School Award

We are so proud of you Ashley. Today you were awarded the "Super Hawk Block" from your teacher. She asked us to come to the assembly because you were being presented an award, but never said what it was for. Papa, Isaiah, Grammy and I were all there. I had to hold back tears because everything she said was spot on. It brought such a sense of pride that others see what we see in you. "Ashley comes to school everyday excited to learn, help, and be a great role model. She finishes her work on time and then volunteers to help others in anyway she can. She is safe, kind and responsible. She puts others before herself and is an awesome Hawk."

GG and GPa

GG and Gpa made a visit from Arizona for their birthdays. GG turned 86 the day before they came and Gpa turned 88 while they were here! They are so fun to be around and not the typical 80 year old grandparents you hear about. They are engaging, funny, and such an inspiration. GG still swims and plays tennis, Gpa had to give up golf only recently from a fall, but he still plays Bridge and they have dinner parties with their friends. Spending time with them always makes me sad that they don't live closer, but we hope to visit them down in Arizona soon. On Saturday while they were here we took GG to the play "Ruthless". Bonnie suggested the play and it ended up being fantastic, no one really knew what to expect. It was very dramatic, the 10 year old who played one the of the main character was phenomenal, all of the characters were really. We all loved it! On Sunday we had them over to our house. It ended up being a really nice day, so we were able to sit outside and visit before dinner. Then on Monday we went to Mom and Dad's for a big birthday party for GPa. I'm so happy with the way the pictures turned out. When we live so far, those pictures mean so much!

Girls day out at the play "Ruthless"

GG

GPa

Ashley and Anabella

Dan and Mindy

Grandpa, Grammy,Al, Bonnie, Lucas, Dan, Mindy, Anabella, Brian, Tyler, Tanner, GPa, Isaiah, GG, Ashley and I

Uncle Al and Lucas

They were having the sweetest conversation.  Ashley asked GG what she remembers when she was a little girl.

Clamming!

We went to the beach house to try clamming for the first time and enjoy a gorgeous weekend at the coast. Netarts bay, just north of Pacific City, is great for clamming and crabbing and its so close! Eventually we'll rent a boat and try crabbing there with the kids, but for now we decided to get the clamming thing down first. We looked up the tides and low tide was at 4:00pm, but we ended up going a little early just to be sure we knew what we were doing and didn't waste any time. One of Brian's co-workers had let him borrow a "clamming gun", which looks like a cylinder shovel. It takes out a tube of sand around where you think a clam is and then you dump it out and dig around for the clam. Well, we tried it a bunch of times as we headed out to where a group of people who looked like they knew what they were doing and had no luck. Apparently the clamming gun is best for Razor clams which are found further north in Seaside or Astoria. The kids were so excited too and you could see them loose enthusiasm each time we pulled up an empty tower of sand. Once we walked out almost 1/2 way into the bay, though, we finally found where the clams were and got some very helpful tips from some very helpful people. Cockle clams aren't very deep and to get them you find a pool of water and rake the surface, once you hit what feels like a rock, that's the clam and you dig it out. Then for the butter clams, you find a quarter size hole, put a stick down into the hole to see how far it is, dig to the side of it and reach in to find them. If you dig straight down, you break the shell, which we did on the first couple of one's. If the clams are facing up, some of them grab onto the stick and you find it in their shells when you dig them out. Kid of funny to see, feisty little buggers! These are the clams that you have to get down and dirty to get. We didn't figure all of this out until the very end and the kids were cold and ready to be done with the whole experience, so I took the kids back to the car while Brian dug for another 1/2 hour or so and got another 15 clams after we left! We ended up with about 36 total. He also came back with a dungeness crab that he found in one of the pools as he was walking in one of the pools on the way back to the car. He cooked it up and we had it for lunch the next day. Brian enjoys the tedious part of cleaning the clams, so he was happy taking care of all of that. It's a lot of work for a little meat, but he made an awesome clam chowder when we got home. I think there's something to knowing how hard you worked to get the food on your plate. We explained to the kids how it wasn't always so easy to get the food we eat. It used to be that people had to do stuff like clamming, hunting and fishing to get all of their food. They didn't have grocery stores like we do. That made them think!

Having our morning coffee and hot chocolate on the beach.  What a way to start the day!

For some reason dragging kelp on the beach is really fun

Practice for climbing the big sand dune.  This actually became our sand sledding hill later in the day.

1st attempt at clamming until we finally figured it out

"Nope, nothing??? Hmmm, this clamming thing is not easy!"

1st clam found

If you look close you can see water shooting out of the sand where the clams are.  Isaiah is jumping on the sand making them squirt

Reading Buddies

I just love these two so much and my heart bursts with pride when I see this.

Sunriver

Brian worked for three weeks straight, was in the middle of firing a new guy that was only there for a month and needed a weekend away! So, he took us to Sunriver for the weekend. He had never been and really wanted to check it out. Ashley was sick the day before we left, so we waited to see how she was feeling. Once we realized it was just a 24 hour bug and she gave Papa the green light, he went ahead a booked us a condo right by the village. What a fun weekend! There was a path right outside our backyard where Isaiah learned to ride a bike. It was cold, so we were all bundled up, which made for a little more difficult time riding with gloves, winter boots and heavy jackets, but they did great! Especially for just learning. We went sledding and swimming at the "Sharc", had fun with the Go-Pro, played Wii in the condo, went out for ice cream and really enjoyed a weekend away as a family.



Tubing, even though there was no snow!  Even that area has been hit with a mild winter.





Baseball and bowling were our favorites and the kids got pretty good at it!



The kids have been talking about this bear since a few years ago when we came here with my parents. They couldn't wait to show Papa!

Lauterell Falls

The kids had the day off for President's so we took Grammy up to Lauterell Falls for a hike and lunch after. The weather was so nice and it was a good hike for the kids, not too steep.

No training wheels

We are so proud of the kids, they are both riding bikes without training wheels! They got scooters for Christmas and I think that has helped a lot with their confidence and balance. I was really motivated to get them riding before our trip to New Zealand, since my Dad threatened to teach them while we were gone! We started off taking away the training wheels and using them as a balance bike. Well, regular bikes are not made for that and it was super uncomfortable for the kids to ride. So, I told Ashley that her training wheels were not going back on and this was the time to learn. That was Valentine's Day weekend and by the 2nd time out, she was doing it on her own! Then Isaiah learned the next weekend in Sunriver when he had to try and keep up with his sister! Bikes with training wheels just can't got that fast! It only took him about 1/2 hour to get the hang of it and he was off! They're both completely on their own and don't need any help starting, that was the hardest to learn. They're going down hills and having so much fun with it. We're really looking forward to family bikes rides this summer and Papa's excited to start training for Ashley's 1st triatholon!

Skippyjon Jones

I didn't take any pictures because the event flew by, but I got the opportunity to go with Ashley's class on a field trip to Skippjon Jones at the Children's Theatre. Originally it was going to be a lottery for which parents got to go, but her teacher came across some extra tickets so everyone who volunteered was able to go. As it was, I was in charge of Ashley and two of her friends, which was plenty. I was very grateful for the extra adults who were there to help! You get a theatre full of excited 1st graders and it gets hectic! We met at the school at 10:30am and all piled into the bus to head downtown. It's been years since I've ridden a school bus and to do it with Ashley was super fun! When the bus arrived we were all ushered to our seats where the kids had to sit for about 1/2 hour before the play started. That was really hard, but once the lights went down and the play began it was silent! Their teacher had read the book in class, so the kids were familiar with the story which helped a lot. Everyone really enjoyed the play and I was excited to be a part of it.

Isaiah's 5th birthday party

Isaiah had his birthday party at the Wunderland arcade. We've taken the kids a few times, it's a great place to have a birthday party for a few hours. They held an area for us with tables, then we gave each of his friends coins to play games and win prizes. Instead of cupcakes (because at that time we thought Isaiah was allergic to eggs) we made M&M Rice Krispie Treats in the shape of cupcakes with frosting on top... sugar overload! Not too much for a boy turning 5, though!

Playing the racing game with Papa

Tim, Milani, Ashley, Ezra, Etta, Ashley, Isaiah, Jo and Ezra 

Deciding what prize to get is a tough choice!