Day 946

Les and I took the kids over to Bridgeport to see the new Smurfs movie, which was pretty entertaining.  (WAY better than Yogi Bear!)  It was pretty awesome to see the kids enjoying cartoon characters from Les' and my childhood.

Day 945

Grandma came over after dinner to watch the kids while Les and I headed to a Timbers game.  It was only my second ever MLS game and once again I was impressed by how passionate the fans were.  It's more fun then any Blazer game I've ever been to. 

Day 944

Les is back from Minnesota . . . I have a pretty great husband who doesn't seem to mind too much when I tell him he has to make one of his co-workers take a photo of him at his desk.  I am sure his co-worker Josh may think I am crazy, but that's another story.

Day 943

It may look like we are hard at work but Mason is really showing me a Rolling Stones article on Mumford and Sons.  And, yes, Jeff Probst still keeps me company in the office.  (Thanks to Jan for snapping this photo of me, I like that it really shows my whole office . . . still can't believe I have an office and it's nearly been a year now.)

Day 942

With Les still out of town, the kids and I grabbed Subway for dinner and headed to the Little Park for a picnic.  While Kaitlyn was snapping this photo, a crow was stealing the last bites of the kids' sandwiches.  Crafty bird to wait until we were distracted.

Day 941

With Les away on business to Minneapolis, the kids and I decided to have some fun with the tripod and self-timer after dinner.  We must have taken 20 or so shots - the kids were had so much fun pressing the timer button and then running and jumping on my lap to get in place for the photo.

Day 940

I am not quite sure why, but both the kids decided to wear their backpacks backwards this morning . . .

Day 939

This has been a common site around the house lately, Mommy Kaitlyn has five of her baby dolls all tucked in for their naps.  We often find Kaitlyn sitting in the middle of them patting their backs to help them fall asleep. 

Day 938

Les took the kids up the hill to Rosemont Middle School to have a little play time before lunch and naps (leaving Mom at home for some alone time . . . meaning a nap!).  I sent the point-and-shoot camera with the as I sent them out the door.  Later when I was looking through the photos they took, I was surprised to find this one of Les and Parker.  Apparently, Kaitlyn decided that she needed a photo of the two of them together.  I am so proud!

Day 937

Kaitlyn has been really showing improvement in her drawing lately - this picture is the first time I've seen her add ears to her drawing of a person.

Day 936

To surprise Carrie for her birthday, Mindy and I snuck up to Camp Arrowhead to spend the afternoon with her.  Thankfully the rest of the staff was in on the surprise, because she nearly left camp to spend some time in town.

Day 935

One of the family favorites is Breakfast for Dinner.  I am not quite sure what happened to this pancake but I appreciate that Les took the time to snap a picture of it.

Day 934

Art by Parker: This one is Parker holding a baby under a rainbow, next to a bird house.

Day 933

If I were a truly good mom, I probably wouldn't be posted pictures of my son wearing high-heeled princess shoes on the Internet . . . but it's such a great blackmail photo I couldn't resist.

Day 932

While I was working at the computer, Kaitlyn asked me to bring in the basket of mini-albums for her to look at.  She looked through every single one of them.  It's time like this that really make all the time and effort I put into scrapbooking worth it. 

Day 931

After spending the the better part of the day at the Portland Highland Games with Mindy, after dinner the family headed to the West Linn Old Fashioned Fair.  Both Kaitlyn and Parker rode rides, but neither of them wanted to go on the same ones - Parker liked the Fun House and Kaitlyn liked the Cars.  After trying our hand and the ring toss, we moved on to a game where the kids were guaranteed a prize.  They both picked matching dog shaped pillows.

Day 930

So it's not the best picture, but this came home with Kaitlyn from daycare.  It's a picture they took of her practicing writing her name.  She is getting better and better each day with her letters.

Day 929

Today was Uncle Mike's birthday and I tried to get the kids to pose for a photo that I could send him . . . alas Parker wasn't cooperating, so this is the best I got.

Day 928

I took a day off work to go on an adventure in the Columbia River Gorge with Mindy.  We geocached up the Oregon side and crossed over at the Bridge of the Gods.  Then we cached up to the White Salmon River where we explored the Condit Dam.  It's scheduled for demolition in October, so we took the opportunity to hike down the one-mile penstock flume walkway and then back to the dam.  It was cool but eerie - we could totally picture a horror movie being filmed on the walkway.

Day 927

A new piece of Parker's artwork - the bugs are stamped on the page but he added his own special touch to each of them.

Day 926

While playing in Mom and Dad's room, Kaitlyn came across the duffel bag with all of the kids' snow gear in it.  So she, of course, had to put all of her winter wear on over the top of her pajamas and stomp around the house in her boots. 

Day 925

The kids piled themselves and a bunch of stuff on the wagon and had me pull them up and down the porch while they waved.  It was a float parade!  It was tons of fun until Kaitlyn managed to fall off the float - now we know why they always have seat belts on floats.

Day 924

Les and I got an evening away from the children and went up to the Clark County Amphitheater to see The Monkees perform.  Les splurged for the VIP tickets and we got to get our photo taken with Davy Jones.  The concert was very entertaining, but it was hard to get over how old they looked!

Day 923

We had to say goodbye to our favorite summer intern Andrea today - so to celebrate we all had lunch together out on the deck at work.

Da y 922

We had got out the tripod to take some pictures on the Fourth of July and the kids have been enjoying playing model/photographer with it ever since.  Parker snapped this lovely one of Kaitlyn and baby Abigail out on the deck after dinner.

Day 921

Parker brought this note home from school - Luckiest Mom Ever!

Day 920

Back to work after the holiday, a bunch of us had lunch over at Pioneer Courthouse Square to enjoy the Noon Tunes performance.  It's fun to see children and adults alike get up and dance to the music.

Day 919

We celebrated the Fourth by having Mindy over for BBQ dinner.  Afterwards Carrie, Grandma and Andy came over to help us with our sparklers and other fireworks.  It was perfect night for friends and family to relax out on the deck - and the kids loved having all the adults there to pay attention to them.

Day 918

Grandma got a new job over a the End of the Oregon Trail Museum, so the kids and I headed over and spent the morning looking at all the items on display.  Miss Carrie met us over there, so afterwards we went to lunch at Izzy's.

Day 917

We had a nice Saturday morning breakfast out on the deck along with the kids new favorite movie - The Little Mermaid.

Day 916

Les and Parker spent the evening power washing the driveway.  Parker had fun playing with the water, but Les ended up accidentally power washing his foot - oops.