Golden the Kitty

Golden came home with us to keep Ruby and Dmitri company. Here, Ruby
has fashioned her a coat, some food and a drink of water.

A pirates life..

At dinner last night Ruby said, " Mommy if the pirates come looking for treasure in the middle of the night, I am going to put on my pirate hat and get a big sword and go with them and be on their team".
Good to know.

Newport Beach, OR

We just got back from a little trip to the beach with some friends.
It was the first annual Swanker/Weinzelton camping adventure.
We were planning on camping but with rain in the forecast we got lucky and found
a yurt cancellation! Camping with realish sort of bed, heat, and electricity-what
could be better. Well, maybe 1 more yurt. It sure was cozy inside with
4 adults and 4 kids under 5!! 1 of those littles was only 4 months old!

Nothing is better than a campfire weenie!

Except smores...

and then maybe some more smores.... mmmmm...!

The kids were blissful.
There was a lot of love.
Wade needed to hug Dot a lot.
Camping is really so much more fun with kids.
Except for that darn 6am waking.

Here is our yurt oasis and the daddy dudes.

Bye beach see ya soon.

I gotta say I am already looking forward to next year.

Yurt camping meusli breakfast

Mommy and Wadey at Hopworks

Sunriver

Here are a few pics of our little Sunriver vacation.

We met a few owls and some lizards and frogs.

And an awful lot of deer.

It is always so nice to get away for a little bit.


Here are some things we learned on our trip:
There are lots of deer in Sunriver and they are not afraid of humans- some might even come onto the deck of your vacation home to see if you have anything for them.
Papa Jesse knows how to rock out on the guitar.
Missy can play "Yesterday" pretty darn good for a girl who just picked up a guitar for the first time.
Wade and Ruby are totally crazy in love with all their relatives.
Wade and Ruby are totally crazy.
White men (even 39 year olds) can jump.
Beach cruiser bikes with no gears suck but make you feel like you are a unicycle rider in the circus- which is kinda fun.
Ruby is old enough for a Tag Along bike and she might enter the kid Tour da France.
Dimitri is one tough kitty.

I can't believe that it is almost September. We went from extreme hot summer weather here to wet winter like conditions. We had our first swim class in the rain today.
I hope that winter waits a little longer this year.

"Mommy! Come here! I have a new game to play with you. It's called Block Head Man....

Even though Ruby said that Art Camp was "too long". I have
been noticing all the new things they taught her, which of course makes
me really happy.

I found these (gwen stefani and madeline-what a combo) on
our front porch yesterday while Ruby and her friend were having a playdate.

Jobs

Over the weekend I asked Ruby what she thought she might be when she grew up.
She said "Well mommy I really like to do art projects so I might be an artist".
Then, since I am looking a new career path, I asked her what I should be when I grow up.
She said, "I think that you should be a sewing contest, or I mean a sewing teacher". I guess that I have been sewing a lot lately.
Then I asked her what Dimitri, our cat, should be when he grows up.
She looked at me like I was really crazy and said, "A cat mommy. Dimitri should be a cat!".
Just checking. I was surprised really that she didn't have bigger plans for him.

Yesterday

Ruby is happiest at the beach. Blissful really.
She never wants to leave even if she is freezing cold with
snot running down her face.

We went to the beach yesterday with Ruby's twin boyfriends
Chris and Ben, their nanny and their little brother Max.
We still really miss the ocean so much that we are willing to go to
crazy lengths to get there.
For example: we left yesterday at noon without Wade having napped. I thought it would happen in the car but the DVD player in the car was wayyyy exciting. We
also knew that it would take nearly 2 hours to get there and that we probably would
get back waaayyyy past bedtime.

You can't tell from these pictures but all of the boys melted down fast.
It got really cold and windy.
Everyone was crying and wanting to be carried the 4 blocks back to the beach house.
Except for Ruby who wanted to stay forever.

All that being said it was still so worth it to hang at the beach for a little bit.
See you soon ocean.