Taking the Train

We took Amtrak to Seattle this weekend to celebrate our 6th anniversary. The kids had a blast on the train. The trip takes about 3 1/2 hours, so just a little longer than driving, but it's great that you can get up and walk around and spend a ton of money on sodas and cookies. Becca slept a lot of the ride up there. William and Anna and Daddy spent a lot of time sitting in the seating portion of the dining car.

Political Comment

Now, the title of our blog is the Flamin' Libs, right, so how can we get by without any political-themed entries? I thought I'd take care of that today.

Kip and I have been more interested and involved in this election that we have in past elections. I've come to the decision that politicians in general like to spout cliches and half-truths hoping to win voters by the emotions created by their speeches rather than by concrete facts and achievable goals. We found an article online today that I thought was excellent in translating party claims and generally-accepted perceptions into statistical truths. Do Republicans really cut back on taxes? Are they better for business? Do Democrats really "tax and spend"? This article gives you the numbers to answer those questions and others like them. It's a set of 7 articles, actually, but each is fairly short and easy to read. And don't worry, it's not biased one way or the other. It's just the numbers!

You-Pick Farm

On August 28th I took the kids to a you-pick farm. I found one online that had animals to look at and fresh peaches to pick. Unfortunately, the animals were really stinky and the peaches weren't that great. But the kids got the chance to see a real-live, dirty, smelly farm in action. There were BIG pigs, baby pigs and baby chicks, chickens, roosters, a pregnant goat, and 3 horses. And there was lots of manure, spiders, dust, and dirt. My friends Rachel and Amanda were good enough to come along. I don't know that they'll trust me to pick activities anymore. The climb up the hillside to the peach trees with strollers, babies, and kids nearly did us all in and the general dirtiness of everything made us want to pull out the hoses and spray everything down.


The crew coming out of the pig barn.


William and Ian got to show off the rubbery hand-chair.

Big Truck Day

August 16th was Big Truck day at the Conestoga Rec Center. There were tons of big trucks of all types. The kids got to climb inside if they wanted and pull horns and everything! (It was a noisy event.)

This swat team vehicle was a hit because they could climb inside and the policemen gave the kids stickers.

Oaks Park

The library awarded their summer readers with discount coupons to Oaks park, a local little amusement park. I took the kids with Butch and Jo and their kids on the 13th of August. We had a lot of fun, although it was HOT HOT HOT and I was ready to go home after the first ride. Anna was, too, because it scared her. But she decided she wanted to stay after we found the carousel and she and William realized it was the best ride in the whole world.




Becca enjoyed sharing the stroller with Rachel, until Rachel took back the toy she had borrowed.

William loved the frog ride, and all the mildly scary rides that were too much for little Anna. Maybe next year for her...

Cake Party

We had friends over for cake on Saturday the 9th. Anna wanted a pony cake, so I made a sand castle cake from Family Fun magazine, colored it pink and stuck miniature My Little Ponies on it. It was a hit.

Birthday

Anna turned 3 on August 7th. It was a fun day. She got lots of princess things and My Little Pony things and a few Barbie things. She's a very y . It was a good day for her.

The Newest Member of our Family

We gained a new family member this weekend. I finally found us a piano fit for our home, or at least our long legs. In all honesty, it's a little beat up and it's definitely seen better days. A lot of them. We've determined that it was born in the year 1900. We'll get it fixed up and hopefully have many happy years together.

Ward Campout 2008

Our ward campout was the 25th of July. We borrowed Rachel and Josh's tent, as usual, and drove out to Kilchis River Park by Tillamook, OR. We got there pretty late and started setting up camp. Rebecca watched from her blanket.


In the morning we enjoyed the ward breakfast and then played at the river. It was very cold - in the 50s - and raining lightly. The kids didn't mind; throwing rocks in the water was just as fun in the rain as in the sun. Some of the heartier ward teens braved the water in spite of the chill. They were very impressive.



Rebecca had a hard night. She fell asleep in my arms but every time I laid her down she snapped awake and cried at me. Eventually I put her in my air bed to sleep with me and Anna, who refused a sleeping bag of her own in favor of kicking me all night. In the warmer air of morning, Becca slept just fine snuggled up under all my blankets.


While Becca napped, we burned the rest of our wood and broke camp. When she woke we headed home.

Pink Dresses

Our little s sure look good in pink!

4th Of July

We had a lovely 4th of July. The weather was perfect--overcast and cool. We went to the parade in Hillsboro with our friends Rachel and Josh and their kids Emma and Gabe. The kids loved waving their flags and did an excellent job collecting candy.


For fireworks we went to a neighborhood close by our house. They did a great display. Unfortunately, the booms were too much for Anna - we were pretty close to the front. She cried herself to sleep on Kip's lap soon after it started. Becca missed it all, too, falling asleep under the nursing blanket taking care of her baby business. The rest of us enjoyed the show.

Kansas, Pt 2

On Friday we all went to Rock River Rapids. It was great. What a fun water park and so very close to Robin's house! The kids were a little nervous at first, but really had a blast once they got used to the water.

Becca showed off her new swimsuit by napping in it in the shade.


William and Anna liked splashing in the water.


The squirty fish was a lot of fun.

Kansas Trip

We had a lovely time on our trip to Kansas last week. It started out rough with us missing our 7am flight. We got to the ticket counter 15 minutes after they cut off check-in (45 minutes before take-off). Yeah, we'd cut it too close. But it's never been a problem before.

We rode the MAX into Portland to read stories at the downtown Library after finally checking in our bags at 10am.

When we finally made it to Kansas, things got a lot better. Robin took us to the Exploration Place. It totally rocked. The kids had a blast and the play areas were really neat. And it was almost completely empty for some reason. Do Kansans not realize what a treasure they have there?

Anna joined Zach and Quinn to play flight simulator. I think Zach made this face because Quinn was crashing the plane.


Zach got really good at pulling bubbles over people.


Becca liked eating the horse's mane. I can tell she's going to be a great horsewoman someday.


William and Lili enjoyed the boat in the little kid area.

Last day of Preschool

William had his last day of Preschool on June 9th. He was sad to leave his class behind. He had a lot of fun at Young Learner's Preschool. I'm glad we put him in school there.

Here he is saying goodbye to Aneesha, Teachers Gloria and Jenny, and Anna. Oh wait, Anna wasn't in his class. She just wanted to be in the picture.

Sisters

Anna adores her little sister to the point of smothering her. They're really cute together. And we just can't get enough PINK in our house.

Lego Birthday Party

We had a lego-themed birthday party for William on Saturday the 31st. All the kids got to build a race-car when they arrived, then they raced them down a ramp Kip built out of a box. When the racing wound down, we all went outside for a lego-hunt. We had hidden the big lego quattros in the yard for the kids to find. Then, we ate lego cake and played until the parents came back for their kids. William had a blast. Thanks to everyone who came!


Birthday Boy


A lego cake.


Cooper's crazy burned hand.


Istook kids, Anna, and Cameron eating cake.


Emma, Adam, Aneesha, and Ian on the swing.

William is 5!

William celebrated his 5th birthday on May 29th. He got his first little legos and instructions to keep them from his lego-eating baby sister. He loved building his Star Wars ship and then tearing it apart to build random ships of his own design. He also loved his cool gifts from his grandparents. It was a great birthday.

Tummy Time

Becca's been getting tummy time every day. We think she's pretty cute about it.

William's preschool went to the farm for a field trip on April 28th. He had a lot of fun.


He enjoyed seeing where cows used to be milked.


He was an excellent duck racer.


He and Cameron were great at tire-climbing.


And he got to help plant some yummy pumpkins seeds with the old-fashioned planter.

Becca's Blessing

Baby Rebecca got blessed in church on the 30th of March. Her Grandma was able to come spend some time with us for the event. It was nice to have her here, even just for the weekend. We thought we'd show her a good time, Oregon-style, so that she would see it was better in Oregon than in those HOT states her other kids live in. To accomplish this, we made sure it rained or hailed the entire time she visited and that the roof of the theater where we saw "Go Dog Go" performed on Saturday afternoon leaked the aforementioned rain onto our heads as we enjoyed the performance.

Becca did some singing for Grandma.

She sure loves her daddy.

Our little diva.

Becca was very upset when she learned Grandma had to go back home.