Birthday at the Pumpkin Patch

I have gotten way behind on the blog lately.  I kept meaning to catch up but its a bit overwhelming.  I'm trying not to give up on it so I am just starting with now.

Tyler turned 12 last month!  We decided to celebrate her birthday at the Pumpkin Patch.  It turned out to be a great idea.  The weather had been fabulous all September and into October, so we had a nice dry day and the weather was still pretty warm.  We packed up 10 girls and drove out to Sauvie Island one evening and went through the corn maze.   They got a little lost, got pretty giggly, ran around and had a good time.

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Jr. Rose Festival Parade

Last week was the Rose Festival here in Portland. We have never really taken part in the festivities during Rose Festival week.  It is usually raining and we usually have too many things going on.

This year, Tyler got a chance to walk in the Jr. Rose Festival Parade with her PE teacher and a group of PE students on unicycles, stilts, pogo sticks etc...  I didn't really want to go because it meant driving her myself downtown on a parade day, but I gave into my guilt and went with her.  

It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun.  The parade route was about a mile long and she chose to walk on stilts (although she has been practicing on the unicycle and could probably have done it.)  She had to hop off a few times to catch up since stilts are a little slow going next to a unicycle. We got some good exercise and had fun hanging out with good friends on a beautiful day.

Despite the one hour ride home in post parade traffic, I might consider doing it again one year... Maybe.

Lincoln City

Memorial Day weekend we usually head out to the coast for at least a day.  This year I decided we needed an entire weekend and some new scenery.  So we booked a room right on the beach for two nights in Lincoln City.  The weather was not perfect, but it was not raining and I'll take what I can get. 

As soon as we got checked into our hotel, we went down and took a walk on the beach.  We walked down to explore the tide pools and climb around on the rocks.

Lincoln City is well know for it's glass blowers and beautiful glass floats.  They are hidden on the beach every year from October through May for some lucky beachcombers to find.  We started out looking along the rocks in hopes to find one, but did not have the patience for it.

We just had fun exploring the tide pools and combing the beach for treasures.
Why are you wearing sneakers on the beach, Luke?!

After a swim in the pool and some dinner, we just chilled out in our room before bed.
The next day, we thought it might be fun to try a glass blowing class. There are lots of glass studios in town and a place where you can learn to make your own glass float.  If we could not find one on the beach, we would just make our own. The class was full so we found another glass place where you could make your own fused glass art.

It was fun to watch the kids come up with their own creations.  They turned out so pretty! Next they will be fired and the glass will fuse together and we can go back and pick them up the next day.

Next we drove down the coast a few miles to Devil's Punchbowl.  Devil's Punchbowl is a rock formation that looks like a punch bowl when viewed from above.  We opted to walk down the trail to the beach and explore it from below.  The tide was out so we were able to go right inside the cave.

There are lots of tide pools to explore here too.

Hannah hitches a ride back up the trail.

We stopped for pizza on our way back and hit the candy store for some salt water taffy and a few antique stores. When we got back to our hotel, we went back out on the beach to fly a kite.

And collect some rocks.

And throw some rocks.

But it was a bit chilly and it was not long before we gave it up in exchange for a swim in the pool.

The next morning the sun was shining and it looked like it might be a really nice day.  Tyler and I took a quick walk on the beach.

But it was time to pack it up and head for home.
Happy Memorial Day! and Happy Birthday to Me.

Eagle Scout

We finally had Luke's Eagle Court of Honor last month, at long last.  He finished his project almost two years ago and has been officially an Eagle Scout for over a year.  All that has been left to do is wait for his lame parents to plan a court of honor.  It was nice to finally get to recognize all his hard work over the last several years.  He really has worked hard and has been happy doing it.  We are really proud of him! We are also really glad it is over because mentally he really is done with it all and busy with other things now.

The most fun part of the court of honor for me was looking back through Luke's years of scouting and seeing how much he has grown.
Here is Luke at his first scout camp at age 11.  He was lucky that his dad was the scout master.

The following year at age 12.

Climbing at 13.

His Eagle Project. Age 14

High Adventure. Age 15

And Today. Luke at 16. My how he has grown!  And hopefully will grown some more...

Congratulations Luke!

Hannah's Day Out

Ever since it opened just recently, I have been wanting to visit the new Portland Temple Visitors' Center.  Recently we had a free day and I thought it would be fun to all go down together.  Most of my family had other plans.  The boys took off to do boy things.  Tyler got a better offer from a friend to go see The Hunger Games.  In the end it was just me and Hannah.  I don't very often get one on one time with my kids. I should do it more often.  We had a nice afternoon together.

Although it is small, the new Visitors' Center has quite a few interactive displays.  Hannah enjoyed the Book of Mormon display.  It contains about 30 Books of Mormon in different languages.  When you open one up, it starts reading aloud in that language. We also enjoyed the interactive display on the history of the Portland Temple and playing Temple Geography.

Since we were here, we had to walk around the grounds, one of my favorite places in Portland.  It reminds me what a beautiful city we live in.

We also made a little trip to the bookstore.  Hannah has been anxious to spend her money on her own personal Hymn book. Go Figure. And finally we went out to lunch. Hannah's choice - 5 Guys.  

Those other people should all be jealous that they missed out on our fun day.

Wrestling in the News

Lately I find myself frequenting a few of the local online papers for news in High School sports.  Luke's wrestling team will occasionally be featured and I always look to see if he is mentioned.  Last week he was interviewed and quoted in this article in The Beaverton Valley Times.

Then again this week this article on Oregon Live came out with Luke's picture on the front.

It's a cool picture, although he lost this match 8-4.

Wrestling season is about half over now.  I am enjoying it more this year.  I am a little more relaxed this year so maybe I am just getting used to it.  It helps that he is eating pretty well this year and that puts him in a better mood all around. Also, he is having a good season so far and of course it is always more fun to win.

Here are some more pictures of the season so far courtesy of a dad on the team who always shares his pictures with us.