Happy Birthday, Abby!

For her birthday we had originally planned to take Abigail to Out of This World, but since we ended up having an absolutely gorgeous day, we changed our plans and headed to the coast.


We first stopped at Camp 18, an old logging camp that has been turned into a museum and restaurant. The food is pretty good (not to mention abundant), and it's just a fun place to go.

Washington State now has the tallest Sitka in the U.S.
The next stop we made was what used to be the tallest Sitka Spruce in the United States, but after our storms at the end of last year it's now half its original size, which was over 200 feet tall. We had been meaning to stop in the past, but, alas, we waited too long.


There was a negative tide on Saturday, so we went to Haystack Rock near Cannon Beach and explored the tidepools there. It was probably the nicest day weatherwise we have ever had at an Oregon beach! It was absolutely the perfect temperature (as long as you weren't getting into the ocean), the sun was glorious but not beating down, and it wasn't even as packed as I thought it might be.



We saw hermit crabs, anenomes, chiton, starfish, and other neat creatures. Abby manage to scrape her leg up pretty good on a barnacled rock, but per her usual toughness didn't let it keep her from having fun.



After a couple of hours the tide began coming in again so we left the beach and headed home, but not before doing a few geocaches along the way.


When I asked Abby what she wanted to eat for her birthday she said, "Cake and meat!" That's my girl! So while the coals for the steaks were heating, Abby opened her birthday presents. It was such a beautiful day that we took the gifts outside and enjoyed the sunshine.


After she opened her gifts, she and Ryan began playing catch with her new purple baseball glove, thinking she was done getting gifts. When she saw Daddy wheel her bike around the corner, she dropped her glove and came running to get on her new bike. She got right on and began riding like a pro, as long as she doesn't have to turn!


Finally it was getting dark, so we reluctantly came inside to eat our meat and cake. Abby had requested an ice cream cake, but when I ordered it from Dairy Queen I didn't realize there isn't any cake in it! This is the first year I haven't made the birthday cake, so it was kind of different for us. We sang Happy Birthdya, she blew out her candles, ate a piece of "cake," and went to bed shortly thereafter. It was a full and fun day!


By the way, Abby's birthday wish was that she could be with her family for the rest of her life...ahhh, isn't that sweet?!

Easter with Gramie

Easter really crept up on me quickly this year, and I felt rushed to squeeze in some of our usual activities. However, we did make and decorate cookies, color eggs, make Resurrection Buns, have baskets with goodies, have an egg hunt, and most importantly attend church to worship the Risen Christ!



It was a special treat to have my mom with us to celebrate and even help color eggs.



The last couple of years we haven't had a church home and haven't attended church on Easter Sunday, but we do finally have one and brought Gramie along with us for service. It was overcrowded, no children's church, and the kids ended up sitting on our laps the whole time which made for a long service! Still, it was nice to worship with other believers and not be a visitor.



Abby looking cute in her Easter bonnet!



The kids got two Easter baskets this year, one from us and one from Gramie.

Spoiled

Last weekend we got together with Abby's birthfather and his mom so they could see her and give her some Christmas presents. He said that the presents were too big to ship so I was curious what they could have given her. They usually give her several nice gifts, but this year they really spoiled her! She got jammies, slippers, boots, pants and jacket, a lighted play aquarium, a bean bag chair, and a Cranium Mega Fort with a 15-month extended warranty! (As a side note, Ryan managed to have a good attitude watching her unwrap all those gifts, which I know was hard for him.)


This afternoon I set up one of the fort configurations for the kids, a ship! It is a pretty neat set, goes together easily, and has a carrying case to store it in. It will be nice to have it in the rainy days ahead.

In her new girlie beanbag wearing her new jammies.

Christmas Day

We had a very low-key Christmas this year, which was great! Abigail never even got out of her pajamas all day long! We had breakfast and cleaned the kitchen, then we got down the stockings.


Then we opened presents from grandparents and cousins. Abby loves these boots from Granpa, but she probably won't get to wear them till next Christmas as they are a quite a bit too big.


Next we opened presents from each other, and then we played with all the goodies. Several people used the kids' wish lists this year, which was great! It's so nice to get things we will really use and want. Abby got several things that will be so helpful in our homeschool, and I'm so appreciative of everyone's generosity to us.


We finally got around to having Christmas dinner. I usually make a rib roast, and this year was no exception. The exception was store-bought bread and salad from a bag, but we all survived the lack of homemade things and it sure was easy! Boy, Abby can put away the prime rib!

Christmas Ham

Our church held their children's program Sunday evening. Ryan and Abby had missed a couple of Sundays where they were practicing and didn't know the whole program, but when about eight kids turned up sick that day, they ended up being given parts in the program. It took some convincing to get Ryan to participate, but Abigail was excited about it.


I was impressed at how much of the songs Abby knew considering she only had two practices! The last song they did that night really got Abby going. Some young girls who kind of dote on Abby were laughing and that just egged her on. We didn't bring our video camera but took some movies with our digital camera (hence the poor quality), and unfortunately our memory card filled up right before Abby had the entire audience in laughing fits. Mommy was a bit embarassed, but more than one person told me that "she stole the show!" I really didn't know she was such a ham!

Abby's Turn

We had our Christmas tree for several days before we were able to bring it in and decorate it. It was soaking wet and once it dried in the garage we had to wait for our heavy rain to stop so we could bring it around the back and into the house. Abby has been so excited about decorating the tree this year. She remembers how pretty it looks and how fun it is. Since we got a shorter tree this year, it was easier for the kids to decorate, and they pretty much did the whole thing themselves.


This year it was Abby's turn to put the topper on the tree, and she was proud get to do it!

Snowy Christmas Tree

Abby had a blast with just the tiny bit of snow we got today, so when we took her up the mountain a bit and there was an inch or so on the ground, she was thrilled! We thought it would be fun to cut our Christmas tree in the snow, and it was!


The kids had a snowball fight, and Abby sampled snow off of a dozen trees. We chose a smaller tree than last year and one close to the van (Daddy's neck and back are still hurting!), but it was neat to see our Christmas tree covered in snow.

After choosing and cutting our tree, we went inside for hot cider and cookies. Each child also got to pick a toy, and Abby chose a seashell necklace. It was pretty cold, so we didn't play anymore after warming up inside. We just took our tree home and stayed inside with the fire going!

Thanksgiving with Gramie

I neglected to get many Thanksgiving pictures, but we did have a good time with Gramie who flew in from California for a week. She spent tons of time with the kids, and they loved every minute, especially the tea parties they had with her!

Abby's Day - Part 2

After our fun time at the Pumpkin Patch, we headed to the zoo for the rest of the day. Abigail absolutely loves the zoo! No matter how many times we go, she is always interested in the animals and never ready to leave.


We only had a few hours since the zoo closes fairly early this time of year, but somehow we still managed to see most of it (it's a fairly wimpy zoo). We even got a close-up look at the male polar bear. He was playing right next to the viewing window, and it was impressive to see how truly huge he is.


It was such a gloriously beautiful fall day, and we almost felt like we had the whole place to ourselves since there were so few people there. We even let the kids play in the small statuary park that is usually swarming with kids but today only had two other small children.


After playing a while, we took a break from roaming the zoo to share a yummy Elephant Ear, one of Abby's favorite treats!


Today was unusual in another way also: we got to see the hippos out of water for the first time ever! Every time we've been before (and we've been a lot!) they have both been in the same spot in the water at a location difficult to see anything but a small portion of their backs. Today they were up and walking around, probably enjoying the lack of people as much as we were.


We were told they had already moved the wolves and grizzlies to another zoo (they are putting in some other exhibit), so we were surprised to see this guy still there in habitat. We've never gotten such a good look at him before, and it's too bad he'll be leaving soon. It was kind of odd and gave me the creeps because he just keep staring at the kids. I was wondering if he was trying to figure them out or if he was just plain hungry!




There's usually no one in the Otter Den, but today was a day for seeing things we hadn't seen before. There were two otters snuggling together in their den. We also saw the beaver in his den and two meerkats in their den today.


We had a very full day, so we finally dragged Abby away from the zoo and headed home after a bite to eat.

Abby's Day - Part 1

We always seem to celebrate Abby's Day late, and this year was no exception. We weren't together as a family on September 18th, the "official" day she legally became ours, so we didn't celebrate it until last Monday. We asked her if she wanted to go play in the snow or go to the pumpkin patch and the zoo, and we were pretty surprised she didn't choose the snow.


Daddy had a few days off, so Monday morning we went out to breakfast and then headed to Sauvie Island Farms to get a pumpkin. It was a gorgeous day and the first time we've ever been to a pumpkin patch here in Oregon when we didn't leave covered in mud! Since it was a school day, we pretty much had the whole farm to ourselves, which was really fun.


We went to the animal barn to see the goats, lambs, calf, turkeys, chicks, rabbits, cow, and other animals. We entered the contest to name the calf: Abby picked the name Bitsy and Ryan picked Cowlick.


There was a HUGE hay pyramid to climb on,


a hay maze,


a short corn maze for kids (as well as a large one that we skipped this year) where you had to follow the path and find the lost animals,


a pumpkin slingshot,


a hay ride which had all to ourselves,


and of course the pumpkin fields (and gourds too!).


We probably spent two hours at the farm and only $9.50, which included three pumpkins, two gourds, the kiddie mazes, and a bottle of water. What a bargain!