Just Goin' Through Last Week's Pictures

I cannot help myself when it comes to nudey pictures of my kids. Those buns are just too cute! Last week I left Marcus in the tub- Actually, let me back up even more...Last week I left Alyssa in charge of the kids while Brian and I went out to mow the lawn. Marcus sat on the dining room table so he could watch us through the window. When I came inside, I was greeted by the sight of Marcus with no diaper, peeing very proudly, all over the table. So I stuck him in the tub while I cleaned up the mess downstairs, but when I came back to the bathroom, he and all the water were missing. Apparently, he had drained the tub and climbed up on Alyssa's dresser to watch Brian as he finished up with the mowing. I love how there's bubbles clinging to his legs and the dresser where he climbed up.


I've been wanting to go running in the mornings before Brian leaves for work, but didn't feel it was very safe to go alone. I thought about getting a buddy, but then I saw a pair of roller skates at my sisters house, and decided to give those a try. I figure I could skate faster than someone trying to run me down. Who knows? I've only been once, because I've been going to bed too late, and it's hard to get up at five in the morning, but when I did, it was so worth it. The river was beautiful! (Jamie, you're probably wondering what the count is, so I'll tell ya - zero falls.)


I spent a wonderful Friday at a Stake activity for Achievement Days, and came home to a couple of surprises in the fridge. The flowers are gorgeous, and yes, the chocolate cake is gone by now.


Ethan wanted his picture taken in the fridge.


Alyssa got her very first bike last week. We checked on Craigslist and bought it from a very nice older couple in Pasco. The man was even helping Alyssa adjust the seat to her heigth and teaching her to get onto the seat. We were lucky to find a perfectly "matching" helmet at Walmart, and then we spent the afternoon practicing. She'll be zipping around the street on her own pretty soon!


We also went to the park last week when Marcus took too late of a nap to go to bed at a decent hour. When he woke up at sevenish and we knew he wasn't going to go to sleep soon after that, Brian told everyone to get in the car for an adventure, and he took us for Slurpees before going to the park.


Alyssa made a "best friend," named Anna, and they had a wonderful time together. It amazes me how fast kids can make friends, and they act like they've known each other for ever. I need to be more like that.


Ethan climbed the rock all by himself, with no help at all.


All of the older boys, who were struggling, were amazed at how fast and effortless he made it to the top.


When he got to the top he was jumping around so much it was even worrying Brian, so I climbed up to supervise.


Brian climbed the rock all by himself, too, and all the teenage boys who were struggling were quite amazed. (He went up this front side, which is nearly impossible, unless you have the long arms of a very tall, super strong man.)

Happy Summer!

I picked up Marcus this morning and thought,
"I love the way kids smell during the summer time,"
because I do.

Settled

Life is getting so good. It's wonderful having Brian living with us again. He's so cool, and the kids and I are getting a huge kick out of having him around. He started working last week, going into the office to help out with paperwork, organizing, and phone calls, and this week he's going to learn their computer programs and billing programs, and whatever else is involved with that. He checks almost every day to see if his Board scores are posted, because that's when the application for his license will go through, and soon after that he'll be able to start seeing patients. I think he's enjoying going in to work every day, and I'm sure enjoying the fact that it's creating a normal schedule for us to settle down to.

I went to an orientation meeting for the parent-teacher co op (Mid-Columbia Partnership) that we're participating in next year. They gave us the information we needed to enroll in classes and answered any question we had. I'm so excited to be homeschooling next year. The people at MCP are amazing. The women involved are such great examples to me of the good mothers can do both at home and in the community. There was one lady who teaches a couple of science classes each week, and helps out with other things, but the rest of the time she's busy homeschooling her two boys. All of these women seem very professional and accomplished to me - accomplished meaning both that they're educated and that they're doing so much good. Yet they don't let that professionalism get in the way of being a good mother. And with everything they do, they don't try to pretend that they have it all together. They're very real. I'm hoping that the opportunities we find at MCP will be great for all of us. I believe they will be.

Brian and his parents have been working very hard on getting our yard put together. (I've been helping a little bit, but mostly I've been on crowd control.) Right now we're living in one of the Jacks' rentals, and it has a huge, funny-shaped yard that they divided up to plant a huge garden, lovingly referred to around here as, "the farm." There are 80 (80!) tomato plants, sun flowers, raspberries, squash, um...and more stuff which I can't remember right now. They have some things at their house, waiting to be planted, and I'm not sure what's gone in over here, yet. I do know there are tomatoes, though, lots and lots of tomatoes. They've also been hard at work getting a fence put up so the kids don't run off when we play in the back yard, and soon they'll put in grass. That will be superb!

On Saturday I went with my mom and little sister to shop for wedding things. (Yep, Kimmy's getting married.) We first went to her fiance's back yard, where the reception will be held, then to all of the craft stores for ideas and supplies. It was fun to get out with them without the kids. I actually left the kids with Brian. (See? I mentioned we were enjoying having him around.) And he, being the brave soul that he is, decided to take all three of them to the mall. Wow. I was impressed. He even got Alyssa a manicure and pedicure, and she's been showing everyone the flowers on her fingernails ever since.

And today something wonderful happened: I took a nap. Brian and I took turns, and even though he normally sleeps straight through to the next morning when he tries to take a nap, I managed to get him up after a few hours so I could take my turn. It was wonderful.

Graduation Vacation (The Real Deal)

The day of graduation was one of the most gorgeous days we've ever seen in Forest Grove. One of the speakers said it perfectly that it was a "no weather day." Not too hot, not too cold, not windy, not rainy - just perfect. It was a wonderful day.

We left early so we could have plenty of time to get good seats for Welcome to the Profession. While we were waiting for that to begin, Marcus and I walked the aisles of the auditorium to keep him busy. Marcus spent about a half hour flirting with everyone's grandmas, and he got multiple requests to "take him home with me" and one to "eat him up." No kidding. What I didn't know was that Ethan spent that half hour squirming in Diane's arms, kicking the people in front of them, so a little before the program started, Diane offered to occupy the boys somewhere else if we took lots of pictures for her. It was so nice to be able to watch everything without kids to take care of.


Here's Brian receiving his hood from Dr. Smythe. She's also the one who spoke to us. She gave us an idea of how much work the graduates did over the last four years by dividing up the time they've spent in optometry school. According to her calculations, Brian spent 1,710 hours in lecture classes; 690 hours in labs; took 72 midterms, 35 written finals, and 5 lab finals; passed at least 35 mini-proficiencies and "that one big gigantic one," the 21-Point; and spent 1,960 hours in clinic. She also figured out that he paid about $30 an hour to be able to do all of that. Brian even got specially mentioned when she told the graduates how to receive their hood later that afternoon. She was the one who put the hoods over their heads, and since she proclaimed that she was "vertically challenged," most of them would have to stoop down to be more on her level, but "Casey and the two Brians" would have to kneel down to get their hoods put on.
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The is almost the entirety of the graduates. Matt Watson was in Utah, because his wife was very close to having a baby, and there was another person that Brian said didn't come, because Saturday is their Sabbath. The three on the front right are the valedictorians. They gave a wonderful speech together where they started out by saying that they prepared two speeches, and even as of that morning they couldn't decide which one to give. So they left it up to their class to decide by turning to them, holding up the speeches and asking, "Which is better, 1 or 2?" Yeah, around here, we think that eye doctor jokes are pretty funny.

That afternoon the university held commencement for all of the graduate programs, where they had their hoods put on their shoulders and received their diplomas. The reception they had for lunch was pretty crazy with the kids running around, and I almost opted out by missing commencement to take the kids back to the hotel. I figured that the Welcome to the Profession was more intimate than commencement was going to be, and I was glad to have been able to see that. But Brian talked to a few people and found out that they were going to have a room available for people with kids to watch commcencement on a big screen on the wall. We were planning on using that only if the kids were having a hard time, but when we checked it out before things started we found that it was so much cooler than the huge, hot gym, so we stayed there the entire time.


I'm glad we did, because we were able to see the graduates while they paraded through the hallway to get to the gym.


And I was able to stand in the doorway as Brian was going up to the stage and was able to get some extra pictures. I was also able to give him a quick kiss as he was on the way up to get his hood and diploma.



















Brian's aunt and uncle, Linda and Ron, came down from Seattle for the occasion. (I didn't get a picture of the two of them together.) We had so much fun with them, and we're so glad they could come. Ron is hilarious! When we were waiting for Brian to finish, I was wondering out loud when the exact moment was that Brian became a doctor. Was it when he flipped his tassle from right to left, or was it when he received his diploma? I wanted to know, because I was wondering if the kiss I gave him was the first kiss he received as a doctor. Ron said that he thought it was when he got his diploma, then he joked that he actually gave Brian a big kiss as he was coming off of the stage, so he was the first one to kiss Brian as a doctor. (By the way, Ron, Brian says it's when they flip the tassle - so there.) In the red box is a camping stove. They must have gotten the memo that we want to go camping a lot. We're excited, thank you!

Brian's parents gave him some business cards. Pretty cool, huh?

Anyway, we're all very excited.

Can you tell?

Graduation Vacation (Portand)

We went to OMSI with my sister and her family. The kids had a bunch of fun with their cousins, and Brian's parents came into town and met us there as well. One of the best parts is that we saw the Gennings there, who we had wanted to get together with during our trip but weren't able to get ahold of directly. It was great to see them, too!

Ethan kept moving those steps around so he could see all of the animals. My niece, Megan, is the one loafing in the stroller.

Merian, Alyssa, and Emma were buddies. (Ethan was my buddy.)

Ethan is cutting a paper cup to stick over an air vent to see how high it can fly. Brian and his dad were very good at this.

Marcus loved the preschooler room.

On Sunday we went to the Portland Zoo, and had a marvelous time. It was the warmest it's ever been at the zoo. Normally we have to bring our jackets, even when it's hot in Forest Grove, but it was beautiful and sunny the whole day.

The Ferocious, Yet Happy Alyssa

All of the kids were able to feed the goats:

Brian's dad even got in on the action. The goats were all in the barn when he leaned up against the fence outside to look at the map. After a minute, the map started moving, and then half of it was gone.

I love the sea lions! Ethan had a great view of them -he's right in the middle.

McMenamins Part 2

And here's some random pictures of them any I took of all the paintings in the hallways:

This was almost directly across from our room. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a specific person or not, but I think it's fun, because it's about Pacific University, and it even has a pair of eye glasses painted into the detail above it. (A lot of the paintings have something to do with the picture painted on the wall around it, which is cool.) The man is holding a Boxer, which is Pacific's mascot.


Just some more cool pipes. They're everywhere!


The detail around this picture is beautiful!

Here's another Pacific University one, because of the blind pig and the Boxer. You can read the caption underneath if you blow up the picture by clicking on it.


This is actually a carving, not a drawing or painting. They have a couple of these throughout the building, and they are amazing.


This is of our dear Walker Brothers. It was painted by Lyle Hehn who, "created this bizarre scene of the Walker Brothers Old-Time Orchestra amidst floodwaters in the Masonic Home attic." The Walking Tour packet describes this painting as "off-center inspiration."


This is a mosaic you see going up the ramp to the Compass Room. I can't find the description anywhere in the Walking Tour pamphlet, and I wish i knew what it was all about.

McMenamins

We love McMenamins Grand Lodge in Forest Grove. We first learned of it when Brian's mom and I made a trip up from Utah before Brian graduated from BYU when we were looking for a place to live. We had been traveling all day, so we asked our future landlords (and upstairs neighbors) where the closest place to eat was, and they sent us there, to the Ironwork Grill. We were impressed, and we kept going back. They had free Frisbee golf, free movies for Pacific students, and of course, the soaking pool we never took advantage of. It has Ruby's Spa in the basement, which Brian sent me to for a massage when I was pregnant with Marcus. I loved walking through the hallways, looking at all the crazy pictures and paintings on the wall. The place sure has character, and I love that.

We tried to make reservations for Graduation Weekend last fall, but they were already booked full. So when we decided that the kids and I would accompany Brian for his Capstone classes before graduation, we booked a room for the two days before Graduation Weekend, and I'm so glad we did. Since it's an old, old building, they don't have your normal room with two queen beds or one king. All of the rooms have one bed (of varying sizes) and there are shared bathrooms down the hall. We were originally booked for one of those rooms, but when we checked in, and we learned that the king suite with it's own bathroom was available, we splurged and upgraded to that.

All of the rooms are named after someone or something that had to do with shaping the history and culture of the Portland, Oregon area. Our first room was named after a botanist, and when we went in we were surpsied to find his face painted on the wall, right beside the bed. There were also little anecdotes about his life and accomplishments painted on the wall as well. The room was pretty small, and our plan was to put the kids on an air mattress on the floor, but there wasn't nearly enough room for that, which is the main reason we switched rooms.


The king suite is on the second floor, right across from the Compass Room Theater. It has a bedroom, a sitting room with a fireplace (which is where we put the kids- the sitting room, not the fireplace), and a bathroom in between. It was such a fun room to be in! Our windows looked out over the front lawns, which were beautiful to see. The room is named after two brothers, the Walker Brothers, who were fiddlers during the 1920's.





















Apparently, the portraits on the wall next to the bed is something they do throughout the hotel, because we had the Walker Brothers watching our every move.


There were also descriptions painted on the wall throughout all the rooms. They were even painted in the bathroom. Above the bed there's a quote by "Saturday" Sam Walker that says. "I haven't any use for the Charleston, the Bunny-Hug, the Shimmy, the Texas Tommie, and the Cootie Crawl. I like the old time dances...There is more dignity, decency, and grace to them than the modern dances." There's also one that says, "Sam reckoned he had repaired 60,000 pairs of shoes over the years and probably sent that many to be repaired by getting his dance crowds to really kick up their heels."

Not having anything to do with Sam and Bill Walker, there were fun things painted all about the room, especially using the exposed pipes.

A bride and groom in the sitting room.

A horse.

I'm not sure exactly what this one's supposed to be.

These guys are my favorite.


And here's a close up of one of them.

Graduation Vacation (Forest Grove)

On Wednesday, we headed up to Forest Grove. Brian surprised Alyssa and me by stopping for Cold Stone while the boys were sleeping. He got me a Strawberry Blondie, and it was sooooo good. After checking in at MCMenamins and showering the smoke smell off of us all, we met the Martins out on the front lawn for a picnic. I loved being able to see Jenny again. We used to meet at 6:00 every morning to go running at the track at Pacific, but we usually ended up walking most of the time, since we were talking so much. One time a guy was walking by the track and he said to us, "You're not supposed to be having this much fun so early in the morning." Oh, I miss that.

This is the best picture I got of most of the group. We were so busy talking that I really didn't get very many pictures. Jenny is in light blue, with Steve right beside her in red. Steve's mom is in blue behind Jenny.

Alyssa and Katie had such a great time together!

We went swimming in the soaking pool that night. Even though it's been free for Pacific students the whole time we were there (though not anymore, we hear) we never went before. It was beautiful! It's tucked back behind the building, surrounded by trees, flowers, and a beautiful wrought iron fence. I spent the bulk of our time swimming planning how we're going to put a pool just like it in our dream house someday.

The next day Brian had his Capstone classes, then we went to the family picnic. It was so fun seeing everyone again after being apart all year. I found that with a lot of the women, I didn't feel as if we had really been apart, because we've been reading each other's blogs the whole time. It was fun being together again, though.

While Brian was at his classes, the kids and I went to the laundromat do clean our camping clothes. Alyssa made friends with a graduate sudent who had just moved in, named Katie. They talked to each other the whole time we were there, and Katie let Alyssa make pictures with the pennies from her coin jar.

He's My Boy

Ethan woke up this morning, and was sitting on the couch looking out the window, waiting for Alyssa and Marcus to get up. Out of the blue, he turned to me and said, "Mommy, I want go to Dinneyland." Me too, Ethan. Me too.