Busy

Hi all,

We've had a busy few weeks around here! It all started a few weeks ago when the three of us drove out to Sauvie Island to go berry picking. We only got the tail end of the strawberries but had perfect timing for the blueberries and raspberries. Conor had such fun running in between the bushes and stuffing himself full of berries. I think he easily ate 6 pounds of berries that afternoon. Then, he kindly returned at least three pounds, if ya know what I'm sayin'!

We got home and I made two batches of strawberry jam, two batches of raspberry and froze enough blueberries so we'll have blueberry pancakes for life if we want them. There is something so soothing for me about making jam. Its like this old timey tradition of picking food and storing it away for the winter. Not that our jam will last into the winter. I give it until end of fall, tops.

And speaking of picking...the peas in our garden are going crazy! Conor loves to wander over to the garden and say "pea? pea? pea?". Usually he takes one bite and feeds the rest to Tucker. At least he gets a few vitamins. We are having a lot of fun with our garden this year and, for first time gardners, I'd say we're doing pretty well. We just ate one of our carrots earlier this week in a salad, our peas are going crazy and we've got one yellow squash just about ready for picking. We're really looking forward to our pumpkins though which have all but taken over the garden. Perhaps its a good thing so many of our other veggies were carried off by birds and squirrels.

The week before 4th of July, Conor and I spent four days up at Niki's family's cabin just outside of Madras. Its in a beautiful spot overlooking the canyon which more than makes up for the lack of plumbing or electricity. I've been going for years with Niki and other assorted friends but this is the first time we ever took the kiddos. We spent the first day down at the lake and, while Conor normally loves any water, he was a little uneasy in the lake. Maybe its because the water was just above freezing cold, or maybe it was the slope or maybe the sand. At any rate, he preferred sitting near the shore and splashing. He looked so grown up to me in his little swimtrunks cruising along the shoreline. The second day we drove down through Bend and into Sisters for a picnic in the park. On our way, we passed a beautiful new building that turned out to be the local fire department. Rob, Niki's husband, asked for a tour and we were able to see all the firetrucks, the pole (whoo hoo!) and the whole fires tation. Such fun! I only wish Conor was a little older so he could have enjoyed it more. He sure did love sitting in the fire truck and "driving" it though! (Unfortunately, we all forgot our cameras that day so no pictures to document the fun.)

Conor and Addi and a lakeside snack.

After the fire station, we made it to the park. For a while the kiddos played on the toys and then we started a marathon game of freeze tag. I forgot how much fun it is to just run around while being chased by a five year old. Its strangely liberating.

Addi feeding Conor some freshly picked blueberries. Aren't they so cute together?

Morgan had July 3rd off from work and since the weather was absolutely gorgeous, we headed down to Jamison Square in the Pearl District. Jamison Square is the quintessential urban park. It occupies one city block and is surrounded by cute shops and fancy restaurants. And Starbucks. Of course.Look how busy this place gets. Don't you love the guy in the foreground with the video camera? And the lady near the center of picture who is fully clothed yet soaking wet sitting in the water?

Just thought this one was cute.

Look at the little man. It looks like he's modeling for J. Crew or something.
Making new friends
Look at the way I'm holding his arm. You better stand still for this picture, kid.
Kisses!Daddy is slightly more tolerable to be photographed with than Mommy.

On the 4th of July we had a barbeque with Kristen and Keenan and Mom and Art. Morgan and Keenan went out and bought yard games so we played several games of Baggo and a realllllllly long game of croquet. Yeah, croquet is hard. About 8:30 Conor was expressing his tiredness so I put him to bed while Morgan and Keenan set up the (illegal) fireworks they had bought on a trip to Washington. Being the nervous Nellie I am, I was super uneasy about having (illegal) fireworks in our front yard. I could just picture the police storming down our street and arresting Morgan while Conor and I hid in the backyard. Well, the police must have had bigger fish to fry that night because they left us alone and we had quite the show. All the neighbors were out and fireworks were everywhere. Just one more reason why I love our neighborhood.

My best attempt to wrangle a picture of Conor in his super cute 4th of July outfit.

Oh, and in the midst of the fireworks, Keenan proposed to Kristen! Whoo hoo!


So, while we've been busy playing, Morgan has been busy working. He built a series of wine racks for my Mom's wine room of a steel frame and wood pegs to support the wine bottles. All together it will hold just under 400 bottles of wine. All together there are 768 wooden pegs. All together there are nearly 1600 screws. On top of it all, once Morgan began to assemble to whole thing, he realized that it would look so much better if each wooden peg was sanded. So, go back to those 768 pegs and sand. ALL OF THEM. It was a massive project and it looks absolutely stunning now that it is finished.

The finished product.

Close up of interior.

Close up of top row.

As soon as he was done with the wine racks, he got to work making a chandelier for a local salon. Its nearly impossible for me to explain what it looks like so you'll just have to wait for pictures. All this to say that my husband is rad and I love him. Seriously? How cool is that stuff? Made with his own two hands?

So, as I've said, we've been busy. And the summer has barely started. We'll be off to San Diego in about a week and a half for the annual Walsh Family Reunion. We are so looking forward to seeing everyone again. We've been doing lots of video chats with Papa and Gaga and Conor easily recognizes them now. He walks around the house with his cell phone going "hi, papa. hi, gaga." over and over and over again. We also put together a slide show of pictures from our AZ trip in May and he loves to watch the pictures of TT (JT) and Nana (Anna). I'm excited that he knows who his cousins are. He'll have so much fun playing with them.

Alright folks, my fingers are going numb from all this typing and most likely you've either tuned out or stopped reading altogether. If you're still here, I thank you. Hope you're having an awesome summer too!