Fishy Fun

I know we went to the Newport Aquarium two weeks ago and you're probably all expecting cowboy pictures because after all, we are in Idaho for three nights of rodeo action. That will come later, mostly because it's a little difficult to control two small children in a stadium hours past their bedtime. You try it some time and see how many photos you take!

Plus I had time to finally finish editing the Aquarium trip photos this afternoon while Ethan napped and Grace went on a movie "date" with her Uncle Sam. I had a ton of fun taking pictures of the Oddwater exhibits. If you get a chance to visit while the Oddwater exhibit is still there it's really fun!

The jellyfish are always my favorite exhibit. They're just so graceful.

I think this one is a cow fish.

Can't remember this guy's name but he sure cracks me up!

Aren't seahorses cool? I was fascinated by them.

Another seahorse. They seemed to like wrapping their tales around the glass sculpture in their tank. All the tanks had gorgeous glass sculptures, really pretty!

We're here!

It took a lot of patience and just a little bit of screaming, but we made it to Idaho in 9.5 hours. Can't even begin to think about the return trip next week!

Playground in our very own Backyard!

Our friends Seth and Julie offerred us their hand-me-down child swing set (they received it from another family in our neighborhood) and a little over a week ago David and my father in law hauled it around the block to our backyard. We surprised the kids with it the next morning and they immediately ran out in their pajamas to try it out. Needless to say, it's been a hit!

The swing set has two regular swings and one double swing (what are those called?). Ethan can't figure out how to sit on the regular swing but loves to climb up on the double swing and push the other swings around. Grace wants nothing to do with learning how to swing by herself and asks me to push her endlessly. I do have a stopping point and then we all crash in the grass in the little shade we can find (if it happens to be late afternoon, our usual outside time). Occasionally I'll pull out the sidewalk chalk or the kids will pick me wild daisies growing in the weeds behind our yard. Mostly we just enjoy the fresh air and cool grass.

I just noticed that Grace has her shoes on the wrong foot. You'd think that she'd get her shoes on the right foot 50% of the time but it seems like she puts them on the wrong foot much more often. Why is that? And Ethan is barefoot because the kid has developed a severe case of "can't stand shoes or socks" itis. I hope he's cured by the time winter arrives!

They Say It's My Birthday

Today is my birthday and so far it's been a very good day. I have an iphone on order (!) and I got the Twilight books from David and the kids which I'm super excited about. I've also got enough money scraped together to buy a used flash for my camera which I'm also excited about, though not completely birthday related! I'm stalking several on Ebay right now, hoping to catch one in my price range. I brought the kids to Salem this morning to ride the carousal and hit up Kmart for their big toy clearance. I scored a Fisher Price Little People Construction Set for Ethan for $5 which I'll put away until his birthday. We met up with my brother at Muchas Gracias and had a nice birthday lunch before I headed home. We went through West Salem on the way home to use our free car wash coupon we got in the mail last week because our car desperately needed it. Now we're home, Ethan is napping, and Grace and I are relaxing. I'm not sure what our plans tonight will be but if all else fails there are still two pieces of cherry pie which will work just fine.

Birthdays have a different feel to them after you become a parent. At least they do for me. I know that when my kids have a birthday I definitely think about the day they were born, being in labor, and that fabulous moment when I finally held them for the first time. It's amazing how fast time goes by to realize that the tiny baby is now the child blowing out birthday candles! So now I think about my Mom and what my birthday means to her. Thanks for all the hard work giving birth to me Mom, now that I've done it twice myself I know how hard you worked to get me here!

Cherries!

I happen to love cherry pie (yes I know I love almost all pie but cherry is definitely in my top 5!) and one of my goals this summer was to find and freeze enough pie cherries for some pies this fall/winter. Mostly to share with my father in law since David doesn't even like them. Crazy I know. Over the weekend I noticed an ad on Craigslist advertising U-Pick pie cherries for $2 per plastic grocery bag. Sounded like a deal to me so I emailed the lady and arranged a time to go and pick. In 45 minutes the kids and I managed to pick ten pounds of cherries and Ethan managed to take off his socks and shoes. We all got super sticky and dirty but the picking was pretty easy and Ethan turned out to be a pretty good cherry picker. Grace was much more interested in picking dandelions, but at least she kept her shoes on.

After we got home and had lunch and Ethan went down for his nap I spent all afternoon pitting 10lbs of cherries. Turns out 10lbs of cherries is a LOT of cherries to pit! I baked two pies and have enough cherries in the freezer for a couple more. (Note to my father in law: I'll be bringing some cherry pie for the rodeo!) I gave one pie away to our neighbors and the kids and I are working on the other one. We're halfway through it and I anticipate that it will nothing but crumbs by Friday. Turns out my kids inherited my pie loving gene!

I shared my recipe for Almost Perfect Pastry on the Food Love blog (check it out, I've scored some super good recipes from this group of ladies!). Here's my cherry pie recipe (a la Allrecipes.com):

Cherry Pie

2lbs of sour cherries, pitted
1 1/8 cup sugar
3 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp butter
1/4 tsp almond extract

In a sauce pan combine cherries, sugar, and cornstarch and let sit for 10 minutes. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Lower heat and simmer for five minutes or until juices thicken and become translucent. Remove from heat and stir in almond extract and butter. Mix thoroughly and put in a pie shell. Cover with crust and cut slits. Bake at 375 degrees for 45-55 minutes.

Fourth of July Festivities

I feel so behind in blogging. I have tons to talk about and pictures to share but no time to edit photos or write!

David's parents were here visiting us this Fourth of July weekend which was a lot of fun. We went to the beach on Friday and spent the afternoon at the Aquarium in Newport. Lots of pictures but they're not edited yet. Sorry.

Saturday morning my Mom and our friends James & Jessi met us at our house and we drove to Monmouth for the Independence Day Parade. My Father in Law brought two big stand umbrellas and we packed a cooler with cold drinks and lunch so the hot parade was really quite pleasant this year. Having shade and cold drinks does wonders! David walked with the kids in the Kids Parade and then they circled back to join us for the rest of the parade. Grace had a great time gathering candy but by the end of the parade she was exhausted and would only bother to pick up candy that fell within her reach laying down. It was heavenly to come back home to air conditioned comfort and we played a few games before it was time to barbecue.

We hauled our barbecue goodies over to the neighbor's yard for a backyard cookout and we ate like kings! David grilled up hot dogs and hamburgers while our neighbor grilled up two kinds of chicken skewers. Delicious! The food was tasty and plentiful, an excellent combination. We had a few more neighbors and friends join us for dinner and fireworks and the following Outdoor Movie (National Treasure). By the end of the movie the crowd had dwindled to a small handful and by the time we helped put away the equipment it was almost 1am. Late night for sure! No wonder Sunday was mostly spent napping and resting on the couch.

The kids riding in the Kids Parade in our beautifully decorated red wagon

Grace watching the parade

David and Nate firing up the grills

What a spread!

Watching the beginning of our firework show

A little later into the firework show. And no, that's not a firework we set off. It was pretty close though!

This is the sort of firework display we put on. The ladder makes the fountain fireworks much cooler!

Check out more Patriotic Photos by clicking on this button:

Quick trip to Seaside

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately but it's been a busy week. I've been furiously working on editing wedding photos from the wedding I did last Saturday. I shot the formals/ceremony in RAW and I'm glad I did but the processing took twice as long! In the meantime we visited my brother during his week's vacation at a condo in Seaside, made a trip into Salem to pick up my brother's mail and renew our Costco membership, cleaned the entire house (it was DIRTY!), did a zillion loads of laundry, planned our 4th of July barbecue with the neighbors, went grocery shopping, baked two batches of Strawberry Lemonade bars, made strawberry muffins, took some headshots of my friend Kathlynn, and even squeezed in a quick afternoon romp at a friend's house where the kids ran through the sprinkler. Yes it's been a busy four days.

So now that you know why I haven't had time to blog you'll also understand why I'm sharing these five photos with you. Because they're the ones I had time to edit. Someday I'll get to the ones where we were swinging but if I wait for that you won't hear from me until next month!

We were only at the beach for about 24 hours but we visited the beach twice, swam in the pool once, and walked down to the candy store where Grace stood enthralled before all the varieties of pink colored candies. It was a horn of plenty and I let her pick out a handful of pink salt water candies (bubble gum and cotton candy), a pink sucker, a small package of Smarties for Ethan (hard to find toddler appropriate candy!), and a package of Zotz for me. Love those fizzy candies!

Ethan didn't freak out about the sand this trip which was a blessing. You'll notice he's not wearing a sweatshirt in these pictures and that is not because it was warm because it wasn't. The zipper broke on his sweatshirt when I put it on him and he wouldn't keep it on unzipped. He mostly enjoyed squealing at the seagulls and flinging rocks and sand. Grace didn't need her bucket and shovel at all. She just needs a patch of sand to roll in. That girl loves sand!


What an incredibly sandy face! Can you tell she was swimming in the sand?!

He looks cleaner but that's just because he has to warm up to touching the sand.

Grace could run and jump in the sand all day long.

Ethan venturing off the blanket!