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.

Graduation Vacation (Beachside)

We had the absolute best time last week. We did so many fun things; the kids were never bored. It was so wonderful to have our family together and having so much fun. Nearly a hundred times a day I caught myself thinking, "This is the best vacation ever!" Really, everything went so smoothly and perfectly. I loved it!

Here's what our campsite looked like the first morning. We got in around 8:00 on Monday evening, set up camp before it got dark and started raining, and went to bed. It was surprisingly warm, but I still made the kids put on socks under their pajamas, and Brian made fun of me for that. The kids slept great. We put them on an air mattress in the main room, and Brian and I slept in the front entry area. (I got the tent for Brian as a Graduation/Father's Day present, because we want to do a ton of camping this summer and we've outgrown our two man dome tent. This new tent is huge!)

The kids enjoyed their hot cocoa.

Even though it was cold and rainy, the beach was so fun.

My boys

A sand angel. This is only the beginning of Alyssa getting dirty. She had a fabulous time!

Brian dug a hole with our little red plastic shovel. It's a two-kid hole, and it actually went a lot deeper than it looks. Ethan and Marcus just got wedged in the top. Maybe it's not quite a two-kid hole.

I don't know why he lost his pants...Maybe because they were heavy from being wet?

Alyssa loved flying kites.

Brian found these rocks on the beach. "I found this one, and then I found the yellow one next. I put them in my hand, and not too much later, I found their baby." (It might be hard to tell from the picture, but the little one is a perfect blending of the two big ones.) Brian's favorite thing to do on the beach is look for shells and rocks. He can comb the sand for hours and be completely happy.

He is so dang cute. Once again, this picture doesn't clearly show the depth of The Hole. We took this after it had been filled in a bit after we used it to store our kites.

This is the face of a Cheetos and Oreo cookie lunch.

Isn't this beautiful? There was a sand bar about twenty feet out. Brian went wading over to it, and after a little bit we heard, "Whoo! This goes a lot deeper than I thought it would."

This is the entrance to the fort we built to keep out of the rain. Alyssa started the whole project, and about fifteen minutes into it, it stopped raining, and we had beautiful blue skies for the rest of the trip. The girl by Alyssa is Emma, whose family had the site across from ours. They had so much fun together. Her dad sent us some better pictures of them together, but they're on Brian's laptop.

And here's the front side, facing the ocean. Brian made sure we had windows to be able to watch the waves.

They found stick guns, and couldn't help but shoot each other. Guys. The gun Ethan has is made out of drift wood, and it really looked so much like a gun - perfectly proportioned. I tried to find it when we were leaving, but a couple other boys had played with it after Ethan, and it was nowhere to be seen.

Brian and Marcus built a sand castle together. Marcus kept giggling every time Brian turned over and lifted the bucket.

Here's Alyssa dancing around the sand castle.

And Ethan playing in the waves.

Marcus falling asleep.

And this is what out campsite looked liked after we officially "moved in."

Short Night

I've been planning and packing for our Great Graduation Vacation for a while now, but when I started officially packing yesterday I found that I had lost all of my lists, the kids scattered everything I had grouped together, and while I was folding and packing clothes upstairs, Marcus decided to dump a box of Kix on the living room rug...which he then danced on....a lot.

So it's been crazy, but isn't packing always crazy? Last night Marcus decided to wake up about a half hour after he went to bed, and he didn't go to sleep until about 2:30 or so. I gave up just after twelve, and Brian stayed up with him, watching episodes of "The Simpsons" on Hulu until he finally fell asleep. Then I woke up at 5:30 and just couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided to start the morning. The car is packed and just about ready to go, and everyone is still sleeping. Wait - I just heard Brian start the shower. That's good. Won't he be surprised to get out and find that I've packed all of his underwear...

Here's the plan:

Today and tomorrow we'll be camping at Beachside, which means exactly like it sounds. Our tent site is right on the beach. We're excited. Ethan's been ready to go camping for the last week.

On Wednesday we're heading to Forest Grove for Brian's Capstone Classes, family pictures, and some picnics. We'll be staying at McMenamins Grand Lodge while we're there. Pretty cool.

Then on Friday we're staying in a La Quinta in Portland, because they have a deal going right now that includes OMSI or Zoo tickets with your stay. (It was actually fifteen dollars cheaper to get the ticket deal than to get a regular room - crazy.) Our plan is to go to OMSI with my sister and brother and their families while Brian's at Capstone, then he'll join us when he's done. Brian's parents wil be joining us then, too.

Saturday is the greatly anticipated day of.....(drumroll)....GRADUATION! Whoo!!

Then Sunday, we'll go to the Portland Zoo, and head home.

The house is a mess right now, which is not how I'd like to come home to it, but we'll do a little bit of straightening up before we leave. Just in case anyone is thinking of robbing us while we're gone, let me tell you now that Jiovanni lives on the other side of our duplex, and he is one tough cookie. Sure, he may seem all polite and extremely nice, and he's always quick to say, "Good morning," or "How are you doing today?" and he brought in our grabage cans a couple of times when Brian wasn't here. But don't let that fool you. We hear him practicing Karate and Kung Foo all the time next door, so seriously, don't mess. Plus, we're bringing all the chocolate with us, so there's really nothing worth stealing anyway.

We're off.

I Don't Know How Women Wear These Things

They cut off the circulation to your toes.

-Brian Jacks

It's Mother's Day

* When my older brother was a baby, my mom was on a walk with her best friend. Between their talking and laughing, she heard a little girl's voice say, "It's my turn, Momma," and that's how she knew there was another baby soon joining the family. Whenever we watch our old home movies and I say my famous line, "I like Christmas because you get presents even," My mom says, "That's the voice I heard! That little, gravelly voice you had." She says I was the only kids who kept calling her, "Momma," even after I was a baby.

* When she went to the hospital to have me, she knew that I would be a girl, so she brought pink blankets and pink clothes. The nurses all thought she was crazy and told her that I would probably end up being a boy. I wasn't old enough to remember, but I'm sure she didn't gloat too much when the pink clothes fit me just right.

* When we were living in Utah, and I was probably about three or four, my mom was sewing and I kept getting too close to the sewing machine. She told me numerous times to stay back, or I would get hurt. I ended up getting my hair wound all around the side. It hurt, and they had to cut that hair off. I wish I would have learned then to always listen to the advice of my mother. I would have avoided so many mistakes.

*When I was five, we were visiting my grandma, I got into a car wreck, all by myself. We were getting ready to go somewhere, and I was impatient to get going, so I kept asking my mom if I could sit in the car. She kept saying, "No," but I did it anyway. Not knowing what I was doing, I put the car into neutral, and it started rolling down the hill my grandma lived on. When I jumped out of the car, I scraped my head on the road, which pulled and rolled all the skin off the side of my head. It was a mess. My mom was the one who rode in the neighbors car with me, holding a towel to my bleeding head, to get down the mountain to the ambulance, and she was the one who held my hand while the doctor unrolled all the skin and stitched it back in place.

*My mom made the best Halloween costumes. I always felt sorry for the kids who would show up to the school Halloween parade in store bought, plastic costumes.

*My mom sewed my baptism dress. I remember feeling so special that she would do that for me, and feeling so beautiful on the day of my baptism.

*When I was a teenager, Philip and I decided to tip toe around the house, bouncing up and down real fast, yelling some sort of "HOooOODoOOLaLoOo!" nonsense. My mom joined in, and we did that for about a half hour. It was great.

*During my senior year of high school, I did Running Start through Columbia Basin College, where I took classes there instead of the high school. Because of that, I had an easy schedule and a lot of free time. My mom and I would go on errands together while everyone else was in school, and sometimes we would stop for a hamburger.

*My mom wrote to me faithfully while I was in college, and she was always available when I would call home.

*My mom took me to the temple for my first time. I wasn't nervous, because she was there to help me.

*My mom taught me to be a good mother. It's because of her that I try to speak to my children with love, even when I'm anrgy. She's the one who taught me how to teach my children about Heavenly Father and Jesus and how to love and take care of each other.

*Now, I call my mom every day. Usually it's around breakfast time, but sometimes I end up calling her a few times through out the day for random reasons. She never seems to be bothered that I call so often.

*Sometimes, when I run errands, my mom comes along to sit with the kids in the car, so I don't have to take them back and forth out of their car seats. She sings songs with them and keeps them entertained while I run in real fast to take care of things. There's been a couple times when a three minute errand has turned into a thirty minute errand, and she hasn't complained once.

* My mom has six kids and sixteen grandchildren, and she divides her time up between us all. She makes us all feel so loved and important, and she's always there for us, for whatever we may need.

Happy Mother's Day, Momma

Just Two More Days

I usually don't post things like this on my blog. It took me forever to start putting pictures on here, and I don't plan on putting any videos up. But, I've been planning this for a while, and I was finally able to start it on Monday. It's the reason we watched Bambi for Family Home Evening, and it's the reason the kids watched Sky Captain....um, twice before I put them to bed. And it's the reason a bag of Easter candy and I stayed up until 1:15 in the morning, which is very unusual for me. So, yeah, here it is. Oh, see if you can find Philip eating a dinosaur.

Happy Almost Done and Almost Graduating Day, Brian!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Helpers

I got a kick out of Ethan's choice in gardening attire. Lightning McQueen underwear and blue boot slippers.


He's so fun!


Marcus did his share of digging, too.


I didn't get any pictures of Alyssa gardening. It could be because she was dressed like a normal person, or it could be because she didn't hold still long enough for me to snap a picture. We went to Granny's Buffet after working in the yard all day with Brian's parents, and Alyssa made so many friends while we were there.


Marcus is a great worker and he's sociable.

Living Room Decor

I've decided that I need to get a wall sign that says, "It just looks like I haven't done any cleaning today."

Seriously, how do people keep their houses clean (and their couch cushions on the couch, and their dining room chairs in the dining room, etc) when they have kids? It's impossibe!