Celebrating Last Days of Summer and Birthdays

September brings Bryon's birthday and Auntie Lisa's birthday.  And, if you live in Portland, it means you enjoy veggies from your garden and take lots of time soaking up the last rays of warm sunshine that you'll see for a while :)

Beautiful day in Hood River.

Learning to ride a real bike!

Kai made this lovely card for Auntie Lisa's birthday :)

For Bryon's birthday weekend we went to Bend and stayed with Josh and JoJo.  Here we are eating Ocean Rolls (best treat ever!) and making signs for Bryon's Leadman race.  

We even did special Leadman tattoos in honour of Bryon.

Kai was quite proud of his tattoos....or maybe more just surprised that I let him use markers on his skin!

Finished!
Bryon did an awesome job...2.5 km swim, 109.5 km bike, 13 km run...finishing in 5 hours 24 minutes!

First Day of Preschool

I'm back!  So, rewinding 3 whole months...

Hard to believe, but Kai started preschool this year!  He's attending a little preschool just a few blocks from our house, called Rose City Cooperative Preschool.  Being a cooperative means that we parents get to pitch in a lot.  Each day there are two parent helpers in the classroom along with the teacher, and each parent is also given a job to perform throughout the school year.  My job is the Board's Administrative Assistant.  It's been really fun to see Kai in school, and also be a part of the school myself.  Choosing his first school felt like a big choice, but I couldn't be happier with where he is.

I wanted to do something special as a family to commemorate his first day of school, so we went for a bike ride on one of our favourite bike trails along the Columbia River.

Followed by a little wading...

And a special book to remember the day.

I chose a book that spoke of the values I hope he continues to learn and practice in this first year of school.

Bike to Work Month

Every year, the company Bryon works for participates in a "Bike to Work" Challenge during the month of September.  This year Bryon was put in charge of organizing and promoting the event.  So, he enlisted the help of our in-house model for the promotional email which ended up being quite a hit in the office :)

Here are some of the photos from our photo-shoot.

Step 1:  Register on-line.

Step 2:  Put on your bike gear.  Bonus points for cut-off jean shorts.

Step 3:  Ride hard, ride often.

(Bryon's office.  He thinks it looks like a jail.)

Step 4:  Store your bike in the bike locker.

Step 5:  Tackle those complicated spreadsheets.

Canadian Immersion Camp

At the end of August we sent Kai up to Canada to spend a few days on his own with my family.  We referred to this as "Canadian Immersion Camp" and I secretly hoped he'd come home speaking like a Canadian and knowing how to play hockey. :)  He had a great trip, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time alone here as well!  Then, on the weekend we went up to Canada to pick him up and cheer on our niece and nephew at the Canadian Beach Volleyball Nationals.

We played a round of golf and had dinner at McMenamins one night while Kai was away.

Helping pick blueberries.

Riding the trolley with the cousins.

Always homemade ice-cream and treats at grandma's house!

Trying out grandpa and grandma's new cabin for a sleepover.

Trying to wrestle Uncle Reuben :)

Happy Birthday Kaden!

The cousins and Mate, my parents' new exchange student from Hungary.

August

I feel like we had such a jam-packed summer.  From the little stuff to the big stuff, we enjoyed summer for all it was worth!  Here's a little peek at what we were up to in August after our trip to Sandpoint.

Bryon was given Hillsboro Hops tickets, and took his favorite date for a special night out.

Another date night for these two.  Kai's first movie theater experience was a big hit!

Family backpacking trip to Shell Lake.

We had to cross this big rock field at one end of the lake.  Kai was such a trooper as he carefully figured out the best way to cross it and lead us along.

After arriving at our camp spot, we set up and then took a bit of time to relax by the lake before a BIG rain storm hit.  We were huddled in our tent for about an hour as the rain poured down, thunder rolled and lightning struck very close to our campsite!  It was pretty crazy.  Our ears were ringing afterwards from the continuous loud thunder and our campsite was completely soaked.  Apparently we should have heeded the "chance of showers" weather forecast :)

Warming up with some hot chocolate and a warm fire.  Thankfully we'd been able to gather some wood before the storm hit, and keep it dry under our tarp.

 

 

Dinner time!

Picking huckleberries for our pancakes the next morning.

After breakfast Kai fell completely into the lake while walking on a log in the water.  Oops!  Thankfully we had one dry pair of clothes left.

On our way home.

A beautiful day on the Oregon Coast.

My boy!  I can't believe how big he's getting.

Yummy goodies at the Farmer's Market.

The company Bryon works for built and owns several buildings in downtown Portland.  While friends were in town for the day we took them to the rooftop garden on one of these buildings to get a view of the city.  This is looking north....see Canada way up there? :)

We had one more fun (Canadian) adventure in August, but I'll save that for another day.