Evolution of a Sunset

First it looked like this:

and then it looked like this:

The only thing that would have made it better was the gorgeous Pacific on the horizon.  Beautiful.

Tulips and Blankets

In a bit of a frenzy I grabbed my camera the other morning to snap a few shots of my rapidly fading tulips. They were just too gorgeous and all those good intentions I've had of photographing them finally materialized into actual action.

It seems like we've had a rather strange spring - lots of warm and lots of cold all jumbled up together. Snow one week and seventy degree weather the next. Strange indeed; but the flowers have been shown to best advantage with all the sunshine between all the pouring rain (and hail and snow).

On Monday I was feeling so very springy that I coerced the family into eating dinner on the patio. Before the prayer was even said most of us were swaddled in blankets. Needless to say our foray outside did not last long, maybe twenty minutes. I was the chicken that packed it in first (I hate being cold - the older I get the more I think I really am a California girl at heart - the beach, the water, the sun, swimming pools, flowers year-round). Oh, well, at least we made a memory. ;>

Outside

A couple of weeks ago we finally got the trampoline set up, and the kids' area of the yard is taking shape. Last night marked the first major injury attributable to this lovely piece of equipment. Erik sprained (possibly fractured - they said treatment is the same regardless) his ankle. And so yet another trip to the doctor's office was made. I would tell you all the medical stuff we have been dealing with over the past four weeks, but it's all just too annoying. Chalk it up to life experience.

In other outdoor happenings, Djeryd has been studying the Oregon Trail in school. He has become obsessed with all things Trail. One day last week he came home from school on a very wet day and decided to make a tent like a pioneer. Since it was raining, I assumed he was speaking hypothetically or simply planning some fun things to do this summer. The next thing I know he had constructed what you see above and was actually lying down in it. Please keep in mind that is only a bed sheet over the top of him - hardly waterproof, and the blaket underneath him rapidly absorbed all the moisture from the very wet ground. Sean took the picture through a rain-soaked window pane, that's why it's so blurry. Djeryd does the funniest things. He is so creative and I love how he pursues things that interest him. P.S. He didn't stay in the tent more than five or ten minutes before coming inside - it was really wet and cold. Another thing I love about him is that when he came inside he was all full of ideas on how to make his tent work better next time.

Tidbits

I love fall. It's time to plant bulbs and enjoy apple cider and crisp, cool days with unbelievable blue skies. I get to break out my beloved jackets and sweaters (some of which I still fit in - at least for another month or so). I am really enjoying the kids being in school, although I was very worried it would make me cry everyday (not a tear!). It is a season full of change and promise and curiously fresh even as it is a season preparing for death. Fall does not make me miss spring or summer. I love fall in its own right, independent of other seasons. It is glorious in its uniqueness.

Halloween is just around the corner, and I have been spending every well-feeling moment concentrating on costumes. Djeryd's and Anna's are being constructed from scratch, essentially. Erik just needed a brown cape - no problem. Djeryd found me yesterday feverishly working on his quidditch uniform and asked if his costume was the most complicated. I said yes. His sly little smirk expressed his self-satisfaction over that one.

I LOVE making the kids' costumes every year. It is so fun and rewarding for me to figure things out and just to create. But I am always taken aback by the amount of money I spend creating a home-made costume. I could have purchased Djeryd's complete quidditch costume for half of what it is costing me to make it. But I must admit, the one I am making is gorgeous. Satin-lined quidditch robes are not available at costumes.com.

My last tidbit for today is my sweet baby girl who has recently decided to play with the dolls that have sat in the nether corners of her bedrooms for the past 10 months. Now I often hear the words "Look, Mommy. I'm a good momma." Today she was rocking her baby on the couch because she told me it got a black eye and needed a cuddle. Then she patiently changed her baby's "very stinky" diaper, which she said "made a mess all over the table" (yum). We had one brief discussion about appropriate baby beverages as she was caught trying to pilfer a juice box from the garage to "feed the baby". (Anna is notorious for opening a juice box - which is strictly forbidden as they are for school lunches ONLY - and drinking two swallows then leaving the juice to ferment on the counter untouched for days on end.)

Beach Trip

On Saturday we trekked up to Tillamook for a day at the beach. It was in the nineties at home, but the Oregon Coast is no respecter of inland temperatures. It was a seventy-ish, and bit breezy. We forgot to take this into account and left without coats or sweaters, except in the case of my always prepared (sometimes overly-prepared husband). At least he was kind enough to share his only sweater with me. Ah, true love. ;>

I loved watching Anna experience the sea with Daddy by her side. It was very sweet to watch them to together and see that trust that she puts in him.

Sorry there are no real picutres of Djeryd. He spent the whole time with his arm buried in a sand castle trying to fashion a tunnel.

And what would a trip to the beach be without ice cream? Yum!

Let's Go Fly A Kite

One of the many advantages of living in our current home is that I can send my kids out to the "backyard" and they have the space to do this:

We finally broke out the kites on Thursday and the kids have been flying them every chance they can get (including a grand attempt in the pouring rain - what better way to learn about the effect of raindrops on butterfly wings?).

This windy time of year can be so much fun when children have a tangible way to explore it. It was quite exhilarating for all of us - even just us looky-lous.

Screamin' Family Night

I scream, you scream! We all scream for ice cream! Three cheers for the most glorious weather we have experienced in six months!!! Monday was an absolutely gorgeous day over here in the Pacific Northwest. I donned a skirt and spent most of the day wandering barefoot around my newly acquired yard. The kids played outside almost the entire day. It was seventy-five with clear, blue skies, and completely beautiful.

Sean called me at about three in the afternoon and said he wanted to eat dinner outside. Wahoo!! Djeryd and I drug out the dining room table (I am seriously amazed we did not break a leg off trying to turn it on its side, and then back upright). I pulled out tables linens and beautiful dishes and porcelain pitchers, and laid a lovely table in the bright sunshine for all the soccer players to see (I'm actually sort of getting used to the countless people staring into our yard and home from the fields behind our house - yikes!).

We had our Family Night lesson around the table, and played soccer once the city teams cleared out of "our" backyard. Graham cracker ice cream sandwiches seemed the perfect accompaniment for this most perfect of evenings. Look at the blue of that sky. Money can't buy an evening like that.

The Floods Came Up

What a way to ring in the New Year! At 11:30 last night there was a frantic banging on our door. It was the neighbor telling us the street was flooding. Sure enough, I looked outside (with camera in hand) and the above picture is what we saw. This is the result of 2 hours of rains and floods. Needless to say we hit our knees and prayed for the rains to stop and the drains to clear.

Our house is on high ground, so we felt pretty safe, but look at our poor neighbors across the street. At this point the rain was still coming down very fast and the floods were rising with amazing rapidity.

Sean went out into the wide world to see what he could do to help. My nesting instincts kicked in and I washed dishes, vacuumed and did laundry. I felt like the pioneer women who would not leave their homes in Independence until their homes were spotless. In case we had to evacuate (which I was dead-set against) I didn't want clean-up crews combing through my house thinking we were filthy pigs. The tables and counters were covered with boxes and buckets of food storage from the garage (our garage is about two feet lower than the first floor of our house).

The mailbox illustrates the water level at about 1:00am. At this point I decided, come what may, I was going down with my ship. I can't decide if I was being stubborn, brave or just plain stupid. I was not going to leave my house. All the bedrooms are upstairs, and if the water got that high on my house, all of the neighbors would no longer have houses. I figured I was pretty safe. Sean continued to pop in and out until about 2:30am giving me updates on the neighbors and all of the other streets in the area that were flooding.

Then, as if this all weren't strange enough, it started to snow. Hard, heavy flurries of sticking snow - snow that did not melt, snow that did not turn into water on contact and slide off the roofs and add to the rising flood waters. After about an hour of snow, the precipitation subsided and the floods began to recede. It was a miracle. Our neighbor's house was spared by mere inches. Oh, and did I mention our house is 500 feet above sea level? At the top of a hill that slopes steeply over the distance of 3 miles? Apparently, the storm drains clogged within a large triangular area; and we, who never dreamed of seeing a flood on our street, actually lived through one.

(The snow line marks the flood line.)

Happy New Year.

Video of water and snow