Portland

We had a lovely, lovely time on the west coast. Gavin was a great traveler, and the first amongst his brothers to fly in an airplane. He scooped up admirerers from state to state :)

After arriving Thursday, we went out to dinner at Isabel in the Pearl District, not far from our hotel downtown.


Being that we still felt like we were two hours "ahead," Gavin's usual wake up was far TOO early for Portland standards. It was still darkish.

And Mike was fighting a head cold, so while he slept, Gav and I went out in search of coffee and fun. We did a lot of walking before 9am that morning.

Once Mike got up, Friday became our big exploring day. It started out gloomy, but the peaked out later and it was a gorgeous day. Good thing, because we walked and walked and WALKED. Gavin was a rock star, riding in the Ergo for about 9 hours that day without complaint.



We were truly anthropologists that day, exploring the city on foot, and getting out of the touristy area. It wasn't what we had planned to do, actually. We set out for lunch, targetting the Grilled Cheese Grill after spotting it in a dining guide. Little did we know that it was MILES away. We spent about 3-4 hrs trying to get to this place, and it was one of those great journeys that we never would've started had we known what it would entail, but in the end, were glad we did. We met many Portlanders who were nice enough to give us directions on the way, and saw a lot of neighborhoods. We stopped through a park to rest and saw kids playing soccer and let Gavy out to roam. It was a beautiful day for walking. In the end, the sandwich was good, but not good enough to go that far for. But the experience was memorable.



Part of the fun of exploring the city on foot was discovering little local spots we would not have otherwise known existed. One of those was Voodoo donuts. We knew it had to be special when there was a line half way down the block at noon for..donuts? We decided it could not be missed, even if we weren't really in the mood for a donut.




Check out their creative (disgusting?) menu here: Voodoo Donuts. With toppings like bacon, tang, fruit loops, and bubble gum, how could we have missed this? I got the maple bacon, and Mike got the dirty old bastard:


Two mornings it was a wee bit rainy (in Portland? Noooo, you don't say) so we merely ventured across the street for breakfast. Luckily the place, Kenny and Zuke's, was the bomb. A deli like you'd fine in good old NYC, complete with pastrami omelets and smoked salmon eggs benedict (both of which I got to try since, you know, we went for breakfast two mornings in a row.) The funniest part of this was that they made apple sauce in house with ginger and other fantasticities (yes, I made that up) and it was thick as paste and tasted even better...but Gavin made faces when we put it in his mouth. Instead, he chose to eat the dijon mustard on the table from a spoon. No faces with that. Goon. He was a wet but happy Ergo rider on these rainy days.


Sarah and Orion's wedding was fabulous. So perfectly them. Beautiful ceremony....



and a stunning reception (Gavin was drawn to the dance floor. a lot.)


The anthropologists present were representin'.






And the dancing was sure something.


All in all, we had a great trip. It went fast. The boys did not miss us, according to all the grandparents taking care of them for those 4 days. The morning after we got back, I gave them the hats I bought for them from this incredible non-profit free trade store (seriously! Check it out: Banyan Tree) and after a few moments of "ooh! a winter hat!", it was back to brotherly business as usual.

There was a hole. In the middle of the ground.

and the green grass grew all around, all around..... (well, sort of.)

Before we left for Portland, there were stakes.


Now that we are back, there is a hole. We are on our way to building a house.

Reunited

Some of you may remember Hawekeye, our beloved blue heeler, whom we gave up two years ago (almost to the date) because we were having a hard time handling his high-need behavior with young kids at home. Several months ago he ran away from the farm he was staying at and I figured we'd never know what happened to him. I was quite surprised to get a phone call 2 days ago from an animal shelter in Waterloo (2+ hours away, on the NE side of Iowa) that they had just taken him in as a stray and booked him in their animal control intake office. If any of you have ever questioned the need for microchipping, let me sing its praises. This is the 2nd time I've been located because of the microchip that was placed when he was a puppy. It's a lifetime thing and has helped find him twice now.

Yesterday I loaded up the 3 kiddos and took off for Waterloo to pick up our old dog. I shed a lot of tears along the way, but was happy to see he wasn't emaciated or scard of people or in rotten shape. In fact, he was mostly his old self. The past day and a half he's been staying at our house until he goes back to Osceola to live on Mike's parents farm. I'm stunned at how much he's subdued since he lived with us 2 years ago. He doesn't bother the kids at all, but plays so well with them. He no longer dives into his food like he's starving, but waits until we give him the okay to do so. He doesn't bark as much. He still loves to play fetch, is potty trained (amazing since he's been an outdoor dog for 2+ years now), and knows how to walk on the leash. He's been nothing but the perfect dog since he's been back, which has unfortunately caused me to rehash all my old feelings of guilt and sadness of letting him go again. I told Mike he's lucky we're moving to an apartment in 3 weeks or else I'd probably petition to keep him for awhile.

Jack's not making it easy on me. He keeps saying, "Oh, I LOVE Hawkeye! He's such a good dog! I'm so glad he's home again!" Twist the knife :(

Gavin's 1st Birthday

Tomorrow my sweetest baby will turn 1 and I'm in disbelief. We celebrated with family and friends this past weekend. Surprisingly, Gavin was not into cake-smashing as his brothers were. He was very dainty and gentle with his cake. Mike smashed his hand into it at one point to give him the idea, after which he proceeded to render that hand useless and just use the clean hand to continue poking at his frosting. He always keeps us guessing :) Happy, happy birthday my sweet little man.

As a side note, I've thought a lot about birthdays in the past couple years, and the fact that they often mean as much (if not more) to mothers than to kids. The actual significance of the day a child was born holds more memory for a woman than for the baby, so I've taken to giving special mentions or gifts to mommies on the days of their children's birthdays as much as the kids themselves. I know for me personally, each birth was transformative to my whole person and I honor and celebrate that each year on their special days for myself. Gavin's birth was especially special to me, so his birthday brings me a lot of warmth and peace. Tomorrow I celebrate Gavin's birthday, and my birth day, for the significance and joy they brought to our family last year.














This mess is all daddy's fault

Fall Family Fun

It's Official

We're moving! After just 3 1/2 weeks on the market, and three showings, we got an offer. Assuming the home inspection and appraisals go well, we'll cease being homeowners in a month. A married couple, currently childless, (and the woman is a school teacher,) will be the next owners of this house. Sniff, sniff. I'm happy for them, and happy for us, but this all happened so darn fast and I'm starting to get really misty-eyed. We close on October 22nd...we won't even be in *our* neighborhood for trick-or-treating! The holidays this year will be spent in a 2 bedroom apartment 10 blocks from here, where we will live, quite literally, on top of each other (as the boys will need bunk beds). The builders have not yet broken ground on the house we want, so we haven't been able to make an offer yet. Once we do we'll hopefully have additional leverage seeing that we no longer need to wait for our own house to sell, and they likely won't finish this house till January, which is a crappy time to put a house on the market. So hopefully they'll be willing to negotiate a good price with us for these reasons. We'll see. In the meantime, we've only got 5 weeks left to savor life in the house that has been our home for 5+ years, where we've had our babies (literally, in Gavin's case) and made many memories. I realize that it's the family that makes the home, not the house, but I'm still pretty attached to this home and this neighborhood. It will be a teary day for me when we drive away without keys to get back in.

the dishwasher fairy strikes again

Fun in the old IC

We took a little weekend away to Iowa City/Amana Colonies over Labor Day and stayed at the Wasserbahn waterpark in Amana. The boys had a tremendous time swimming and enjoying a weekend that was majorly geared toward their amusement. Mike and I had fun with friends and in the water as well, but on the way home decided we were ready for a vacation from the vacation. 5 people in a small hotel room was not sleep-friendly. Poor Gavin is exhausted from the whole 3 day journey. But we enjoyed Sofia and Aster's birthday party (sorry, no photos from that), lunch the next day at their house, visiting Sarah and Orion's new metal home :), seeing Kenda, and visiting some fun IC spots. Here's the photo line-up from that outing:


Uncle Adam came to play in the agua, too



Bunk beds was too much fun for all boys involved




The boys enjoyed the usual visit to the Coral Ridge mall for carousel rides and playtime. Their indoor play area is much more geared toward younger ones like Gavin than is our's at home, so Gav had a magnificent time.



In other news, I convinced Mike that we need to splurge a little on Gavin's birthday gift. He caved and we gave it to him early


The boys think this push toy is more fun when used as a wagon to cart each other around.



Gavin, on the other hand, spends more time climbing in and out of it than actually pushing it. But it's getting lots of use, nonetheless!


Poor Gav has been butt of many head injuries lately, from falling out the front door when Jack opens it as he's standing against it, to pulling the hotel's coffe maker tray down onto his head, to wacking it against his new car push toy. It seems he's bound and determined to show up to his 1 year photos looking like he just left a bar fight (and lost).


He still keeps his sunny disposition, though!