One more thing

So if your stomach is roughly the size of your fist, why do they even make food this size




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Linn County Fair

Last night we drove 40 miles north to the Linn County fair to see a rock group I've loved for over a decade, the Gin Blossoms.



First we watched a little bull riding.



Then we went to out seats and watched the Rembrandts play. They were most memorable for doing the theme song to the tv show 'Friends'. Finally the Gin Blossoms came out.



The lead singer is terrific as a showman. We had a lot of fun and stayed up entirely too late.
Anyone besides me like this group?
It was a great way to end a birthday.
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Happy 4th of July!

Ahhh, the joys of summer camp...

Thisweek,the kids went to day camp at Camp Wilani.  Its a wonderful old fashioned outdoor camp - where kids takea  bus each day and learn to canoe, shoot archery, make crafts, sing goofy songs, and get good and tired and filthy.

Emma hated the first day, but as soon as she discovered the zip line on day 2, all bets were off and she was crazy about camp.  Vi had lots of friends at camp, and Jakey had some.  Overall it was a great start to summer!

A little summer water fight

Best friends teaming up to cool off and get the boys...

J looks very gotten - look at how soaked that boy is! Twin sister not far behind and still armed.

She may be small, but she is mighty. E held her own with the big kids. She was definately the smallest one there, but she wasn't the wettest!

And home again

We made it back after a long drizzly day.



First we went geocaching. Although Emma is vertically challenged it pays off for her. She found a geocache here with no effort and long before Glenn and I even knew where to look!

Then we went walking up on top of the tunnel that the Sunset Highway goes through. We certainly got our workout today. Dropped off a big and then took the stairs back down.



You can't see completely how high it went but trust me it was a climb!
Saw Prince of Persia and then tried to get one mote
Geocache at the Portland Library but ran out of time. Guess well hit it next time.

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Welcome to Portland

For Fathers day we are off to Portland by train. We checked into the gorgeous hotel and we are about to head out into the city.










We went to OMSI and then had dinner at Todais which is Glenns favorite restaurant.
To finish off the evening we are watching Clash of the Titans in our pjs. The next door neighbors are very loud. Hopefully they won't keep this up all night.
As a bonus this is Pride Northwest Weekend. We've seen some pretty interesting people. Seems like everytime we come up here there is a parade for either a protest of a celebration. We are going to try to avoid the crowds by getting an early start in the morning. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:SW 3rd Ave,Portland,United States

Where or where is summer?

It is June 10 - has anyone seen summer yet? We are at a balmy 58 degrees at 1pm in the afternoon, with a decent amount of cloud cover.

So lets get caught up. We got back from Europe last month, and we've been trying to recover and get back to normal. Vi is off today on a party extravaganza - her bff's birthday is today and they are painting the town together. Luckily nothing depends on weather, so they appear to be having a blast!

So far they have been to build a bear, a pottery painting place and lunch so far. It sounds like so much fun.

Yesterday our youngest, Emma, went to her first day of kindergarten. They have a half hour where they get to walk in and visit kindergarten, meet the teacher, and prepare for fall.

Bonjourno from Italia!

Well we made it across the pond in a more southern route than we initiially planned. We flew directly to Rome a few days late, and stayed two nights in the apartment we'd stayed at before. Then it was on to Navigator of the seas for almost 2 weeks. We saw ruins, we saw castles, we saw riots and protests, pyramids, and we all got norovirus. Quite a couple of weeks!
Now we are back in Rome, and only a few days away from re-entering reality. `
The most ironic thing? Its raining. If we didn't have shutters and cobblestones outside, I'd think we were still in Oregon from the weather. We did have glorious weather on the trip on the boat. Even Egypt, known for its hot weather, was a mere 95 degrees at the pyramids (considerably cooler than the summer temps of 120-130!
If you want the complete rundown of the trip, you can read our other site - http://powells2010europe.blogspot.com
See you back in the states soon!

Just a little update from the weekend

Ok, so I am going to be a better writer, I really am! This weekend we were supposed to fly to London (along with about what, 180,000 other people) but the big volcano put a dent in our plans! So instead, we stayed home, did some more packing and repacking, and thought about what to fill our time with. One thing that we were going to miss, was my friend K's son's second birthday party. It was ironic really - I missed his birthday while on vacaion, and his first birthday. Thought I was on a roll overall, but I finally got to go to one!
Anyway, my friend K is a WIZ at cakes, she adds a whole new level to it. Amazing woman. This is this year's cake. The sesame street characters are all made of white chocolate - she made them all, then colored them and sculpted the whole thing.
Violet with one of her pretty faces wearing the birthday boys' ribbon!
Emma was happy to finally be one of the big kids (I guess age 5 is closer to 8 than to 2 in the kid pecking order.) They had a terrific time! Here is Emma on the couch watching me.

A little detour

Hello all! I'm sorry I've been such a terrible blogger lately. We are about to embark on a big trip, which you can follow at http://powells2010europe.blogspot.com We had actually hoped we'd already be on that trip, but the nasty volcano is holding things up.
I'll be back to check in shortly. I miss blogging!

Long time no post

Hello long lost readers. Thought it was about time to get back to the blog. Today was the twins' first piano recital. It was pretty cool to see them perform, and utterly amazing to see some of the work the other older students are doing. This one boy is composing, and oh my goodness was he fantastic. Anyway, here are the kids doing duets with their instructor. He is a fantastic piano player in his own right, with several CDs and concerts around the pacific northwest.

2009 Overall was a really hard year, and so we hunkered down and got through it. We spent a month in Portland, and I almost lost the love of my life. All worked out and now we are refocusing our priorities and concentrating on what is important.
One thing that is important to all of us is travel and photography, so we intend to pack more of that into this year. I've cut back my hours at work, and we've booked a big vacation in the spring. More on that later.
Wanna get caught up on pictures? Try http://pileofpowells.shutterfly.com I'll try to post more often as we go!