Whidbey Island...ROAD TRIP!

Fun times driving up Sat. and down Sunday. Saw Sarah's aunt Billie and her husband Leo. Great fun, we boated, drew artworks inspired by the beautiful treeline, rode 2 ferries, learned carpentry (who say and 5 year old can't use a saw? or that an 8 year old can't use a power grinder?) and ate at the Centralia Burgerville twice!

Here's proof of most of that. I can provide receipts for the rest. We're back in Portland for the next 3+ weeks. Excited about Volz family visits beginning this weekend. Lots of trips to the park and library (but not the pool--highs in the low 70s all week. Wah wah, I know) to keep the boys entertained. And of course, more blog updates.

Peace and love only/always!

Silver Falls hike

Today was a beautiful day for a hike. So we drove down to Silverton for some Mexican food, then hiked at Silver Falls State Park. We breathed DEEPly.





This next shot commemorates the 19 years of love I have felt for Sarah since 1992, when we met, and when we last walked through this park together.




Check out little Buddha:



What a couple of hams!

Busy month, OK?

No point making excuses for the delay. Here's some photos of summer vay-cay.

We spent 6 days in Bend (central Oregon), enjoying perfect weather and the pool.

and biking...


and hanging with cousins...



and getting our eyes checked!



Lots of playing in the park, reading library books, drinking out of water fountains (my favorite thing about the USA), eating avocados. We have patronized several food carts already, including one selling Kobe beef corn dogs. (Yes, they were awesome). Fireworks tonight, only 1 very minor burn on Gary's finger. So worth it. Sarah got the boys to yell "freedom" every time they chucked a little Pop-It into the street. Take that, King George!

Might hit the Gorge or the beach later this week. More photos to come. I promise.

Lucky #8

Desi turned 8! We had a Mad Science party. After all, what harm could a bunch of chemicals be in the hands of THESE dudes?



We made flubber. Even the little kids got into that:



We dissected a fish, we looked at bugs and coins and leaves in a microscope, we shot corks out of a soda bottle, plus more. I'll upload video soon. Needless to say, I am tired and have little energy left for blogging tonight. Mad science takes it outta ya.

Mother's Day! and Bonus Pics

We celebrated Mom at home by cooking breakfast and hanging out together. Then we ordered Indian food for dinner.
At school, the boys had made gifts. Both in the spirit of spring:



and




The "hanging out" portion of the festivities included some dress up time. I can't put my finger on the style D is going for here. E seems to want to scare us, but it's hard when his summer jammies are so cute. They say "Mr. Strong" on them.





Lastly, and not that it's relevant to Mother's Day, here was E during his annual checkup. Thumbs up!

makin' cookies

Tonight we made cookies. Click here for video.

Spring keeps doing its thing

Happy May Day. Another perk of life in a communist country: 3 day weekend for The Workers. We spent it together, playing ball, reading Harry Potter 5 and some Choose Your Own Adventures, building robots out of blocks. Domestic bliss makes for boring blog posts, though. What you "readers" crave is actually pictures. To wit:

Here was us downtown for Easter brunch. Mmmm, haze.



Afterward, Desi and I caught a cab to his baseball practice/game. So Sarah took E around town for a "Where's Waldo?" type photo shoot. Can you spot him?

On the Bund:



On the Nanjing pedestrian mall:



On the tidal wave of consumerism:



As for the baseball game, D had fun and got some hits. He and his buddies are really getting into baseball, which I love to see. We're still working on tagging up on fly balls, and such finer points, but they can catch fly balls for real and throw pretty far. And they all love to hit, of course. Pics soon.

In other news...the littles had a sleepover that did not end in fisticuffs, unlike our first attempt last year. Proof:



Just got some more shots from spring brEAK! (As you can see, Jeff is a better photog than I)







How that my IB classes have stopped meeting, and my online training to teach online is almost over, I should have more time to blog. Of course, with all this sunshine, I might be outside throwing batting practice. I hope the sun is shining on you, but not too much. Unless you enjoy that. Osama's dead, Peace out!