Suttle Lake

We've returned from our last big hurrah of the summer.
We camped on the south shore of Suttle Lake this weekend. It's a nice little lake between Salem and Bend. (A bit of a drive, especially when you leave Portland right at 4pm on a Friday.)

Levi and Daddy went "fishing".
Here's Levi taking care of the poll. Gabe said he was surprisingly good at reeling.And this is my favorite picture of Levi and Gabe.Between Levi's short attention span, and the fact that they were in pretty shallow water, the boys didn't catch anything this time. But I think Levi will be up for another shot at it next year!
We spent some time swimming in the lake. It was a lot warmer than I thought it would be. Maybe that's because I was swimming with Levi and never went in deeper than my hips.

Levi enjoyed helping his Auntie Jen beat the boys at cribbage.
We had an exciting evening on Saturday. Just as we started to fix up dinner, storm clouds rolled in. And they were coming in fast! As we were eating, rain drops started to fall and we decided we better pack stuff up to keep it dry since we weren't sure what this storm was going to do. We got some rain and quite a bit of lighting. Levi only cried once. I do have to give him credit, the thunder was so loud I could feel it in my gut. I can only imagine how if felt to him. He was really brave! Then as we were sitting around after the storm moved north, a deer came sprinting through our camp site. It was super cool! She was clearly scared of the storm too.

Notice Levi holding up a plastic container? That's a big black beetle he had to catch to have a closer look at. And yes, we let it go before we left camp. And yes, he was still alive...although a bit shaken I'm sure.

My last week...

of vacation is almost gone. I go back to work, bright and early, Tuesday morning. Levi and I have been busy having lots of fun this week. Lots of play dates with friends, and we even finally filled up his little pool in the back yard.
Peggy and the little boys are here visiting from LA, so we've been able to play a few days with them this week. Here's Levi and Z playing on the slide.

And I have to include this one of Levi swimming in the back yard. It's just too silly...and cute.

Well, we're off on another camping adventure this weekend. Everything is ready, just waiting for Levi to wake up from his nap so we can take off. I'll try and share some stories and photos when we get back...before I start work for the week. This has been such a fun summer. Sure wish it didn't have to end.

Camping on the Clackamas

We headed east out of town this weekend, and camped at a nice little campground on the banks of a tributary to the Clackamas River. It was a great little spot to spend the weekend with friends.

Levi really takes the leave no trace philosophy very seriously when out in the woods. "Sweeping" up the campsite was one of his favorite ways to pass the time.

We spent some time just hanging out around camp. Enjoying the sounds of the river and the campfire.
Like father like son, this picture just cracks me up. Hands in the pockets just like dad.
Also seen in this picture is the big injury Levi got when he tripped over one root ball and fell onto another. It's already looking much better.
Went on a little hike along the river. Spotted some birds, some really cool spider webs and lots of plants. Levi kept wanting to eat all the wild berries (big surprise) and told all the little plants to "grow bigger."
After a failed attempt at a nap, we all played in the river for awhile. We were all hot and dirty, while the water was very cold and refreshing. Little crawdads, tiny fish, and frogs were spotted.
(Grandpa Tom, Levi is ready for his first crawdad hunt.)
It was a really nice weekend.

I've gotta get outside quick! The heat finally arrived this weekend and our drip system is out of commission. When Gabe put the hose back on the house, after the painters took it off this week, he noticed one of the connectors is all stripped and needs to be replaced. So, I need to give our garden a good drink...fast. And I did fail to report that our house is now showing off a nice new coat of paint. What would have taken Gabe a summer of weekends was finished by 2 (sometimes 3) painters in less than a week. They got the job done in 4 days! And it only took them 18 gallons to paint the entire base color. It was a big job...glad it's done and looks great.

Exercise

(Posting early this week. Gabe is going to try and get home early today so we can take off for our camping trip this weekend.)
Levi's new thing is to "exercise". Which is really him just propping one leg up in the air or on something. That's his exercises. It's actually really funny because he also says the word pretty dang clearly. We think he might have picked up the idea from Grandpa G. I guess Grandpa was showing Levi how to lift weights with his legs on the machine. It sure did make an impression on the kid. He's been doing it all week. Here he is using his bike to "exercise" with.
Also notice the new helmet. He got it for his birthday and he LOVES it! I actually have to keep it in the closet so that he isn't wearing it wherever we go.

Jamberry

We got a half flat of these beautiful bad boys at the farmer's market on Sunday.We've been eating them (Levi's been inhaling them) all week and we still have lots. So I decided to make a little jam this morning. It's been a while since I've made jam. We're not huge PB&J eaters around here, so most of the time we don't even have any jam in the house. I saw this recipe in a Sunset article last month and it sounded pretty yummy.
Plus, isn't this the most beautiful color? Love it!
As I was constantly stirring the jam this phrase kept cycling through my mind.
Train berry
Track berry
Pick me a blackberry
You might recognize it from your childhood...This is one of Levi's favorite books. Probably because the kid LOVES berries. I asked him the other day what berries were his favorite, listing them all of course ("Are strawberries your favorite? Are blueberries your favorite?"), we discovered Levi's favorite berry happens to be the one he currently has in his mouth!

Levi's Birthday - The Slideshow

Levi is 2!

Here he is blowing out his candles. Still couldn't quite do them on his own...but he'll have no problem with it next year.

It was a great day!
Levi, mommy and daddy went out for a special birthday breakfast (here). Levi celebrated with lots of family and friends, opened lots of presents and stayed up way past his bed time. A pretty great day for this little guy...but mommy is exhausted!
I'll put together a little slide show to share in the next few days.

Backyard Basketball

Busy week around here!
I sorta felt all over the place this week.
I spent two days at school preparing and planning with co-workers a new class we're all teaching this year. Then spent the rest of this week cleaning, planning and prepping for some one's big party!
We did have some good moments to play this week. My favorite was the impromptu basketball game in the back yard last Sunday night when Gabe's friend Ross came over to hang out. The game quickly went from a silly game with Levi, to a "serious" game of horse between two grown men when Levi lost interest.
But here's Ross giving Levi a few pointers on his dunk.

Summer Play

This is what summer is all about.

Pool "parties". Ok it wasn't really a party, it was just a play date. But with 6 kids all under 3, and 4 moms, it felt like a party. Not for us...for them.

Evening picnic in our local park.We walked over to the park and participated in National Night Out with our neighbors. Portland police had a K9 unit there, Levi loved the black German Shepard and kept telling us the dog was his. Well, actually everything is his these days. There was a band, and everyone brought a dessert to share. Portland Fire had a truck for everyone to check out. Boy was Levi excited about that big red truck. Oh, and he kept telling us it was his truck. Like I said, everything belongs to Levi these days. Although I have to admit he looks pretty cool with it.
This week just flew by. I hope these last three of the summer don't all go by this fast.

Note to self:

Do not go on vacation during mid-late July or you will once again come home to lots of overripe peas, green beans and monster zucchini.

I was able to pick some peas and green beans, blanch them, and get them in the freezer. But I don't think we'll get many more.

What do to with all of these big guys (besides give them away to friends)?

Here's what I've been making with monster zucchini this week:

*Lemon Rosemary Zucchini Bread

Levi helped me make it and even with the rosemary in it, he seemed to really like it.

*Choco-Zucchini Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

(It's a Better Homes recipe I found years ago)

1. Preheat oven to 325. Line muffin tin with paper bake cups.

2. In a large bowl, stir together

8oz of shredded zucchini (about 2 cups or half of my big ones)

2 eggs

2 cups of white sugar

3/4 cup cooking oil

2 tsp. vanilla

3. Then add

2 cups of flour (I didn't sub in whole wheat like I usually do. If someone tries this recipe with whole wheat flour let me know how it turns out.)

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

and 3/4 cup chocolate chips if you want them to be really yummy

4. Stir everything together until it's completely combined.

5. Put the batter in your prepared cups.

6. Bake for about 25 minutes or until your toothpick in the center comes out clean.

7. Cool in pans on wire racks for 5 minutes and then take the cupcakes out of the pans to cool completely on the racks.

Now for the frosting.

Beat 1/2 cup peanut butter, 1/3 cup softened butter, 1 tablespoon milk, and 1/4 tsp. vanilla with an electric mixer on medium until it's smooth. Gradually add 1& 1/2 cups of powdered sugar. I had to add a little extra milk to make the frosting creamy. But I also used natural peanut butter instead of good old Jiff or Skippy. That might have made my frosting a little less than creamy.

*Zucchini Fries

Slice zucchini into sticks (about the size of your finger).

Dredge each slice in beaten egg and seasoned bread crumbs. We used garlic and herb.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

Maui Slideshow

Well, we managed to condense our trip into just 75 pictures.

Here they are. Although when you watch the slide show, you might want to slow it down so the pictures change more like every 5 seconds. Some of my captions are a little long.

Maui: the road to hell

Otherwise known as the road to Hana.

Let me explain...this is the one story I have to share from our trip.

We were unsure we wanted to attempt the drive out to Hana with Levi. As I've mentioned many times, Levi doesn't really love the car and he always refuses to nap while driving. But we decided we'd be disappointed if we came home without having tried it. Plus we wanted to hike through the bamboo forest and see some good waterfalls. We read good things about this section of Haleakala National Park, it's just pass the town of Hana.

Well, the trip didn't start well when we waited for about 1/2 an hour for our very expensive breakfast and coffee at a cafe, before we could even get on the road. Then between stupid drivers, very disappointing waterfalls....

Seriously, this is a waterfall? I guess being from Cascade country sorta ruins it for ya. We're privilege to a lot of beautiful waterfalls here at home.

and everyone being overall very cranky in the car, it was a rough trip.

Oh, and did I mention Gabe also put a dent in the side of the rental car. He obviously took a corner a little sharp and the construction barrier bit back.

The pay off of this trip didn't come until after we left Hana. The views were more spectacular, jungle denser, and the waterfalls; they were real waterfalls.

The two mile hike to Waimoku Falls was definitely a highlight of the trip, even though we were soaked by a tropical down pour, covered in sweat and mud, walking through the bamboo forest was very cool. The waterfall at the end was pretty spectacular too.

As for the rest of the trip, swimming in the warm Pacific, playing in the sand, seeing sunsets from over 10,000 feet, peering into a crater, hiding in a banyan tree, eating poke and Kalua pork, watching surfers, drinking Mai Tais, and watching dolphins jumping 10 feet out of the water...those were pretty cool too.

If you're interested, a slide show of pictures will follow soon.

We're Home!

I'm happy (or is it unhappy?) to report we are back from vacation. Although, Gabe will be looking for jobs on Maui now. Wouldn't it be wonderful to live in paradise?
I have some stories to tell and lots of pictures to share. We only took 719 pictures! So I've got some editing to get done.
Levi is still on Maui time so we'll see if he ever settles down to take a nap today. He's still flopping around in bed now. We're going to head down to the brewfest this afternoon. But in between laundry, grocery shopping, and dealing with the jungle that is our yard currently, I'll try and get some stories and/or pictures up before the weekend is over.

Drip

One of the many things on our to-do list this week, things that had to be taken care of before we depart to our island paradise, was installing a water system for the garden. Funny thing is, Gabe put it in during Levi's nap yesterday and it hasn't stopped raining since. So much for being mid-July. The forecast here for the rest of the week looks pretty bad. Glad we're off to a place where it's 88 degrees and sunny everyday! I'll stop rubbing it in.
So here are some photos of the installation. We've harvest lots of peas, some green beans, some zucchini and 2 orange cherry tomatoes. We ate all the lettuce and I actually planted some butternut squash seeds last week. I've never done them before but figured since we usually have such nice falls and mild winters in these parts, I'd give it a try.


We have about 6 zucchini that will be ready to harvest in the next few days. Hopefully one of my sisters will stop by and take what's ready. When we get back I've got some new recipes I want to try out.

Skating in the house

Levi's new thing this week is "skating" around the house. Only he doesn't have any skates. Actually, I'm not really sure how he even knows what skates are. I can't think of any books he has that mention skates. He turns the most random things into skates. See...Yes, that is a tin lid and a plastic play knife. But to Levi they are skates. He actually turned a wagon at Grandma G's house into a "skate board". Again, not really sure how he knows what a skateboard is exactly.
I took some video of Levi skating, which Gabe will hopefully get added to this post. It's pretty silly!

a long weekend trip that ran the gamut

Our weekend in Northwest Washington was full of ups and downs, highs and lows.

High

Views like this:

Low

Levi deciding he wouldn't sleep a wink in the car on the 5 1/2 hour drive up. He is clearly not really my child. The car is one of my favorite places to sleep.

Levi also deciding the new bed we got him for camping (and the one we were hoping to use on our trip to Maui next week) is really not for sleeping in. Instead, it's the best toy he's ever had.

High

Hikes in the woods. (Levi did half of this almost 2 mile loop on his own. But as you can see, daddy had to help him at the end.)

Low

Levi refusing to take a nap on his new bed. Day 2 of no naps. We thought that would mean an early bed time and very sleepy kid. A kid who would go right to sleep on his new cosy bed and sleeping bag. Boy did this kid have a different plan!

High

A beautiful bride and wonderful wedding. Congratulations to Brooke and Timothy.

Low

Two hours of Levi playing on his bed in our motel room instead of falling fast asleep. To the anger and frustration of both of his parents, and hopefully not the other guests around us.

As you can see, all of the lows have to do with Levi not sleeping. Which is strange. This kid has always been a pretty good sleeper. We weren't prepared to have such an ordeal with this new bed. Guess we're just crazy. Anyone have the magic secret we need to know to get this kid to sleep in his great new bed? For the sanity of all three of us, we've decided to rent a crib in Maui. But we have several more camping adventures planned for the summer and I'm not sure what to do with this silly kid! Is he just not ready to sleep outside of the confines of his crib yet? Can anyone help this desperate mom out? A sleep deprived family really takes the fun out of things.

Oh, and I almost forgot the biggest low of all.
Gabe got a message from a co-worker on our way home. Gabe's on a flight back to Indiana at 6am tomorrow to figure out why they have a dolly that's broken in half. Have I shared how much I hate the amount of traveling Gabe does now? When he first started at the company, he went to a trade show once a year. He now is gone at least once a month. Sometimes more. He's an engineer. Not a salesman. Ok...vent over! I could continue...but I won't.

Memorial Park Fountains

Not sure there's anything that makes my kid happier then a picnic lunch and playing in the fountains at the park.The only thing that makes it better is meeting Grandma and Grandpa G there to have lunch with us!This is Levi copying all the big kids. They like to step on the spray, so Levi had to try it too. Surprisingly, he didn't seem to care about the very forceful stream of water that went straight into his face.
My play post is a bit early this week because we're leaving "early" tomorrow morning to head north. We're going to do some camping this weekend and then be at Gabe's cousin Brooke's wedding on Sunday. I'll tell you all about it when we get back next week.

Holiday Weekend in Photos

Picking strawberries at the farm. Not a good year for berries due to our record breaking spring of no sunshine. I've never been able to pick strawberries in July! The crop wasn't very good but as you can see...someone managed to find plenty to pick and eat.
This kid is crazy. He ate the strawberries, hull and all. I saw him eat green berries and some that were definitely past their peak. He didn't care.

Playing in the sprinkler.This kid has no fear of water. He loves it! The more he's splashed in the face the harder he laughs.

And of course we celebrated our nation's birth.
In following tradition, we ate.Drank good beer. Played games.
We couldn't have asked for a better weekend spent with family, friends and amazing sunshine!

Happy 4th!

From Dave and Carley's 4th annual BBQ!
I'll post more about our weekend later this week.
We just got Levi in bed (2 hours after bed time) and we have neighbors who kept us up with fireworks until 2am this morning. I'm tired. I hope they stop early tonight. I need to get in the hot tub...now!

Making a masterpiece

Levi loves to paint. And given that the summer weather is still in the process of arriving in the Pacific Northwest, we've been doing a lot of indoor painting this week. Obviously, Levi's too little to paint by himself. And he's much too messy.

The paints are kept in a top kitchen drawer that Levi has now figured out how to open on his own. I'm thinking about relocating them else where and not sharing with Levi where the paints have gone. As much as Levi loves to paint, Mommy doesn't like to clean up the aftermath.

Any grandparents (aunts? cousins?) want a Levi made masterpiece mailed to them? Our fridge is getting pretty full!

Starfish

Levi and I are half way through our three weeks of swimming lessons.
Last week we had lessons in the morning. This week, and next week, we have lessons in the evening (right after dinner. So much for waiting 30 minutes after eating to get into the pool.)

What a difference a year makes.
Levi was great in the water last summer. But this year I think he's really starting to get it. He kicks more, splashes more, and even puts his chin and ears in the water. He's really working on blowing bubbles. I'm hoping he'll really accomplish those before lessons are over next week.
Since current lessons are in the evening, Gabe got to take pictures last night.
Here's Levi waving to Daddy.
Levi floating and doing some forward kicks.Doing his back float. Which he doesn't really like. It's hard to let water in your ears.And here he is doing his favorite thing of all, SPLASHING! Getting water in Mommy's and his face.I'm hoping to get Gabe in the pool with him next week. Right now he's still recovering from the surgery he had Friday night...but I think he'll be up for some swimming next week. So I might be back next week with more pictures from the pool.

This is how MY boys play...

They make ramps for cars.And play this video game. (Which Levi pre-ordered for his dad's gift.)
This is how Gabe and Levi spent their afternoon together on Father's Day. We spent the morning at the Portland Art Museum to visit this exhibit. Gabe's friend and former boss, the late Tom Campell's, car was on display for the day. There was a special video tribute to him in the morning. It was a very nice event and a wonderful way to spend father's day.

Flowers and Friends

It's been a busy and crazy week around here. Between daily swimming lessons, getting estimates for the house painting, and dealing with a flake of an optometrist/insurance, I'm exhausted this week. And I'm suppose to be on vacation. Even with all the crazy stuff, Levi and I have had some fun afternoons.
On Tuesday, Tricia and Travis came over and we went up to the Rose Garden. It was a beautiful day. The roses are just finally starting to bloom. And a certain little boy loves to smell them.We smelled some roses, kicked the ball around for a while and then came home and had some dinner.Yesterday, the Wilkinson family came over. They are here from LA for the week and I'm so happy they were able come by and have some dinner with us. Levi and Zachary "played", I got to snuggle a tiny baby, and we enjoyed talking to friends I wish were closer. Baby Zane is smaller at almost a month old, then Levi was when he was born. So wonderful! Levi wasn't too sure about the baby at first.But soon, he wanted to put his hands all over him!Zachary and Levi did also get lots of hugs in.So I made the mistake of letting Levi lay down with two of his favorite stuffed animals. As I've been downstairs on the computer editing pictures and writing this post, I've been listening to him not take a nap for the last 1/2 hour. Guess I better get in the shower while I can, and hope he's asleep when I get out. I'm tired and sure could use a nap myself today before another painter comes by to quote our project this afternoon. Given the way some things have gone this week, I'm not going to hold out much hope.