Love

Cooper love





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Hiking

I took the kids to the Vancouver Land Bridge this week for a nice walk.  I brought Cooper's bike and he had  fun chasing Larkin and I around.  The bridge is awesome, it goes right by the railroad tracks and the Fort Vancouver Airport. We saw lots of large planes heading to PDX Airport, two small planes that landed at Fort Vancouver, right over our heads, and three trains.  Cooper was in heaven, Larkin was happy to be
running and Riley was happy to be with us.

 

Cooper, Riley and I went to Lattourell Falls in the Gorge this week too.  The Out and About with Kids book said this trail is great for younger kids. 

We were sprayed with freezing cold water as we crossed this bridge.  Cooper and Riley had a great time running and it was nice to be outside.  I am looking forward to many more hiking adventures now that  Cooper can walk for longer bouts of time.

Holiday Stuff

We put up our tree this year super early for us, two days after Thanksgiving.  Cooper has been talking about our tree since November 1st, thank you store displays.  We have lights on the house too and they look great this year.

Today we took the Holiday Express along the Willamette River with Aunt Janet, Erin, Maria, Teo and Ciaran.  The boys had a great time, they loved sitting with Aunt Janet.  Santa visited us on the train and gave out candy canes.  We went on this train last year at night so this year we wanted to check it out during the day so Cooper could see out the windows.  He loved it and it's a great holiday tradition!

After the train ride we visited the Belmont Firehouse Museum where another Santa was visiting.  Cooper loves this museum, we drive by it all the time and he always wants to go in and check it out.  The museum is only open one Saturday a month and for groups with appointments so he was super excited we were going there. 

Santa was there for a photo op and Cooper asked him for a fire station and fire truck (although on asking Cooper later, he said that isn't what he asked for).  He was pretty shy but enjoyed sitting on the firefighter Santa.

We walked across the street and treated Janet to India Oven for lunch.  It was a great day, although pouring down rain weatherwise.  Thanks Janet for the fun train ride and joining us on other Santa adventures.

Fresno 2010

We took our annual trip to Fresno last week.  The visit was great except Cooper and I got sick.  We visited with Sharon's dad, saw his friends Dick and Betty, Cooper played with his two older cousins, Chloe 12, Noah 7, he also played with Alexander his cousin that is 2.  We all met our new nephew (Alexander's brother) Adam who was born in September.  We had fairly good weather, did some shopping but mostly hung out with the family.

We walked Christmas Tree Lane (with about a quarter of the Fresno population).  It was jammed with people, we felt like cattle, there was no way to stop without losing half your group.  We brought the wagon for the two older boys but Cooper mainly sat on Mama's shoulders and Alexander pushed the wagon from behind while Chloe pulled it from the front.

We also took the two older cousins, Chloe and Noah, bowling.  We had a great time and Auntie Sonya beat us all in her three strikes in a row on the last 2 frames.  Chloe and Noah had never bowled and they had a blast.

I

Hike

I took the kids to Lower Macleay Park in Forest Park.  I was trying to reach a stone house about .75 mile but the kids didn't like that plan.  They walked/ran the entire time, I didn't bring a stroller to see how they would do.  Cooper's hands were a little cold so he wore his mittens and he wore his jacket on the way up.  It was a cool trail because it follows a creek and has a few waterfalls.  I love Forest Park because it's so close and it feels like you are in the Gorge hiking.  We explored a bit, watched the water, threw rocks in the creek and ran a lot.  Riley was very happy to be outside and with us too.

Christmas Tree

We went to Sleighbells Christmas Tree Farm and Gift Shop in Sherwood this weekend with Susan, Kerry and Grandma Lindsay.  They had pony rides this year and Cooper took a ride on Jet.

We found a great Nobel Fir tree and passed on sitting on Santa's lap. 



Dinner

Sharon received a gift certificate to Castagna for her birthday in August so we decided to go there for dinner last night on date night.  There are two kitchens, one Cafe Castagna which is more of a bistro and then the formal kitchen that has received rave reviews and many awards.  We didn't know this when we made the reservation so we ended up on the formal side.  What an experience, I felt like I was in Japan again, eating all sorts of weird food.  It also felt a little like Iron Chef.  Here is what we ate:

First it started with three snacks:
1. Buttermilk puff with herbed essence paste (not the greatest);
2. Squid tentacles and body served in pork fat (really good);
3. Duck chip - duck roo cooked down (basically burnt duck broth) served on a rock with a leaf (chewy and crispy).
4. Rye seed bread rolls with pork fat or brown butter (really good).

After that we went on to our courses.  On the menu there were 4 categories to choose one item in each.

Amanda's order off the menu:
1. Dungeness crab with raw sunchoke, brown butter, sea essence and anise oil. (this was really good, I even ate the roe).
2. Squash consomme with roasted spaghetti squash and fresh uni (not a great choice- uni is sea urchin roe which I knew when I ordered it.  Sea urchin roe has a very strong flavor and while I did eat all of them, I would never eat them again).
3. Sole with onion skins and hearts, elephant garlic and hazelnuts (Excellent choice).
4. Pear poached in mead with pear sorbet, twigs and meringue (pretty good).

Sharon's order off the menu:
1. Cardoons cooked in tea with smoked sturgeon, spinach and walnuts (the smoke sturgeon description, per Sharon, is sturgeon ash.  It was powdered sturgeon.  Sharon liked it, I didn't like it).
2. Black truffles with wild apple, cress and celery root cooked in ash (this wasn't too bad).
3. Lamb with grilled chickory, groats, grasses, dill weed and yogurt (lamb was very yummy, groats were like seeds).
4. Chocolate in different textures with crystalized sunchokes and coconut sorbet (the chocolate pieces had a black licorice taste that Sharon didn't care for, the coconut sorbet was great).

All said and done we would probably never go to this side of the restaurant again mainly because of cost.  Each dinner was $65, I guess you can order ala carte but we would have missed the whole experience.  We did enjoy ourselves and reminicsed to our B.C. (before Cooper) days when we would go out to fancy dinners.  It was great to spend quality time with my mate and we have a funny dinner story to tell now. 

Tumblebugs

Cooper dancing in his Tumblebugs class.

Second Pair

The second pair is socks for New Year's visitors is finished.



Yes that is for a little foot, size 5.5, my sister-in-law. That is half the size of my foot. I bought some chunkier yarn for the next two pairs.

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Audio

I am in the second week of an audio program called The Mother Revolution by
http://www.mothersonfire.com/
There is an interview a day sent to my email and the focus is on mothers feeling good about themselves. I am really enjoying the series, especially Wednesday's author Jack Canfield of the Chicken Soup books. I am a self-help guru, I enjoy learning how to better myself and relationship with my partner and child so this series is a great fit for me. Lots of good advice and reminders and only 30 minutes of listening. Today I drove to Eugene and caught up on the ones I missed this week. So far there are only two interviews I haven't cared for, the rest were good and Jack's was awesome.

In other news, our freezer is full of beef!! Cooper's swim class ends Wednesday and he starts a tumbling class that afternoon.

Mt Tabor Foot Patrol

After a few months hiatus from the foot patrol, I signed up for four consecutive Wednesday walks this month.  We have done two so far.  Cooper gets to play at the park either before or after the walk.  He is usually pretty good in the stroller during the walk.  We always walk in pairs and it's nice to chat with another volunteer on our walk.  We walk the park with reflective vests and collect trash, answer questions, record and report thefts, vandalism, graffiti, etc.  Everytime I walk I remember why I love Mt Tabor park, it is such a great place to go and explore and enjoy the views of Portland and serenity nature.

Zoo

This morning was quite balmy and warm so we decided to head to the zoo.  It was Cooper's idea and it was excellent. There was hardly anyone there so we took our time and saw most of the animals.  We (I) fed the lorakeets who attached me and my hair :)  The kids ran/walked most of the way, I had the double stroller for breaks.  It was a great day!

More Halloween Pictures

Happy Halloween

Cooper the Pit Crew Gearhead

Pumpkins

Today we finally got our pumpkins. We went to the Oregon Electric Railway Museum in Brooks, OR. They have a pumpkin trolley for the Halloween season. The trolley takes you one mile through the museum grounds to a small pumpkin patch where you get to pick out a pumpkin or two. All for $3/ per adult. Because of the rainy day we were the only ones on our trolley trip. It was great and perfect for us. Cooper loves trains and loved seeing all the old trains and tractors at the museum. He picked out a perfect little pumpkin too. We left with 3 pumpkins and Cooper gave the conductor a small tip. We are definitely going back in the spring when all the museums are open.

Socks

Sock 1 of 2 completed.