It's about time.....

I have been talking about starting a blog for over a year. After moving to Oregon I have gotten messages, emails, and phone calls saying to send pictures, write back, call back... I haven't done any of these things. I am horrible at keeping in contact with people, it's a fault of mine. I am also horrible at keeping up with journals and the kids' scrapbooks and baby books. So, this blog is going to accomplish two things. One, friends and family can check in to see how my children have grown or if I am still alive and not dead from exhaustion. And two, I get some journaling done. Amazing! Well, like every other project or thing I decide to do, I will either flake out after a couple posts, or get totally obsessed and post too much, we'll have to see.
So, I guess I will begin by sharing some of what we've been up to for the last 3 months in Oregon....

Portland Zoo (11 miles away!). The second Tuesday of the month is $2 admission. It is a beautiful zoo. There was a new baby elephant born just a couple weeks ago. I have never seen anything so adorable!

Berry Picking. There are farms everywhere, it's great. It's like living in the heart of Apple Hill, except they're berries of course. Our favorite are blueberries, yum!

Farmer's Market. Almost every Tuesday evening and Saturday morning, the kids and I, and Shawn if he isn't working, go downtown to the farmer's market. We would get a pint of strawberries and eat them on the grass while the boys dance to whatever music was being performed (Reagan is obsessed with strawberries, now we have to buy 2 pints!) . Cheap fun! If it's warm enough, the kids play in the water fountain.

Portland Children's Museum. Just 20 minutes away. It is great. The kids love it. I love watching they're little imaginations at work. And the fact that they fall asleep on the drive home doesn't bother me either.

Friends visiting. We had Jason and Leia Lumsden (good friends from highschool) can down from Washington to visit with us. We had a lot of fun with them and it was fun to finally catch up.

Visits from family. My mom and Shawn's parents have visited since we moved. It's been hard getting used to being away from family, so we've really enjoyed their visits.

Shawn got free tickets to a Portland Beavers baseball game. We made it through 6 innings, which I thought was a great achievement. The boys cared more about the cotton candy than the game, naturally.


The boys loved picking out their own vegetables (yes, already grown), building a planter box and painting it, then planting their vegetables. Jefferson picked out a red pepper and Grant picked out a watermelon, we'll see how they do.

Hillsboro County fair. The kids fell asleep on the way TO the fair. We just pushed the sleeping boys around in the stroller for a good hour. It was a nice date for Shawn and I. We got to walk around and do what we wanted, it was amazing. When the boys woke up we went on the rides. It was a fun day.

Cannon Beach was so beautiful and only an hour and 1/2 away. We spent the day playing in the sand. We couldn't get Jefferson out of the water or the sand out of Reagan's mouth.

Parks, Parks, and more Parks! We live down the street from a park, behind a park, there's another park 1/2 mile away and there are so many more. We love it. Jefferson loves the water parks, Grant loves "walking parks", and Reagan loves any park that has a swing!

Jefferson started preschool 3 days a week for a few hours. He loves it. Grant loves it.

Shawn started school at Pacific University. It's pretty demanding, but he's enjoying it. He's 3 weeks down, 4 years to go. The school is great. There's a ton of church members too. We love it. I love having other women to hang out with while our husbands are in school. And they have kids too, a major plus. We feel so blessed to have been chosen to attend here.

So, there's some of what we've been doing. We've been keeping really busy, getting to know Hillsboro and doing all we can before the weather changes. We all love it here, as you can tell....