The Big 40!

As I side note I need to point out that my oldest kiddo has decided to start a blog. It is connected to mine and she would love it if you popped over and left her some comments: http://myfavoritehamster.blogspot.com/

My sweet husband turned 40 yesterday. I am so glad that he is older than me and can 

hit all of these milestones before me. He asked for his favorite dinner of little meatloaves, 

mashed potatoes, salad and peas. I had plenty of help in the kitchen. 

 We got him a new Duck shirt for his present. Considering that the old one has multiple holes in it I think it was about time. Of course he thinks he still needs to keep the old one for running.

 The whole gang of munchkins and an extra neighbor munchkin.

 For his cake I had a vision of a reese's peanut butter cup. So I made chocolate cake and used this 

for the filling and covered the cake in this frosting. At first when I made the frosting it was a disaster.

 It wouldn't whip up for me at all. So I just stuck it in the fridge, shed a few tears, and ignored it 

and when I decided to look at it again I decided to whip it once more and it turned into magic.

 The cake was amazing so delicious. Which may be why when I got home from work today 

there wasn't even a scrap left.

When I gave my little guy the spatula to lick the frosting off it he thought he was in heaven. 

 So I got the special privilege of going with my son on his field trip to the fish hatchery. I was the chaperone of a great group of boys. They were so funny. The teacher throughout the day would tell the kids, "stick to your parent like glue". Whenever she would say this the four of them would race over from where ever they were and bear hug me. They were hilarious and kept me laughing so hard. 

The weather was gorgeous all day it was sunny, blue skies and beautiful. 

 In order to get the kids to stop talking and pay attention they would yell fish face and the kids were expected to stop talking. It worked great. This was my group's version of fish face.

They played a game with the kids to show them they life cycle of a salmon. This first part the kids had to try and make it through the turbine on the dam. Many of the kids didn't survive. When they asked the kids where they think the dead fish went one student yelled out, "heaven" then another kid piped up, "no the bad ones go to hell." All the adults started laughing. The below student was a dead fish.

 My son surviving the natural predators. 

 The only survivors. They told us usually only 5 out of 30 salmon fish survive. The hardest part is the baby fish making it out to the sea.

 I was shocked when I saw that on the agenda they were going to have a bonfire and allow all the kids roast marshmallows for s'mores. Really 7 year olds holding flaming torches!

 The kids did amazingly well. I thought for sure someone was going to end up with a burnt marshmallow in their lap.

 Throughout the day Leo would come up to me and give me a big hug and tell me he loved me. 

I love this kiddo, and I was so glad I got to share this day with him. 

 The highlight of the day was allowing the kids to have a cup of fish food and feed the rainbow 

trout at the viewing pond. The kids tried to feed the sturgeon. I told them it wouldn't eat 

their food, but it didn't stop them from trying.

 Later in the week Mimi and Papa were able to come down for Leo's last football game. We were laughing about how Huck was just chilling out.

 Leo did a great job playing and the team tied.

 It was so warm that day and he got so hot and sweaty. His hair is getting so 

much longer and we aren't exactly how to style it. 

 Midge said that I had to take a picture of her amazing big bubble. 

 The kids love the support of their grandparents and especially love the extra time 

they get to spend with Papa now that he is retired. They told me this weekend that they 

would like to just move in with them.

My life my words

Making Memories for the New Generation

This past weekend we were able to take another trip over to our beloved coast. The day started off a little overcast, rainy and cold, but pretty soon the clouds parted and we had blue skies and sunshine. I love it when that happens.

 I was trying to get a picture with my sweet oldest. Leo thought it would be funny to 

sneak in one of our little friends.

Ken decided to give the kids a fun little challenge. He let them have their own crab ring. The kids had to be in charge of throwing it in and hauling it up. It was the first time we had ever let them do it and they were so excited.

 Some people next to us caught this baby crab. The kids were fascinated by it.

 We usually don't keep red rock crab, but we caught two big ones we couldn't pass up.

 We also had a little friend who visited us. Of course Kirsten was in the bathroom, 

but Ken was kind enough to document it.

 Wouldn't you know that the biggest haul of the day was the kid's crab ring. Out of this one we got our only dungeness crab keeper and second red crab for the day. Looks like we will have to have a kid's crab ring every time we go now.

 The kid's are never happy unless we catch a star fish (we were told the correct word is sea star). The kid's caught two and we missed three who fell off of the rings as we were pulling them up.

 This was another big first of the day. Little Miss held her first crab. This is a big step for her considering just a few years ago she would scream murder if a butterfly landed on her. 

 After crabbing we headed over to the docks to buy a tuna.

 The one we chose weighed 23 pounds. 

 The kids insisted we visit the sea lions again.

 Then we headed back to Corvallis to stay with Mimi, Papa and Patch. Mimi and Papa had just arrived from a trip to Utah where they were able to pick up a bunch of treasures. This was Grandpa Wayne's (my mother's father) Model T. I have a ton of memories riding in this car. Many years we would be in Utah for my birthday, which happens to be pioneer day in Utah. This is always celebrated with parades and a party. I got to ride in this car for many of those days in the parade. I liked to imagine the parades were in celebration of my birthday - admit it who wouldn't want a parade for their birthday. Looking at Midge I remember being her age and riding with my grandpa. It is fun to keep this memory going. 

 Another surprise they brought back was my dad's parents Winnebago. To say the kids were excited is an understatement. Let's just say they consider it their new playhouse. They were squealing with delight when we told them they could have lunch in it. If we would have let them sleep in it they would have been in heaven.

 The idea of being able to sleep, go to the bathroom and sit at a table while driving was the most amazing concept to them. We are already planning the fun trips we want to take touring around.

 Mimi is planning on remodeling a lot of the inside including ripping out the carpeting and laying hardwood floors. Here she is ripping out the old 80's curtains. I told her we need to take a lot of pictures of the old vs. new. 

Here is my little guy riding on a tractor I used to ride on when I was a kid and my father used to 

ride on when he was a kid. They were able to bring this back from Utah as well, 

and baby Huck was in love with it.

 Right before dinner of crab, tuna, rice, squash and apple cobbler made from Papa and Mimi's mini orchard the family was able to take a ride in the Model T. The kids loved it. They went out for a little on the main road just as the college football game was let out and the kids thought it was amazing that everyone was looking at them. Almost like they were in a little parade!