Tuesday, August 28, 2012

a day in the life of a 3 year old...

I will miss the words of a 3 year old...

Instead of just joking (the old phrase) it goes something like this:
"Mom I'm going to stay up 21,000 hours."
"You'll be pretty tired."
"Oh, I forgot to say knock-knock!"

On the way home from school Scott shares some classroom rules.
Then I ask,
"Sydney, what rules do you have in your class?"
"Oh, I don't have any rules.  The teachers have rules but I don't.  Just the teachers."

I can just hear the teacher, "My rules are..."  Such a literal child.


I've mentioned before that I often post stuff here so I'll remember and today was one of those days.
Sydney's teacher stops me in the hall just to mention that they are letting her go barefoot for the rest of the day because I put 2 different size shoes on her this morning.  The smaller shoe is totally cutting into her foot.  She's probably on the verge of a size 9 and one shoe was a 7 and the other an 8.  
The shoes did match.  I had just bought the same pair awhile back.  
Same shoe, different size.  Thank goodness these teachers know me :o)

Monday, August 27, 2012

First Day of School

Monday, August 27, 2012
The first day of kindergarten for Scott.
The first day of preschool/pre-K for Sydney.
The first day back to work after 3 years for me.





Scott still claims he LOVES school.  Excellent
Sydney's teachers said she did great...in charge, on top of things, in control. Watch out.
So even after Sydney's complete and total melt down in my classroom after school and on the way home she says it was a great day!  Fantastic, I say, because you are going back tomorrow :o)


Sunday, August 26, 2012

The Surprise

My mom turns a very special age this year.
We wanted to do something special.  We knew we would be going to the beach during our visit and that our mom has been saying for years and years and years that she wants to get everyone (her brother + wife, their kids, and her mom plus Jon and I and fam) together for a little trip so that's what we did.

I still can't believe it worked out so well.  We needed a beach house to fit us all and thank you mom, she found it even though she had no clue!  She booked a house to sleep almost all of us for the exact weekend we were planning to pull this off.  It was just meant to be I guess.

Everyone is in place and in the background you can see Mike, her brother, leading his dog, Scupper, down to make his grand entrance.

Oh but there's more...Toby, great-grandma's dog!

Then there was some camera malfunction and I missed all the great surprise greetings but managed to catch the tail end.

Columbia Gorge and waterfall hike

If you are wondering...a gorge is a deep, narrow passage with steep rocky sides.  In other words it's a canyon.  This was a road trip day.  Driving, stop and look, drive, look, drive, hike, drive and drive and look.  This is coming from queen of motion sickness :o)
The scenery was amazing and well worth it!



The bottom of the waterfall.  1.5 mile trail to the top.


A brief stop on the way up...

He made it to the top! When asked how he felt he showed me 5.  Not sure what that means but way to go little buddy.  All the way up and down by yourself--absolutely no railings...YIKES!


Off to Mount Hood and Timberline Lodge

We partook in a snack and some beverages at the lodge. 
 Scott had a root beer, specially made for the lodge.

Not the same as A&W I guess :o)


Rose Garden

Not sure who this man is but hat's off to him!



One by the red (and pink)...

and one by the yellow.


Olympic National Park - day 3

On our final day of Olympic National Park we headed over to Mount Olympus.
The lavender (and bees) were in bloom all over the mountain side.




Canada is just over that side of the mountain.

Don't let the snow fool you.  It was quite warm--mid 80's at least.

Our car is somewhere down there at the bottom.



Sunday, August 19, 2012

Olympic National Park - day 2

After a restful night sleep and waking up whenever we wanted instead of to the tune of a child, we headed off to the park's rain forest.  My pictures really didn't do this section justice.  There was moss everywhere and apparently it survives by gathering moisture from the air plus the massive amounts of rainfall this portion of Olympic National Park receives each year.  The trees were huge, unique and quite old.



Then it was off for more beach.  To get to the beach it was quite a hike but well worth it.


Then we headed to the lake where we took in a waterfall,

had some dinner,

and topped off the day with a frosty adult beverage.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Olympic National Park-Day1

Warning: The following several posts will not contain photos of children.  I know this is not the norm for this blog but sometimes even mommy and daddy need a break :o) 

And we're off...First stop was Cannon Beach along the Oregon coast to see Haystack Rock.

Then a lot more driving until we stopped at a lodge for an adult beverage and took a short hike to the world's largest spruce tree.

I believe this is the view of the beach where we stopped for dinner.

Ruby Beach





Sunday, August 5, 2012

Pittock Mansion

We stopped in at Pittock Mansion--beautiful gardens and views.

If you squint your eyes and get very close to the computer screen you might catch a glimpse of Mt. Hood in the background of the next few pictures.



Just another afternoon...

A beach with personality.  I could get used to wearing pants to the beach :o)



Not a tooth bearing grin among them...

Not everyone is invested in this family photo.  Scott is eyeing my hand on his stick while Sydney is off in Sydney land.