September to Remember

September was a momentous month for us….actually even more so for my parents.  They put up with living with us in September while they dealt with the delays of their container arriving and all the renovations getting done to their liking in the apartment on our first floor….that kind of stuff just doesn't go smoothly.  And all this after just dealing with their biggest emotional move ever from Germany to the States.  I can hug them and help them however I can, but until I'm in my 70's trying to find both the mental and physical strength to start the whole ordeal over again of making new friends and making a new place a home after so many years of happiness and comfort in Germany, I just won't really get it. I feel very honored, blessed, and crazy to get the chance to have my parents live downstairs from me for however long they can put up with us. It's only fitting that all their stuff arrived today to mark the new month.  They are stressed and overwhelmed once again being surrounded by such a mess of boxes but they are also seasoned enough to know that this too shall pass.  

Besides all the work on the apartment, the biggest change to our life has been Lily starting Kindergarten.  Lily spoiled us with being an excited and happy little girl ready to go to school.  We've been able to enjoy the ride with her making new friends and figuring out what Kindergarten is like….gosh and already seeing her speech and manner evolve being surrounded by so many more kids and influences.

The main reason my parents decided to move to Portland are because of Lily, Paul, and Elise.  So, we've made sure to have quite a bit of fun too as one big and loud family. My parents hearing declining really is a blessing in disguise with how loud it is here.  My personal goal is to have some more chances to hang out with my parents without the kids.  I'm missing that aspect of all this so far.  

Here are some of our September adventures.

Picnic lunch at the Rhododendron Garden.

Beach day

 Lily's first day of Kindergarten

 Paul is our big helper when it comes to cleaning.  Here he is showing Oma how to do it right.

 Opa arrived a couple weeks after Oma.  Airport welcome.

 Opa surprised Lily at school pick up.

 Kids are already well trained to know that Opa is silly and teases a lot. They already know they can get away with a lot, like playing beauty salon with him.  

 Spent a fun weekend up by Mt. Hood with friends.  Soccer with Elise.

 Earning their keep.

Story time with Opa and honorary Aunt Jeanne. 

 Family brunch at Timberline lodge.

Prince Paul

An Active August

August was awesome. So is the cortisone shot in my foot.  It really ended on a high note with Oma's official arrival (not visit…arrival) and throwing a house party that we had an absolute blast at.   I just loved having so many of our favorite friends and neighbors together in our home...and with so many kids running around smiling….while their parents eat and drink at a non-shoveling food in mouth pace while socializing much of the time….awesome!  Oma is here and already working on making our now vacant first floor apartment their alternate home.  My Dad is coming in a couple weeks.  The kids and the improvements being made to the apartment before their container arrives will keep her very busy.

Here are some of the moments from August in pics.

Lily's best friend from Munich was here with her family for a week.  Introduced them to the concept of having very friendly fire fighters willing to give tours and answer questions whenever they are there. Not so in Munich.

 Lily is swimming more and more like a fish.  Lots of pool time.

 Lily designed and made her first fashion outfit with her friend….a paper dress with matching hat.  She made it one block on her walk home before it broke…back to the drawing board.

 Paul and Elise enjoying the secret garden at our neighbor's house.

 All my kids painting together and acting eerily nice and polite with each other….had to snap a photo of that moment.

 Tractor Ride with Jim at their Zig Zag retreat.

 Playdate fun at good friend Katie's house.  Lots of happy moments there.

 Lily's first joint business venture with her friends Nora and Etta selling bags of water for free.

 Lily and Liana's sleepover.

 Nate finished his anniversary gift to me.  He did this by hand.  These are the stairs that lead to the kids floor. love.

 Kids waiting at the airport like it's a race for Oma to show up so they can all give her a running hug. And yes they did.

 House Party snapshot

 Another project by Nate - building an over sized outdoor chalkboard.  This was the first picture drawn on it by Lily.

 Nate brought out his drums for the first time.  Kids LOVED it.

 Oma is here.

I had to post one video that you should watch if you are a big Paul fan and want to see a side of him he is usually too shy to show around others.  These are the lyrics he made up to the song he's singing….. Music started today…daddy wants to wear that shirt cause he wants me to sing louder…what is daddy doing with that big thingy…..i like these leaves….like the chairs…like the chairs by me….like that chair….clap….for the first time in forever…take this to guitar class…

July 2014

(written by Nate)

Summer is definitely in full swing here in Portland.  We've been enjoying the sun and doing lots of random stuff around town.  This past weekend it was a visit to the county fair with 4-H animals, a kiddy theater, and carnival rides.  We've done a bit of hiking in nearby Forest Park, lots of swimming at our club and biking to the playground.  Lily suddenly figured out she could swim without floaties and has been a little fish over the past couple of weeks.  She also got to camp out with me in a real tent and liked it, even if we were steps away from the kitchen and bathroom of our friends' cabin.  Elise has been getting more and more talkative but still enjoys playing on her own.  She also enjoys spilling her drink at every other meal, but whatever.  Paul is getting sillier, playing off of Lily with nonsense talk.  Each of them challenges us in their own way with whining, yelling or being mean, but they can all be real sweethearts too.  Holding hands with each other to cross the street or giving real hugs to each other are relatively common occurrences now.  Nicole's had the only real bummer of the summer, tearing her plantar fascia in her foot while playing tennis.  She's hobbling around now and is missing her daily early morning walks through the city and her escape to the Tennis court when she can.  But at least she didn't stick with her first doctor's recommendation to wear heavy hiking boots around for three months.  Between her injury and Lily's summer day camps (German camp, dance camp coming soon) I've been acting like a good urban commuter and taking the train to work while we persist as a one car family.  I haven't been getting as many long bike rides in as I'd like, but there's plenty of summer left, right?

Best buds on the front steps

Time for a haircut?  Not yet… 

Lily made inside-out PB&J which inspired silliness 

Paul sure knows how to pose these days 

Stuck in a walking cast/boot for about a week 

 Fun with friends

A surprise stilted cowboy during a poolside BBQ at the tennis/swim club


Lily's swimming milestone




Some interesting new dance moves

Yellowstone Family Trip June 2014

We are back from our road trip to Yellowstone to meet up with family.  We did it.  The fact that the  Dora song pops in my head  now - "We did it.  We did it.  Yeahhh. We did it.  We did it.  Hooray" - is very telling of how much time we spent in the car having to listen to Dora.  Road trips with 2 year old twins is not enjoyable.  Lily at age 5 is fine; she was only difficult when it became a 3 kid dynamic arguing about what CD to listen to, who got the biggest piece of some snack or whatever food related topic - they came up with some argument, or what show to watch.

Of all the places we saw, there were a couple places we were surprised by just how much we would enjoy it there: Jackson Wyoming and Missoula Montana.  I went to Jackson never being a country kinda gal of any kind and only knowing Jackson with the Cheney connection there left a bad taste yet left really digging the country vibe.  Missoula Montana was an ideal stop with kids.  The carousal and park downtown is a must see.  Dayton and Waitsburg Washington look like best kept secrets along the Palouse Scenic route south to Walla Walla from Spokane.  The only place that didn't work out well with kids in tow was the Crater of the Moon National Park on the way to Jackson.  Just wasn't worth the extra time with the behavior and reactions from the kids making it too hard for us to enjoy it.

Yellowstone is definitely eye candy for anyone that has appreciation for nature.  There are awe inspiring moments when you see places like the Mammoth Springs or the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone for the first time.  Had no idea there are hundreds of geysers there and even though it's cool because it's different, wasn't really a highlight for us personally.  Waking up for an early morning walk and being greeted by 20 elk was more of a highlight as was taking in the expansiveness of the Lamar Valley and all the herds of bison roaming around.

Being with family is what really made the trip special and truly memorable.  I can look at pictures of bison and waterfalls but witnessing so many moments of love, especially with the kids, is what I'll look back on and truly smile about.  We sure had some fun.

I did want to jot down some other random misc. things I can think of we learned from this trip.

- Pack a towel and vomit bag.  Lily succumbed to queasiness once and threw up.

- There are no buffalo in North America.  Only bison.

- Luggage carts and hotel telephones were a huge hit.  Probably helpful that we have no land line at home

- Long time in the car with kids is still not fun.

- Kids are starting to hug and put their arms around each other now for photos

- Lily swam without her vest for the first time

- Lollipops in the glove compartment as a reward when bribery is needed for some form of good behavior in the car helps.

- Toy cameras my sister in law gave the kids were a huge hit the whole trip

- Lily entered a new phase on this trip - the sulking phase - not a fan.

Quotes from the trip
-  Lily can still be so lazy with me refusing to walk a few blocks to a store but hiked over 4 miles without a complaint with my family.  When Lily asked how she did it, she said "my hiking boots do the walking for me."

- Paul woke up one morning in our cabin and said out of the blue "my butt has two big nipples."  uhhhhh.

- Elise really came out of her shell on this trip stepping up her talking frequency.  On our wagon cookout, she blurted out so loud to everyone around on the wagon  "I EXCITED"

As for the pictures, I wanted to timeline the trip with only a couple pictures from each day of our trip.  I steered away from pics of nature and animals because this was a family trip and somehow equate this trip even more with the moments we experienced as a family.  Call me a cheese ball.  I dare you.

Yellowstone June 2014

Connected

This past month has felt wonderfully full of life.  Spending time with our Portland friends, hosting out of town friends and family, and taking advantage of the fantastic weather by tackling whatever Portland has to offer us has been a blast even with the meltdowns for pushing it too far.  It's been worth it.  I still have these pangs of missing Munich life and the experiences I hoped to have but didn't get a chance to and then I quickly shift to how blessed and almost magical it feels to live in a town that we feel so connected in through such amazing friends.  I love our Beast of a house and the daydreams it provides of seeing our kids grow here for however long.  With the recent development of my parents moving in to the apartment on the first floor of our home this Fall really brings me back to the summer of 2008 when it became crystal clear that I did want to have children after observing my parents with friends' grandchildren.  Now I get to continue to observe my parents enjoy my kids.  Life is good.  I am still in this phase with 3 young kids that an asterisk is needed whenever I say that.  I really do believe life is good but man it's hard.  

Hanging with our good friends the Glumbiks.  12 year old Ty was a ring bearer in our wedding.  I used to babysit them when they were even younger than the twins are now.  Paul reminds me quite a bit of how Ty looked at his age.

I used to babysit Luke and his older sister too and now he just finished his first babysitting stint of our kids so we could go out with his parents.  Very cool.

 Took the kids to open play time at an indoor soccer facility.  Huge hit. Lily's dream now is to be a goalie.  Just need to gently tell her that setting up all these cones is not actually allowed.

 Pizza makin' night.  Chefs hat, apron, and cook gloves on.

 Lily and Liana.  I hope to have many more of these over the years.

 Lots of family bike rides.  The twins are super comfortable on balance bikes now.

 Friends from Munich visiting.  Have our own little Biker gang going.

Hike with another set of 2.5 year old boy/girl twins.  Old NM friend who now lives in Portland.

 Grand Floral Parade.

 Elise trying out chop sticks while dressed Karate Kid style.

 Elise just walked up to Paul and put her arm around him to pose for this pic.  Choked up just looking at it.

Lily is 5

Maybe it's not the perfect day to write this, as Lily was a pain from (and well before, reports suggest) the moment I got home this evening.  But this family doesn't stop for one kid's bad day so neither should the blog.  Ok, it's been a little longer than usual since the last one, but whatever.  We'll fill you in on all the happenings around here another time, because today the topic is our newly minted five year old.

I think this was the first year she really knew that her birthday was coming and was really looking forward to the day and to her party and everything associated with the big day.  But if I looked back to a blog from a year ago I might read the same sentence, who knows.  For the moment I'll smile and appreciate our little girl getting a little less little.  When she woke up on her birthday she hopped right out of bed and got to work making herself a birthday crown.  Just to emphasize the point of the day she wrote a number four on it, crossed it out, and wrote a number five.  And she wore that crown all day, including to a pizza restaurant dinner with the whole family including Oma and Opa who were in town for a long weekend to celebrate.  They actually arrived the day after Grandpa and Grandma flew home from their pre-birthday visit.  We had a great time visiting everyone but we'll get to that next time.

Our new five year old is quite a kid.  She cracks jokes with the other kids while figuring out how to hit a tennis ball softly versus her usual smash, her drawings have evolved from stick figures to full-fledged characters with earrings, dresses, hats, whatever pops into her mind.  Speaking of POP, that is her favorite word to write for some reason.  She's curious about spelling words and what three and five make, she loves riding her bike fast with her butt off the seat for that extra oomph on a hill.  She's a ballerina and a sprinter, she climbs ropes to the point of blisters on her palms.

I wish we had enough time every day to fill her brain up with as much new stuff as it could take, but there are only so many minutes of the day and there are two other towheads demanding some attention too.  Lily is excited to make that big leap into Kindergarten (the American version that is) in the fall and from the look of things she's just about ready to make the leap.  In the meantime we're getting ready for a big family vacation next month and figuring out which day camps will keep Lily engaged and keep her parents from pulling out their hair.

Here are a few pictures from Birthday Week.