Catching Up

 I've shared some photos and stories with family and friends via email and facebook, but the family blog has languished as we've worked through what is one of the busiest times of the year.  We have some catching up to do.

Today we were cleaning up the house, as we try to do every weekend, and also shifting things around upstairs, moving the office to the playroom so that Oliver will soon have his own bedroom. That big change is coming next weekend. What we find, as we attempt to straighten out any area at the end of the week, is that there are toys and drawings everywhere. The toys, the large dinosaurs and dolls, the many tiny odds and ends: legos, game pieces, wheels, minutes plastic fashion accessories are,  I suppose as easy to pick up as they are to spread throughout the house. Some just make a momentary rattle in the vacuum and then are forgottten.  But the kid's drawings are different. You can't just toss a drawing. It has to be evaluated, weighed, and if you want to keep it, which I often do, you try to jot the artist's name and date in the corner. And then that precious artwork goes into a plastic bin that you intend to curate for the rest of your life.

Zaeda worked on this one off and on for days

Oliver's exploration of light and dark

I grumble when I have to sift through this stuff. Where does it all come from? Is this the back of the electric bill?  Some papers from my desk?  Why is this picture cut into a hundred pieces.

But that frustration fades when I consider how lucky I am to have to sort through messy by-products of my kids' imaginations. What would I trade for that?

Excited for DisneyWorld at the end of the year

Jenny surprised us with some family bowling on Father's Day

The Good Humor truck visited our house on sunny lat June evening. The kids ordered Dora the Explorer and Sonic ice-cream snacks. Horrifying.

Oliver at work on his otter presentation.

Sunny evening out at the zoo.

Casual posing at the zoo.

At the Columbia Gorge Vista House on Jenny's birthday

Multnomah Falls Lodge with Mike, Karri, and Evan

Multnomah Falls

Reading together before bed.

Looking through our photos, I see so many times that Oliver and Zaeda are together in some happy hug or activity. And that's true, though it's easy to recall how often they are fighting with each other.

April Beach Trip

Dresses from Jenny's Childhood

Jenny inherited a box recently that had a bunch of dresses she'd worn as a kid. It was dress up time for Zaeda.

The things kids will do for Pokemon cards

 Oliver's new obsession is Pokemon cards and they've become useful currency in our house. You get 10 in a pack, and he'll do all sorts of jobs to earn them.

One Pokemon card earned by washing windows, inside and out.

This is our cat Lilly. We've had her for about 11 years. Has she ever appeared on this blog before? She's not very social, but this day she came out to play Pokemon.

Found this selfie on the camera after I taught Oliver to use the timer. 

Here is my neighbor Chris. He helped me drop a huge limb off the tree in the back yard. And he didn't demand Pokemon cards for helping me. But I did offer him some beer.

Oliver earned one Pokemon card for helping me gather the firewood from the limb we dropped.

Here is a grappling hook I made to pull down widow-makers -- large dead branches, hung up in the top of the trees-- before they fell down on someone..

Zaeda will also do odd jobs for Pokemon cards, but she doesn't play with them. It just bugs her brother when she gets them.

Stormbuilders! Lego Team

Oliver's lego team submitted their project, a bridge, to the big Lego build-off at OMSI.  He had a great time building it with his friend Nicholas and some other boys. Everyone got to build a section.

Boys being goofy: Oliver and Nicholas

Oliver and Nicholas

Team Stormbuilders

Snowed In