Buckle Up

I thought I would share these cute pictures that I found on our camera. Shawn must have taken them yesterday while I was gone substituting. That's right, momma's back at it again. I've just recently started substituting again, but I've only made myself available on Monday's and Tuesday's right now. Those are Shawn's days off so he is getting to have some fun daddy time with the kids. Since I headed off to work yesterday, we swapped some carseats. That's why there were some inside for these two to crawl into. I'm sure that Carly did all the buckling, she's pretty good at that. I've really been enjoying watching them play together lately. They are become great playmates.

Back to Winter

The kids and I have been back home in Juneau for a week now. I must say that there's a bit more snow on the ground than I had expected. I wasn't expecting it to be all gone or anything, just melted a bit more than it has. In fact as I type this it's snowing outside. Even though there is more melting than accumulation, I'm thinking we've got quite a bit more time to experience winter.
Here is a picture of the view out of Carly's window. She has quite the wall of snow out there. It was much worse in early February. Part of the reason there's so much snow out her window is because we have a metal roof, so the snow just slides right off and piles up around the edges of the house. Another reason is that her room is on the other side of the front door so a lot of the snow that falls on the walkway gets blown up and over near her window. One of these days she'll have a more clear view.
But just when I thought winter was going to be here for a VERY long time, I found that the bulbs we planted last fall are actually starting to come up. Here's the little green buds along with the first weed of the year--grrr. And yes, we have a blue foundation--don't get me started! It drives me nuts. So see there's a bright side to having so much snow that it blocks the view of your foundation for half of the year.!

Carly's Quote of the Day

"If you (daddy) and you (momma) and Isaac are sick and I'm sixteen, then I can drive to Bible class."

--Carly, 3 years old, on our way to Bible class tonight.
The photo is of her playing in the baby doll closet at my grandparents house in Tigard, Oregon.

Where does she come up with this stuff? She just cracks me up.

Little People

Both my mom and Shawn's mom have carefully held on to the old fisher price little people sets that we played with as kids. So for the past week or so, Carly has had an absolute blast playing with all of these classic toys. It brings back a lot of happy childhood memories for me when I help her get things set up. Even Isaac is enjoying putting the people into cars or walking them through doors. It's a lot of fun to see them play and enjoy these things.

These pictures are of Carly playing before bed the other night with the block house that Aunt Sharon helped her build.

Carly was also found up playing with these at almost midnight last week. Shawn and I had already gone to bed so apparently she thought the coast was clear to sneak back downstairs and play some more. Too bad Grandma heard the familar sound of little people being ruffled around. Busted cutie--by Grandma too!


So how many of you out there played with fisher price little people growing up? And for those who may have children who play with the new version, do you agree that the new ones just aren't as good as the old school ones?

Over the River and Through the Woods

To Grandma's house!

Here's the Willamette River as we crossed over it in Portland. It wasn't exactly the direction I wanted take the shot, but we had to be on this side of the bridge, so this is what we got.

Driving in the Columbia River Gorge on our way to Hood River.

Yeah for Grandparents!
We spent this last weekend with Shawn's parents in Hood River, Oregon. We had a great time and got to see a lot of family in just a few short days.

When we arrived, Shawn's grandparents were also there (along with Doug and Mona and my brother), so we enjoyed a mini reunion of sorts. It was good to see them even if it was just for a bit.

A Dip in the Tub

On Saturday morning, we were able to witness the baptism of our good friend and former flower girl, Catherine. We are so excited for her and happy that she has chosen to follow Christ.
It's always good to see a baptism and to hug a wet but new sister in Christ.

At the Game

Friday night, we went with my parents to the Portland Trailblazer's game. My dad's company has season tickets and he was able to get tickets for a game while we were in town. It was a great game and we really enjoyed it. The first three quarters weren't very exciting, but the fourth one was great. And eventually the blazers held onto their lead and won the game.
One of the best parts of the game was that our tickets included an all you can eat dinner that started before the game and lasted until the end of the third quarter. (So the losing start to the game was nice because we could keep going back to get refills and not worry about missing anything.) Anyway, Lexus of Portland sponsors the buffet and it was really great. There was a full dinner buffet plus concession type snacks, drinks, and after halftime desserts were brought out. We've been to some blazer games in the past, but not with this new food deal. I must say that it made the evening feel like quite the event. It was a lot of fun and hopefully we can go to another game in the future.

Brandon Roy the rising star player for the Blazers. I believe he ended the night with 30 points.

Eric H. this picture's for you--showing the injured Greg Oden and Rudy Fernandez
Too bad we didn't get to see them play.

The Blazer's played the New Jersey Nets which meant we got to see Vince Carter. He was a very impressive player to watch. Obviously all-star quality.

In the end there was a sweet reward--a win! And as a bonus since the Blazer's scored over 100 points, we all got coupons for Taco Bell chalupas as we exited. Yea!

A Visit to the Firehall

After our zoo trip, we stopped by my Uncle Wayne's fire station. He works for the Portland Fire Department and his station is very close to the zoo. I had never been there before and the kids of course had not either. He showed us around, but Carly was too shy to touch much or even try on his hat. Carly liked looking at everything, but just didn't want to touch too much. But we still had a great time. I was impressed that they both stood by Uncle Wayne for this picture. Isaac especially was being very clingy. Fun times and good memories.

We Love the Zoo

My mom and I took the kids to the Portland Zoo yesterday. I'm not sure who likes the zoo better, me or the kids, but it's probably me. It was a bit chilly by Portland standards--low 40's--but with coats and hats we were just fine. Actually I think the animals were more active with the cooler temperature. Here's Carly and Isaac watching an animal they're pretty familiar with, a black bear.

A mountain lion--I think I would rather meet a black bear out in the wilderness than one of these.

The polar bears were also very active. Swimming, walking, jumping. They have two polar bears in Portland and the male is noticeably bigger than the female. He was just enormous.

This was actually a mandrill, but I first thought it was a baboon and told Carly so. She was pretty excited to the animal to her favorite saying, "See you soon you big baboon!"

The elephants--also very active

In the indoor elephant pen was the new baby, Sammy, and his mother. This little guy is only 6 months old. Portland is known for it's elephants. They have a pretty large herd for a zoo. The big one in the picture above is the male leader, Tusko. The granddaddy of the herd, Packy, was in the back field by himself. He was actually the first asian elephant to be bred in captivity back in 1962 at the Oregon Zoo.

The penguins being much more photo genic than I remember in the past. They had just been fed, maybe that's why.

One of the last animals we saw was this giraffe. He was in his indoor pen that has a viewing window, and for some reason he was licking the window like crazy. Carly thought it was pretty funny. She said he was a crazy giraffe.

Finished Products

Here's a sampling of what I completed at the scrapbooking convention. I think I did pretty good for really only going to one full day and just parts of the other two days. So total, I worked on 21 layouts (pages). Two of them are completely done with pictures even, 13 are done and ready for pictures to be added, and 6 in a partially finished state. Some of my classes moved along so quickly that I had to leave a few things partially done so I could keep up.

Finished with pictures from a summer day at the glacier in 2007Ready for pictures

I also worked on 4 cards in a card making class. The one above was my favorite. And during the weekend I also took classes where I worked on refinishing/recovering a notebook, and an entire 6"x6" acrylic album (it has see through pages).
The weekend kept me very busy, but I really enjoyed it.

We Came, We Scrapped, We Conquered

Well, all good things must come to a end, right?
And my version of a hunting trip--my scrapbooking convention--has ended as well. Today was my big day: 4 classes and plenty of time to stroll the booths. Catherine, my friend and former flower girl, and I had a great time. We took one class together this morning and both really enjoyed it. Then we had a few other classes on our own and enjoyed those too. I'll try to post some pictures of our projects and pages later. For now, just know that we had a great time.

Also, I want to publicly thank my mom, dad, sister, and brother-in-law for all taking turns watching my two kiddos while I played. I'm very grateful for all their hard work. Everytime I heard a baby or small child out in the corridors of the convention, I was so thankful that I didn't have to add them to the mix of the day. I really enjoyed some free time, especially today. Thanks, everyone!

We Made It

Yesterday, Carly, Isaac, and I made it safe and sound into Portland, Oregon. Hopefully it's not too much of a surprise to any of you, but it maybe. I didn't do the best job of announcing our upcoming trip. But I think I did my personal best at preparing for this trip. I actually had everything packed the night before and I wasn't up until a crazy hour of the night. Then, my friend, Amanda, in Juneau deserves a big thanks for watching my kids for a few hours yesterday morning while I cleaned the house and finished up last minute things. Janet met me at my house, and we drove off to pick up the kids and drive to the airport.

Everything went just as smooth on our flights too. Of course, things weren't perfect, but I don't think I could have asked Isaac to have behaved any better. He really did very well for being 16 months old and having his moments restricted on a little plane. He was particulary restricted on the Seattle to Portland flight because it was pretty turbulent. So he really had to stay in my lap. Fortunately that's not a long flight. Carly was a VERY good traveler. She worked on different activities like coloring or reading for long periods of time instead of constantly switching. And I think I received the most compliments ever from other passengers on how well my kids did. That's always nice to know that your kids are making a good name for all children flyers out there.

Anyway, good flights and we even saw some friends in the Seattle airport on our way to get a frosty at the food court. (Celeste and Troy from Sitka.)
So now were on to enjoying all that the lower 48 has to offer, like in the pictures below.

Yum, yum! A sonic treat to start the vacation off right. And the best part about this trip was that sonic now has a $1 menu! See there are good things about this current economic recession.

Tomorrow night I will begin the true reason for my early arrival to Oregon. (earlier than Shawn) The Creating Keepsakes Scrapbooking Convention in Portland begins tomorrow night! Yeah! It's my version of a hunting trip. Unfortunately, my scrapping posse from Juneau couldn't join me. Hopefully, Lela and Dana, we can all do this in the future. But for now, I'm doing Thursday night solo. But my mom is joining me for a few classes on Friday and then my not-so-little-anymore flower girl, Catherine is joining my on Saturday. It should be very fun.