Spring Has Sprung!

Hi everyone.  The sun is shining today after a long spring-break week of cold and rain.  It sure has not felt like spring.  Here are some pics of our April.  Most were taken with my phone so the quality is not so hot...

Our "spring chicken" Great Grandma is 93 years young!

I couldn't resist this picture.  Can you believe this doll is STILL around - minus an arm, but around non-the-less.

First Brewer's Game of the season

Captain Brooke at the aquarium in Discovery World

More discovery

Oh man, this one is "cracked" - ha!

I just love the spring colors of these next few pictures.

Look what I lost at school!

Macy was a very good patient.

The stitched boo boo

The girls with Stella at Grandpa Jack's Funeral

The girls thought it was funny that the vent was blowing up their skirts.    I thought the "on-looker" was funnier.

Easter doings

     



Neighborhood Egg Hunt





We sailed boats in the creek with Grandpa and of course Matt eventually ended up in the drink.




Playing @ Grandma's





A sad Macy after she got her feet wet like her big cousins




The egg hunters!





I think the biggest may have had the most fun!





Finally found his last blue egg!





The up before dawn Easter basket hunters slept all the way home.







Me again....

I just found a folder of photos on my desktop from a few weeks ago that I meant to post but never did.. So its me posting again, then I promise I'll go away : )

We made it to the other side of Mt. Hood for a snowshoe a few weeks back. Rainy spring in the city means lots of snow there. We got thwarted on a really hard trail up to a cabin, so we settled for the REALLY long version via the easier snowmobile path. Didn't see a single snowmobiler or other people though, which was nice.

Ashley snapped a picture of me icing my hand in the ER after the bike accident... Was promising the nurses I'd ice and keep it elevated all night so they wouldn't cut Ashley's grandma's ring off.

Killed time in the sun in Oakland on my work trip before heading to Los Altos. Sooo nice to see sun and colorful flowers outside!!!

Went to our first Trailblazers game (at last! after living here for 5 years...and yes, clearly these are nosebleeds :)

Next step....

After dinner out with our neighbors last night, and breakfast with my friend Anya this morning, we got a late start on organizing the concrete mess. We piled up almost all of it into a pile today (this is about half of it - there is still the side yard and front walkway). Tomorrow a guy is coming out to haul a load of it away to use to build a wall, and the rest will probably go into a dumpster.... Many weekends to go still on this project.

And while we were outside working hard, Carmen decided to kick her feet up and take a little nap on the bed :)

 

I hope you all had a wonderful birthday dinner out with Mom! What an awesome surprise. I'm so glad I got to catch you all on the phone while there. Hope the cow brains were tasty!!

Just getting started and CA trip

Isn't there a saying - you have to break an egg to make an omelet? Today we broke a bunch of eggs and won't have that omelet for a looooong time... We started jack hammering all the concrete around the house today (and when I say we, I mostly mean Ashley). Our driveway was pretty broken up so we have been planning to tear it out and repour. And our side yard and big part surrounding the back of the house was cement for some weird reason (we'd rather plant it and have stepping areas than all concrete). We also will be building retaining walls, tearing out a bunch of bushes, building a new fence, replanting, etc. So today we JUST started on the first step of a big whole yard landscape job that will be our big summer project. We made a huge mess that hopefully by the end of the summer will look much better than it did before we started. (excuse the tiny cell phone pictures)

before: back entry

before: side yard

during

during

at the end of today...

We are pretty beat tonite from a day with the jackhammer and prying up the big heavy chunks.

Also, here are some belated photos from our trip to CA. The weather was wonderful and it was great to see Fritz and Susanne. We had a GREAT time with Doug and Evelyn who spent Friday night at F and S's on their way through to Southern CA. Susanne cooked an amazing meal, and Fritz opened up some special wine that did not go to waste.

catching up and drinking wine on the patio

wine tasting

one of Fritz's old bottles of port

Ashley and Darby

after dinner lounging

and we also got to take a trip over the mountains to Santa Cruz and the beach over the weekend. the sun and water were awesome, but seriously - how pale am I?!?!