one week later

The weather turned back to Spring this weekend. We had sunshine both days and warm temperatures. Richard convinced Owen to pick a new bike helmet. We've been working on this for almost a year now- Owen can't ride his bike outside of the garage without a helmet, but he hated his old helmet. Whenever we'd go to the store to try on new ones, Owen would just cry until we left. Saturday morning they went to the bike shop and Owen chose this new one- it has fish on it- big surprise- and its bigger than his last one.

Saturday afternoon we took the bikes down to Central Park to give the new helmet a try. This was Owen's first time biking outside of the garage since his second birthday. Since riding in the garage involves constant turning, we found out Owen is very good at steering. He stayed on the path the entire time, and had a lot of fun.

spruce goose

After the snow melted off our car this morning (2 inches last night!) we drove to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, which houses the Spruce Goose. You can see Richard and Owen in front of it in both pictures if you look close (hint- click on the picture and it will get bigger).

April showers, April snowstorms...

We had snow this morning- the lawn was covered when we woke up, and continued to fall while we had breakfast. Then the sun came out and the snow melted. Then we had hail. Then more sun. And now rain. Oregon in the spring!

Here are some pictures of sunnier days, at the park with Valerie (photo credit to Valerie's grandma, Pat), and Owen and Richard playing ball in the front yard.

Laurel turns two

My parents came out for the first week of April, in time for Laurel's 2nd birthday. We celebrated Laurel's birthday Thursday night with dinner, cake and presents (including a trike that Owen is very excited about). Owen and I took Friday and Monday off of school and work to have a long grandparents weekend. Friday we went to the Gilbert center to play. Saturday we had Laurel's birthday party. Sunday and Monday we recovered. Luckily we had a few nice days for weather while my parents were here.

Couple of stories about Owen- He and Richard played hide and seek, with Owen telling Richard where exactly to hide. After a few rounds of that Richard actually began hiding in different places, once going under the blanket on Owen's bed. Owen could not find him, so I had him climb up on his bed to keep looking. He still couldn't find him, but asked, what was under the covers (as he was sitting on Richard, who was shaking from laughing so hard).

Owen is very interested in the solar system right now. We have a book from the library about the planets, which Owen can now recite. He's been giving us planetarium shows with our solar system model in the playroom, pointing out each planet and telling us the appropriate factoid about it. In our house, we are keeping Pluto as a planet. Hopefully that won't cause a problem during elementary school...

Easter

Since I failed to take very many pictures between our Hawaii trip and now, the blog is up to date. After we returned, Sally stayed with us for a week. She felt that Vermont's cold and snowy winters may be preferable to Oregon's rainy and gray ones- it doesn't really rain all winter here (but don't ask my parents that- they saw a full month of it).

February and March have been uneventful. We had a quiet Valentine's day. We tried potty training over President's day weekend, and gave up a few weeks later (as you have already learned). I made my monthly trip to San Diego. Owen and Richard made a trip to the coast to visit Jimmy the octopus while I attempted to do our taxes. One weekend we took a day trip to the science center in Eugene- it happened to be a day when they had a special exhibit with lots of snakes and turtles. Owen and Richard were pleased.

It was clear here the night of the lunar eclipse, and we watched it from the porch. It made a big impact on Owen- he was pretty nervous about it. Richard has taught him the phases of the moon, and Owen wondered what phase was happening. Owen still talks about it, asking if there will be an eclipse at night. Not till 2010, so no reason to be scared.

It's been a little less rainy, so we've been able to go to the parks again. The bulbs and some trees are now blooming. The expanded deer family is active on our street, keeping Zoie alert.

We had a quiet Easter day. We went to the wrong Mass, so there were not the Easter Eggs on the lawn that I promised Owen afterward. We quickly hid some around the house, and that seemed fine with him. He was pleased that the Easter Bunny brought some toys and goldfish, though he is wondering where his candy is. Owen helped Richard make omelets for lunch. He likes to crack eggs and eat shredded cheese.

I'll share one more thing for now. Owen likes to write songs, and here are the words to the song he wrote for Richard:

Daddy has legs

Daddy has legs

Daddy Daddy Daddy Daddy

Daddy has soap

I asked if he had a song for me, and it wasn't so nice. It went

Mommy has poo

Mommy has poo

Mommy Mommy Mommy Mommy

Mommy has poop

He found this very very funny. He seems to have forgotten about my version now, and I have not asked for another song. I know better.

Hawaii, Part 2: Owen likes little dolphins

As I mentioned, we went to Maui at the perfect time of year to see whales. We could see them from the balcony of our condo, while driving, from the beach, and especially on our whale watching boat trip. We took a 2 hour trip from Lahaina and saw more than 10 breeches, and several dozen whales- moms, babies, and dads (or so said our guide). I took about 500 pictures, and came away with 2 breech pictures that I'm very happy with.

Owen was excited about going on a boat ride, but got nervous when we talked about big whales. He came on the trip with us only if we'd see "little dolphins." He ended up having a great time.

We all had a great trip. One day, a week later, Laurel put on her shoes and coat, got Susie's car keys, and asked for Susie to drive her back to Maui.

Hawaii, part 1

We went to Maui at the end of January with a big group- the three of us, Richard's mother, my parents, Susie's family, and her in-laws. We stayed at condos north of Lahaina in Napili. Richard, Owen, Sally and I had a condo on the beach, with a beautiful view of a little cove, rainbows, and sunsets. We had a nice beach and a heated pool for swimming. The ocean was rough at the beginning of the week, but by the end was calmer. At the north end of our cove was a reef where we did some snorkeling. Unfortunately we had more than our share of rain, but we were able to drive south to see more sunshine.

Richard, Owen, Sally and I took a trip to the Maui Ocean Center and saw beautiful fish tanks. Owen liked it since he didn't see scuba divers (we diverted his attention from the ones that were in the tanks). For some reason, Owen is very scared of scuba divers right now.

Richard got to be a scuba diver for a day with Todd. Susie and I got to be surfer babes for a day, taking a surfing class out of Lahaina. We both caught waves, and then had aches in muscles we didn't know existed. Everyone did some snorkeling, lots of swimming, and played in the sand. We had nightly Scrabble tournaments in our condo (Sally's habit which now has Richard and I addicted). Richard, Sally and I also went to a Luau one night.

It was the wrong time of the year to be in Western Maui for sunshine, but it was the best time for whales. The one picture here is from the beach. A whale was pounding the water with his (her?) tail over and over again, making a loud noise and a huge splash. Whale watching pictures in the next post!