Oregon Whirlwind Dec 21-24

Next stop: Grandpa and Grandma J's house!

Our drive to their place was rather uneventful, and we all arrived glad to be "home" after sleeping in a hotel  the past few days.

Wednesday 

"Date Day" for Matt and I. 

We sat down and figured out that the last time we had gone on an official date was when the "Avatar" movie was in theaters. 

Rather pathetic.

G&G J were more than accommodating to watch the boys the whole day. 

Thank you so much!

Matt and I had some much needed one on one time.

We had all those sorts of conversations that just can't be had with three munchkins on our tails.

You know--

the kind where you sit and stare at each other googely eyed, say "I love you"...

And then wonder what to do with all this free time you are suddenly face with.

Again, thank you. We really did have a great day together and we know the boys were so excited to be with you "one on one" as well.

Thursday

Evergreen Air Museum in McMinville.

If you haven't gone...

GO!!!

And don't forget your bathing suit.

They have a rather wicked indoor water park.

The boys, Grandpa, Matt, and Cousin K. ran themselves ragged in the water while

Aunt A. and I caught up on each other's lives. 

Friday

Too pooped to do much else but chill and G&G's house.

The boys have colds, some with a fever. 

Movies, games and gingerbread houses were the entertainment of the day.

Kind of nice after running around in circles the past week!

The ALJ's and K, and Henry came over for dinner. 

So glad we were able to see them again before we had to leave!

Saturday

Back home just in time for Christmas!

Tuesday, 12.21.2011

Last day in Seattle.

We took a quick walk down to the Pike to pick up some Pirosky Piroshky yummies.

And I had to have another one of those mouth watering strawberry and chocolate crepes.

Then it was over the river and through the woods to Grandpa and Grandma J's! 

Oh yeah-

Thanks to the jerk who did a "smash and grab" and took our GPS during our Seattle visit-

If you had looked harder, you would have noticed that it was a 4 year old unit that isn't worth much.

Not to mention, you could have gotten a lot better booty if you had opened the console and glove box.

Just saying'.

We still had a great time in Seattle though.

Monday, 12.20.2011

The only pic for the day, but it's where we spent all of our time.

Just walking around downtown and exploring.

It was truly a day of gastronomic delights:

Piroshky Piroshky.

Dark chocolate encrusted bacon.

Crepes filled with strawberries, Nutella, and whipped cream.

Hard aged gouda cheese.

Aged prosciutto.

Cinnamon and sugar dusted fresh mini donuts.

I am seriously salivating as I type this. 

If there is one thing I do miss with living where we do, it is living near a market like the Pike, with access to an endless array of foods.

Then again, it's probably a good thing. 

I'd be a whole lot fatter.

The boys had a blast again, although they started complaining a bit of sore legs by late afternoon.

We really walked a tremendous amount, and they were very good sports about it all.

Sunday, 12.18.2011

Woodland Park Zoo.

It was kind of a "froggy" and damp day.

Next stop:

The  Museum of Glass 

We let the kids do a workshop where they were able to make glass tiles. 

...Pics of tiles coming soon...

Evidently, we were not supposed to take any pics of exhibits. I didn't find out until after I had taken one of a really cool rocket ship glass sculpture. I'm going to be a good girl and not post it though. You'll have to visit the museum to see the rocket yourself.

Speaking of rockets--we did come across a few at the Boeing Air Museum. 

Along with some other really cool stuff. 

Early small scale models housed in the original Boeing factory--a barn building!

The history and exhibits there are astounding.

Go there. Be amazed.

Saturday, 12.17.2011

And the day began early. 

Breakfast in the hotel, then a walk to--

The Market.

By the way, here's proof that...

Pigs DO Fly!!!

We arrived a bit early (???), around nine, so many of the vendors were still setting up for the day. Naturally, we would have to come back later. 

The boys still got a kick out of all the fish however. They kept asking if we could please get some crab? (!)

 This was the most eye catching fish of the day:

 Yes, it is a real fish. No, it was not skinned.

For whatever reason, the pigeons were the next favorite find for the boys.

Of course, Xander noticed the one with amputated feet right away. How does he notice such minute details everywhere he goes???!

I'm sure this pigeon (on the right) would have a good story to tell if it could talk...

Our next stop of the day was to here. 

Getting ready to go in!

Checking out a dried cacao pod. 

Mmmm. The chocolate holding tanks.

And the kitchen where all the "inclusion" magic happens (the add-ins and specialty flavors):

It takes Theo about a week to make a chocolate bar, starting with plain unroasted cacao beans.

And about 6 pods (containing approximately 50 cacao beans each) to make one 4.5 ounce chocolate bar.

Did I mention how good their chocolate is?

It's crazy good.

Here's the Santa "parade" we encountered most of the day downtown.

And they were quite obnoxiously inebriated Santas. Seriously.

Why do people have to go and ruin Santa? GRRRHHH!

No trip to Seattle would be complete without a stop here-

I spy...Talmage!

Aren't they all handsome?

Could we have asked for better weather? It was almost 60 F!

Next stop...a trip to the Pacific Science Center.

Leaf insects anyone? Very cool indeed.

 Kalvin wins the "Gross Bravery Award" for this:

 Ewwwwww!

How many walking sticks do you see?

By far, of of my favorite parts of the day was here-

The Butterfly Garden.

This is the only pic taken at the exact moment this blue butterfly sat still. 

Once.

 It was fluttering nonstop otherwise.

And then we saw the naked mole rat exhibit. They truly are ugly.

All in all, we probably walked about 6-7 miles around town. 

Had dinner here and dessert here.

 And promptly crashed back at the hotel.

Well, those of us who hadn't already zonked out in the car on the way back anyways.

SURPRISE!!!!!!!

We surprised the boys with a trip to Seattle just before Christmas.

They had absolutely no idea beforehand.

Here's how they found out:

(On second thought this upload is taking forever. I will try again later)

Talmage could not sit still during the flight. 

"Look Mom! I can see all the cars!"

"Cool! Did you see Mom? The wheels went inside!"

"Wow! The mountains with snow!"

"The clouds are so cool! Take a picture!"

"I see lots of trees!"

"The windows in the plane are so tiny. How come?"

"Do we get to fly home too?"

"Do I get a snack on the plane?"

"How come my ears feel funny?"

"That was SO cool!"--on landing

Xander also spent much of his time looking out the window, but mostly in quiet observance.

Kalvin just chilled and played his iTouch video games. 

He's getting so grown up these days.

After arriving in Seattle, we walked down to the water's edge and strolled the piers.

The boys requests for dinner? Chocolate milk. And calamari. 

Ivar's did not disappoint.

More walking after dinner.

And some very tired boys at night's end.

Caught!!!

With food on her face, that is...

Note the tips of her comb appear to have gotten some frostbite. 

Shoot! She doesn't seem bothered by it though.

None of them do, come to think of it...

Ho Hum

Not much doing today. Sorry, no exciting pics.

Just being Mom and a schoolteacher.

I did get the coop spruced up a bit. 

The pine shaving litter is composting a bit and has started putting off some heat, so the girls will be happily warm when the thermometer plunges again.

And we had 22 eggs today.

+ 2 more we found under the coop that got missed (?) yesterday.

The boys ran around outside this morning, dug holes in the field, and generally whooped it up in the 50F weather we had. I love when we have such random warm spells. 

It sure relieves some of the cabin fever!

Kalvin was able to mark off another requirement for Scouting. 

It was his first time using a pocketknife. 

I couldn't watch. I kept envisioning all the ways he could manage to slip and cut himself. Yikes.

Dad was there to supervise and coach though, and 

Kalvin ended up doing a great job on his "bar soap bear".  

He never ceases to amaze me.

We had squash/zucchini casserole tonight for dinner. You know...the one with sour cream, cream soup, cheese, stuffing...

The whole time I was preparing it, Xander kept reminding me that he doesn't like to eat squash.

I kept reminding him that he had never tried this dish before. 

He has about four bites worth in his dish, but has managed to sit at the table the past two hours, refusing to eat those four bites.

It's been a long night.

Sigh.

He is definitely my son. Stubborn as ever.

And Talmage? 

He ate two full servings of the dreadful squash casserole, two pieces of banana bread, a turkey pastry leftover from last night, and of course--dessert.

Naturally, he has also grown out of any pants he wore just two months ago. 

O Tannenbaum

This was BY FAR the easiest tree we have ever put up.

How could it not be?

-We didn't go into the woods, get the tree, then load the 4 wheeler into the truck bed, only to have the ATV slide into and bust the cab's power rear window. Most expensive FREE Christmas tree ever.

-We didn't go into the woods, get the truck stuck, hike another half mile in 5F weather (ultimately resulting in everyone getting bronchitis), only to find a lousy tree that we then had to pull back to the truck, and discover half the branches snapped in the cold during the drive home.

-We didn't set up the ridiculously heavy artificial tree that seems to weigh about 50 lbs heavier every time it is pulled out of the box. Or spend a half hour trying to locate which plug goes into which socket so that the middle section of lights isn't dark while the top and bottom thirds are glowing.

NOPE.

This tree showed up on our front porch all by itself Saturday.

All 10 feet, 8 inches of it.

Okay-So it wasn't quite that simple.

We did have to spend 10 min setting it in a stand.

And putting a strand (Yes-a strand) of lights on it.

The ornaments took another 10 minutes, since the boys wanted to pick who put which ornament up where and when.

It smells heavenly. 

And I don't have to worry about endless hours of stringing countless strands of lights up. 

It's beautiful just how it is.

Here's to our number 1

Our oldest, that is.

Poor kid has to share his birthday every year with the Thanksgiving festivities 

since he was born "that weekend".

It was a happy 10th b-day for him though.

Birthday tradition in our house states that The One gets to choose dinner for that night. 

We were sure he would say "lasagna", or "meatball sandwiches".

Nope. 

Kalvin chose this.  

At least it tasted good...

This is what happens when you are not paying attention to the task at hand.

OOPS.

The turkey was accidentally put on the oven rack breast side down.

Once turned over, it had to be cooked another 1.5 hours.

I won't say which one of us flubbed, but who do you suppose is in the picture...?

It didn't quite have the look we were going for, but looks can be deceiving.

Bar none--the best turkey we have ever tasted. The meat was so intensely...turkey flavored.

And the dark meat was so incredibly dark.

Yeah-my descriptions stink. It is what it is. At least I am posting something.

Caught!

She hasn't seemed to realize that the roost is for roosting.

And the nest boxes are for nesting. As in laying eggs.

 There is always an egg on the floor. 

Right under the roost. 

Then again, maybe she doesn't give a flying leap about the rules.

And just in case you were wondering-Yes. She does have a dirty face.

The girls had just finished a morning snack, and this gal clearly enjoyed the plate du jour.

B-Day #5

The "baby" of our family is five now.

When did our little 6# 6 oz bundle grow up?

 Birth Mom Danielle came for the festivities. T-Man was so excited for her to come!

 Requisite Costco birthday cake.

 Hot Wheels track from G&G "J".
Note the 3-D glasses. Those went with the bug book they sent, not the car set!

And the Hot Wheels track results:

Yup. It's a hit.