Montana's lego video

Montana made a Lego video for Christmas. It's about 12 minutes long.


Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq3mlq5xTcw to view the video.

Braces

On Monday the 20th, I went to the orthodontist and got my braces taken off!  Oh, sweet liberty!  Tuesday I went back and got my retainer, which I first despised and now reluctantly accept.  Hooray for easier flossing!  Hooray for straight teeth that don't get food caught in them (or the braces)!

Summer Vacation is Gone . . .

. . . But not the memories!
I can't recall another summer when we spent so much time playing and going from beautiful place to beautiful place.  Sorry the post is so long.  Here are some of the recent highlights:

Getting ready to swing into the Lewis River during a backpacking trip

There were lots of military vehicles at the capitol one day, the kids loved sitting in a tank and a helicopter

Here's A., my horse-riding gal.  Check out the pink boots!

She just got glasses, but it only adds to her loveliness.

At the Wildlife Safari we met Eeyore's brother.

E. was antagonizing the llama, who threatened to spit on her by pinning its ears back.

Cute girls lounging by the fire at our camp near Crater Lake

The North Rogue ran right behind our campsite; what a stunning natural beauty!

"Happy Holidays from Crater Lake" Perfect strangers thought this shot would make a good Christmas card.

These guys went on a 3.5 mile hike without us girls.  We found a sunny sand pit and whiled away the hour playing.

11-year-old Scout building a proper campfire.  He built (and lit) two evening fires completely on his own.  Well, Dad split the kindling for him, but that was it.

One of two cakes this girl got for her 7th birthday!  I think this one was the prettiest.  I like the confetti.

Here's my glammed-up girl with lip gloss, eye glitter, and every hair accessory she received for her birthday.

In August, we went backpacking with our friends along the Little North Santiam.  This waterfall was amazing!

I love this yummy baby so much! 

Who would have guessed he would actually touch a farm animal.  Not me, I assure you.

This animal lover was in heaven with all those puppies running around her cousins' yard.

Slip

I made a slip for A. because I can't find them in any stores. 

I went ahead and did french seams (not called for in the pattern) and added the pretty lace trim it does call for in the pattern. 

 Usually I skip the trimmings because I lack ...something.  But I really think it looks pretty and I don't mind that I had to go over the same strip four times to get all the trim in place.

Summer Fun

We broke down and bought a pool last weekend.  I wish we would have had it for that super-hot spell last week.  But I'm sure there are more hot summer days ahead.  It really doesn't have to be all that hot for the kids anyway.  They could hardly wait for us to get the pH and chlorine balanced so they could finally take a dip on Monday (the temp. was only around 70-75).  Now we've got to get some fun toys to play with in the pool!

Look how big our sunflowers are getting!

Backpacking

Last weekend we scattered our children to the four winds and had a backpacking trip with some friends. We hiked up Herman Creek and Nick Eaton Trails to Deadwood camp.

Imagine if you can, this amount of steepness for at least a mile.  We went about 4.6 miles the first day up, and it took us about 4 hours because of the ascent.

I made these pants myself!

This is a beautiful shot up the Columbia from Indian Point.

That's Indian Point behind us.  Waaay down there is Washington across the Columbia.  About 2700' elevation here.  We got up to 4050' on our second day hiking.

As we wandered over the ridge on the middle day of hiking, we came across an underground river beneath a massive rock slide.  We could hear the water rushing beneath the boulders, but couldn't get a glimpse of it.  At the very edge, I climbed up into the brush and found the tiniest pool of water, but there was a lot of sound that didn't have anything to show for it.  It was pretty weird to walk over water hearing it, but not seeing it.

All together, Shonee hiked 19 miles and I hiked 17 miles in about two full days.  So much fun, I can't wait until our next trip!

Stuff we've been up to

We've had quite a flurry of activity the past few weeks.  Here's a quick tour of our fun:

We went hiking a few weeks ago on a moderately dry Saturday.  It was drizzly, but we didn't mind it at all.

Check out the gigantic tree trunk, and the very cool mine shaft.  It was "rainier" inside the mine than outside.

Shonee and I also took a hike up Wakeena Falls two Saturdays ago, which had gorgeous weather for hiking. The view across the gorge was amazing!

I made a "fiesta" dress for Alena because we had a fiesta for the last day of school on Friday.

Montana and Alena were waiters.  Emma was the owner (she designed and printed the menu).  Everything was made to order.  Emma also made the pinata.  Alena and I revisited my childhood while making paper flower decorations.  Emma made an enormous one which leant the light fixture a festive air.

And finally, last Saturday, we all went to the beach to soak up the sunshine.  The water was unusually warm, so all the kids got soaked more than once.  There was a mountain of sand we climbed.  It's really hard work climbing up sand!

This shows how steep it was.