THPRD Family Triathlon 2013

Yesterday was our second year to participate in our park district's Family Triathlon.

There was a lot of excitement in anticipation on the morning of....

we were in heat 7 and began by SWIMMING 50 meters...

then everyone took off on their own, BIKING 2 miles...

 (K wore her swim goggles for the bike and run!  love that girl's spirit!)

and we finished strong, RUNNING 1/2 mile...

Well done all!

I hope to continue the tradition of doing family races for a long time to come!

Then we stayed long enough at the party in the park to get mustaches on 3 of our 4 kiddos.

I "mustache" you - have you ever seen such a great group of kids?

an evening at the beach without leaving the city

Last summer my SIL introduced me to a little secret worth keeping....Sauvie Island sits on the Columbia River and has a beach!  

Sand...Water...everything my kids need for a roarin' good time!

And it is only 40 minutes from my front door!

Friday night my family, along with Rich's sister's family, headed up to "our" little beach with plans to kayak into the sunset and then roast hot dogs and s'mores.

Sadly, the wind did not cooperate and the water was WAY to choppy to put kids into kayaks.  Even the two men in attendance voted to stay on shore.

We did roast the hot dogs and s'mores however and the kids did play in the water and the sand until the sun began to set, so even though it wasn't exactly the evening we had planned, it was a great evening in my book!

competition takes a turn for the worse

Last week's FHE was a family bike ride (that Conner and Tanner joined us for) to get ice-cream and then to the elementary school to play a "nice" family game of kickball.

Looks like someone was playing for the trophy...

(that someone was Rich and his team lost)

Now that I think about it, maybe poor Rich had no choice but to play for the trophy because he was really playing for all of us on his team - T (he is only 5), me (I tinkle when I run) and Tanner (still learning the rules of kickball).  Yeah, definitely not Rich's fault.

I'm sorry we made you have to play so hard that your body was sacrificed for us honey!

not to be outdone $$$

C has watched as K has been successful in her entrepreneurial efforts this summer and he is not sitting idly by...within one week he has been hired to:

1 - water plants for a neighbor leaving out of town

2 - paint/laquer a wooden play structure 

(which C probably would have happily done for free because it was for a professional athlete)

3 - water plants for another neighbor leaving out of town

(can I just insert here that our neighbors pay way too generously for watering plants - I realize now we have WAY underpaid all these summers and it is kind of embarrassing!)

This is where I wish I had a photo to insert of C COVERED in laquer after his first day of painting.  I thought about getting the camera but was so scared that he would touch something if I turned my back that I didn't let my eyes leave him until I had him scrubbed clean.  Suffice it to say, he had laquer up to his elbows on both hands, all over his knees and lower leg, in his ears (plural), in his hair and splattered on his face.  Basically he had it everywhere that his clothes didn't offer protection.

My favorite quote of the day was him saying, "don't worry mom, it dries clear". 

NOT ON PEOPLE!

Oh to have the logic of a 10-year old boy!

But in truth, I have to say that I am extremely pleased with both of the kids hard work...not just getting hired for the jobs, but completing the jobs they have been hired to do.

$ dog walking $

Entrepreneurial ambitions have hit our household!

Two weeks ago K created a flyer advertising her willingness to walk dogs and she has been a girl on a mission ever since.

She has been out scouring the neighborhood, knocking on doors, introducing herself and leaving a flyer if they own a dog.  I think she has handed out over 20 flyers so far.

This is Henry....K's first daily dog walking responsibility.  He LOVES K and runs toward the leash when he sees K at the door.

So K is getting her dog needs met and making her own money!

WIN-WIN in my book!

a few Jaker"isms"

Driving in the car, with kids anxious to get to the destination.

The kids are making annoying, repetitive, loud noises. (can you hear it?)
I say, "making those sounds will not get us there any sooner".
J replies without a pause, "but making these sounds will not get us there any later either".

And along the same logic...
I asked J to stop doing something and said, "there is no reason to be doing that".
His reply?  "There is always a reason!"

J has been reading books and watching videos about the human body.  T asked him if he wants to be a doctor and J replied that he does.  So I asked, "what kind of doctor".  He looked very serious and took a lengthy time to reply, but then said with absolute determination, "a human doctor".

J read a story in the Friend magazine about a boy that did 1001 sit ups.  No sooner had he finished reading the story than he was on his back with feet hooked under the couch counting sit ups.  He did 300!

And a little look into J's interests.  The older kids saw that a neighbor was having a garage sale and that there was a snow sled that they wanted to own.  So we walked up the road and J was drawn to a "Guinness World Record" book that he HAD to have.  He has been pouring over it for hours!

J has been having a terrific summer!  He definitely has his mother's affinity for lists.  He wakes every morning and goes directly to the daily "list" and begins checking his responsibilities off.  It is a rare day that he hasn't completed nearly all of his tasks by the time breakfast is served.  He has even completed his entire summer workbook and summer is only half over.  I have LOVED how responsible he has been, not only completing everything EVERY SINGLE DAY, but doing it on his own without any reminders.

your mission is to thoroughly exhaust your child into a state of comatose...

mission accomplished...

what July has been looking like...

July is half over and I haven't had many posts.

Heck, I haven't been doing much of anything.

You can blame it on the fact that most everyday from 2-5 you will find us at the pool.

We are finally enjoying our Portland summer and getting good use of our pool pass and I am LOVING it!

{2013 Food Pod Pursuit} July

We haven't given up on our 2013 food pod pursuit...we just haven't done anything formal for the past couple of months (we did do food carts with my brother's family in May, took Tanner to lunch at carts in June, and ate at carts over three days on Rich & I's bike trip to Eugene)

July's Pod Pursuit looked a little different in that it was at the Beaverton Farmer's Market instead of being downtown.

There are probably a dozen (maybe more) food cart vendors at the Market on Saturday mornings and late Friday night, when Rich threw out the idea of riding bikes to the market the next day, I declared that breakfast would be food carts.  None of the kids complained at that declaration.

C, J and K all went for the massive cinnamon rolls from Gabriel's.

I suggested sharing but that was not well received.  But not one of them was able to finish their entire cinnamon roll.  Not a surprise there!

T saw the PBJ's truck and totally recognized it and declared that he wanted his "favorite sandwich in the whole wide world"...that would be the Cynthia...a grilled peanut butter, nutella and raspberry jam sandwich.

I went for a breakfast crepe from C'est Si Bon...which was delicious despite the scowl I am sporting...

Rich enjoyed a scone and shared a pint of strawberries with the kids, along with a bag of caramel kettle corn.

Do we know how to do breakfast or what?!?!

Will Bike 4 Food

My hope when I bought my bike last month was that we would be able to take some family bike rides this summer.

This weekend we enjoyed two!

Friday night we rode bikes as a family to a city sponsored Picnic in the Park.

Along with dinner the kids enjoyed playing at the park, watching a magician, face painting, a bounce house, etc.

The next morning I woke the kids up and told them that breakfast would be served at the Farmer's Market, so everyone jumped on their bikes again and we rode to the Market together as a family.

It was AWESOME!

This is my view when we ride, as I take caboose.

Note that there is no K or C in site - they are the engine to our train and are always in the lead.  

Rich's job is to keep up with them and keep them in his site.

the family that hikes together....

We enjoyed going on hikes the past two weekends and I probably ought to document them.

Last weekend we hiked Tryon Creek which is a 658-acre state park located within Portland, and only a 15 minute drive from our house.  There are numerous paths which allow you to hike as long or as short as you wish.  We kept the hike pretty minimal and, in truth, it was more of a nature walk than a hike, but it was great to be out nonetheless.

Then this weekend we ventured a little further and chose to hike in the Gorge.  Our destination was Triple Falls, which was a 4.5 mile hike (round trip) but in hiking to Triple Falls, we actually passed three other waterfalls so it could have been called Triple Triple Falls or something like that.

(I did not have my camera so these photos are "borrowed" from google images)

Lower Horsetail Falls was literally at the trailhead...

Upper Horsetail Falls was less than 1/2 mile further up the path...

The destination was Triple Falls and it was really neat.  I wish we had brought a picnic and maybe even some towels so the kids could have waded into the water.  For all the effort to get there, we should have spent more time there...

This hike was a real hike.  It was a rocky path with a decent elevation gain.  It also had some amazing views of the Columbia River and the Gorge.  A little bit of heaven for sure!

And I have to mention how impressed I was with J and his hiking!  That kid is a robot - he just never stopped.  He was the first to the top and the first to finish.  I think our next hike will be picked just for him to see if we can't challenge him :)

Independence Day 2013

Happy 4th of July!

(NOT our dog....but the kids continue to beg)

We had an AMAZING 4th of July and we didn't even have to leave our neighborhood.

The morning began with the 5th annual neighborhood 1K race.

T chose to sideline it, so I was officially the family photographer, but my four family members that ran all won an award...

C took Boy's Division 2nd place (which was also 2nd overall and was neck in neck right to the end between 2nd and 3rd)

K took Girl's Division 2nd place

J took Boy's Division 5th place

R took Most Experienced (aka OLDEST) runner 

After the race everyone had an hour to go home and prepare for the neighborhood parade.

The parade was led by an ambulance and fire truck from our local fire department and then all kinds of neighbors were our with bikes, strollers, pets, scooters (my man), boats and even a tractor!

The parade was followed immediately by a BBQ potluck with an amazing turnout.  

Honestly, I didn't even know our neighborhood had so many kids!

Once lunch was enjoyed, the competition began with gunny sack races, three leg races and a water balloon toss.

So much fun!

A few of my favorite action shots...

J went down and took me with him...first grass stain I have had in years :)

"miss!"

C catching the balloon right as it explodes...

Our evening event was fireworks with the family across the street...I was happily snuggled under the blanket with T on my lap so there are no photos, but plenty of fun memories.