Aunty Coco and the kids

Strolling Siskiyou

 Call me lazy but I like walking to the park along Siskiyou rather than Klickitat. Even though most of the way on Klickitat is a greenway and not a street, the playground is closer going the way I prefer. You still have to cross streets either way.

Today I joined Courtney as she took the kids to Irving Park...along Siskiyou ;o).

Balance boy

 Wyatt said he was going to the teeter-totter first thing. I think this guy would do great on a snow board this winter if given the chance.

Couple of swingers

The kids were on vacation with their Mom, Dad, Granny and Pa for the past week.  They came back to us with sun kissed cheeks and sun bleached hair.  

They have been loving their summer so far.

Climbing cutie

Genevieve has a couple of loose teeth.  I think it would be awesome for her to start 1st grade looking like a jack-o-lantern. Okay girl, it's time to wiggle, wiggle, wiggle those two teeth!

Divide and supervise

While I was pushing Danika and Garrett on the swings, Courtney was across the way watching Wyatt and Genevieve on the teeter-totter. 

It was shady on her side of the playground so when my kids were done swinging we joined the others.

Snack Stop

Kellogg's has a new variety of fruit snacks. They are characters from Phineas and Ferb, one of Wyatt's favorite cartoons. Perfect to tide over pre-lunch hungries when coupled with string cheese.

Big tree

This isn't as big as the tree Harlan posed with but the three kids couldn't circle it without Courtney's help behind the tree.

Coolin' off

Wyatt had a nice cool walk having his own personal water pourer. We are planning an outing for Cam's birthday tomorrow and I think spray bottles may be a good idea to keep cool.

Heading home

This is a good picture of our few days of summer so far.  Temps in the high 80's and more humidity than I'm comfortable with.  We now have temps and humidity to rival the ones that Alyssa and her family have been putting up with since April.

My hat and pretty much all the rest of my clothing =O is off to you for enduring this for so long.

I do welcome Summer but hope she doesn't stay too long.

Saturday morning walk

The dawning of a hot day

The sun had been up for a while when I took this picture through the neighbors trees.  I love living in a tree filled neighborhood. Old and established. Why...that describes me too! Doesn't established sound better than "stuck in a rut"? I determined to get out of my rut this morning and decided a walk would be nice. I had a destination in mind so Har and I took off.

Regina's hydrangeas

Our neighbor Regina passed away several years ago but I still refer to this house as hers. Thus the hydrangea bush out front is hers as well.  It is heavy with blooms. That bush provided the flowers for Joylynn's bridal shower, Alyssa and Logan's wedding reception and we even brought a few to LaGrande when Cherise and Kiel got married 4 years ago. 

More neighborhood greens

I saw so many blooming bushes along our way. The ivy covered tree trunk that Harlan is standing by was impressive.The tree is enormous and the ivy has pretty much covered the first 15 ft or more.

G & G on 15th and Prescott

I've seen this restaurant in passing and saw it online when I was researching places to take Hayden for breakfast for his birthday. I thought we'd scope it out by walking there. It is exactly 6/10's of a mile from our house. Six tenths of a mile uphill. 

We got there at 9 a.m. just as they were opening for the day. They are open for lunch and dinner every day but only serve breakfast/brunch on the weekends. It's not going to work out for Hayden's birthday this year. Har and I loved the decor. They've done a great job with the grain theme. It feels like a rural place in the middle of the city. The music playlist was loaded with amazingly familiar tunes from our past. We could sing along to all of them. Cowboy ballads and good ol' boy songs.

Doesn't the water served in a wine bottle along with my coffee with cream make a lovely still life photo?

We tried their specials

The portions looked small at first because the plates are ginormous! 

The quality of the food was wonderful. Everything was delicious. They get their coffee from the little place next door to them that has their own roastery. I think perhaps next Saturday's walk will find us trying their coffee and perhaps a scone.

One of the best parts

Six-tenths of a mile downhill!

Not bad for a Saturday stroll. 

This could become habit forming.

Just chillin'

 Hanging out on the porch

 It was nice of Joylynn to come over and hang out on the porch with her Dad.  They don't get enough dad 'n' daughter time. Daughter dates will be reinstated soon I hope.  

We certainly enjoy having the extension of our living space that the porch provides. We need some better lighting to be able to spend evenings out there. And perhaps a bug zapper for those evenings as well ;0)

Time in Tualatin

Awhile ago I saw a post about this concert on facebook.  Actually it was about the band that was playing at this concert. They were playing in West Linn on our anniversary and we'd planned to go but our plans changed.  We opted for this more family friendly venue to take the boys to.

The city of Tualatin has a beautiful commons. This fountain was a destination for lots of kids. 

 We'd been to this place only one other time. It was on Hayden's birthday many years ago.  We took him to a restaurant called "Hayden's Lakefront Grill", which is just to the right of where this picture was taken. It's so lovely there. A farmer's market is set up on the other side of the lake every Friday evening during the summer.

Big Night Out!

Our friend, Jeff Beatty is the lead vocalist for the group. I love a concert where you can sing along with all of the songs. They advertise to be a Rock*Pop*Funk band. They did live up to that advertisement. The highlight for Har and I was when Jeff sang "When a Man Loves a Woman". He dedicated it to a couple in the audience that had been married 60 years! I think the boys liked all of it but especially the couple of Lady Gaga songs that the 3 gals harmonized on.

I love live music!

We sat in lawn chairs just behind the boys. This dog and it's owner were right next to Cameron. It was a very well behaved pooch, thank goodness.  I didn't want to have to move our chairs as we had great seats.

Next time we are going to be brave enough to get out there on the dance floor, right guys?

Makes eating toast feel like a vacation

Franz bakery has a variety of breads and many are named after places. Big Horn Valley, Oregon Trail, Columbia River, Cannon Beach, Black Butte, Shasta Wilderness, and San Juan Islands to name a few.

Their breakfast breads are Lake Chelan Blueberry Streusel, Napa Valley Cinnamon Vanilla Raisin, and Bainbridge Island Cinnamon Swirl.

It's like a "Calgon take me away" moment for your mouth.

Thank you people at Franz for broadening our horizons one bread at a time.

Yummy!

Rylan's day

Can hardly believe Rylan is...

thirty-two!

 I'm posting this picture because the one without a flash made it look like he was turning 37. I'm not much older than that, so I'm setting the record straight. He is 32 and I was just a child when he was born :0)

The tradition continues

The birthday kid chooses whether they want Harlan and me to take them out for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  They also choose the cuisine. For Rylan it's almost always Asian fare. 

Korean ribs for Rylan and a bento box for me, Har chose teriyaki chicken. This Mio Sushi is in the Hollywood district and I was concerned about parking, but it is located on the street level of the 24 Hour Fitness building so their parking lot is available. Very nice.

My main man and our #1 son.

Birthday outing with the Bros

Last year Rylan wanted to introduce the guys to Big Al's on the West side of Portland.  This year I dropped them off at the one in Vancouver. It is a beautiful facility. Hayden mentioned that we should take the grandkids there for bowling. I think they'd love it.

The Arcade was rockin'

I took off for an hour and a half or so. Did a little shopping and pumped my own gas. But then I thought I'd go over and take a few pictures of the boys. All of them were ready for a beverage break. Then Ry continued to rock the DDR for a while longer.

Air hockey command performance

Hayden and Cam had mentioned that they had played some air hockey.  I had them play once again so I could get some action shots. You can see a bit of the main area of the building along with the bowling alley behind Hayden.  Everything is done on such a grand scale.  It doesn't feel crowded at all even when there are a lot of people there.

I should have been playing air hockey yesterday...the name on the side of the table is HOTFLASH! 

We have been so blessed to call Rylan our son. His wit and wisdom are not widely shared but for those who know and love him, he's caused us to look at the world from a different angle. He's well read and well traveled and there are many adventures yet to be had.

Perhaps he'll get that truck he talks about every now and then and drive to PEI. That is one road trip that I'd like to take too. But only if I can spend some time in the U.P. on the way there and back.

Happy Birthday Ry!

Thirty-two years of parenthood

Our BIG birthday month

We began our parenthood in August with Rylan's birthday in 1980, we had our eighth and final child in August of 1998. All of our boys have August birthdays as Hayden arrived in August or 1994. We have got a couple grandkids born this month too. It should be a great month for celebrating in the sunshine!

Today's birthday boy

Thirty-two years old. 

This picture was taken awhile back but it's perfect for today as well.  Rylan came downstairs this morning with a cat in his arms. It wasn't Ninja, who is in this photo, but Peanut-butter our part Siamese kitty. 

I had a very full day with the birthday guy and the other boys of August.  I'll post photos of our adventures hopefully tomorrow. But I'll leave you with a picture of...

 The Birthday Pie

Ry passed on his traditional birthday watermelon and asked for pie and ice cream instead. 

The carton in the upper left of the picture announces "2 more"!

Yes, we'll celebrate 2 more and than another two after that.

Let the festivities continue!!!