2009 Family Photos

During the two days we had everyone home in August we had our yearly family photo taken.

Of course there was some grumbling - "Didn't we just do this?"

My amazingly talented friend Meg (who is my partner on Homebased Portland) took them for me. She is also the one that took the beautiful photos of Tessa earlier this summer.

We went to downtown Beaverton and literally wandered up and down the street looking for fun places to pose. (Even in front of a dumpster!)

My favorite are the ones on the train tracks. Meg is a master of light.

They are not your "typical" family photos and Jim had to adjust to that a bit. They are much more "artsy" then he is use to but I love them!!

There were too many great shots to share them all so here are a few of our favorites....






























After Meg took the photos of Jim and I she turned around and this is exactly how the kids looked - I love this photo!

So many fun ones - don't know how I will ever choose!!!

Family Night Fun - Vaux Swifts

For the last several years we have been making a visit to watch the Swifts over at Chapman School each September. There are 20-40,000 Swifts that roost in the chimney of a local elementary school during the month of September.

For more of the story read my post over at Homebased Portland

We decided it was a perfect Family Night activity this week. We invited our friends the Ellsworths to go with us since they had never seen it before.

The Ellsworth boys had fun sliding down the hill on cardboard with the rest of the kids there while the grownups watched the bird show!

We ran into our friends the Watts who were there with their bird watching friends. They are serious bird watchers and had all the right equipment. Binoculars and telescopes which they shared with us.

Tessa and Kelsi enjoyed visiting and doing their homework together.

Our friend Merrill - I loved this picture I snapped of him!

And then Tessa got a hold of the camera and snapped away!

It was a fun evening, beautiful weather and visiting with friends - oh and there were the cool birds too!!

Weekend at the Beach

On Thursday we noticed that no one had the beach house rented this weekend and since we had nothing on the calendar we decided to head on down. It was suppose to be in the 90's in Portland and the 80's at the beach.

Tessa did a great job of driving all the way to the beach! We got there in time to enjoy a beautiful sunset on the beach.


It was a perfect evening on the beach - no wind!

Even though the weather didn't turn out as the weather man said - it was in the 60's, overcast and even a little drizzly at times we had a great time relaxing.

We played a new card game we had gotten - Legretto, watched Casablanca (Tessa had never seen it), Tessa did some homework, Jim watched the BYU game in the local tavern and Leigh Anne and Tessa went into the quilt shop in Wheeler and picked up some fabric for some Christmas gift projects!

We did enjoy some more time on the beach too. The tide was incredibly high - all the way up to the rocks right before the beach ends! The waves were huge and crashing!

There was a ton of foam on the beach - probably from the huge crashing waves. Tessa told us that one of her siblings had told her that the foam was whale pee. Our bets are on Clark! What do you think??

Sunday morning we went to church at the Neahkahnie Branch in Rockaway and since it was cool and rainy we packed up and headed home.

We are always sad to leave the beach....

First Days of School

The first days/week of school has come and gone.

As usual, that first day of school choice is a little stressful around here (at least for Tessa). Not only does she pick out her first day of school outfit but her entire first weeks worth of outfits. Fortunately, that first week is only four days long.

As always we got out the First day of School Banner!

Good thing it only has one more year until it can be retired - it is looking a little worse for wear. It has hung outside our home for the last 16 years on the first day of school!

Here's the outfit she decided on!

Here she looks like a typical high schooler - texting!
She talked Hannah into getting up early to drive her to school since her mean mother wouldn't and she didn't want to take the bus. Off to Hannah's.

Just in case you are interested - here are the other First Week of School Outfits!

Second Day:

Third Day

And the Fourth Day!

Angel's Rest

This Wednesday, to celebrate the kids being back in school and the beautiful weather we are enjoying a group of women from church went hiking in the Gorge.

The plan is to go hiking every Wednesday as long as the weather stays good - I am definitely a fair weather hiker. I don't think I will be able to join them every Wednesday but I'm going to try to go a couple of times a month.

This time we headed out to Angel's Rest which is in the Gorge - a few miles before Multnomah Falls.

It was a moderately difficult hike and we went up 1,500 feet in 2 miles. It was definitely uphill the whole way but a beautiful hike with lots of great views!

There were a few rocky parts but overall a great hike!

We climbed up this rock formation to eat lunch (here we are coming down.)
The view at the top was amazing!
A fun day with friends enjoying the beautiful area we live in!