Cousins--Atlanta Edition

When the kids and I went to Atlanta, we met the newest addition to the the Smith family, Baby O. I'm sure Grandaddy L will be excited when he can pitch some balls to Baby O. See more photos of the Smith family gathering in the web albums.

Seattle Birthday Weekend

Many birthdays to celebrate in the month of June. CG's 7th bday is today. He requested a big seafood boil--lobster, clams, shrimp, etc. This afternoon we left H is Seattle to spend a few days with cousin H, and CG came home with us.

After eating a little pizza for dinner, the boys took off to the park to play some baseball. So far, so good.

Nudibranches and Tide Pools

On Wednesday morning the tides were the lowest of the year, so we woke up very early and headed to the coast so that J could find some nudibranches, something similar to a sea slug. J was determined to find these creatures in the tide pools created by the extra low tides. First we went to Hug Point. It was really cool and named because of the old road bed that hugged the point, allowing Model T traffic at low tide. I think all the photos on this page are from there. There were plenty of anenomes and sea stars, however, no nudibranches. So we stopped at Haystack Rock, like many other people, and there we found a bunch of volunteer guides who helped J find the nudibranches. If you're curious, I have some photos in the web album. Click on the link at the right.

Princess Dress and Track Meet

John's co-worker, Anisha, AKA Princess Jasmine, brought H a beautiful dress last week. H loves her dress and wants to wear it all the time.

When the boys went on a Father's Day fishing excursion, H wanted to go somehwere too, while wearing her dress of course. The only place I could think of to go dressed like that was church. So, I put on a dress too, and off we went.

One of the fun summer neighborhood happenings is the All-Comers Track Meet. J and H both participated in a few events. You can see more comprehensive coverage of the meet by clicking on the web album link.

Princess Birthday

"Baby" H turned 3 on Sat, and as she likes to tell us, "I not liddle; I big." We gave her a Snow White outfit and matching doll. She was pretty excited. As you can see in the final picture, she received many princess accessories, and her cake, was shaped like a crown. (Oh, and if any of you pirate treasure hunters happen to be looking, that's pirate booty being recycled as King John's treasure. I buried it in the yard in little tins and the kids ran around digging it up.) I think the princess had a good birthday, but we hope the whole royalty thing doesn't go to her head.

Take J Out to the Ball Game

He catches, throws and the runner is out at first. J was on fire at the last tball game. He had three big hits from coach pitched balls and made some really great plays, like this one. We don't know what's gotten into him, but I guess that means he'll be ready for coach pitch in time for next season.

Daddy's New Toy

A beautiful Friday in May means it's time to hit the Columbia and try out the new boat. The boat ramp is across the street from the airport and near the highway into Washington, not exactly peaceful, but the sky was blue and the mountain was out. No complaints from our family.

Pterodactyl

J's kindergarten class performed an opera. They made it up using their own story line and tunes they knew, like the Star Wars theme. J talked about it for weeks. It was about a mad scientist who built a time machine and got stuck in the time of the dinosaurs. J was a pterodactyl who circled around the scientist singing, "Shoulda gone to math class, shoulda gone to math class."

Of course it required a costume. I went crazy with a glue gun and some orange material, but as you can see, some moms were way into it.

Spring Break Oregon Style

Even though I vow every year that I won't let it happen another year, yet again, we have managed to spend our entire week of break under the cloud cover of Oregon. We escaped Portland for a quick over-night at an even more overcast location--the coast.

J wanted to go see the Giant Pacific Octopus at the Newport Aquarium, so the kids and I picked up Daddy at work and we headed West on Wednesday afternoon. We didn't have any lodging plans, except we knew we wanted to jump on beds.

We had dinner with the Reaumes, who had spent the week in Lincoln City, and stayed at the Palace Hotel nearby. As you can see, the bed jumping there was excellent. After a "make your own waffle" continental breakfast, we headed to Newport. The Reaumes had warned us about the crowds, so we arrived at the aquarium about 20 minutes before it opened. (See the family standing in line.)

Arriving early was awesome. We missed standing in a long line to get in; we had the run of the aquarium for the first 30 minutes; we ate a really yummy lunch in the cafe while there were still lots of open tables. That's really the way to go see the aquarium.

Afterwards we swung by the OSU Hatfield Marine Lab, and we were lucky enough to arrive just as they were getting ready to feed Amigo, their Giant Pacific Octopus. Jackson got a front row seat on the action. It was cool.

Finally, we headed to Yakina Head Lighthouse. It was a really terrible time to tidepool, the tide was too high, but we explored, climbed to the top of the Head and then poked around the beach until we found a few anenomes.

At last we headed home in time for baths and bed.

Click on the web album link if you want to see more photos.

How Not To...

And now the family will demonstrate how not to...
hula, wear a power tie, play Blokus, ice an octopus cake.

I Wish for Fish

J's 6th birthday party was a very fishy event.

First, the kids went "fishing." I had planned for everyone to catch Swedish Fish on a clothespin; however, John had other big ideas. They also caught pine cones, ski goggles, the bad pig mask...

Then they made fish prints. Luckily, neighbor Brian, an elementary school teacher, was hanging out with his daughter. He saw me struggling to maintain order around the fish print table, and he went into teacher mode and got everyone lined up and organized. If it hadn't been for the help of neighbors Caryn and Brian, we would STILL be making fish prints. Thank goodness for good neighbors!

After the fish prints came the shark cake and opening lots of presents.

I think everyone had a good time.