafted other surprises for him. He got sticky notes and a fun "scavenger hunt" of sorts. He had to follow cryptic instructions to the garage, where he was blindfolded and led outside. As he walked along the sidewalk, he walked through a "tunnel" of Pop-Its the boys had prepared just for this occasion. (For the record, the little pieces that bounce up from Pop-Its thrown at your feet HURT!) It was quite a surprise! We led him to our ladderball set, where he was told the winner got to give him his 35 birthday spankings, unless he won, in which case EACH of us would get to give him 35 spankings. For the first time since we've owned the ladderball set, Jeremy did NOT win. 

For lunch, I made a favorite recipe we hadn't had in probably 10 years: grilled watermelon and halibut skewers. It was still as delicious as we remembered (but my food photography had to take a backseat...everyone was sitting at the table impatiently waiting for me to bring the food post haste!). 

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In the afternoon, we went to the lake as a family and brought Pepper with us for the first time. It wasn't the warmest day, but that meant there weren't crowds of people. The kids enjoyed tubing and Pepper enjoyed running and playing on the shore. I wouldn't say he enjoyed riding in the boat, but he didn't dislike it, either. He sat under Jeremy's feet and was very well-mannered.

Happy 4th Birthday, Ascha Lynn!

Ascha turned 4 on June 23rd; we celebrated with pumpkin pancakes for breakfast.

Her sweet brothers bought her a Polly Pocket Birthday set

 Mommy and Daddy got her a Trail-a-Bike in pink, with flowers, of course

In the afternoon, she had friends over for a butterfly party

In what we've dubbed, "The Year of the Tent," she received a wonderful princess pop-up tent that's great for sleeping in, as she discovered the night of her birthday.

She also got a "real" tent with a floor and everything, which she proceeded to sleep in every night for the next month and a half. When we went on vacation, the tent came, too, and she tented inside our tent. (Her Daddy is wrapped around her little finger!)

 She got a Target gift card (Thanks, Aunt M and Uncle A!) and enjoyed her shopping adventure. She surprised me with the "practical" nature of her purchases. She didn't want any more Polly Pockets, My Little Ponies, or Strawberry Shortcakes, even though she loves to play with them. She wanted a princess slip & slide, a basket for her bicycle, and sparkly nail polish. 

It was fun to watch her figure out the slip & slide. We already have a 3-lane slide the boys use, but she'd decided she didn't like it because she doesn't like to get water in her face. It was an adjustment to overcome the "water in the face" problem on her new slide, but she was determined to like it, and she has.

The End of the 2011-2012 School Year

"I SURVIVED 3rd Grade!!!!! (BUT I don't think I'll survive 4th)"

 Taylor's "Last Day of School" shirt, autographed by his classmates and teachers

OUR SEASIDE TRIP, PART 2

After our morning at the aquarium, we headed south to Cannon Beach for lunch. While there, we enjoyed the nice surprise of bumping into friends from Idaho. When the tide headed out, we decided to head for the beach at Hug Point, a beach which we'd passed many times but never stopped at. (Thanks for the recommendation, Williams family!) It's a really neat place, with caves, a waterfall, and a rocky outcropping which was blasted to make way for cars to "hug the point" and get around at low tide as they drove on the original coast highway (a.k.a., the beach). We enjoyed tidepooling, walking in the rain, exploring the caves (they're not deep), rock scrambling, throwing rocks, chasing waves, drawing in the sand, and metal detecting. After our fun, albeit wet, afternoon, we cleaned up at the hotel and enjoyed some Mexican food before turning in, exhausted.

                                         

On Friday morning, we headed north to Warrenton. We drove out on the spit by Fort Stevens and spied a few elk in the distance, but the weather was less than inviting, so we didn't stay long. We stopped in at the little lighthouse museum in Warrenton to see these cool harpoon guns. It happened to be the first day the museum itself was open for the season, so we enjoyed looking around for a few moments and each child left with an intact sand dollar. (Now we know how to find an unbroken one - go crabbing. The museum had a bucketful and the curator said they get pulled in with the crab pots. The kids were thrilled to have whole sand dollars, because they'd looked long and hard at the beach just to find HALF a shell!)

We continued toward home, stopping at a few shops and then the bakery in Astoria for tasty treats before climbing the column.

Our last stop before coming home was at the Astoria Column. It was such a rainy, gray day we could barely see the parking lot from the top, let alone the ocean, but we climbed the steps nonetheless. Tired and slightly damp, we piled into the van for a pleasant ride home. Ascha napped and the rest of us enjoyed listening to Ralph Moody's Come On, Seabiscuit. It was a great end to a great time of refreshing fellowship for our family.