Hood River Dancing

Jenny and the kids are here and out in Hood River, so we decided to drive out and spend the day with them. We had such a great time. We went to lunch, walked around Hood River, went swimming in the pool, crossed the river for dinner and then ended the night at a concert of a band that Jenny and I remember my mom rockin out to when we were kids.....SURREAL. Francie LOVES to dance and has developed this "Flashdance" impersonation that I have yet to capture on camera but promise to try and get video this weekend as it is HILARIOUS. I did manage to get some video of the Henry and Francie dancing. As you will see, the concept if being gentle is a bit lost on Henry....and Francie for that matter. On the way home Henry said "Mom, I really loved our day". Nothing better.

Tomorrow Katie, Brian and the kids come so all eight grandchildren will be together. BRING IT.

Seven Year Itch.......NO WAY

Mark and I went away for the weekend to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary (it will be 15 years together in September....ack - we are getting old!). Joanie babysat the kids. Friday night we went to a concert at Edgefield in the Columbia River Gorge and that is just heaven -- good beer, good views, and it was a great concert. We saw Sugarland and they were actually really good -- there was whole lot of cowboy hats. My favorite part was when they sang "Betterman" by Pearl Jam and Mark and I were SO EXCITED and sang along.....only to notice we were the only ones who knew the words. After the concert we went on to Skamania Lodge. Skamania is this magical lodge in the heart of the Gorge that sits up on a hill and has an INCEDRIDIBLE view of the gorge and has a very lodge-like feel. Saturday we went for an awesome hike up Hamilton Mountain and saw waterfalls and really great views of the Gorge, Hood, Helens and Adams. On Saturday night we spent most of it on the deck watching two weddings, drinking nummy beer and doing the play by play commentary of the wedding and wedding guests. Oh...if only we could have "rewatched" ours, there would have been some funny scenes. All in all it was a great weekend alone in the pacific northwest. When we got back to Portland I swear that Henry was a bit bummed...he wanted more Grandma time. Apparently they came to an agreement that he could wear his PJS all day and could watch cartoons/movies while Francie napped. Party on. Attached are the pictures we could get on our cell phone. I brought our camera....only to realize that it did not have a memory stick in it. Nice. Guess what happens in Skamania stays in Skamania.

I Heart Camp Counselors

Henry went to camp at the Zoo this week. Sunday night he was FULL of anxiety because at the Zoo Camp they have all the kids wear the same t-shirt to keep track of them. The t-shirt had no number on it. DISASTER. We came up with a solution of wearing a number shirt to camp drop off, putting on the camp shirt at drop off, placing DUCK TAPE with a number on it, and then when he got out, he could put the number shirt back on. Yes...this is my life. The camp counselors, Katie - in particular, LOVED it. When they learned that Henry knew all the Blazer's numbers and that often his number was because of a person on the team, they thought the whole thing was even more hysterical. Katie -- his favorite counselor - asked him to wear #5 for the last day for Rudy. This was a dilemma because Henry doesn't wear numbers less than 7...again, yes, this is my life. So this morning he wakes me up and tells me "I have come up with a good option, how about I wear 5/11 on my shirt...that way I can wear 5 for Katie but have 11 for me. When we arrived all the counselors started cheering and giggling for Henry....we couldn't figure out why. Then out comes Katie with duck tape on her shirt and the number 5. No joke. I snorted I laughed so hard and Henry had a smile so big and full of pride that I thought he was going to burst. All he could say was "Oh Katie! You are Rudy!". Gotta love people like Katie who so bless our kids lives. Still smiling....

4th of July in Manzanita

 

We were lucky enough to go to Grandma's beach house in Manzanita for 4th of July. We are hoping to make it an annual tradition. It was surreal going to the parade in town as we were there last year...with a three week old baby and all the cousins. Francie has changed just a bit. Rather than sleeping through the entire parade, she tried to burst through the crowds and be in it...no joke. She is already practicing her "rose parade" wave. Grandma was in town and let Mark and I go out on the town...of Manzanita...for a night. We hit two places...the wine bar and the local tavern....party animals.

Mini Mia Hamm

On Weds Francie and I flew with Gordon back to Portland so that he could make his appointments. Henry and Mark stayed in Corning. It has been interesting to have the house alone with Francie. While she misses Henry a lot, she is constantly looking for him, she enjoyed being able to play with ANYTHING she wanted and loved not having any toys taken away from her. Tonight we were playing in the backyard and I noticed she kicked the ball...across the entire yeard. I nearly died. Guess she picked up some things from the hours of watching Henry.

Aunt Whisher

We are in Corning to help Mark's dad move his stuff out here and to visit Mark's mom before Gordon gets put back on the transplant list. Whisher drove down from Syracuse with Jake - I could barely contain myself the morning before they arrived. It was SO FUN. Jake is incredible and Whisher rocks as a mom. Francie was VERY interested in Jake, which is a good thing becuase Whisher and I have already decided that they are getting married. We went up to Ithaca to the Children's Museum and it was heaven for the kids. Good times.

Francie's Big Birthday: One Years Old!!

.
Miss Francie turned one this weekend. WoW. I am so sentimental about this milestone, it feels like this year went by too fast. She is such an amazing little girl....or "Pistol" as I like to call her as there is no shortage of spunk and fearlessness ...LOVE IT. We spent most of the weekend at the Beach and she was in her glory. Her mission was mainly to tackle all the non-gated stairs in the house and front yard. Fun.....added a few more grey hairs to my head. She ADORES the slide at the park and persuaded Mark to let her go down head first, giggling the whole way down. We drove back this afternoon to have a birthday dinner with Grandma and Papa. Her favorite present seems to be the stroller that Grandma got her that she can push her baby around in....at incredibly fast speeds. I just can't believe she is one already....I can't wait to see what she will do in this next year.

Brilliant Brookie

One of my most favorite people in the world, Brookie, graduated from her MPH program focused on Maternal and Child Health. She presented her thesis on Weds and I went up to Seattle celebrate her achievement and hear her present on her graduate work. She did AWESOME and the presentations were so interesting....so made me want to go back to school...I LOVE that stuff. Dana and I drove to together and it was fun to have a "girls night" in a hotel in Seattle. In the morning I got to go running around the Univ of Washington campus. Those college kids kids are looking really, really young. Yikes. Yay Brookie!!

Last Day of School

Henry had his last day of school. No joke...I got emotional....yikes - thank god I was wearing sunglasses. His school had this wonderful ceremony where they presented each child with a "gift" from us (the parents). They had us each make an "award" on a piece of paper on which we described what we were proud of in their year of school and what we hoped for them in the future. The teacher presented each child with their "gift" and then made a special note of what they appreciated about them as well and their wish for them. It was all good....until Henry realized that there would be clapping for him.....not good. When his name was called he walked up very proud, sporting his Blazer Jersey, and he revelled in the teacher's noting what they loved about him and wished for him. Then...... the clapping started........he quickly looked down and prayed for the moment to be over. So not his mother. The last picture of his teacher Blake (with his teacher Nicole proudly looking on) giving him his "award".

Another Week with The Cousins

We had another great week with the cousins. Henry is really getting into the wrestling thing with the boys......foreshadowing of him following in the footsteps of his father and wrestling on the dirty floor of his frat house with beer all over him. Lord help me.