Happy Birthday Grammy!

So this Saturday was my mom's birthday. We decided to take a little break and go to the beach (Seaside to be exact). As we were leaving it was actually snowing in Aurora. They told us to expect hail and snow all weekend, thankfully it turned out to be chilly BUT gorgeous! So here are a few pics from Seaside...

























Then we took a little drive to Astoria... we just had to take Audrey to The Goon Docks (FYI from the movie The Goonies)! We actually toured the house Mikey's dad worked at... and then we made our way to the Column. Here are some fun pics, enjoy!

Look at all these tulips!

We just had to show you how beautiful these flowers were and how much Audrey enjoyed them!

My best day ever....

Today mom and dad took me to the tulip fields... the sun was shining, birds were singing... and I got to wear my new sunglasses. what a day!

Rubber Ducky

The Wave

Yes, that's 115,300 people.

Dodgers come home to the Coliseum

When the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles back in 1958, they played three seasons at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. To commemmorate the anniversary, they played an exhibition game against the Red Sox in front of a world record 115,300 people (the most ever to see a baseball game).
John and Dave get in on the media frenzy: Seriously, from the opening pitch to the end of the game, there were CONSTANT flashbulbs. Incredible.

Hello Hollywood

Part of my Christmas present this year was a plane ticket down to LA during my spring break so I could see the Dodger's 50 anniversary of moving to LA. So I flew down and got to do some touristy LA things since our friend Dave Bush from the East Coast came out. It's funny how sometimes you never get to see some of the more touristy areas until you show someone else around. In fact, after going to college and living in LA for 6 years, I had never been to Venice beach. Well, here is my "Sidney Dean" pose with Dave (if anyone gets the "White Men Can't Jump" movie reference).

We also did a little cruising (well, ok, a LOT) down Hollywood Blvd. I think we figured about 4 miles of walking, just so I could find Johnny Cash and Audrey Hepburn's star. And my dad had his life in danger by some road-rager, but he was able to dodge the on-coming traffic. All that to say, I got my pictures:


In my searches, I came across the great Vinny:

And I'm sure this isn't the same guy, but I thought it was funny:

(Clyde Cook is also the former president of our alma mater: Biola University, so I thought Shatrine might get a kick out of this)

Fun in Mt. Angel

So we headed south to Mount Angel to do some German-ey things. We ate at the Glockenspiel, which is this great German restaurant actually run by a family friend. Grams treated us, and we were even there for the big Glockenspiel extravaganza (it goes off everyday at 4pm and 7pm). My favorite part was the boy and girl in laderhosen swinging out an singing "Edelweiss." Good stuff.

After dinner, we headed up to the Mount Angel Abbey to check out their incredible library that was set up on the hill. The architecture was incredible, but sadly, we couldn't go in because they were closed (despite the website saying they were open... i guess technology updates aren't the most pressing of things for monastic life). We did see three Benedictine Monks roaming through the campus. pretty cool.

Then, it was too late to hit up the Tulip Festival which was also there in Mt. Angel, so Gram and I headed back the next day with Audrey. It's free on weekdays, so it was fun to cruise around. Not all of the tulips will be in full bloom for another two weeks, but there were still some. Enjoy these pics!

Hi Auntie Cheryl!

Grams thought we needed a picture of Audrey wearing her, "My Aunt Loves Me" bib so Auntie Cheryl can see. Enjoy!

puppy love

Grandma here for Easter!

We had about 16 people over for Easter Sunday lunch. Audrey looked stunning in her green and blue polka-dotted dress. Grandma loved cuddling with her during her visit (she's here on her spring break for about 4 days), but I think I had the best cuddle-session. We were exhausted.

Don't cry over spilt cake

So for Rob's birthday, Abigail, Shatrine, Derek, Kevin, Lisa and myself went to Vancouver to this place called "Cinetopia." It's an upscale movie theater with a nice restaurant attached. The unique thing about it was they had this wine-tasting room where they have over 100 bottles of wine from all over the world, connected to this system where you can select the wine you want to sample, and it dispenses an ounce for you to sample. Sounds a little 1984, but it was pretty cool. We found this amazing Riesling, too, so we'll see if we can track down a bottle.

Well, before the dinner part, Abigail ordered a cake from this amazing bakery in Portland; Jaciva's. Since I was in Portland picking up my mom from the airport, I swung in to pick up the cake. Sadly, in my attempt to coral Audrey and the cake, we had a slight casualty. it made for a fun story, though, and the once master-piece came out looking pretty pathetic when the waiter brought it out. Thought I'd share the pictures.

Loving the bath...

So I'm going to first preface this post by saying that I am extremely sensitive about posting explicit photos of my daughter on the internet, however, I think these are discrete, and it was too funny to pass up.

We were bathing her before her big night out with the girls (Shatrine went to meet up with Kristy, Shannon, and Shannon's baby boy Peyton, who's only 6 weeks older than Audrey). Well, when I stood her up to wash her back, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and just started cracking up. It was pretty funny, so we thought we'd share.

More Crocheting...

We had a big family to-do at the house this weekend to celebrate Rob's Birthday and cousin Rachel. Too bad Rob had to miss his own party because he was getting over a flu-ey sorethroaty bug (not sure if I described that correctly, but you get the idea). Anyways, I ended up teaching Shatrine's little cousin, Pheobe (she's in 5th grade), how to crochet. So this little bell-hat was one of the outcomes of that session. How cute are my two girls!?!

spring is in the air

I just love flowers and now I see that Audrey does too. She tried to grab the daffodil out of my hand, so here is the action shot. Too cute.

Hello Opa!

So I finally broke down and got a new laptop. My Toshiba Satellite has served me well over the last 6 years, but with only 30GB on the harddrive (that was really big back then), and the motherboard starting to get finnicky, it was time to upgrade. So Audrey helped me test out the onboard webcam.

Audrey Photo Shoot

So we're in the process of sending out some announcements for Audrey (but let's be honest...Shatrine is in the process... but you all knew she is the brains and the talent behind it anyways).

Well, these are some of the pictures that didn't make the final cut, but they're too cute to not let you all see, so here goes:

good times

Glenn, Audrey and I got to see our good friends Ryan & Holly Sharp this last week. They were performing in this cool little place in downtown Portland (to find out more read Glenn's post about The Cobalt Season). A bonus for us was that another one of Glenn's friends was there too! So here are some quick snaps.

the coat

One of my mom's dear friends got Audrey this coat, now of course if we were still in Texas she could have worn it for 2 days only, but here she has enjoyed it a bit more. But the coat might even be too hot for Oregon! No matter what it is such a frilly, girly coat I had to share the pictures with you.

The Baby Bjourn

Our friends Kevin and Lisa Swartout gave us a Baby Bjourn before Audrey had arrived. Little did I know what a blessing this gift would be!!! With work and running around, Audrey just tags along with me everywhere, what a brilliant invention! Here is a shot of Audrey enjoying the ride.

Mirror, mirror on the wall (or in my hand)....

It cracks me how much Audrey loves the mirror. Hopefully this isn't a sign of the future jr. high and high school years! Just kidding. I love how she just laughs and smiles, so I held one of her little toy mirrors in front of her and got her reaction live. This is mostly for California Gram but I hope everyone else gets a kick out of it. Cheers!

The Cobalt Season is Coming!

So our good friends Ryan, Holly, (and Pax!?!) are coming in to town this week on a Pacific Northwest Tour, and we're excited to see them. I wrote a little review (I guess, it's actually a PRE-view) on our church's arts blog, so you can check it out: Imago Dei Arts Blog.

Maybe I'll post some pictures after the show if I remember my camera. Cross your fingers.

These boots are made for walkin'!

Need I say more?

party, party, party!

Audrey has been a busy little girl lately, I guess that means we have too! Here are a few pictures of Audrey meeting her cousins for the first time. Believe it or not we had 47 people at our house this last Saturday. It was a double birthday party for my Uncle Edward and my cousin Debbie - fun was had by all that is for sure!

Uncle John Visits!

So John came up from the bay area to visit last weekend. He seemed rather content to just hang out with his niece, since the most eventful thing we did all weekend was cruise the mall with Audrey in the stroller. Of course, John was in town for a friend's wedding which he ended missing entirely because he came down with a nasty ear canal infection. It was brutal. He DID become rather familiar with i5-205 interchange on the way to the Sunnyside Hospital in Clackamas, so he had that going for him. Tip of the week: DO NOT PUT WARM WATER INTO YOUR EAR, even if you think it will help wash out the antibiotic drops. Yea. That only makes the infection worse. We learned that from the 3rd doctor. Poor John. He's doing much better now, and this picture here is to help him remember that his niece loves him.

good morning world!

things we grownups do...

We had some friends (the Veitches) over to meet Audrey for the first time and isn't it funny to see the things we do to make a baby smile! I hope you can see how much fun we had!

technology... my hero!

So right after I gave Audrey her bath this morning she was smiling and chatting (well as much as she can do at 7 weeks) so I went to grab the camera... but to my dismay the battery was dead! Ahhhh. And then I remembered my phone! What ingenious phones we have these days. Here is what I got. Oh and we mush say, "Happy Birthday Johnny Cash!" He is officially 2 years old now. He made his way into one of the shots as well. Enjoy.

so proud

Check out Shatrine's Design!

So, Shatrine's art professor at Biola contacted her and asked her to submit some of her work for an alumni art exhibit on campus, and the exhibit just opened! It's called "Zeroing in on Design." So if you're in Southern California, and wanted to swing by the Art Gallery at Biola, you can see some of Shatrine's work! The exhibit is on from January 28 through February 21.

Grammy Time!

Well it is official, as of February 20th, my mom (Marilyn, a.k.a Grammy) will be watching Audrey 4 days out of the week and then working as Children's Director at her church the other day (ok who's kidding who - I am sure she will put in more than one day!) But none the less we are ecstatic. A helping hand will be wonderful and even better than that we are keeping it in the family. :)

But before all this happens we are expecting Uncle John (Glenn's brother) for a visit this weekend. I am sure Glenn will have a ton to report and more pictures to come! Take care everyone.