Recent Happenings

 June and July were busy months.  Ryan completed his ordeal for Order of the Arrow.

 Winfield enjoyed his baseball season.

 Quinn loved licking mashed potatoes off the masher but then refused to eat any off his plate.

 Rhed and dad attended scout camp together.  Rhed completed 6 merit badges and had a great time!

 While Dad and Rhed were gone to scout camp for the week, I took the boys on a hike with some friends.  Winfield found a newt.

 After the hike we stopped by scout camp to say hello to the campers.

 Back in March I bought 6 chicks.  I thought they were all hens until, 2 months later, one of them started to crow.  Once he started "bothering" the hens, the ladies moved to the coop and Roosty lived a life of confinement (roosters aren't allowed in our town) in the 4x4 recliner box in the garage.  Ryan wanted nothing to do with bloodshed and asked that the rooster be gone by the time he returned from camp.  With some coaching from Youtube and a blog, I took care of Roosty on the 4th of July.  This is the before picture.

 And this is the "after" picture.  He made a tasty chicken salad.

 Quinn turned 3.

And Rhed's baseball team won the championship.  The last 3 years his team has always made it to the championship but then they have lost that game. So this year was particularly exciting.

Shrubs, Coops, and more

A few months back my front yard looked like this, beautiful green grass, a nice view of the street.  But things were about to change.

 Grass disappeared and rocks were placed.

 Then came the shrubbery.  45 shrubbery in fact.

 And here is the final result.  I am looking forward to watching all the plants grow and flower.

 Here are the beginnings of the coop.  The chicks are now 12 weeks old and have outgrown their 4x4 box in the garage.

 Here it is framed and with some of the wire stapled to it.

 When the coop was finished enough for the chickens to hang out in it during the day, Rhed would sit by the coop, read, and eat watermelon.  He likes being near the chickens. Funny kid!

 The brothers have come to investigate.

 Here it is, stained and, for the most part, ready to go.

 Ryan and I did a sprint triathlon last Saturday.  It was sponsored by our city.  A babysitter watched the kids while we swam 500 meters, biked 13.1 miles, and ran a 5K.  The weather was beautiful and we had a good time.  Ryan finished in 1 hour 38 minutes.  It took me just over 2 hours.  In fact I was the slowest biker and out of 170 participants, I came in 168th, thank you very much.  If I had been 30 seconds slower I would have come in dead last.

But I finished.  Hooray for me!  See how happy I am?  Happy it is over and that I survived. Ryan and the boys went out the night before and wrote encouraging messages to me in chalk on the asphalt.  They hung a cardboard sign on the outskirts of town along the bike route.  The boys all signed it and wrote they loved me. . . . such thoughtful boys.

Recital

So Sunday I played in a cello recital.  A few months ago I decided I had time and energy to take lessons and practice. I love the way my teacher kept us organized.  She placed 10 sticky notes on the floor, with our names on them, in order of our performance.  We were to place our cello by the sticky note.  It was fun to see 10 cellos all lined up.  Then right before the performance she went from cello to cello and tuned them.  I can only imagine the story behind that.  It was a lot of fun to hear each person's piece and it was nice to perform in a recital.  I haven't done that for 20 years.  The boys were quite happy to partake of the sugared refreshment afterwards.  Here I am.  Enjoy!

New news

 OMSI (a science museum) has a Lego exhibit.  It is pretty neat.  The man who creates all these sculptures used to be a lawyer.  Now he spends about 13 hours a day making his Lego creations.  Donald Trump commissioned him to do a replica of one of his buildings.  It was an amazing exhibit.  Definitely some talent there.

 Afterwards there were thousands of Legos in big tubs.  The boys spent a while creating their masterpieces.  Then we took a picture.

 And then it was Easter!  Quinn was excited to find eggs and then even more excited when he found that there was candy in the eggs.

 My partially finished chicken coop.

 And loot for all!

 The chickens are growing.  They are almost too big to bring in the house due to poop reasons.  Little chick poop is not a big deal.  Bigger chicken poop is . . . hence the tissues under each chick.

I hear cheep!

 At the beginning of March we got 6 chicks.  They were so small and weighed hardly anything.  I was sure by morning they would all be dead.

 But apparently they are hardy little things and now 3 weeks later are very much alive and thriving.  The cats weren't sure what to make of all the cheeping.  They thought it sounded like snack time.  But they have been discouraged.

 They are pretty adorable.  Both the chicks and the kids.

Ryan's new project is to build a coop in the next few weeks.  In the meantime, they enjoy their heat lamp in the large box in the garage.  And they put up with all the petting and adoration of 4 small boys.

Cross Country Skiing

 Rhed and I tried cross country skiing yesterday.  REI sponsors the event.  You can rent skis for cheap and sign up for a lesson time.  Our teacher is on the left.

 I felt more comfortable skiing on a mostly level surface.  I have tried downhill skiing and don't care for the effects of gravity on my uncoordinated body.

 After our lesson we decided to ski up to a waterfall.  It was a beautiful day and we had a good time.

My friend Andrea came with us.  It was fun to learn a new skill and spend some time in the great outdoors.

Snow Day

 The kids didn't have school today so we decided to go to Mt. Hood and play.

 It was a beautiful day.  The sky was clear, the sun was out, and we had no problem staying warm.

 For lunch we had noodles in a cup and hot chocolate.  I got to try out my  new Jet Boil stove and loved it.

 Quinn was "cool" with my sunglasses on.  He enjoyed "taking pictures" with a camera that had no memory card in it.

 Even mom got in on the fun.  Quinn is trying to give me a push.

 Ryan took Quinn down a couple of times.

 And helped push kids a few other times.

Anyone want to take the baby for a walk?