A Simple Post

There is just something about the ocean.... Pure joy is found by throwing rocks (Alex is ESPECIALLY fond of this)....

... and watching the waves crash, whether it be against the sandy shoreline, jagged rocks, or enormous sea stacks....

The water is mesmerizing... as Moby Dick thought... I guess there was something good that came out of that book :-)

What a wonderful day we had in Newport when my parents were here. Perfect weather, with perfect company. Any visitors coming to OR??? You gotta see the coast!

It's been tooooo long!

I don't even know where to begin because it's been so long since I've added to my blog! I've got LOTS of pictures, so I'll try to see if I can make something that is worthwhile of your time.

Grandma and Grandpa Brown came all the way from MN to visit us. We've made the decision to stay in OR, and at times we sure do miss our family. We love them dearly, and wish we could be closer to them, but do enjoy our friends and environment so much in OR! So, when family takes the time to come and visit, we stop everything we are doing, and spend as much time as we can with them. We get the biggest dose we can of them, so our tank will be full till someone else comes. The picture above, is of Alex wearing Grandpa Brown's hunting hat! Alex has a fetish for hats as much as shoes! If Grandpa Brown was wearing a hat, he would cry for his own hat! But he was quite pleased when Grandpa Brown gave him his hat from his head! He was in seventh heaven. The only problem with this, is that there were times we couldn't find Grandpa Brown's hat when he had to leave... because Alex wore it around, and then set it... somewhere.... and trying to ask a 2-year old where he set something is like asking our dog where she put her bowl... "duhhh... what did you say??" I'm pretty sure Grandpa Brown left with all the hats that he came with....

Pictures are out of order... they all flipped, so now it's back to my garden. We had a wonderful harvest this year! Here is Glenn, my king husker, bringing in all the ears of corn that he and James husked and putting them in my pot of water for me. They were such big helpers!

Glenn also showed me his muscles, and carried in 2 zucchini for me... yes, these were shredded, we did not eat this whole! We've got enough zucchini to last us through at least next year! Todd hopes it will last us the next 10 years, so we don't have to plant another one! He's tired of seeing zucchini hidden in every meal I make! But I think it has all tasted wonderful! I've got about 16 cups of frozen zucchini to put in food throughout the winter, and still a few zucchini left to steam up...mmmmm... I love steamed zucchini!

The boys helped me pick all this food, while being Indians. The corn stalks gave them the idea... they got out the face paint, and we painted their faces. James was from the James tribe with a bow and arrow, and Glenn was given a gun from Lewis and Clark.... where do they get these things?! They had a great time "shooting" down tomatoes for their food to share with the pilgrims. The funniest story, though, is of the watermelon. See the watermelon among the tomatoes underneath the zucchini? Well, this was James' box to fill. He was picking all the tomatoes, and I picked the watermelon and put it in his box. Glenn informed me... "Mama, James is picking a bad tomato." "No, Glenn, he's doing a great job, just keep picking yours." "No, really, Mama, James picked a REALLY bad tomato... it's green with white stripes." Oh, Glenn, that's a watermelon! We all had a good laugh out of that!

We've canned lots of tomato sauce, and frozen lots of zucchini, and enjoyed lots of corn! Yum Yum Yum!

Fun Family Visit

See any similarity? :-)
I wish you could see this hat better... Grandma Brown came with this ADORABLE knitted hat that looks like an old-fashioned pioneer hat. I LOVE it! I am actually contemplating making her an old-fashioned pioneer outfit for Halloween to go with it! It is so cute! Here is Mom holding Ellie with her new hat! Obviously she is quite happy!
This past weekend, we had General Conference, where we can watch church from our computer! During one of the sessions, they had a kids choir singing all the songs... it was fantastic! Alex was the funniest! As soon as he heard the kids singing, he ran over to watch. Then he proceeded to run around to find our hymn book. Then he found it and was trying to have it open, while climbing up into the chair. Both weren't going to work. So, he then proceeded to finally close the book, put it on the chair, and then climb up. He promptly got up, turned around, and sat down... on the book. Then he tried and tried and tried to pull out the book from under him... it took him a while! He eventually scooted it out in front of him. Then he placed the book on his lap, and opened it up.... whew!!!! What a fiascal! It was so cute watching him without him knowing!
Well, if you can spell phonetically, you may know that this is the phrase the boys built in the tub the other night, "Soon, G-2 Will be 5" G-2 is Glenn's nickname now... his Grandpa D, is G-1. Anyway, they were quite pleased with their creation...
And now that Glenn is going to be 5 in less than a week, he can finally ride his bike without training wheels! He's been bugging us for a while to do this... he said that he can ride with 2 wheels now, because he can ride the tandem with 2 wheels! What he didn't realize is that the reason he could ride the tandem, was because Todd held the bike up! But he was convinced! Anyway he is loving life, now. All the neighborhood kids were out in force showing Glenn how to ride... it was very cute! He had his own neighborhood cheering squad! Way to go Glenn!
And Alex LOVES shoes. As soon as you mention anything about leaving, he runs to get the shoes of whoever is leaving! Very cute! Grandpa D was saying he was leaving over by the computer, so Alex ran to get his shoes under the bench, and run them over to Grandma Brown right away! Grandpa Brown then came back over to the bench to put them on. As you can see, Alex did his best to help him tie his shoes!

Well, we're having a great time with Grandma and Grandpa Brown! Ellie is LOVING the attention. She has a smile for everyone! Even when she had a little cold, she slept horribly, but still smiled whenever anyone paid attention to her during the day! What a blessing she is! We're off to the coast today, so hopefully we'll have some good pictures from that! I also have to post our garden harvesting pictures! We've got enough zucchini to last us through the next century :-) Take care!

Star Wars, Apple Pie Filling, and Maps!

Star wars still has not died! The three boys are all under their cloaks ( see Alex in the back with his light saber?) being Luke Skywalker! And by the way Grandma D, the boys were coloring pictures for you guys, and James told Glenn that he should color a picture of Chewy for you, because you like Chewy! Thought that was funny. No flowers for Grandma D anymore :-)
I was asked to teach a class on apple pie filling.. really I don't know anything special! I think they just needed a warm-blooded body to teach... I forget how much fun the boys have with helping with the apples. They LOVED peeling... and I couldn't even keep up with them! They were peeling way faster than I could core and cut, even with my easy push-down thingy! And they LOVED the peels! They ate about half the peels!
Above is James eating the peels WHILE peeling... there's talent! Yum, yum!
Here are the boys marking on the US map where the Grandma and Grandpa's are driving. Grandma/pa D are a green line with red dots of where they stayed... travelling to Orrs Island, ME and Grandma/pa Brown are a red line with green dots of where they are staying... travelling to OR! Isn't Ellie cute in the picture below?
And thanks for the math lessons, James had to add your total mileage between stops to figure out how far they have travelled so far in total. Grandma/pa D we had going 1246 miles, and Grandma/pa Brown will be coming 1715. Of course this includes no pit stops! Sorry guys, you've gotta travel without stopping :-)

2 funny things... while marking where Grandma/pa D were staying at Orrs Island, I was trying to find where in Maine this actually was, and was comparing Mapquest to our map at home... and I noticed on mapquest that they went through Freeport... so looked on our map, and they didn't have Freeport! How could they not have Freeport... everyone knows that place! So, I said, "Do they have Freeport on there? They don't have Freeport? That's Insane!!" Well, Glenn was trying to follow their trip, so he said, "Do they have Sane on our map, Mama?" It was cute.

Then the other funny thing Glenn noticed, was that Grandma/pa Brown were staying in Glendive. He was putting this word into he brain, and said, "Hey, that's Glenn Dye V" Quite clever.

Anyway, that's about all for us. Stephanie, I went through baby clothes today, so have lots for you! :-) Take care everyone!