Happy New Year...

We jump-started our New Year's Eve with a neighborhood trip to Sky High.

Best wishes to all for a great 2012!

Playing with Fire

We visited Portland Glass Blowers Studio today for a glass blowing class. Click here for photos. We each got to make a glass cup, and Drew got to bring some glass rods home to experiment with using our propane torch. Thank you Corey for a great afternoon!

Also, here is another album of photos from our Christmas Eve family gift exchange.

More Holiday Fun

We went caroling last night, followed by dinner with friends and the (first) annual smashing of the gingerbread houses. (We'll let you guess whose idea that was!)


Click here for photos.

Elf Emily has been busy this week making a special gift for a special friend. Here is a photo of her Christmas masterpiece:


Best wishes for a wonderful Christmas!

Holiday Fun

It was a busy weekend of holiday parties and a great start to Winter Break. Click the links below to see photos:

Album 1
Album 2
Album 3

Happy Holidays to all!

Christmas Ships

We got to watch the Christmas Ships on parade on Sunday in the Multnomah Channel. Thanks to our friend Rich for a fun party!

Click here to see photos of the boats... there were some new ones this year.

Oh...what a Christmas Tree!

We took our annual trip to the Christmas Tree Farm this past weekend and after a thorough and extensive search, found the perfect tree. Good thing we carb-loaded at the Lucky Lab pancake breakfast that morning, because it was quite a haul!


After decorating the tree, the kids made three really cute gingerbread houses. They are holding a "best house" contest, so in the photo link, they are simply labeled as 1, 2 and 3. Feel free to cast a vote. We tried to suggest that each was lovely in its own way, but apparently, that was not the response they were hoping for.

Tree Lighting & Zoo Lights

Friday night's tree lighting drew record crowds... click here for photos of the big event. It was a beautiful night to be hanging out in "Portland's Living Room" with Santa, Mrs. Claus, Pink Martini, the Oregon Symphony and a few thousand others!

We took advantage of more good weather on Saturday with a trip to the Zoo for their annual Zoo Lights display. Click here for photos of that outing.

Great Day for Turkeys

We put on our holiday hats this morning for the annual Portland Macy's Parade, marking Santa's arrival and the official start of the Christmas shopping season. We passed on the shopping, though the kids did check out a few mattresses while we were touring Santaland at Macys after the parade. Click here for photos.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Among other things, this morning we were thankful for great friends, fair weather and a washing machine (which some of us needed more than others)... Click here for photos from Mud Bowl 2011, our annual neighborhood Thanksgiving morning soccer game.

Here is another album from the week leading up to Thanksgiving. We had a visit from Grandma & Grandpa, participated in the Willamette Sailing Club's annual Wild Turkey Regatta, and celebrated Drew's friend Vicky's #15 birthday at her Quinceanera.



Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Fall Break

Here are some photos from the past week. Emily got glasses, Drew got a longboard, and Jake is participating in a curling camp.

The kids also decided to show solidarity with the Occupy Portland movement by taking over the basement. They've had a 4-day weekend due to it being the end of the quarter, so they needed something to occupy themselves. Click on this link to see a collection of great photos taken by our friend Robin Damore of Occupy Portland on the day before and after they were asked to take down their camp.

A Super (powered) Halloween

It was a lovely night for trick or treating. Click here for photos.

Drew has quite a knack for pumpkin carving.


As for the twins, they decided to disguise their super powers by day, but by dusk they were powered up and ready to go. Jake was able to match his all-time record high of 14 lbs of candy this year. If only we knew where he's hidden it!

Costume Party

Here are some photos from the costume party we attended on Saturday at our friends Andrew, Ellen & Reeve's house.

We went with super hero theme this year. Hopefully tomorrow, we'll use our super powers to remember to get a family photo:

The Emi-nator... she emanates joy, peace and hugs wherever she goes
The Flasher Flash... he'll flash you his flash costume in a flash
Spinster Woman... able to attract cats from miles away
PatMan... applying positive mental attitude and Pat-like reflexes to all he does
SuperMom... need a snack, tissue, band-aid, mint; she's got it all in her handy super-vest

Speaking of family photos, here's a nice one of the Bo-Peep Family.



Happy Halloween to all!

Weekend Retreats

All three kids had the opportunity to attend retreats this week. Jake and Emily are just back from Camp Collins where they spent a day and a half doing a ropes course with their block class. Pat chaperoned so we have lots of photos. Drew participated in an overnight peer mediation training sponsored by Lincoln, and today Emily had another game signing at Thinker Toys. Click here to see photos.

How Many Kids Does It Take to Carry A Pumpkin?

Jake picked out a sizable pumpkin on our outing to Sauvie Island this weekend... good thing he had lots of help carrying it!

Click here for photos from our afternoon at The Pumpkin Patch with our friends Elan, Diego, Luna, Ari, Tony & Lee, as well as our evening at Kruger's Farm for their Harvest Hoedown.

Night at the (Art) Museum

Last night we attended Shine A Light at the Portland Art Museum. The event is all about interaction with art, so there were lots of unique opportunities. Click here for photos.

Also, The Oregonian ran a nice article about Emily and Mermaid Beach today. Click here to read it.

Staying Occupied

Pat took these photos of the Occupy Portland protest on his way home yesterday. He decided to finish his commute home, in spite of the inviting sign.

And the Winner is....

Drew and his sailing partner Belle took first place this weekend at a regatta hosted by the Willamette Sailing Club. Click here for race photos.


Also this weekend, the twins had another dance class, and Emily had the opportunity to meet more of her favorite designers from Project Runway at a Portland Fashion Week event. You can read about that on her blog.

Dinner Cruise & More

We've had really great weather this week, so we celebrated the end of September with a dinner sail on Thursday evening, followed by another fun dinner with our Friday Night Dance Class carpool.

On Saturday, Drew got a driving lesson in our friend Francesca's vintage VW bug, and we got to share in a birthday celebration for Eli.

Click here for photos.

Also, congratulations Uncle John, Aunt Nikki, and cousin Kaylee on the new addition to their family on Saturday... Happy Birthday Alia Grace!

P.S. Emily has a few new blog posts... see link in right sidebar.

Polka Anyone?

On Friday, it was our turn to host the twin's Dance Class carpool group for dinner. The weather was fantastic - a very summer-like 3rd day of Fall! We also got to help celebrate Ruby's birthday.


As for the rest of the weekend, Saturday we attended an Oktoberfest - complete with wiener-dog racing - and Sunday an Arab Festival. Jake and Emily are taking Arabic as their foreign language at school this year, and Drew is in an International Studies program, so our activities made for some great extra credit.


Click here to see photos.

Dancing School (updated)

Click here for Week 2 photos.

The twins and friends started Ballroom Dancing Class this week. Here are some photos from dinner with our carpool group before the kids headed off to dance. We included a photo of Drew's dance group from 2009 in the album... he was about a foot shorter back then!

We also got to sail Dreamer Too for the first time this weekend. Click here for photos of the kids sporting a much more casual look.

Here We Go Again...

The kids started school today... Drew is a freshman; and Jake & Emily are 7th graders, so it's new schools & routines for all.

Here are links to two photo albums from some of our end-of-summer activities. The kids helped organize a neighborhood Humans v. Zombies game; we took a trip to Hood River for some biking and hiking; and our Ranger 20 has been replaced by Dreamer Too, a Catalina 22, which Pat drove from Montana to Portland over the weekend.


Summer went way too fast... best wishes to all for smooth sailing this school year!

Multnomah Days & More

This past weekend was the annual Multnomah Days Parade. In addition, Emily had her first game-signing event for Mermaid Beach, and Pat had a unique opportunity to take some blind sailors out for a sail during family sailing night as part of an event the sailing club was hosting for the Oral Hull Foundation.

Click here for photos. Just two more weeks of summer vacation before school starts here... we're trying to make the most of it!

Weekend at Timothy Lake

We're just back from a great weekend of camping with friends at Timothy Lake near Mt. Hood. Thanks Mark & Martha for organizing the trip, and happy birthday Tom, Ben & Jan.

Click here for photos. We were so busy hiking, biking, swimming, kayaking, eating Mark's pancakes and KC's bacon, and just generally having fun that we didn't capture all the moments on film, but we got a few!

Sarah-palooza!

This year, our summer exchange student was an extra-special one... our good friend Sarah has been staying with us this past week, while visiting from Oklahoma.

Click here for lots of photos... it was a busy week!


We had a great week showing Sarah around Portland, as well as the Oregon Coast and Mt. Hood. Snow in August was a definite change of pace from the 100+ temperatures she left back home in Norman, and a windy day in Pacific City offered a good opportunity for her to break-in her new University of Tulsa sweatshirt before she starts classes there next week.

Thank you Sarah, for giving us an excuse to be tourists in our own town. We only wish you had packed your whole family!

Last Thursday

Last night we attended "Last Thursday on Alberta", a monthly street fair in NE Portland, to watch our friends Danny & Bella perform with the March Fourth Marching Band.

Click here for photos. It was also movie night at a the park. So much to do... we need more summer!

Surfing on the Oregon Coast

We're just back from a few practically perfect days at the beach... sun, surf, and lots of summer fun with great friends who kindly shared their beach homes with us. (Thank you Tom, Megan, Lisa & their families!) There's just nothing better than a sunny summer day on the Oregon Coast!

We checked out the salmon run on the Nestucca River in Hebo and sand-boarded the dunes in Pacific City, then enjoyed kite-flying, ultimate frisbee, and all-manner of beach fun in Neskowin. Click here for photos, and here for more photos.