May 2015

In May, we all went to our usual spot at Neskowin beach, where I learned our dog Annie has a problem about climbing up stairs that you can see through, like the ones up to our third floor rental. So I carried her up and down.

Still, it's fun to see a dog's very first step on the beach. When you get a dog, you kind of have to go all in, so she'll be part of family outings for a while to come.

Oliver listening to a recorded book

My Father's Day pictures.

Swinging at the farm.

This was a stop on our way home on a beautiful Friday afternoon.

Zaeda turns six!!

Dressed up for school.

Some special t-shirts from the amazing Tony Rosenast...

...which we wore to the movie special premiere

April 2015

This is by far my favorite photo of the year. It was one of the last times Zaeda carried Annie, which she did often the first couple months with the puppy. In fact, it was common enough that her carrying the dog around after drawing these fine sidewalk-chalk mermaids was no differnt than carrying a doll, one that got bigger and more wiggly every day.

We enjoyed a mellow spring, plenty of nice days spent in the back yard. 

The kids decorated these spoon rests for Mother's day gifts.

International dinner night: Italy!

We had lots of good times with this guy: Cousin Evan, shown here at about a year and a half old.

Oliver started the year a Taekwondo yellow belt and worked his way to purple.

Jenny surprised me for my birthday with a getaway to a beautiful cabin on the Rogue River.

A beautiful day.

March 2015

Wow. The biggest change to our family this year was the adoption of this little monster. The kids named her "Annie" and the day after we brought her home, she got sick. We had $1,500 in vet bills before she'd even spent 24 hrs in our house.

Fortunately, we've decided to get our money's worth out of her. Jenny took her to obsedience classes and has done a great job getting her to follow simple rules. By the end of the year, she was a great deal bigger, and quite a spazz, but we're used to her now.

 

Zaeda loved nothing more than to pick this puppy up and carry her around -- while she could.

Oliver and I took a sunny day to hike through Tryon Creel camp.

They had a science fair about raptors at Tryon that day, so of course we took the opportunity to dissect and study some owl turds.

Mostly mouse bones.

 

The kids often fall sleep like this.

 

Just couple superheroes.

 

I was trying to select a fashion photo and decided my options would paint the best picture of Zaeda, the poser extraordinaire.

February 2015

We just returned from three really beautiful days at the coast. We spent most of it at Long Beach, where we saw the kite museum, the whale skeleton, and (of course) Marsh's Free Museum. On the way home, we climbed the column in Astoria to launch a few balsa planes. Good times!

An excited young scientist spots the whale skeleton

Windy at the top.

Oliver sorting the international coin collection.

January 2015

I have undeniably neglected this blog in favor of short Facebook posts – often from my phone, the way people do these days. But I can't let the year go unmarked here. For Mother's day, I printed out the whole blog before this point, and it's been looked over repeatedly by the kids. 

So here goes a month-by-month update on 2015.

Oliver and his shrimp.


This year we started with a resolution: To take our whole family out for an international-themed dinner. This night we went to Shinju restaurant.



 Itadakimasu!

A panorama of two often-messy bedrooms.