Raising Awareness

There is a little known danger lurking in rural county roads in Oregon. This became especially clear this weekend when Greg went on a early morning bike ride with Brady and Rob. As they were riding along the rural roads in the pouring rain, Brady ran right into a nutria which popped his tire and put a two inch tear in the sidewall. Although, Brady didn't crash, Rob slammed into it seconds later and was sent sprawling on the wet pavement which resulted in a sore backside and required a band-aid fix. (Tannya was happy to oblige with the band-aids she had on hand...Barbie ones.) Lucky for Greg, he had "wimped out" and had slowed considerably right before said incident. (Greg asked me to add that it was at the end of a 30 mile ride.)

The disturbing thing is that the nutria walked off in better shape than most of their biking group.

My hope is that my posting this will make more people aware of the hazard known as "NUTRIA". In an effort to raise awareness on this issue, I have photoshopped this nutria crossing sign, since there are none posted on the internet. I suggest printing and posting it on every telephone pole on rural Oregon roads.

High Lakes Fish Stocking Adventure

The Fish and Wildlife department from our county needs help every two years with stocking high lakes with fish. We participated in this two years ago and LOVED it! So we were happy to do it again this summer. They sent us this packet in the mail with maps to our lake and directions on how to release the fish.

First, we made our way to the fish hatchery to pick up our hatchlings.

Greg went to get our fish and I took the kids to look in the outdoor tanks. As we were looking around, we discovered this neat little miniature golf area that teaches kids about how the hatchery works.

You start with 24 imaginary fish and with each stroke you lose one fish. Along the way, are these great signs that explain what dangers fish encounter.

The kids LOVED this!

When we were finished, we found dad and set off with maps in hand to find Swan Lake.

It was a beautiful drive through smaller forest roads. The views were breathtaking!

We found a whole hill covered in wild, pink rhododendrons.

Greg and I both carried 3 gallons of water and 300 fish hatchlings in our packs.

It was a little heavy but it was worth it for all 600 of those cutthroat trout.

It was an easy trail downhill. Carrying that load uphill might have been a different story. ☺

Greg insisted on taking this picture of me as I tried to get over these logs in the middle of the trail. I include it for his sake...it's not really my favorite picture. Bennett and Lauren chose to go under the logs.

We found this patch of snow in a shaded meadow and built our last snowman until next winter.

And after fighting off mosquitoes, crossing by log over a creek, going under and over trees....we made it to:

SWAN LAKE!

We pulled our bags of fish out of our packs. See all those cute little guys (girls) swimming about and my cute guy holding them!

We floated the bags in the lake for about 10 minutes so the water temperature in the bag could acclimate to the temperature in the lake.

We sat and enjoyed the view in the meantime!

We said goodbye to the fishies one last time!

Then, we released all 600 little fish to their new home. We were happy to report back to the Fish and Wildlife people that there were no fish mortalities.

And, we made our way back to our home by way of A&W and a stop for boating at Fall Creek Lake.

It was a perfect day!

Makings of an AWESOME Family Night!

Smore Brownies which we would all like a year supply of. Well, all of us except Lowden....he would want a year supply of french vanilla ice cream. I didn't think these brownies sounded that good when Melissa told me about them but she insisted that they were SO good. I am happy to report I was ENTIRELY WRONG! They are divine!!!!



Settlers of Catan which we all love to play! Bennett usually makes his own city with the extra pieces and occasionally deals people cards when they ask someone else for one. Sometimes we let it slide. Lauren likes to be on my team. We crushed the competition last Friday. Although, this is not was normally happens since the boys are all very good strategists.

Smore Brownies + Settlers of Catan =
AWESOME FAMILY NIGHT

It's a foolproof way to have a great family night together! Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Quick Quote - September 2008

Bennett threw open the pantry doors and said...

"All right cookies. Come to papa!"

Attack of the Ginormous Zucchinis

Greg says I can only plant one zucchini plant next year instead of three. But, where's the fun in that?

I shredded at least 20 cups of zucchini in my food processor. (And I still have one zucchini in my fridge.)

Thankfully, Connie Evans gave me a great recipe for Zucchini Bread which is super yummy. Melissa posted it on her food blog. You can check it out here. Most of us love the recipe with chocolate chips the best. (I haven't tried it with cocoa yet.) I can get two loaves out of each batch and I always make sure one doesn't have chocolate chips in it for Lowden (who doesn't like chocolate).

The recipe calls for 2 cups of shredded zucchini so I put each 2 cup portion in a freezer bag for when we make it next.

I'm pretty sure we will be making zucchini bread all winter long!☺

Summer Chapter 2 - Days at the Lake

One of our favorite family activities this summer was taking the boat to the lake. It's great to be all together and enjoy some sun. All of us love it! We load the cooler with ice and drinks. Make sandwiches. Add some snacks. Then, off we go.

We love getting the noodles out to swim with and blowing water through them at each other.

The kids really enjoyed the Hulkster!

We took turns holding the safety flag.

Parker got brave and tried the knee board.

Look at him go! He was a little nervous but braved it out so well! We were all so excited for him!

And we was grinning ear to ear!

Lowden was encouraged by Parker's enthusiasm for it and got up as well!

At sunset, our favorite things is to eat our snacks, turn on some music, and just relax!

We can't wait to go again next summer!

Back to School

Yesterday was the first day of school for Lowden, Parker, and Lauren.  The summer was great (I have lots of catch-up blog posts to do on it) but it's kind of sad that it had to end.  I am happy to report that we had no major trauma this summer.  That was one of my goals this summer.  It's nice to send Parker to school this year without having to worry about him bumping his head (which he wasn't allowed to do for 6 weeks after his craniotomy last summer).  Yesterday, I saw the school nurse and let her know we survived the summer injury-free.  She was happy to hear it! ☺ I also told her she should call me sometime just to "chat" since usually when she calls it always to involve sickness or injury.  LOL.

Lowden is starting fifth grade this year.  Although he claims not to be happy about starting again, I know he secretly is.  Last summer his reading total was 11,603 pages.  He beat that total this summer by reading 14,424 pages!  He is hoping to participate in the Oregon Battle of the Books this year which his school is participating in.  He finished all but 2 of the books for the 3rd through 5th grade division list so far.  Other books he enjoyed this summer were the Hardy Boys books (1-17), the Pendragon series, the Artemis Fowl series, quite a few by author Gordon Korman, and he reread a few old favorites like Hatchet and others.  I am really happy that he has a love for reading.  Yesterday, he biked off to school far ahead the rest of us, reminding me how independent he truly is becoming. 

Parker still wanted to walk with me yesterday which made me happy.  He was excited to get a teacher this year who is as excited about sports as he is.  He was happy to have friends in his fourth grade class this year who he hasn't been together with for a few years.  Parker got more of the reading bug this summer.  He read 3,311 pages.  His favorite books were the Geronimo Stilton series, the Time Warp Trio series, and books by Gordon Korman like Swindle and Schooled.  (I think next summer I will give the kids a prize if they beat their page totals from this summer.)  Parker also claimed to not be "happy" about school starting but look at this face...do you believe it?

Quick Funny Story:  I went to pick the kids up from school yesterday and Parker's class was playing outside.  He ran up to me very concerned that a girl was "chasing him around and trying to hug him"!  I told him to "hug her and get it over with".  He was appalled that I said that.  Sometimes it's fun to be appalling to the kids!☺

Unlike the boys, Lauren was VERY happy to be starting school again.  The whole way there she told me what her favorite subjects were and how happy she was that Aly and Lily are in her second grade class this year.  Lauren's summer reading total was 2,331 pages.  Early on in the summer she was loving Junie B. Jones books still, but later in the summer her favorite switched to Katie Kazoo. She also enjoyed Clementine, Little Bear, Frog and Toad, and Amelia Bedelia books.  She still loves the color pink as you can see. 

I wasn't expecting to miss them so much by midday yesterday, especially after the less-than-civilized behavior they had displayed over the weekend.  But, I love these monkeys!  And, as crazy as they are at times, I am happy that they are mine!