Happy Birthday to Loo!

Great Grandma T. has a really great tradition she started for the great grandchildren when they are old enough. She paints them their very own picture! This is Angela's sweet picture. She loves it! Thanks grandma for sharing your wonderful talent! What a keepsake for many many years to come. We love you!

My LooLee bug is 4! Also known affectionately as "Loo", my baby is growing up way, way, way too fast for my taste. As cliche as it sounds, it seems like just yesterday that she became a part of our family. I was so excited to have another girl - three girls! Angela has brought so much joy and laughter to our family, I am so grateful for my little angel.
Angela's birthday "cake" came about in a round about way. The day before her birthday, we were headed to Toys R Us to get her birthday presents. Just a few minutes into the drive guess who had to go to the bathroom? Yep, Natalie's pea-sized bladder was full to the brim and ready to explode. We had to find a bathroom quick. In emergency mode, we pulled off the freeway and found a Krispy Kreme - hmmm, a potty AND donuts? I could faintly hear angels singing. After taking care of the most important part of our stop, Cedric* and I came up with a brilliant plan. We felt obligated to patronize the establishment that so graciously gave us the use of their plumbing, so we thought, "why not do birthday donuts for Angela's birthday?" Thus, Angela's birthday "cake" was serendipitous and as you can see, she was quite pleased. (Plus the mommy perk - no baking!)

One of Angela's gifts was this adorable, ruffly umbrella. Our girls get these a lot on their birthdays because they play with them and wear them out so much. Sun, rain, indoors, out, umbrellas are a big hit at our house.


This was not one of Angela's presents. This was what daddy found at Toys R Us while he was keeping Angela distracted. (So she wouldn't see what we were picking out for her.) For those of you who don't know - it's a gadget for the Wii game "Rock Band/Guitar Hero" - yeah, apparently it was calling his name. (But which name one might wonder? So mysterious - I'll never give it away, that is, unless I just forget and say it - which maybe I have already done . . .)

So anyways . . . (a tidbit for my fellow super Nacho fans)


Ahaa - now here's one of Angela's real presents from Grandma P. This little horse and carriage are so cute and just what Angela loves. It carries many a Polly Pocket around in style these days. Thanks grandma!! (o:

Natalie had this great gift idea for her sister before we even got to the toy store. A 3D sidewalk chalk set. It was very cool and we had a lovely time making designs in the shade on the driveway. Have I mentioned yet that Angela's birthday fell on the first couple days of the longest streak of days over 90 in Portland's history?

Even in the shade, we were getting pretty hot and decided that an outing to the water fountains would be a fantastic way to celebrate Angela's birthday. It was just great. The girls enjoyed getting wet, I was taking pictures, we were all laughing . . . for about 7 minutes. Then the heat stroke started setting in. Okay, that is over-exaggerating a smidge, but after just a few minutes there was NO way Cedric* and I were going to sit and watch the kids cool off without us. Since we were fully clothed and only had towels sufficient for 3 people, we hopped in the car to get our suits and towels. And we also had to race home because, a certain someone had to go pee 5 minutes after we arrived and there was no bathroom around.

We didn't return to the fountains, due to the heat of the day and the pride of the parents (I'm not running around a fountain in my swimsuit - at least I can hide the lower portion of my body in a pool.) We needed more water. We had a great time swimming in the huge outdoor pool down the street. Usually, we swim inside because we always seem to go on cooler days. Natalie went down one of the slides by herself (she didn't really like it though) and Sarah jumped off the diving board for her first time and loved it. She went several more times with daddy. Angela had fun puttering around in her lifejacket, but getting her face much wetter than she usually does. A great time was had by all.

We topped the night off with a birthday dinner at IHOP, donuts and singing and the remaining presents for Loo. Happy Birthday to Loo!

By the way, one of the things that Angela is most excited about now that she's four is that she will be five next! The day right after her birthday someone asked how old she was. She held up 5 fingers and said "I be 5 next!"

Some Extra Fun Time with Russie and Co.

After our totally fun and awesome trip to the beach, most of my family went home, but Russ and Tina stayed to play a little longer! (o: We were so excited to get some extra time with them and had a lot of fun together! Even going to Wendy's is more fun when cousins and aunt Tina and uncle Russie come along! (o: You can't see in the picture, but just a funny side note: about 100 police officers decided to eat at Wendy's at the same time as us. Let's just say we felt very extra safe while we ate our hamburgers and taco salad! (o: It was great!
Kaleb liked playing with these rockets! We spent a day at OMSI, one of our favorite spots to share with guests to the Portland area.

I think the boys liked it!

Natalie bonding with uncle Russie! (o:

Making music with colored water - we learned you can even play the Star Wars theme!

Which one is Sarah?

This is all we could get to come to the "group" shot! (o: Just the girls! Rachel fits right in as an honorary sister!

We also spent a day at Out of This World! Angela was very sad about this as you can see! We hardly saw the kids - they were off playing and playing the whole time! It gave Russ and Tina and I plenty of time to visit! Bonus!

Russ is very talented at carrying lots of cups!

Later that night we had a fun movie and ordered Thai Food take out with Herb*. Thanks for staying an extra couple of days guys! We love hanging out with you! And the girls love being with their cousins!

Family Beach Trip Part Deux

We did a family photo session together at the park in the neighborhood - above are a couple funny shots. We had a few tense moments at the beginning as I got all set up and realized I have never used the self-timer on my new camera. It took a while to figure out the right combination of buttons to get to that option. We did a funny trick to get the kids to look at the camera - since no one was behind it once I clicked the button. I put one of the kids shoes on top of the camera and they thought this was funny and all fought to have a turn with their shoe on the camera. Who knew?

Sweet little Sammy - I love his big brown eyes.

My siblings doing what they do best - goofing off! (o: That's "our" house in the background. The Cuckoo's Nest. Very appropriate for my family! (o:

Sarah and Collin bonded a lot on this trip! (o: What cute buddies.

As always, my girls LOVE to be with aunt Chrissy.

Everyone loves aunt Chrissy!

We took turns making meals. One night, Russ treated us with his Margharitas after dinner. (Virgin, of course - we are already nutty enough minus alcohol - although, I wonder what it would be like to see Andy a little tipsy - it's probably better we don't go there!)

Our firepit in the backyard was tons of fun, but the smoke was hard on the old eyes. I don't remember if Sarah or Andy came up with this idea, but it worked well and was definitely a good Kodak moment!

We love visiting the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. The kids loved it!

Nat swimming with the jellyfish. (o:

I love sea animals - they are so fascinating. I think the kids thought so too.

Cute. Waiting for some food at a restaraunt in Newport.

Danny is a hoot! I love this kid. I "played" checkers with him. Although his version was much different than any version I've played. I rarely got a turn and most of the pieces were fighting each other. (o: I think Danny won.

A prickley purple sea urchin.

Tidepooling is so much fun, but this time around there were a bazillion flies all over. Sarah is smiling for this picture, but she was miserable and very freaked out with the swarms of flies. I've never had this problem tide-pooling before. Not sure what makes it better/worse.

I'm kind of cringing too - you can see one fly on my leg, but there are seriously hundreds all over you just can't really see them in the pictures. Between that and Angela freaking out that the ocean was going to "get her" this was not the most relaxing tide-pooling adventure!

Rachel, Danny and Kaleb exploring the front yard of Captain's Quarters. Our other beach house.

I have a series of about 20 pictures like this with various expressions. Funny kids! This is all the cousins together.

Chris thought our waiter was cute, so I snapped a picture of them "together". My cousin Megan and I used to do these sorts of pictures a lot. He he.

The girls in front of Mo's with their sparkley treasures grandma bought them.

On the way home, we stopped at the Tillamook Air Museum. We'd never been there before. It was huge! The boys had a lot of fun. (o:

Walking along Cannon Beach "downtown" - I love this town.

And, of course, we HAVE to make time for Camp 18. We went home this way just so we could go to Camp 18. (o: They had a big enough table for all of us to sit together. As you can see, Natalie has creative ways to entertain herself at restaraunts.

A fun shot of grandma and grandpa with all the grandkids! Uncle Russy was doing some pretty entertaining moves behind me to get the kids to laugh. I need to hire him!

The Highlight of Our Summer!

We had such a fun visit with my family this summer!
My brother helping get some smiles from the kiddos for a picture. It worked for the adults too!

One of the highlights of our summer was our wonderful beach trip with my family. It was the first time since 2004 that we were all together in Oregon. There were a lot fewer little people back then! It was soo much fun to be all together again and all on vacation. We had lots of laughs. I love my family.

Even waiting for food at Tillamook Cheese factory is more fun when uncle Andy is around!

Sarah wasn't sure what to think of uncle Andy...

when he offered her some ketchup through a straw.

Cute Rachel (o:

This was my first time getting to see Sammy in person! (how sad is that?) I was so excited. He is adorable, don't you think?

Natalie and grandpa enjoying ice cream together.
What could be better?

Collin wasn't sure about this "ride".

A beautiful sunset on our drive to Bella Beach.

Burying Andy in the sand and making him into a mermaid was very entertaining!

Sarah and Collin often disappeared and played a ton together! They were fast friends and made some great memories together. They loved playing Mancala over and over and over. What cute cousins!

Natalie trying to get into the beach house.

We spent an entire afternoon at the playground behind our beach house. Those are some of my favorite memories from the trip.

Chrissy and I being silly - imagine that!

Hanging out at the house watching a cartoon.

The kids all made beach hats together.