Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Shall we start the countdown? 25 days until I start nursing school. I'm pretty sure that's when this blog will start getting updated every 12 weeks.

Oregon

I have been homesick for Oregon. Washington is great, for sure, and I'm pretty content here. But I miss my friends. A couple weeks ago we went back to Oregon for a few days. Some highlights from our trip:

• Having lunch with Rachel and checking out her new store in "the Couv."
• Going to the beach with Kristin and Lisa and the kids
• Making dinner out of "bits and pieces" with Jen, and being blown away by the results. (Who knew canned tuna could taste that good?)
• Playing corn hole in the Nelson's backyard. Favorite quote from our British friend, Bob, when Nellie asked him if he'd like to play corn hole: "But we've only just met." Still makes me laugh. (By the way, I highly recommend Corn Hole. I'm totally building my own game next week. http://www.cornholehowto.com/how-to-play.html)
• Breakfast at that dive-y place in SE PDX.
• Visiting Sheila at her new digs on the way home.

It was a whirlwind trip, and we didn't get to see everyone we wanted to see, but it was nice to go.

After spending Wednesday night at the beach, I drove back to Portland from the coast by myself (the kids were in another car), and indulged a long-time desire to stop and take pictures uninterrupted at Arcadia Beach.

And a couple of pictures from the day before with the kids in Manzanita:

The un-party

I started a new rule: Birthday parties every other year. Last year Madeline had her big reptile party, so this year she was allowed to choose an activity to do as a family for her birthday and she could invite a friend.

Madeline decided she wanted to go to Wild Waves (similar to Lagoon in Utah). Actually, she had a few more exotic suggestions that were shot down by her mean parents, but Wild Waves was an okay alternative. We invited our friends Milo and Robin to come along since Lily's birthday was the same week.

We saved Wild Waves for the weekend, so her actual birthday was pretty mellow. We celebrated it in the neighborhood and had an icecream cake from Coldstone.

We went to Wild Waves on a cool day, which turned out to be a good thing because lines were short. The kids (and the grown-ups) rode all the rides for six hours, and then the kids (without the adults) did the waterslides for another hour and half before the park closed.

I still can't believe my baby is nine.

Madeline at Nine Years Old

Nine is huge. I have memories of us living in Sandy when I was younger, but when we moved to the "homestead" I was nine, and my memories from that point on are pretty solid.

So Madeline turning nine feels HUGE. Like she's almost all grown up. If she wasn't so much fun right now, I'd be sad about it.

Nine things about Madeline at Nine

1. She loves to read. On her reading list this summer: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls (series), and Black Beauty.

2. She is incredibly imaginative, and she loves to recruit kids to play in her imaginary worlds. She has a book with a map of her worlds drawn out to help them understand.
3. She is a fantastic writer. (See #2.) She is great at inserting her voice in her writing, and her stories are so much fun to read.
4. She loves to draw and has recently developed a pretty cute style of drawing people.
5. She loves animals. She watches a lot of Animal Planet and loves her subscription to National Geographic Kids. She has thousands of random facts about animals floating around in her brain. "Why doesn't that elephant have tusks and what's wrong with its ears?" I ask. "It's an Asian elephant, Mom. Female Asian elephants don't have tusks and they have smaller ears than African elephants."
6. She is tough. She almost never cries when she gets hurt. She and Amelia have been riding their scooters around the block this Summer. On the first ride (without me) she decided to try the "big hill" and crashed. Amelia came running home to get me and when I found Madeline she was scraped and bleeding on both elbows and both knees, but not crying and not complaining. After bandaging her up, she went right back out.
7. She still loves bugs and reptiles and has an uncanny ability to find them. This summer she's been fascinated with the bees on our lavender plant, and has "only" been stung three times. (No tears, although she was offended because she wasn't trying to hurt them.)

8. She is developing her own music preferences. Right now she likes Michael Jackson, Pink Floyd, and Smashing Pumpkins. Random.
9. A perfect day for her would consist of staying in her pajamas all day while playing with the kittens and Amelia.

Rule #47

Several years ago, while driving through the Hood River "fruit loop" on the way to our favorite camping spot, we stopped at one of the farms to buy some peaches. They were the juice-streaming-down-your-arms-so-sweet-you-could-cry kind of peaches--the only type of peaches there should be. 

We bought a whole box of them, and polished off the entire box that night between two families.  And then we bought another box on the drive home.

(If you look closely, you can see the camping filth mixed with peach juice streaming down their arms.  Yum.)

Since then, out of season peaches have tasted like wood. I decided I was not going to torment myself like that anymore. I resolved to only eat in-season locally grown peaches, and I have to say, it is a very good rule to follow.

Perfectly ripe peaches at the farmer's market today. Sooooo worth the wait!!!

And in other news, I think my month-long saga of computer woes has come to a happy end.  Lots of catch up blogging to follow.

Cute as a survival tactic

If they weren't, I'd kill them.

Our kittens have officially become teenagers, which means they are little shit heads.  Today, in the space of an hour, they scratched Amelia's face, spilled an entire mug of hot chocolate on the carpet, climbed the only remaining window screen (I've pulled all the others out because they were climbing them), and scratched several layers of paint off the corner they've decided is their scratching post.  Then, after trashing the joint, they sat at the back door meowing belligerently to go out.

If they weren't so cute, they'd be gone.

But really, how can you stay mad at this?

And frankly, they put up with a lot. 

 For the most part, they don't protest. 

But just for the record, whoever said that taping aluminum foil to their favorite scratching places as a deterrent was dead wrong.  They like the feel of it on their claws just fine.

Weekends

We have been loving the weekends.

The girls gave me a hiking book for my birthday, so a couple weekends ago we drove up to Fidalgo Island to try out some of the hikes. (Fidalgo Island is where you catch the ferry to the San Juan Islands and Victoria B.C., so the islands you see in the background are some of the San Juans). They were breathtaking hikes, and well worth the 1.5 hour drive each way.

This weekend we stuck closer to home--we headed over to Seattle and rented kayaks on Lake Union, which is the lake featured in the movies "Sleepless in Seattle" and "10 Things I Hate About You." Can you say something is your favorite thing if you've only done it once? Kayaking is my favorite thing EVAH!

It was a gorgeous day, so we had lots of company on the lake--tour boats, yachts, sailboats, and lots of other kayaks and paddle boards. We rented a kayak and a stand-up paddle board, which was fun for the novelty, but not nearly as efficient as the kayak. Next time we'll stick with two kayaks. No photos of the excursion, because we correctly assumed we would spend plenty of time in the water, not just on the water. Here's a few I borrowed from Flickr.

View from Lake Union:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlpseattle/2830651093/

This is a stand-up paddle board. Ours was wide and stable, so the girls could be on with one of us and stand up, sit down, hang off the back, etc. And they did.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/susangittins/3593227852/

And Kolby and I decided on the Twelve Year Plan. This is it:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/opticalodyssey/166223415/