Our lunch on the Willamette

Last year for my birthday, Dan gave me a certificate for a cruise on the Portland Spirit. I lost the certificate and just recently found it back in January. It's a good thing I found it when I did, because it expired in February! I made reservations for April 19, thinking that we would have better weather if I bumped it up a few more months...

While we didn't have the sunny weather I was hoping for, it was much better than the rain mixed with snow the folks at weather.com were predicting. The morning was cold, but the sun was out (and by "sun was out," I mean occasionally it would peek out from the clouds), so we were content with that!!!

After boarding, we were shown to our table and given some warm tea.

Our lunch was yummy. I had the grilled herb chicken and Dan had the beef shoulder entree.

On the ride back, we stepped outside for some up-close sight seeing.Here we are on the bow of the boat, just about to pass under the Marquam Bridge (my least favorite to travel over!) with the Hawthorne Bridge in the distance.

Here's the famous Portland landmark. I remember when it used to say "White Stag" instead of "Made in Oregon."

Here's a very ominous picture of the Steel Bridge. We passed under most of the bridges south of the Steel bridge. Fun Fact of the Day: Apparently the Steel Bridge is a railroad bridge (lower deck) owned by a railroad in Oklahoma and in order for it to lift up and allow ships to pass under it, they need to get special permission from Oklahoma and therefore the Spirit of Portland generally doesn't go under it.

Here is one of the recognizable towers you see on the Burnside bridge.


The Old Spaghetti Factory. Lots of fun memories here. I remember the first time I went to eat here was with the high school youth group (for Jason Birman's birthday I think!) Anyway, I'd pick this location over the Clackamas location in a heartbeat...even if it takes twice as long to get to! Dan and I always order the salad with creamy pesto dressing and the spaghetti, half meat sauce and half mazithra cheese with browned butter....so, so good and of course spumoni ice cream to finish it all off! Mmmmmm!


Of all the big fancy newer homes along the water, I think I'd rather live in this old Spanish-style estate... you know, if money were no object. Nice hu? Just a wee little thing, right!!!

On the return trip, we got to ride with the Captain and watch him "park" the boat. He has a separate control out on the deck that allows him to steer the boat up close to the sea wall. Doesn't he look just like a captain should?

After disembarking from the boat, Dan and I walked down to the marina and took some pictures of the dragon boats. He is going to be designing t-shirts for the Leatherman Tool Group's dragon boat team and needed to get some visuals.

Right after I took this shot it started to rain and...snow!!! So we ran up to Riverplace and then back to our car.

Are you kidding me? These photos were taken about 7:15 last night after dinner! I had to run out to the pump house and turn the pump back on so the pipes to the pool don't freeze!!!

The poor Rhododendron thought it was spring and was trying to bloom!!!

Fortunately, I hadn't planted these Dahlias yet and just brought them inside the house to warn up in their little pots. (See procrastinating can be a good thing!) This morning when I woke up there was still snow on the ground! Weird, weird, weird!!!

Our busy weekend...

Last weekend was super busy...I'm still catching my breath. Let's see, Friday night I signed Zander up for T-ball, drove him to his team pictures, then drove Natalie to Sarah's birthday party. We went to one of those paint your own pottery places and the girls got to pick out a figurine to paint.

The next day, Saturday I got up and had Zander to the opening day for Little League. It was wet and cold and not really knowing what I was doing the whole time, I was completely exhausted by noon when we left.

After we went home for lunch, I drove to Aaron's house for Alexis's birthday party. She turned four this year (on 04/04...her "golden" birthday!

The party was fun and relaxing, but I had to try really hard not to fall asleep...Eventually, it was time to go home.

As you can see, I wasn't the only tired one in the bunch.

Once we got home, we snacked a little more, then went over to our neighbors. They invited us over for dessert because they wanted us to teach them how to play Settlers of Catan, a fun and addicting game Dan and I like to teach to our friends.

The next day was Sunday. We went to church. After church we chatted with friends while the kids played in the "snow" made by the blossoming tree near the church.

After church we went out to Changs Mongolian Grill with the Mickles, then over to Walmart to get some T-ball equipment for Zander. By the time we got home, we had to feed the kids and turn around and go to Awanas...and later that evening work on Natalie's reading homework.

Whew...it was a crazy weekend for sure. Monday was equally crazy as it was the final yearbook deadline of the year. All the pages had to be turned in, so I (along with 4-5 other moms) and Natalie stayed after school in the computer lab until 7 pm. Then we went home, had dinner, did reading homework, got the kids in bed. Then at 9 pm I called the other advisor, we proofed the pages one last time and submitted them on-line...and by 11 pm we were done!

Now it's Thursday and I am just now catching up on things that need to get done around here. I've got most of the dishes done, but I'm way behind on the laundry...my least favorite chore.

So for now I'm going to call it a night.

Play Ball

Yesterday, totally spur of the moment, I signed Zander up for T-ball. My friend called me up and said they had a few spots they were needing to be filled, so I asked Zander and he was so excited. A few hours later we drove to the grade school to pick up his uniform because yesterday was also team pictures...we snuck in just in time to be included in the pictures!

Here's his team posing nicely while it was raining!

We just got back from his season opener, but we have to jet off to my niece Alexis' birthday, so I'll upload those pictures later.

SPRING Break?

This year for spring break we went to Lincoln City and stayed four nights in a condo on the Siletz Bay.

The first morning, the kids woke me up yelling "It snowed, it snowed!" It wasn't too hard to believe because it had snowed back home before we left...hardly spring-like weather, but fun none the less. This is the view out our window.

Here is a close-up on the rock out crops in the bay.


The older kids kept busy inside making sand castles out of craft foam while Hayden enjoyed climbing the stairs and exploring the loft.


Once the weather cleared, we put on our warm coats and played on the beach...until the hail started up.

The kids (and Dan) all had fun playing and making forts in the driftwood. There were a lot of logs washed up on shore, probably due to the high winds we had this winter.

Here is a view facing north towards the pier and Mo's restaurant, which was only about 500 yards from our condo. On the other side of the pier is the ocean.

One day, while the sky looked "clear" we decided to go on a family walk to see the ocean.



Just across the bay, before we got to the pier, we saw about a hundred harbor seals "sunning" themselves. Good luck finding the sun!!! You can see two seals in the water swimming. Sorry it's hard to see, but this is the best my camera can zoom.

This was taken under the pier. I just love how weathered and "beachy" it looks.

Here is Dan with Zander on his back seeing how close they could get to the water before they would have to run out of it's way. (Notice the blue sky!)

On our walk we saw more snow in the foothills...a very rare site at the beach. This was taken near the Inn at Spanish Head. At this point the kids walked back with Dan and I continued on to that rock formation you see in the distance. I wanted to shoot some photos, but sadly my camera setting had gotten bumped and they were all over exposed. Not being able to preview my photos (since my camera broke) has really been a problem for me!

This was really the only shot that turned out. On my walk back, it started to rain, then hail. Being a true Oregonian, I had no hood and no umbrella, so I just accepted the fact that I was gonna get wet. It was actually quite a nice, but wet walk back.

When I got back, everyone came out to see me. I think they were excited to see me cause they knew I would soon be making them some hot cocoa!

Here is another tree that washed up on shore.

Thought this was cute of Natalie.

On the last morning, I woke up and noticed a seal had swam over to our side of the bay and was stretched out. It would sit up and then lay back down and didn't seem to mind it when people were walking by. After breakfast we all went down to see the seal up close. The kids were very good to keep a safe distance and were careful not to make any noise. At this point I had run out of pictures in my camera and without my display working, I was faced with a tough decision...blindly delete one photo so we could photograph the seal, or just leave it alone and not take a picture. The kids voted to take a picture with the seal, so I crossed my fingers and deleted one photo. As it turns out the photo I deleted was of the bon-fire from the night before where the kids were roasting marshmallows. It was taken just as the sun was setting and would have been cute, but I think this is cool too.

Before we left to go home, we learned that the seal was in fact sick. Apparently the colony that we saw on our walk was experiencing some kind of sickness from something in the water (eeek). I kind of thought this was the case because any other time I have come close to a seal (usually while I'm paddling in a kayak), they keep their distance. When we were able to walk right past it and it didn't flop back in the water, I figured something wasn't quite right.

Well, we had a great trip. It was relaxing and very enjoyable to spend quality time with the kids.