Weekend Mis-fire...

I was really excited about last weekend. B and I were celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary (don't bother doing the math, I walked down the aisle almost 8 months pregnant with max)..

It was supposed to be a fun getaway night for us, We were headed to Hood River, but me being lame and not realizing it, made reservations at a hotel in the dalles, I thought it was close, but guess what 25 minutes is not close. The hotel I chose looked great on the website.

I imagined a cool 50's modern vibe, with a pool that overlooked the gorge and a huge porch with a firepit to sip wine on. The reality of the hotel was an updated motel, that smelled likes vicks vap o rub, with a tiny little porch, that overlooked the freeway, the pool that was located in the parking lot, and the view from our room looked out over a mobile home park.... so disappointing. We made the call to leave the hotel, and search out something actually in Hood River, or even back in Portland.

We headed back to Hood River and decided to park and seek out our dinner destination. We didn't really have a plan we just walked around checkin out every ones menus. Taking our time to decide at 8:30pm was not the best idea, by the time we walked back to the restaurant we wanted to go to, they were no longer seating... BLAH. We ended up at a nice enough restaurant, but not where we really wanted to go. Our dinner tasted like old people food.

All the hotels in town were booked, as were all of our McMenamins stand bys... so we made the call at 11:30pm to just head home. We stopped at Voodoo donuts, just because it was late and we thought it would be fun, but the guy in front of us bought the last Maple Bacon bar, and the rest of their donuts suck. Bummer.

Saturday kind of redeemed us. Aunt Jo took the boys to coffee in the morning so we got to sleep in, and we had our coffees delivered. The weather was beautiful, and our neighbors shared their crop of tomatoes and Basil, so we decided to have an eggplant Parmesan throw down, my way versus the traditional way. We loaded up and headed to the farmers market in search of eggplant, and than spent the afternoon cooking. I will post photo's of that later... the eggplant Parmesan was awesome!

Than Sunday, we had to work in the kids community at church, which wasn't bad, but ya know...
After church I convinced B a quick trip to the beach would be awesome. It was rainy and horrible in Portland, We loaded up, took the 1 hour and 45 minute drive and landed in Cannon Beach. Got out of the car to drizzle rain that soaks you to the bone without you even realizing it, but I was convinced this was going to be fun. Headed down to the beach, the tide was way in and there was only about 3 feet of beach in some places. Within 30 seconds Max and I got hit with the biggest sneaker wave ever. Max actually went under the water and got hit against the rocks. The water was up to my waist. It was horrifying. So we went back to the car to calm Max down, dry him off as best we could and change his clothes. B and Ollie didn't get touched (good thing, I don't think Ollie would ever step foot on the beach again if he had gone under a big huge wave).

I had brought a change of clothes for the boys, but no change of clothes for me... BLAH, I was soaked. We decided to just grab lunch and head home. So I sat at Mo's dripping wet, gulped down some chowder and than drove home in a sweatshirt and no pants.... a total of a 5 hour trip... and only 30 seconds on the beach.

I plan on re-doing our anniversary weekend... for all the crap that didn't work out, we still had a good time, and got to laugh about it together!

an apple for the teacher..

Here is Ollie on his official, first full day of kindergarten. He was so excited.

He is putting his long lashes to good use, they are workin like magic on his teacher...

see what I mean... Student of the Month, he has only been in school for 1.5 weeks... those eyelashes will take him far in life...

. ..happy.. .

As a parent I always want the best for my kids, I want them healthy, I want them happy. The love I feel for my kids is so big, sometimes I have a hard time wrapping my brain around it. I look at my Mom, she had 7 kids, 7 kids that are all confident, that all think they are the center of the universe, how the heck do you raise 7 kids to all be healthy, confident, successful adults. Yes none of us are perfect, and we all have our smattering of issues, but on the whole we are pretty darn well adjusted!

It is funny to have that desire, that want for your mom to be happy. She deserves all the happiness she can get too. She wanted it for us, and again, maybe life wasn't perfect, but the woman sacrificed allot for us.

To see her last night, Happy... I mean Happy.. was again more than I can wrap my head or heart around...

. ...Warm and fuzzy... .

destruction and the re-build...

The boys "love" helping put away their laundry (okay maybe we have to bribe them) but they do help, by cramming clothing into their poor dresser drawers so hard that the bottoms of the drawers break. Max still being a little short ends up opening the bottom drawer to use as a step stool to get into his top drawer. My poor $50 Ikea dresser could not stand up to the abuse, and finally gave out.

Here is the destruction.

(there are no clothes in the top drawer, it has not bottom)

So I decided maybe a dresser will not stand up to the years of abuse. I decided my favorite Ikea bookshelf with tubs for clothing rather than drawers might do the trick.Max and I got started on the project before ollie woke up..Such a good little builder!Ollie woke up and got to help with the building too....Can you tell we love these bookcases....The finished re-build, I didn't have time to put the bins in before running off to work, but let me tell you, this is great, no more broken drawers, and plenty of room for clothes...

Perfect!

work

It is September... I have made it 6 months working... yay me!

breakfast..

My boys are mine through and through.. did you know I am super cranky in the morning... like not kidding, not a happy person to be around in the A.M...

I have passed the trait onto my kids.

Max especially.

little foodie...

You know you are a raising a little foodie when...

he prefers lemon curd and homemade raspberry jam on his pancakes...

he asks to taste your sauce and than says... "it needs a little lemon juice." or "maybe a little more salt." or "just a little bit of agave for sweetness."

When watching master chef proclaims.. "look they are using prosciutto, just like we have."

asks for goat cheese and apple slices as a snack.

Sushi is his favorite food.

tells you that your broccoli is cooked "perfect"

I love our little Oliver Beandip.

Max.. .

.. .MESSY IS AWESOME.. .

C.H.A.P...

stands for Childrens Healing Art Project, a super cool Non-profit kids art therapy program. They have an Art Studio downtown that kids can come in and make a huge mess, all to raise funds for their work in Hospitals.

What a cool place, seriously my dream to have a room like this in my own house!

.. .personality... .

Is it weird that Ollie loves Yoga?

He gets his blanket out and spreads it in front of the t.v. and will do his entire Yoga kids DVD. All the poses, All the breathing... I think it is awesome!

but Max doesn't really want any part of Ollie's yoga-ing?

He spreads out his blanket and than just bugs Ollie, by acting silly...

...

Ollie is very serious about his practice.

freckle twins and lucky toes.. .

did you know, Ollie and I have freckles on the inside of our left pinkies, in the same spot.

We have declared each other freckle twins, and even have a special pinky handshake.

Really, how weird is that to have freckles in the exact same, odd spot.

You know what else is special about Ollie, he has crossed toes. The toe next to his big toe, and the one next to that, cross over each other, have since he was a baby. The doctor said as long as it is not bothersome to him, he is fine. I told him it just means he is lucky... and he is one lucky boy.. and I am a lucky mama to have such an awesome little Oliver.

..weekend.. .

spent the weekend at my new favorite campground.

we grew up camping at big lake, still love that place, but... a campground with no dirt and hardly any mosquitoes... you have stolen my heart!

want this... .

Have you seen this book?

the secret lives of princesses

I can't even get over the amazing illustrations in this book! I know what all my nieces are getting for Christmas! and you know Ollie and Max will totally appreciate this book too, it is mostly for me though!