Oregon

I am sorry I have not posted in so long.  We have had a busy three weeks filled with lots of fun.  I have posted some pictures from our trip but honestly I was a terrible picture taker so my apologies for all of the good moments not captured, they are burnt into our memories though; thank you to all for making this trip so great, for dropping your lives so we could hang out and for saving the birth of your little one until we got there so I could hold the baby!  Here we are on our way to Oregon.  On our way there we were really set up for toddler, flying disaster: we had to leave during nap time, first flight was 4 hours, the second flight was 2, and we got into Eugene at 12:30 am eastern time.  Through all of that Lily fell asleep 15 minutes before landing in Eugene.  That was the ONLY time she slept.  Mommy and Daddy were on constant Lily entertainment duty.  Here are our tricks that we could not have lived without:
1.  A new backpack that she did not see until we were on the trip filled with new toys that required constant interaction on her part.  (minnie mouse that she could dress and change her clothes, she rides a moped and has a kitty cat - Lily LOVED this- this is saying a lot because Lily does not play with toys much; a removable/usable sticker pad with many different scenes -farm animals, jungle animals, ocean etc; coloring book; Rosy the train from Thomas the train)
2.  A few cartoons on the iPod touch.
3. Books, books and more books
4.  The in-flight magazine.  It turns out not only does Colin love it, but Lily does too.

Lily then woke up at 4 am Eugene time after Colin and I went to bed around 11:15.  That was awesome.  Here Rosy and Lily are enjoying the first of MANY home made Adrienne waffles to come- you cannot beat them, she whips the egg white separately to make them fluffy.

At our favorite coffee shop enjoying our favorite scones.

Reading books with "Harpie."  We stayed a few nights with Mike and Adrienne and a few nights with Katie and Geoff.  We had a blast and cannot thank them enough for their hospitality, good conversation, open homes and flexibility.  It felt so nice to be in EUgene again.  It was green and beautiful.  We even had a few days without rain.

Katie taking Lily and Harper down the slide- turns out this is not as easy as it looks, rubber shoes got stuck and I was there to eject the kids quickly when we needed it.

Every night was a new night of activity.  Many folks came to visit or to have dinner.  On this particular night Celeste and Brandon and their kids Quinn and Beck came over.  Right before bed time it turned into a diaper party with pure craziness ensueing.  Left to right: Quinn, Rosy, Harper, Beck, Lily.

Lily was so excited she just turned around and jumped up and down on the couch yelling "yeehooo,"

Breakfast with Harper and Lily

We got to go to the market.  Lily and Rosy held hands for a lot of it.  

Our friends from Seattle and Tacoma came down.  Here I am holding Liz's son Dylan (3 months old and 1 of 2 ).  She got the prize for making it to Eugene for a couple hours with twins under three months old.  Lily and Harper LOVED the babies.

We cheered Mikey on for the marathon.  We just happened to pick the spot right next to the Bag Pipers- it was great.

Brian and Tiffany came from Tacoma.

Jessica came from Portland



Lily was cheering on the racers and yelling "Go Mikey!"  It was hard to get it on video, but here's a link to Lily cheering Mikey on:  http://youtu.be/O61X1NXhShM

Mikey finished the marathon and in killer time.  Here he is 3rd from the finish line as you can see he finished in under 3:52!  Amazing.

We went out to watch music with the kids.  It was outside and great for the kids to run around and play.

Here is Colin manning it all.  Lily on his lap coloring, Rosie pulling on his ears and Colin trying to eat dinner.  Good job Colin!

Happy Birthday Daddy

Who doesn't need a hat to accompany a great outfit?

A few weeks ago mom, Megan and I took Lillian to a local indoor gym.  Colin took here there when we first moved but she hasn't been back since.  It is three stories of fun, climbing, jumping and playing.  She was intimidated by the height so she went with Aunt Megan up to the top.

With Aunt Megan 2.5 stories up!

In the 3 year old and under zone.  This was more up her alley.

Then Poppy and Mimi came to visit for Colin's birthday. (Before going to Eugene)  The weekend was a blast.

Then to add a little more excitement to the weekend Aunt Carrie and Uncle Dave  came down on Sunday to surprise Colin for his birthday.  Needless to say Colin had a great day and felt so fortunate to be surrounded by family, and so special that everyone made the trip for him.

Counting

Here Lily is at the park the other day.  I have been meaning to post  this video of her counting......she always misses 4 and 5 but when she is focused she can actually get to 10!  Although as you can probably figure out, it's hard to get a good attempt on camera...

http://youtu.be/RJMDG8xOqFY

Happy Easter!

Colin, Kalie and I ended Easter day here at Les Miserable.  Which, I felt, was the perfect ending to Easter.  The opera was beautiful and at risk of sounding as if I am giving an 11th grade book report the overall theme was about sacrifice.  This story had many different story lines but the one that spoke the loudest was the story line of this man who made a choice to live a life of love, honor and sacrifice.  Through all of his trials and tribulations he took the higher road and sacrificed his life to give his "daughter," the city he worked for, the innocent, the down trodden, and his son-in-law a better life.  It was a story of love.  Then today after thinking about our day yesterday and how much love there was it brought tears to my eyes.  I look at this little girl and think about the little one to come and my heart is full.  She and friends and family have taught me to love, to give and to be a better person.  I hope all of your Easters had a resounding theme of love and that your day was as beautiful as that little girl, in the sun, under the blossoming tree.

Nothing but excitement as we spent a lot of time running through the yard.

This was Lilian's second easter egg hunt.  She found 20 eggs strewn about the yard.

With each egg she would say something different..."here's a other egg," "woopsi-daisy here's a yewow one," "an orange one," " oh wow!" 

Showing off her eggs......wouldn't you?

A few fun days!

We have continued to have some nice spring days sprinkled throughout the last few weeks and so we have spent many of them outside.  Lily's Grammy and Grampy got her this t-shirt when they were last in California and we went 3 whole days wearing the same shirt!  She would only take it off to sleep.

Lily helped me put up the hammock to celebrate spring.

We picked the rainiest day to go to the local petting farm.  It was full of babies, these pigs are 2 weeks old.  How cute are these pigs all stacked in a pyramid, three layers high?

Lily liked the tractors the most, anytime we saw a tractor she would rejoice and  say, "mama, dada tractor!"  When we later talked about what we saw that day the first thing out of her mouth was tractor.

Baby sheep -2 weeks.  You can hardly see the black sheep.  (feel free to sing the song no one is watching)  There were baby goats too!

What a good little helper.

Loving (or sitting) on Chevy.

Aunt Carrie and Uncle (aunt) Dave came to visit last weekend.  Lily was in heaven and would not leave their side.  She called Dave Aunt Dave.  (He is the only uncle in the family.)

We HAD to help Grandma Vivian celebrate her birthday last weekend too.  Happy Birthday Vivian. We are blessed to have you as part of our family.  We had a great time, with good food and.......

........gooooood carrot cake.

Thanks Mimi and Poppy for the great Easter purse filled with all the necessities a girl needs.  She loves it.

Lily has been dressing herself as much as she possible can.  She actually picked out this whole matching outfit (she typically never matches) and she put it on all by herself.  What you cannot see because of the sun is her sparkly shoes and her big funny smile.