Portland to Coast & Goonies!

Portland to Coast came and went.  I have a huge blister the size of a half-dollar on my left heel, and the top of my right foot is so bruised I can't wear flipflops or wrap it.   BUT it was worth it, I had a lot of fun with my friends and the walking wasn't too bad.   My first leg ended in St. Helens (before the fire started at Les Schwab!) around noon, it was mostly uphill for the 5.25 miles - at the end I saw Terri Bequette!  She keeps saying it's her last year of Portland to Coast... but she keeps coming back!

My second leg was at 2am for 5.5 miles and ended in Astoria... but it was pitch black with forest on both sides of the road.  It was so scary!  I'd see another walker once in a while, but either she/he would pass me and be gone within minutes or I'd pass him/her and not see anyone else for another 20 minutes.  My friend Brandee walked it with me so I wouldn't be all alone, but even then it was still scary!

Our team on "decorating" night

 

Brandee and me with "Zucchini Jen" named after a friend who wasn't able to do the walk with us.

 

Me by my "magnet" on the van

 

ew... we saw a lot of these in the 31 hours...

 

Putting reflective stickers on our butts...

 

Me getting ready for my first leg

 

At the finish line, someone was taking the beers for a walk...

 

Our team "The Rack Pack" at the finish line!

 

Rory took care of the boys while I was doing the walk- he did a good job and they showed up around 1pm to see me at the beach.  The boys got to play in the sand for a while. Quinny even took off on his own "journey" crawling through the sand as far as he could and then ate some sand and came back.

 

Ronin made a friend at the beach

 

Yay Ocean!

 

Embarrassing hat to keep his ears warm - check!

 

Quinny starting his crawling quest...

 

Bye guys!

 

Taking a break...

 

Digging together...

 

and his return trip...

 

Waiting to eat a hot meal in Astoria!

 

 

Ronins pet lobster...

 

On our way out of Astoria I got to see the GOONIES house! yay! Ronin was nice enough to get his picture with me :)

Goonies!

 

The Goonies House

 

On Sunday I took the boys to the park to swing :)

 

Pushing little brother

 

He loves to swing with the wind in his hair ;)

 

Weeee!

 

:)

 

Ronin fell asleep butt-up on the couch one night... hehe

 

Ronin's rocks after they are all polished.

 

I tried to put Quinn in Ronin's first halloween outfit... he didn't want to be a dragon :(

 

That's about it for pictures this week... Rory is working on the siding and roof to Ronin's fort this week and then we are on vacation next week, a road trip to Ashland, Oregon!  Leaving Monday coming home Friday or Saturday - should be fun! 

 

Lots of love,

C

 

 

p.s.

Quinn now has 6 teeth!  4 on top, 2 on the bottom! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sicky Quinny & Aphie the Robot Mom

I bought a new stroller off of Craigslist last weekend, it has a spot for Quinn and then a little "shelf" for Ronin to sit or stand on behind him so he doesn't get tired and beg to be carried.  So Saturday as we were waiting for the sun to come out and warm up the day we walked with it to Target and stopped at the park on the way back, where we got rained on a little bit...  I thought it was supposed to be nice that day!  It was, but not until like 3 that evening...

 

Daddy and Quinn swinging

 

Oreos and swinging..

 

Crawling through the tube

 

Climbing...

 

Cute brothers :)

 

After the weekend Quinn seemed to get whatever virus Rory and I had the week before.  On Monday he had a fever around 101 so we took him to the doctor, who told us it was a virus and there was something going around.  Poor guy didn't feel better until this morning, 3 days later!  So far Ronin has avoided it, thankfully.

 

Ronin spent the night at his Grandma Jan and Grandpa Rod's house Monday night and on Tuesday he came back in a ripe mood from no napping.  All he wanted to do was watch Scooby Doo and I told him that he had to wait until later that night.  He threw a tantrum and told me (again) that he's going to run away and find a new family.  So I sent him to his room.  He came back out a little bit later and presented me with an oatmeal container with a golfball taped to the top and said "here's your NEW son" and then went back into his room.  A moment later I went into his room to talk to him, and he showed me Alphie his talking robot and said "this is my NEW mommy".  haha   I told him I hoped Alphie knew how to make pancakes. 

 

I signed Ronin up for a "Fun Run" for kids on September 23rd.  I don't think he has to run far, but for $10 he gets to run, gets a tshirt and a medal - he's pretty excited about it.  I told him he can dress up as a super hero for the run because the theme is "Heroes for Hope" for the Childrens Cancer cause... he told me he doesn't need to dress up as a superhero because he's already cool enough.  haha

 

We had an employee appreciation barbecue at work on Wednesday to celebrate our 5th year in a row of receiving the JD power award, here's me with my friends Bill, Jason and Deborah:

 

 

This weekend is the Portland to Coast weekend!!  I'm super excited but a little sad to be leaving the boys at home :(  I will miss them terribly!  They are supposed to come meet me at the beach though!

 

Take care and wish me good luck!

C

 

Fair and Hair

This last week was the Clark County Fair.  I had the "pleasure" of working it for two 4-hour shifts last week.  The first shift was in the "environmental" booth, where I let kids make a salmon-safe stream with sand and trees and logs.  The second shift is where I handed out cups of ice-water with 3 other co-workers.  At one point we were bored enough to "owl" on a stool:

This is me "owling"

Friday night Rory, Cheyla and the boys came at the end of my shift so we could go play!  We watched the "tough trucks" and ate lots of food and eventually Ronin got to ride some rides and play games.  He won one of the HUGE stuffed animals by throwing rings around the rubber ducks in the water!  I've never seen anyone actually win one!  He's very proud of himself.

His HUGE dog prize

Cheyla holding Quinny at the "tough trucks"

One of the trucks tipped over- yay!

Quinny at the fair

Visiting the baby piglets!

Fishing for prizes

Piloting a plane

Riding a motorcycle

Winning a hammer

Over the weekend Nana came to visit everyone.  We went to the Farmers market and picked up fresh green beans and a lavendar plant.  The next day we had a feast of green beans and chicken and dumplings. yumm!  Ronin got a new spiderman that shoots webs from Nana and Quinny got a cool steering wheel toy too!  They were very spoiled and love there Nana lots :)  Ronin showed Nana his book of monsters than he drew... at least 3 times.  He's become a very talented monster-draw-er.  :)

Quinn and his binky

Ronin has been fascinated with catching grasshoppers lately too.  We make him let them loose at the end of the day, but he claims they love him and they don't want to leave since they sit on his hand when he lets them go before jumping off... I think it's because they have a concussion from all the shaking their cage gets while he's toting them everywhere...

Ronin- the grasshopper whisperer

And... Wednesday evening I came home to see that Ronin grabbed his safety scissors and cut his own hair:

We had to hold him down kicking and screaming to shave the rest of it off.  He was not happy with us.  But he was also grounded from scissors and TV after that...

Quinny loves bathtime, he's so anxious he can't wait for the tub to be ready, and here he's watching brother take a bath and wants in too!

Quinny wanted to get in the tub with brother

Nothing too exciting planned this weekend - just to survive the heat... and next weekend is my Portland to Coast marathon - yay!

Lots of love,
C

Mum-Mum's and Sunshine

Summer is officially here!  No sunburns to report yet, but it's hot out there!  I'm ready for fall now.

Ronin got a new hat last week, I caved and bought him the cool hat he tried on a couple weeks ago, it's a skater hat and he loves it. He looks like such a big boy in it, and he likes to wear the bill to the side so he looks like a punk.  haha

Last week I took the boys to the concert in the park on Thursday, it was a Tom Petty tribute band.  They were pretty good!  Rory stayed home to rest since he'd been working overtime all week. 

Quinn wearing brothers hat and drinking his bottle at the park

Ronin and his buddy Sean at the park.

Here's a couple of pictures from 2 weekends ago at the boat house too:

Byrekka and us at the boat house

Ronin has been collecting rocks from the river for his rock tumbler

Quinn is finally eating a little finger food and loves those "Baby Mum-Mum" crackers.  He's been doing good, only a couple of times I've had to pat his back to keep him from choking...  it will be nice to feed him more of what we eat soon! 

Eating a "Baby Mum-Mum"

Quinn and Ronin have been taking baths together the last 2 nights and Quinn turns into a little spaz and starts splashing around and trying to tackle his brother, it's so funny and really hard to video tape since I have to keep pulling his head out of the water when he tries to eat the bubbles...

In the bath eating a Little People

  

Last weekend we had a karaoke party at Mike and Shelley's house.  We had a lot of fun but we've also discovered we are too old to stay out late or drink anymore.  My niece Cheyla stayed over to watch the boys while we went out.  Here's our "rockstar" karaoke night pics:

This is me

And the girls!

The Clark County fair starts this week, we are hoping to take the boys on Friday - unless it's 100 degrees again!  

With the hot weather we haven't been able to work on the fort again yet so it's still in limbo in the backyard... hoping to get to it soon though!

Take care and lots of love!

C