Happy Birthday Suzie!

Happy Birthday Regina!

Katie and I couldn't wait to give Regina her presents,

so we did it first thing this morning.

Yes, we went to Jared...

Lively Weekend

Last weekend we enjoyed the company of Courtney, Mel and their 14-month-old toddlers, Jack and Avery. They drove down here from Seattle on Friday afternoon and left early in the afternoon on Sunday. On Saturday, we all visited Fort Clatsop to learn about one of Courtney's favorite subjects - Lewis and Clark.

Below is a 3-minute video of some of the footage I shot during their visit with us.

Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm

This afternoon Regina, Katie and I headed to Woodburn, OR to visit the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm. They are hosting a tulip festival since they are in full bloom right now, so we decided to visit.

Below is a short video followed by a few photos. Enjoy.

Spring Has Sprung

Monday and Tuesday this week in Portland were very warm - in the 80s! Fortunately I had packed Katie's soccer outfit last time we were home, so that's what she wore to school on Monday. That night after dinner, we all went out to a local park down by the Willamette River. Regina and I walked while Katie rode her scooter.

Time for Some Pampering

And I'm not talking about diapers! Thankfully, we don't have to deal with that anymore.

We're spending the weekend at our yet unsold house in the Seattle area. We decided to invite our sitter over to spend the afternoon with Katie while we went to the Spa at Willows Lodge in Woodinville for 90-minute facials. This is only the second facial I've ever had and I don't know why I don't go for it more often. It's so relaxing and your skin looks and feels great afterward.

Baby Suzie Video

This is a 2-minute video clip of me as a toddler. I'm guessing it was the summer of 1965. I was in Great Falls, Virginia with my parents, of course, at my paternal Grandparent's farm. At that point in my life, I was the only grandchild. It's not that exciting, but if you can hold out until the end, it's worth it. The last 25 seconds or so show what happened one time when Grandpa was in charge of watching me. At least that's the story I've been told.

Need a Cell Phone?

Cell phones are the subject of Katie's drawings lately. She cuts them out and folds them in half, like the real ones do.

Katie's cell phone drawings.

Katie has also asked some interesting questions in the last couple of days. She usually brings things up in the car when I'm driving her to or from school.

Yesterday, she wanted to know if there is also a "seeing part" on the back side of our eyeballs. She thought that if there were, she should be able to see what it looks like on the inside of her head! Good idea, I told her, but our eyes have a "seeing part" only on the front.

This morning she wanted to know about how the world began. After I finished explaining my take on it, she wanted to know if the world will ever end. I said yes, but not in our lifetime. It's not something we need to worry about. However, she reminded me that she plans on living forever, so she will be around to see it, but would rather not see that happen. So then I proceeded to talk about how we all die, but many people believe we will be reunited in heaven. So, although our bodies die, we live on in heaven, with all the people we love. She liked this idea. Then she wanted to know how we get to heaven. I said although we don't know for sure, there are some people who have died for a few minutes but were saved by doctors, and they all talk about a tunnel of light that leads us to heaven.

This was one of the few conversations where she actually let me talk, uninterrupted, while she listened. We're still working on teaching her that interrupting is not ok, so usually I don't get to finish what I'm saying. Except for today. She actually wanted to hear my answer! Tough subject, though.

Home Again

Yesterday was our travel day. We caught a 6:30pm flight out of Washington Dulles in Northern Virginia and arrived in Portland at 9pm pacific time. Because of the 3-hour time difference, we were tired. It really did feel like midnight when we landed. But anyway, we're home safely after spending last week with family. We had fun.

Katie's cousin Josh (my brother's 8-year-old) gave her a t-shirt from his school and she specifically asked to wear it today to her school. In this picture she is holding pink silly putty she got from the Easter Bunny and with her other hand she's holding out five fingers to show us she is 5 years old, just in case you've forgotten.

Happy Birthday Betty!

(Birthday flowers from Sue, Bob and Andrew)

She's Number One

Last night and tonight, Paige (Edy's eldest, age 12) had a softball game, so we went to watch. Her number is 1 and she plays left field, or is it right field? Anyway, she was in the outfield between 2nd and 3rd bases.

Paige in the outfield, ready for some action.

Waiting for the pitch.

Focused and ready.

Poptart and Popcorn

Well, I woke up this morning with a headache again, but not quite as severe as yesterday's. It still required an imitrex to relieve the pain, unfortunately. But, it worked.

We just hung out around the house this morning. I packed up and showered, while Katie played with Justin and Josh. We ate lunch, took some photos and by about 2:30pm Katie and I were on the road back to Regina's parents' house in Waynesboro.

Below are some of the pictures I got of Katie, Justin and Josh before we left. Oh, and the bunnies, too. The dark one is Josh's and he named him Poptart. The white one is Justin's and he named him Popcorn. They're really sweet. I shot some video of them which I'll post next week after we get home.

Katie and her cousin Justin

Katie holding Popcorn

Josh holding Poptart

Justin holding Popcorn

Justin giving Katie a ride.

Josh holding Poptart,
Justin in the back
and Katie holding Popcorn

Ugh!

Darn it, today I woke up with a pounding headache. Right behind my forehead. Katie woke me up at 6:41am, which surprised me because so far on this trip she's been sleeping in until 7:30am - 8:30am. I promised her that most likely nobody else was awake yet, so she climbed into bed with me and fortunately, slept for another hour or so. I managed to take some caffeine tablets (no-doz) and Aleve, because they were within reach. But what I really wanted was an imitrex which was all the way downstairs on the first level and I was on the third level. I just couldn't bring myself to make the trip so I decided to lie down in bed for a while longer to see if the caffeine and aleve would do the trick.

When Katie woke up, I realized my head was still in a lot of pain, but I had to get up with her anyway. We went downstairs and I quickly took an imitrex and grabbed an ice pack out of the freezer. Katie, Justin and Josh watched a movie for a little while and I managed to eat some breakfast while holding the ice pack to my forehead and visiting with Peggy. Within an hour or so, I began to feel better.

The combination of pills I took made me feel pretty out of it, so I ended up sleeping most of the afternoon. I was bummed about that because the sun was shining and it would have been the perfect day to be outside with the kids.

Fortunately, when I woke up, I felt pretty good. We then went out to dinner with our twin Aunts, Sharon and Karen (our Dad's sisters) who live in the area.

After returning home, we enjoyed some homemade vanilla ice cream Peggy had made earlier in the day. We topped it with strawberries, whipped cream and blue sprinkles. That was quite a treat!

The kids were exhausted and went to bed at a pretty decent time, allowing me to watch LOST, which was an awesome episode, by the way, and I can't wait to rewatch it as soon as I get an opportunity.

And now, everyone else is in bed, but because I slept all afternoon, I'm not quite tired yet. Even so, I should go lie in bed. Maybe I'll surprise myself and actually fall asleep.

View of tonight's sunset from Kenny and Peggy's house.

More Cousins...

Today after lunch, Katie and I drove to my brother's house to visit them for a couple of days. He and his wife have two boys, Justin and Josh. Katie's excited to be here visiting her cousins and getting to know her aunt and uncle.

The first thing we did upon arrival was to open a whole bunch of wonderful presents they had for Katie. One of the presents was a t-shirt with a black velvet image on it which she got to color in with markers. She put it on immediately after completing it and it took a lot of convincing to get her to take it off for bed time. She loves it.

Katie's cousin Josh helped her color the t-shirt they gave her.

And here she is, modeling the finished product.

Later, at bedtime, Josh offered to read Katie a bedtime story. From his extensive library of books, he chose The Little Engine That Could.

Somebody's Watching Over You

That's what Jim the plumber said after inspecting Regina's parents' broken water heater, "Somebody's watching over you, that's for sure."

Regina and I had noticed that when showering, we would run out of hot water before finishing. We didn't remember that happening last time we visited, so we figured we should investigate. The first thing we thought of was to check the temperature on the water heater. Maybe it was set too low. Well, this water heater didn't have a convenient, well-marked dial on the outside, but rather it had two panels secured with screws. We suspected the temperature control was behind one of those panels, but we weren't sure. We also couldn't find the manual. So, I looked it up online and learned that this particular model is old enough that the manufacturer didn't have its manual online anymore. Regina suggested looking at the manual for one of the other similar models. Why didn't I think of that? Good idea. I learned that the temp control was indeed behind the secured panels. I removed both panels and found a bunch of wires, screws and jumpers, protected by a plastic shield and on top of that was a layer of insulation. I couldn't figure out how to increase the temperature, but I did notice that there was a lot of corrosion. That prompted me to call the manufacturer's tech support. He suggested calling a plumber to replace both heating elements.

Jim the plumber arrived at about 2pm and took a look. He said he could certainly replace the heating elements, but his recommendation was to replace the whole thing. He proceeded to show us how the wires were falling apart and there was evidence of fire inside the unit that had burned the plastic shield and the insulation. He said we were lucky it didn't burn the house down and that if we hadn't called when we did, that's exactly what would have happened. Needless to say, Regina's Mom took his advice and replaced the whole thing and upgraded to a higher capacity heater. So now, we're back in business. Hot showers for all!

Sunshine and Yard Work

On our first full day here, Katie played with her cousins continuously, after having spent last night over at their house. Tomorrow, "the cousins", as Katie calls them, have to go to school even though it's their spring break. They are making up for snow days earlier in the year. So, because it's a school night for them, Katie couldn't spend the night at their house. Tonight when they left after dinner here at Regina's parents' house, Katie cried and cried because she was so sad she wasn't with them. I got lots of cuddle time, which I don't often get anymore, but hated to see her so sad.

Regina, her sister Edy, and Edy's husband decided it was the perfect day to do a little landscaping in their parents' backyard. So, while the kids ran around outside in the sunshine, they dug up old, unwanted plants, tilled the dirt and planted a couple of dogwood trees and a bunch of plants and bushes. They did all this work in the area of the backyard where there used to be a water feature. Regina's Mom had it removed a while back, but never did put anything in its place.

The next and last step is to add mulch, which will happen another day this week. Of course it'll look better in a year or two when the plants have had time to flourish. But, here are a couple of pictures of their hard work today:

Regina transplanted some petunias in the planters on the deck outside the master bedroom and she also hung some flowers as well.

We ended the day by grilling hotdogs and hamburgers for dinner. Katie was exhausted and went to bed easily. Yay!

Heading Back East

Our 4:45am wake up call was brutal, but necessary to catch our 7:45am flight from Portland to Washington Dulles. Almost immediately after takeoff we got a nice view of Mt. Hood, so I snapped a few shots of it.

We arrived in Northern VA without incident, although our landing was rather tipsy due to high winds. I've been a frequent flyer since early childhood and this was the first time I worried that we might not experience a safe landing. Fortunately though, the pilot was able to stabilize the plane before we hit the runway.

Within about an hour after landing, we had claimed our bags and were in a rental car, heading south toward Regina's parents' home. About three hours later, we arrived safely.

Katie is spending the night with her cousins, so Regina and I are enjoying a bit of peace and quiet as we wind down from a long day of travel.

Supervise Your Children, or Else!

I'm sitting here watching a recording of yesterday's Oprah, featuring Michael J. Fox, and suddenly I recalled something I read the other day. It made me laugh out loud, so I thought I'd share it.

A couple of days ago when my Mom was here and we drove along the Columbia River Gorge scenic highway, we stopped at the Crown Point Vista House. I needed to stop, primarily to use the bathroom, but while we were there we visited the gift shop (of course) and admired the spectacular view of the gorge. What made me laugh out loud was the sign they posted inside the Vista House which read:

Unsupervised children will be given

espresso and a free puppy.

Grandma's Visit is Over

This morning I dropped Katie off at school and then dropped my Mom off at the airport. She caught an 11am flight home to Kansas after spending 10 days with us. Last week, Katie's school had their Spring Break, so she had plenty of time to pal around with her Grandma.

Next item on our agenda - 8 days in Virginia visiting family.

Road Trip With My Mom

Tolovana Beach State Park, Northern Oregon Coast

My Mom and I left the apartment at about 10:30am and drove a 235-mile loop today. We took highway 30 west to the coast where we turned south on 101 and spent some time at Fort Clatsop learning a little bit about Lewis and Clark and their Native American guide, Sacagawea.

We continued south on the Pacific Coast Highway 101 and ended up in Seaside, Oregon. We walked on the beach, browsed through a couple of the shops and ate dinner at Dooger's Seafood and Grill.

After dinner, we made our way to Tolovana Beach State Park where we photographed the gorgeous sunset over the ocean.

Highway 26 east took us back to Portland and we were home by about 8:30pm. It was a good day, but I'm exhausted and ready for bed! Signing off ~