By Sarah

Sarah drew this picture of her and Natalie about 2 years ago - maybe more, her "S" in the signature is still backwards. I LOVE it. If it weren't so huge and on cheap paper, I would have had it framed. It finally bit the dust and was getting kind of shabby hanging in the girls' room. I took a picture of it so I can always remember it.

Daja Vous

One of my most favorite people used to live here, but it didn't look quite like this.

This is the driveway to the house now. Isn't it gorgeous?

The driveway I remember (just a little farther down the street) was hard to find off the main road. It was a dirt road and it wound around for a fair amount of time (maybe 1/8 mile?) leading up to a very old and worn down portable home. The road was skinny, so only one car could go on it at a time. If you were unfortunate enough to get halfway through the driveway and someone else happened to be coming or going, one of you would have to back up or find a spot in the ferns/bushes/trees to scoot over to.

The driveway was completely surrounded by tall trees, ferns, bushes the whole way. When you left the main road and headed into the "forest" as my girls called it - it was like you were going through a portal to another world. I might be weird, no wait, I AM weird. . . but I always LOVED it. There were a few times when a deer ran right in front of or next to our car. Other creatures would scurry by. Sometimes I would look for big foot. (o:

Driving through after dark was creepy.

It had lots of pot holes, especially in the winter.

I got pretty good at maneuvering around the potholes as to avoid the biggest ones.

It was a driveway with character.

But most of all, we had best friends at the end of that driveway and maybe that's what I liked best about it.

This is where my friend Kim used to live. It is just a couple miles down the street from our house. I loved having Kim so close and my heart aches when I remember those times when we were just minutes away from each other. The "good old days". They were the best of times. (O:

I KNOW I remember her old house much more fondly than she does. That is because it was a pretty run down place. Her family lived in a portable home on this property and got a great deal from the owners for rent. It was a sacrifice she and her family made while her husband went to dental school. But you know what? When we went there, I thought it was a nice home because Kim did amazing things with that place. She made the best of it, she made it work. She had so many homey touches that she added that made it feel warm and cozy. Her neat and tidy entryway with a desk for the kids a place to put your shoes and coat and an art easel always ready for someone to paint on. (My girls LOVED this.) Cute pictures of the kids eating hung up in small frames around the kitchen walls, a cool IKEA lamp, a bulletin board for the kids school papers and artwork, fun Disney street signs on the wall in the kids' room, etc. It was a happy place to me - mostly because Kim was there and Allie and Luke and baby Kate and every once in a blue moon Michael too. (o:

So it was really strange to hear the new residents there describe the home as a dump and unlivable when they first came.

About two years ago, the owners started building a huge horse arena and stables on the property. When it was finished it was time for Kim and her family to leave. The owners hired a family to be the caretakers of the land and the animals that would eventually come. After Kim's family left, the caretakers came to look at the house and pronounced it unlivable. I guess it was pretty bad - it was falling apart, but I never noticed. Kim did her magic with that place.

Anyway, they brought in a nice, brand new portable home and also knocked down and replaced the huge, old barn. They stand in the exact same place as the previous home and barn and are approx. the same dimensions. Just shinier and newer.

It just so happens that these new caretakers are in my friend Tina's ward (the owners are LDS thus all the Mormon connections). Rose, I think, is the name of the mom. She is so sweet and welcomes visitors to see the horses and people practicing in the arena. Tina invited us to tag along and check out the fun place. We went to watch this sport where kids do gymnastics on top of a horse running around in circles! I don't remember what the sport is called, but it amazed me! That requires a LOT of balance.

After visiting with one of the horses in the arena, we got to visit some of the other animals. My girls are such huge animal lovers - they were in heaven! We saw cows, more horses, kittens, bunnies, chickens, lamas - am I forgetting anything?

There were new kitties in the stables. I had to pry the kittens away from all the girls.

We brought Monica for this fun adventure! She is an animal lover too and has several of her own horses and kittens at home. So I guess this was just an average day for her! (o:

That is the beautiful, new home and gorgeous manicured lawns and an amazing garden. It was one of the most extreme makeovers I've ever seen in real life. This area used to be full of huge overgrown blackberry bushes, twisted trees and bushes. I wish Kim could have lived in the place like this!

The kids running to see the bunnies.

The end of that old, dirt road driveway I was describing with the beautiful, new structures and all the blackberry bushes cleared out. That must have been a TON of work! Pretty amazing.

Natalie loved playing with this sweet dog. They were so cute together.

The yard was just amazing. The night we went was a beautiful September night and watching the kids run around and play with the animals made me really wish we could have land like this. However, I know I had a very "romantic" picture of the place - not the realistic view of how much work it is to care for - all the land and the animals. Still, a girl can dream. And in that dream, Kim and I would be sitting on a blanket over there on the lawn. We'd be laughing our heads off as the kids run around goofing off and having fun.

I miss you Kim.

OH How I Hate This Chore

Every spring and fall, we do our clothes rotation.

You know, having all children of the same sex is really the most economical way to have kids. That is why we chose to have three girls. (o:

We really get our money's worth with the girls' clothing.

And if you add to that the fact that my awesome aunt had three girls too and passes all her clothes that made it through her girls to us - we are really doing a lot of recycling for the planet.

Some of the clothes Angela wears has been worn by 5 other girls! It's pretty cool when I think of it. I am very sentimental and LOVE that she is wearing the same outfit that Hailey, Lindsay, Carly, Sarah and Natalie have all worn too. (And sometimes my cousin Mary too!) Most of these items that made it this far are dresses and shirts. And now when Angela outgrows things - they move on to her younger cousins. Maybe a future daughter of Sarah will end up with something she wore if we keep it going and in the family long enough! (o: Ha!

Anyway, every time the weather changes I cringe because I know it's time to rotate the kids wardrobe. With fall and school approaching, it was time to pull out those fall/winter clothes and put away the spring/summer clothes.

And it's not even that simple. Here in Oregon the weather fluctuates a lot in the fall and spring. So for example, in September I can't put away all the summer clothes, I always leave a few out because we inevitably have several summer weather days even through October. But there's not room for all the winter clothes AND some summer clothes, so I leave the coldest weather clothes in the attic until the end of October when I know we aren't going to need shorts/capris anymore. Then I do another day of shifting to the complete winter wardrobe. And the same goes for switching to summer.

Then there's the organizing and rotating sizes for the girls - going through what is worn out, needing mending* or needing to be donated or thrown away. AND the fact that I have TWICE as much laundry to do for the week. Ugh. The picture above is what my room looked like for a week. Piles shifting, growing, shrinking, moving so we can sleep, etc.

*funny side note - the things that need mending often go on this shelf in my closet and spend about 2 months or more waiting for me to do something about it. Hmmm. Just like everything else in my life, it seems.

But this is the lovely closet in Natalie and Angela's room after all my hard work. Ahhh. I LOVE an organized closet. And it really is a rare thing - thus the Kodak moment. I had all the church dresses, play dresses, skirts, sweaters, etc. hanging together. If only for a day or three.

Angela Dog For a Day

Angela was so excited to attend her friend Olivia's dog themed birthday party. When she got the dog leash with the invitation, she couldn't WAIT! She had a fantastic time pretending to be a doggy and even came home with a doggie bowl full of Whoppers! Ha! Angie - you are too clever! She insisted on eating lunch in the doggie bowl and still requests it - the girls fight over it! Yes, I feed my kids out of a dog bowl. Who knew it could be so entertaining.

OMSI at it's BEST!

We had one of our best visits to OMSI ever the last week of summer! It was a Monday and it was beautiful weather outside, so I'm guessing that is why it was so slow.

Our last week of summer, I was really selfish with our time and focused on avoiding scheduling anything that would interrupt doing fun stuff with the girls before the summer ended. I love summer and having the girls home and doing things together. We had such a fun day together at OMSI. We played in the ball room for about an hour and because there were so few kids we got to do a tons of stuff with whatever we wanted. It was awesome! We discovered new things about that place I never knew before. Like there is a track that goes up to the 2nd story from the ball room. Up there you will find a place where you can use a vacuum with remote control and a video camera to suck up balls and watch them go up and then down the track right past where you are and up to the super high ceiling, then back down into the ball room again. Highly entertaining - even for 30 somethings! This was a super discovery that we were proud of. If the rest of you have known this for years, don't rain on my parade.

We were happy the Chemistry lab was open and did every single experiment.

The physics room was open as well and we got lots of time in there doing the static electricity ball and other entertaining things.

We stayed for lunch and had a LOVELY time eating in the sunshine next to the Willamette River. And I discovered the yummiest sandwich I've ever eaten in my life! Who knew? The OMSI cafeteria has seriously good food. I think it was a cranberry turkey Panini - but it had so much more, all kinds of yummy vegetables and a creamy cranberry sauce if you ever want to try it. I don't remember what it was called, but man was it good. The girls found boiled eggs and yogurt so they were in heaven too!

We spent a looong time in the gift shop as well. They have such cool stuff in there. I could look at the books there for hours and hours. What a fun day. Another bonus was that we listened to Super Fudge on the way. This was a huge help when we hit a detour and had problems actually getting to OMSI. The extra long drive would have been miserable without the entertainment. Another super fun one we discovered this summer was called Castle Corona. It has been so fun discovering books on CD this summer! Junie B. Jones is another big favorite. I love these because the girls are so much less zombie-ish with the books on tape, they have to use their imaginations and we can all participate together. Whereas a movie is only really fun for the back-seaters.

Playing Around

I rented a lens to use for a particularly busy photography weekend and decided to grab some shots of the girls with it before church. Nothing fancy because we are always in a rush to get to church. I need to do more photo shoots with my favorite subjects! (o:

The Airshow!

We love when it's Airshow time!

We have great seats right in our yard. The girls love it and hate it. Natalie and Angela hated one of the jets - not sure what it was, but I know it broke the sound barrier every time it flew because you could see that really cool thing the air does behind it when it breaks the sound barrier. Listen to me, I sound so technical.
When the jet that was doing this went over our house I have to admit it scared the heck out of me too. It really sounded like it could hit the house. So I don't blame the girls for the crying episodes we had every day for three days. But they seemed to really enjoy the other stuff quite a bit. Until we actually went to the air show. We have such great "seats" that we've never paid to go in before. However, this year some good friends shared tickets with us. We decided to check it out. It was a great show, but once the supersonic jet flew by it was over for Angela. She covered her ears the whole time and when the jets that fly in formation came out for the big show she FREAKED out. We still had fun though and luckily got to see the show two other times with less drama from our house!

One day we had a picnic outside and watched the fun. I really enjoy this time of year - all the neighbors come out to watch and there's a lot of excitement. A lot of traffic too though - that was a huge bummer when I had to go to a photo shoot and was 20 minutes late because they diverted traffic all in one direction from our neighborhood. Grrrrr. That is my only complaint though. It's worth the inconvenience.

This was when Angela still liked the Air Show. (o:

Oaks Park

Every summer, if you participate in the library summer reading - they have a day when you can go to Oaks Park for only $4 per child. It's a pretty good deal and we've never taken advantage of it before. I decided it was high time we do it. I grew up near Lagoon in Utah. This is no where near as big as Lagoon, it's more like a county fair that stays in place all year round. But my kids don't know any different and they wouldn't appreciate all the BIG rides at Lagoon yet anyway.

We had a blast together. The only thing that would have been better is if daddy was there with us!
Sarah and Natalie felt so brave going on the kiddie roller coaster. My kids are not dare devils so by their standards this was great! As you can see in Natalie's expression, she was not a big fan of this "thrill" ride. It made her nervous. Sarah LOVED it - she is the bravest one of the bunch as far as this stuff goes.

Our pretty picnic spot right on the Willamette River in town.

The girls loved the carnival mirrors everywhere.

Angela loved the very very tame rides - like this very boring train ride! (o: But we were in the shade and it was relaxing so I can't complain!

This was Angela's favorite ride. Sarah felt very left out when she couldn't go on this kiddie rides because she was too big. The world is full of injustice for an 8 year old. But I remember the same thing when I went to Lagoon with my friends around her age. I was always tallest and it was devastating to me watching them ride together on the kids rides without me. Height prejudice is a huge problem in America. (o:

Summer is Coming to a Close

Have you seen that office store commercial (maybe Staples?) where the dad is prancing through the aisles picking up school supplies with his kids and the music, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" is playing? I think that commercial is hilarious, but I don't think it's the most wonderful time of the year. I LOVE summer. I don't want my kids to go back to school. In fact, they are more excited about it than I am.

We had a great summer and we had a really long list of things we want to do. I think we put a pretty good dent in that list this summer, although there are some things we never got around to. Good thing we have one more week to go. Here are a few pictures of our summer activities that I will miss when Sarah and Natalie are gone all day. )o: sniff sniff

A fun birthday party for Lauren at the Children's Museum
Playdates with friends.

Our local library had some great shows this summer. This juggler was highly entertaining. He made me laugh until I cried, oh, and the kids had fun too!

We worked on chores together . . .

Corn on the cob. Winco always has the yummiest, freshest corn all summer from local farmers. Ohhh will I miss the corn.

The girls were often in all kinds of dress ups during our days at home. Playing all sorts of creative things. I love that they have played so well together this summer. We've hardly had any playdates because they have so much fun playing together. (But don't assume that we don't experience huge, screaming fights requiring a referee at times.)

Watching movies together.

We worked on keeping up our mental skills - Natalie continued reading lessons and has progressed so much farther in her reading. All the girls have workbooks they do "homework" in each week. Luckily, they are fun workbooks so the girls think it's fun. Not sure how much longer that will last.

This was a big puzzle we did together in a day! We had so much fun doing this and even Angela did really well! My dad would be proud! (o:

The girls had lots of time playing with Littlest Pet Shop and Polly Pockets. I love the carefree time that summer brings.

The girls all participated in the summer reading program and loved picking out their books at the end.

Sarah got to have a couple playdates with good friends from school.