Conversations While Waiting At The Doctor's Office

Parker: Would you rather chew on a rat's tail or drink an unknown liquid from the garbage can?
Lowden: Rat's tail.
Mom: Rat's tail.
Lauren: Same.

Parker: Would you rather lick a table till it's sparkling clean or eat a whole box of crayons?
Mom: Lick clean for sure.
Lowden: Clean.
Lauren: Lick Clean.

Lowden: Would you rather have an organ removed and then spend 5 nights in Hawaii or, with a scuba mask on, dunk your head in an aquarium for two days?
Parker: Could I eat?
Lowden: No
Parker: I'd rather have the organ removed.
Mom: That's a ridiculous question. I abstain from answering.
Lauren: The same as mom.

Lauren: Would you rather go to Hawaii from 90,000 years without your family or sleep in a trash can till you die?
Lowden: Go to Hawaii.
Parker: Yeah that.
Mom: That's a hard one...I guess Hawaii.

Lowden: Would you rather eat an entire pumpkin, raw stem and all, or jump off a ten story building?
Mom: Uhhh
Lowden: Personally, I'd rather jump off the ten story buidling.
Mom: Why?
Lowden: Because I'd only jump off the first floor.

What would your answers be?!

Dear Birthday Boy,

My Current Favorite Picture of Lauren & A Quick Quote

September 2008:

After the Ducks had a big win over Utah State, Lauren turned to Greg as they were leaving the stadium and asked...

Lauren- "Did we win the game?"

Summer Chp. 3 - Summer Camp Fun

One of the great things about summer is

the kids can do things

they don't normally get to in the school year.

This year they went to:

Cub Scout Camp

BB guns and archery were again the highlight!

Greg was able to spend a whole day with them

and the boys were SO happy for it.

They love their DAD!

Art Camp

The kids participated in an art camp

along with their friends Avery, Paige and Grace.

Parker loved it

and was really proud

of the work he did.

Although, Lowden said he wanted to go to art camp,

he decided afterwards that

in the future

he would prefer...

pottery camp.

Lauren was a creating machine!

Bennett came to the final art show

all ready for his turn.

"Not this year, you cute thing!"

Writer's Camp

The boys also participated in a writing camp through the Young Writer's Association.

The theme was "Sea Dawgs and Water Gypsies!"

They made ships in a bottle,

wrote sea stories,

acted in a group written play,

set out on a canoeing adventure,

carved sea symbols in soap,

and

made porcelain treasures.

But, their favorite part was the swashbuckling!

On Guard!

Not shown here:

Cheerleading Camp

Swim Lessons

Science Camp

Basketball Camp

We did have lots of lazy days too. But active kids are happy kids and fight-less-with-each-other kids.

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!