FHE, Valerie's, bikes at the lake!

Ahh, it's been a nice relief to be done with the marathon. Time to turn my attention and efforts to other things. Having the stress of long distance runs off my shoulders makes me feel so much lighter! Now I can focus on getting my knee healthy and running for pleasure and to stay in shape rather than to train for a 26 mile run!

Another beautiful week here in the Northwest! On Monday evening, we met up with the Lenzes and Shattucks at the part to do a combined Family Home Evening lesson. We discussed the Jaredites and how the Lord prepared a way for them to travel across the ocean in the barges without windows. For our activity, we painted smooth stones with glow-in-the-dark paint. It was fun, and of course, a little bit messy when letting the littles do the painting.

FHE at the park

Painting the stones!

This weekend saw more soccer action. It was picture day for the boys, so we all went together at the same time and tried to keep the boys from getting their shorts and shirts dirty before getting their pictures. Logan was really cute and did a nice job smiling for the camera. I should post a picture of the actual prints once I have them in hand. For now, though, here's a pic I snapped of them before game time.

A couple of handsome Holdaway soccer players!

After their games, we decided to celebrate a little as a family and go to breakfast. We had heard that Breakfast at Valerie's over by I-205 was supposed to be really good. Well, if the wait time and number of people on the sign-yourself-in waiting list was any indication, it was going to be a good experience! We sat in the waiting area for probably 30-45 minutes (for breakfast!) before getting called back. There were some auto classified magazines along with this cool Concours d'Elegance poster on the wall. It totally reminded me of Dad and made me want to find a good car show to visit with the boys.

Concours d'Elegance (French for Competition of Elegance)

By the time we sat down, ordered, and then finally got our food, the kids had been sufficiently nutso and wild that we had all switched seats at least once, it seemed. Suzanna and I were a little batty, as you can tell from the pictures below.

Starting to get a little silly while waiting for our food!

I eventually moved to the other side of the table to separate the two funny boys.

What a bunch of colorful shirts!

All the soccer playing and food eating wore us out. Both boys passed out in the car while we drove across the bridge to Jantzen Beach in Portland to pay a quick trip to Children's Place.

Logan with his blanket over his face to block the sun.

Luke catching a cat nap as well.

Later on that day, I told Luke to get his shoes on and get his bike ready so we could go on a little bike ride. He's done so well at riding a bike that I figured he'd do pretty well on the very tame trail by Lacamas Lake. We loaded up and headed down. I told him that we'd ride a mile or two up the trail but to keep in mind that however far we rode up the trail, we'd have to ride back down to the car. I was pleasantly surprised at how enthusiastic and excited he was as he kept on riding til we had gone over three miles up the trail, turning into a total ride of over six miles! That's a long way for a little dude.

Map of Lacamas Lake. We rode along the south west side of the long, skinny lake

Luke on the trail by Lacamas Lake

Part way through the ride Luke yelled to me, "Hey Dad! This is actually really fun! We should do this every morning!" Haha, I had a good laugh out of that and hoped in my heart that he would have a good attitude about it in the future and maybe want to do this often (though probably not every morning!).

Taking a short break for a drink from the water bottle

Here are a few more pictures from the ride.

He wanted to be sure I got a good photo of the scorpion on the side of his helmet

A beautiful day for a ride!

An action shot!

I captured a few videos along the way as well. Some of them came out sideways (probably because I was holding my phone portrait rather than landscape), but at least one of them came out pretty nicely. Here's a link to that video, which is hosted on Vimeo.

msh

Qdoba, round two!

Did I mention in last Monday's post that Qdoba has a great Monday night special? I'm pretty sure I did. Well, when Suzanna told me that we had quesadillas on the menu for dinner tonight and I reminded her about Qdoba's deal, she suggested we just go there instead!

So for the second Monday night in a row, we ate dinner at Qdoba. And we also played hide and seek, this time with Logan, in that area between the two restaurants again. But tonight we sat outside for dinner until a pesky wasp wouldn't leave us alone and eventually made us retreat back inside the restaurant.

What a nice bunch of people! All with their mouths full, too!

Luke and Logan got a little comfy too, both putting their feet up on the table and asking me to take their pictures! What silly boys!

In other news, check out this cool barricade/fortress that Luke made this morning out of Jenga blocks for his new soldiers from California Adventure.

Superhero Luke, hard at work!

The boys wore their capes again almost all day!

msh

Labor(less) Day

Well, for me it was mostly labor-less. I studied for about four and a half hours in total, but it was a nice relief to have the day off of work.

To keep with tradition, we would have gone to the Oregon coast today as we have done on each of the last two Labor days, but the weather forecast wasn't very promising. We decided to take a shorter trip down to Portland instead. Here are a few pictures of our adventure!

I love the view of Portland as we approach from the west!

Brunch Box food cart at 5th and Stark

Great burger selection: you can even get a burger where the bun is replaced by two grilled cheese sandwiches!

Here was my selection: sans cheese, but with bacon!

And what's a trip to (weird) Portland without stopping by Voodoo doughnuts?

Note the Portlanders' motto, memorialized on the side of this building

The line today was a bit longer than usual for us; we waited a good 30-40 minutes.

Oh, the choices!

Our choices! We thought that putting Oreos on a doughnut was such a good idea that we got two!

"Good things come in pink boxes."

Luke and Logan walking back through the Saturday's market area.

We then headed south to the Keller fountains by my office for a little water fun in the warm weather (as a side note, the weather ended up being really pleasant, and maybe even a little too warm; could have gone to the beach!).

Logan in the fountains.

Luke exploring a little.

Both boys had a great time!

When we got home, we made popcorn and watched a movie together.

The girls

The boys

It was a nice day spent with family. But I don't quite feel ready to go back to work yet!

msh

Family Frosty Run

We had a fantastic dinner tonight: black bean and sweet potato burritos, courtesy of Mel's Kitchen Cafe. If you haven't yet discovered the wealth of tasty meal ideas that is her blog, then I suggest checking it out. Or at least recommending it to your resident chef (Suzanna, in our family). I'm glad to say that I've been the gracious beneficiary of many fantastic meals that came either directly from or were inspired by Mel.

As an incentive to the boys to finish their dinner, Suzanna tempted them with the promise of walking to Wendy's for a frosty. Not needing the incentive to finish my dinner, but feeling tempted to spend the evening with family instead of studying for my exam, I opted to come along.

Wendy's is nearly two miles from our place, so it was a good little walk for us. We put Emmelise and Logan in the stroller, and Luke rode his bike.

The family, leaving our street.

Emmelise was very cute in the stroller and had a nice time. At least I think she enjoyed her time. She sat very quietly, taking in her surroundings, looking especially small next to her big three-year old brother.

As always, chocolate for Logan and vanilla for Luke.

Emmelise wanted some too! She kept reaching for Suzanna's frosty.

Luke and the 'monster' truck!

We stopped to check out this huge (monster?) truck. Luke was barely taller than the wheel, and neither Suzanna nor I were quite tall enough to see into the bed of the truck!

It was definitely a nice way to spend a pleasant evening with the family. Now, about that studying...

msh

Lower Falls

We headed back to the trails again today, this time determined to make it all the way to the Lower Falls. Last Saturday the boys and I stopped short because I wasn't sure how much further it was and we had already taken a few detours. Turns out we had stopped only a couple hundred yards short of the falls! Had we ventured on even twenty more steps down the path, this bridge would have come into view!

Bridge over Lower Falls. The water is low right now; when I was here last October with Ben, I think the water was higher.

The girls joined us on today's hike and had a great time!

One of the boys' favorite parts of the hike is the play structure at the trail head. Baby swings and spinning things are their current preferences. See below.

Luke on the taller spinning contraption.

Logan happy on the lower-to-the-ground version.

Baby Emmelise got in on the playground action today as well by hanging out in one of the baby swings. Cute girl!

Top Burger Drive In. Tasty burgers and shakes!

We've heard about Top Burger for a while now and decided to go find it for lunch after our hike. Turns out it is conveniently located on the same road as the Round Lake parking lot! A quick .7 mile drive down the road landed us at this tasty joint! If you want a juicy burger and chunky shake, Top Burger isn't a bad option! We'll definitely go back!

msh