Monday, July 12, 2010

Oregon Coast and Vancouver

Ryan had a conference scheduled in Vancouver, Washington so we decided to make a little family vacation of the trip.  Here are a few pictures of our adventures.  We spent 3 days on the coast first and then headed inland to the Portland/Vancouver area.  

What used to be the largest Sitka Spruce in North America.  The top blew off about 2 1/2 years ago, but it's still an impressive tree. 

 

Ecola State Park
Tillamook Creamery-a must see for dairy lovers.  

Portland Children's Museum
The Portland Zoo
Japanese Garden and Rose Garden in Portland
Bonneville Dam Fish ladder
Multnomah Falls

One event I didn't get a good picture of-we brought home two new family members.  Someone at a gas station had 2 cute puppies they were giving away.  My husband has a very soft spot for homeless animals and we now have two (because we couldn't separate the brother and sister) new puppies, named Sugar and Snap.  They both rode 4 hours home on Ryan's lap (fleas and all.)  I'll post pictures with the kids later (with fleas all dead).  
I guess I should go clean out my car instead of playing on Blogger.  I'm sure the girls will post more pictures on Facebook.  

Friday, July 2, 2010

Zoo Animals

My sister was here in town on Monday and Tuesday for a couple of days and we decided to take the kids to the zoo.  I hadn't been there in a couple of years so my girls were pretty excited, especially Paisley, who has never been to a zoo.  Our zoo is pretty small and doesn't have too many exotic animals, but it's about right for the 2-6 year old crowd.  They also got to ride on the merry-go-round.  Note to self-do not try to take pictures while riding on the very small merry-go-round.  My head was still going in circles for several minutes afterward.   



My Front Door

This post is way overdue, but I still have to write it.  Since we first started building our house, Ryan wanted to build the front door himself.  The idea came from an Amish tradition where the husband would build the front door in anticipation of his marriage.  He had some beautiful walnut wood that came from a tree that was on one of the original homesteads here in Dry Creek Valley.   There were so many projects going on when we moved in that the door just didn't happen.  We put some boards up over our main entrance and just went on.  But our mortgage company withheld a portion of our funds in escrow until we completed the door, as well as several other items that weren't essential for living, but certainly kept the house unfinished. I patiently waited without trying to be too nagging for our front door.  The mortgage company said our deadline was April 30th. By April 30th I had a frame for the front door, but still no actual door to put in there.  We were able to get extensions from the bank, and I kept telling Ryan the deadline was 3 days away, and he put in many almost all-nighters, and by the end of May I actually had a front door hung.  It still needs a couple of coats of finish, and the actual art glass that will go in the windows of the door, but it's beautiful, and it makes the house look more finished.  Ryan does some amazing woodwork-he just doesn't like to be on a timeline.  Now can we talk about bookshelves . .