Momentary Heat Lapse

I was in Phoenix AZ this past week hosting a training seminar for work.  I was VERY lucky that my wonderful co-worker talked me into flying out early so we could hike in Sedona.  Sheri picked me up from the airport and we headed out to do the Boynton Canyon Trail.  It took up a bit longer than expected to get there and the rental car was due back at 5 pm in Scottsdale so let's just say, we hiked that trail with some conviction!  We started out saying we would only hike as long as time permitted and then head back but then we became fiercely determined and instead banged out the entire 6.4 miles with 15 minutes of sightseeing to spare at the summit.

Here I am as we head out.  Please do not look directly into the white Portlander legs!

The scenery was breathtaking the entire time:

Here we were about 3/4s of the way there when I spotted a cool little shelf and decided to scamper up.   I thought the view there was amazing.  Until I saw the top!

Sheri and I at the summit:

The view from the summit:

To summarize, it was wonderful.  Of course I feel sorry for whoever rents that car next as it was covered in dirt and sweat by the time we were done with it!

With the hike behind me I then continued the leisure leg of my trip by managing to catch up with a very dear, old fried who lives in Phoenix.  We had not seen each other in probably 15 years and I had never met his wife so it was a blast of catching up.

When I got to their house they were trying to see the Venus eclipse without much success.  We were all taking turns squinting through a welding helmet and convincing ourselves that we saw it.  Then their neighbor graciously shared his viewing glasses with us and WE SAW IT.  So cool!  Like a tiny marble on the sun.  Something none of us will ever forget I am sure!

After Venus I got the full tour of their awesome home and then we headed out to dinner.  Dinner was delicious and I am pretty sure all our sides were killing us from laughing and smiling and catching up so much over dinner.  Nothing like old friends leading to new friends to warm your heart.  Here is the departing shot of my friend and his wonderful family.  Love you guys!

After that it was work, work work but it was all worth it by the little bit of fun we managed to squeeze in.  San Diego may be next.  May have to look up an old friend!

Needless to say, G and I have been stuck like glue since I got back.  Kids are so funny, some days it is all you can do to make it to bed time.  Then it is all you can do to not sneak in and snuggle them up. 

Tweet Tweet!

Part of the new yard/garden remodel has been to better entice the wild population onto our property.  We had a ban swallow house on the west side of the house but it never seemed to attract anything but robins.  Nick has taken it down, redone it and now it is in the east garden.  It has already attracted a few visitors and hopefully by end of summer some swallows will have made it their home.

Week before last Nick came up with a great (yet another) rainy day project and he and Gunnar glued together a bunch of scrap wood to make some more single houses.

They came out great and the birds seem to agree too!

  

Next will be to get the bat house up! 

The big Oh-Two

It is so hard to believe that our little man is now two. Hard to believe that was two whole years ago that we welcomed him into the world at 5:26 pm on 5/26/10. What a wonderful whirl wind it has been ever since. With his birthday falling on Memorial Day weekend we chose a low key (very low key) celebration. We did presents in the morning and then really just let him lead the day. I made an extra effort to only be focused on Saturday, instead of the usual on him and the laundry, on him and the dishes. Moms, I know you know what I am talking about! It was wonderful and I am vowing to try and keep more of that focused mentality throughout this year. I am a silly Oregon mama and got him an alligator sprinkler for his birthday. I know it will be tons of fun in of 3 months when it finally gets warm! This was really the only toy he got for his birthday and since delayed gratification is really a bummer no matter what your age, we made a special trip to Walmart today for a new Thomas train and the stand up racing spiral track he loves from daycare. Spoiled anyone??

Luckily Saturday was the "nice" day this weekend (notice the fleece) so we headed to the park. It was tons of fun and we took Truck who managed to make a gaggle of kid friends too while we were there. The SLIDE!

Turning the big wheel:

Caught him perusing his new book and DVD literature:

And now for the retrospective.... Brand new baby with his brand new papa 5/26/10:

Birthday bay with his balloons 5/26/12:

The big two year old busting out of his jammies:

We love you G man!!!

Birthday warm up

Since Gunnar's birthday is over Memorial Day weekend, I thought we would celebrate the weekend before by going to Dozer Days. Talk about right up Gunnar's alley - excavators, dump trucks, back hoes. The works! We met a friend for lunch and then made the trek to Camas WA. It was a gorgeous day and G had a blast and was a real trooper through a very long day. The lines were very long to ride the equipment and Gunnar decided there was no way he was letting a stranger take him. Excavator or not! So we dug in the sand pits, kicked some tires and ran a MUCK through the tube/slide complex. The only bad thing about the trip is that there are really no pictures. We borrowed a friends video camera for the trip because we REALLY wanted to document it. It took stills too so I left my point and shoot. Nick took some great video and we had a blast. Then when he went to offload the footage, we discovered none was stored. All that great video. Gone. I uploaded the two pics (us on the bus ride and the event itself) and they are too big. UGH and good night!

Side Tracked

We have been very fortunate this year to have actually had one long stint of true spring/early summer weather. I say had as it was barely 60 degrees and raining today while G and I braved the park. Sad!

Anywhoo, it was great while it lasted and we took great advantage. Nick has been wanting to make some improvements to the east side of our house for quite some time now but the monies, supplies and opportunity had yet to make themselves available. Well, wouldn't you know they did. Just as the weather was turning and while Nick's family was still in town, the plan came together. It all started when Nick got a call from a landscaper friend who had just laid a ton of bark down at a job but the home owner had decided they didn't like it and it had to go. Well, as they say, one mans misfortune is another man's landscaping! Nick and his dad spent 2 days loading, hauling and unloading bark from our truck into the side yard. Then they started on our new fence. We are terrible at remembering to do before shots so here is a "barely started" shot of the fence groundwork being laid:

While the men worked on the fence, G and I tackled the bark and landscaping. Here was our berm before with it's wild thyme jungle on the bottom tier:

And here are some after shots. You can now make out individual thyme plants:

With all the bark we decided to do a large bed along the side of the house that wraps around to the front. Here is the shot from the front of the house. Notice our main helpers - G and the chicken. Between Grandma D and the chickens Gunnar stayed quite "busy" whole his mama schlepped bucket loads of bark.

In the main section we are putting our yearly garden so here we are digging it out and planting the tomatoes and peppers. Our neighbor was kind enough to bring over his walk behind tiller so we have a great bed of soil, compost, sand and hay. Fingers crossed for some grape tomatoes!

We still have to finalize the bark layout, finish the fence and put in the patio but it is off to a great start! And now for the parting shot:

Tulip Fest

This weekend was beautiful and very fun filled for the whole family!

We started off with the Tulip Fest on Saturday. The festival was filled with gorgeous flowers, tractors and play things.

Gunnar's favorite was the hay slide tent. A genius idea of combining bales of hay with plastic drainage tubes for the kids to climb and slide on. Kind of like a kid sized hamster activity tank! Here is my favorite action shot:

And then the tractors. Are you sensing a theme on the blog yet?
These steam tractors were amazing:



And of course the John Deere:

And then to prove we really were in the middle of a million tulips:



On Sunday the beautiful weather continued so Nick and I headed up to Meadows for some spring skiing. It was so much fun and everyone was going crazy with the first spring weather - bikinis and bbq in the parking lot! I got one good pic on my phone that I will have to try and upload.

Today I took the day off so G and I hit the town. Grocery shopping, birthday present shopping and trips to both local parks before hitting Chella's birthday party. Needless to say G was quick to bed tonight.

Tractor Time!

It was a whirlwind week with me and little man holding down the fort while Nick was in Seattle visiting his family. The weather was gross on the two days I took off so we had to stick close but it was an absolutely beautiful weekend. G and I made it to the tractor show and had wonderful time. Complete toddler meltdown when we had to leave to go get Papa from the train station so you know it was true.

We started off slow with the balloon animal guy. G picked a blue dog:


Then the main attractions.
At tractor just his size:

Can you tell he is right at home on the big machines. This is how you make them go:



We also found time to visit the feed store cat, the chicks, turkeys, goat? and bunnies in the livestock shack. So much fun!

Grandma and Grandpa London are visiting for a while so I am sure we will have many more adventures in the following weeks!