A new beginning and old roots.

Echinacea from my Mother's garden.

I have been missing at this space for a very long time and for a very good reason. Our family had to make a very major change. With a heavy heart we said goodbye to Portland, our home for the last 12 years and the birthplace of my two youngest children. We also said goodbye to Oregon, which is not something that was easy for me to do. I really, really,really love it there. I had a lot of fun exploring the beauty of Oregon these last 12 years. A piece of my heart will always be there.
After many sleepless nights trying to narrow down the options of where we were going to relocate to we decided we had spent far too long away from our extended families and that our kids had really missed out on a whole lot of love. We were being priced out of the city that was the reason we moved west in the first place and the struggle and the sacrifice of trying to stay there were no longer worth it to us.
So where did we end up?
Well, after a cross country drive with three kids, two parents, two cats, an avacado tree, and a frozen placenta we landed in the Twin Cities.
Now were are just a two hour drive from our families, and the town we grew up in. Holy shock to the system,after not being anywhere near my hometown for the last 7 years it all feels so strange and so wonderfully familiar all at the same time. Goodness,we have so much catching up to do!

A Whirlwind Washington Adventure

We were lucky to get a short trip in up to visit with my Husband's Sister up in Seattle for a day and then we headed east to visit a charming mountain town where we stayed in a cozy A-frame cabin for the night. It was a very hot trip in the mountains, like crazy hot. Made me wish we stayed a little bit longer to soak up the Puget Sound.

My husband used to travel constantly with work and one such work trip led him to the small mountain town of Leavenworth, Washington. The entire town is themed like a Bavarian village. He really enjoyed it there and wanted to share it with us someday. Since we were going up to Seattle anyway we decided this would be a good time to check it out, especially since we are moving away from the Pacific Northwest in a few short weeks and this might be our last chance for a while.

My little merman.

                                                   Perfect day on the Puget Sound.

 This is one of the prettiest drives I have been on and for once I was not driving!

 Can you spot the little blue A-frame hiding in the trees? I think I have found my dream home.

 It was in the 90s when we got to the cabin so we decided to visit the creek on the lower part of the property. The water was crystal clear and ice cold a perfect little oasis. We were even visited by three goats who came running down the hill on the opposite side of the creek. They were very happy to play in the water too.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

 Solomon enjoying the loft in the cabin. One guess where he chose to sleep.

Leavenworth,Washington.

 So much detail in this cute little town. I loved all the murals and detailed woodwork on all the shops.

                   Solomon melting in his jeans. I figured it would be cool in the mountains so I packed pants and long sleeve shirts. I couldn't have been more wrong.

 There was a statue of three goats outside this building, the kids thought that was great after our random meeting with the goats at the creek.

Before our very hot, and very long drive back to Portland we stopped and visited some cute farm friends.....well most of them were cute......

Yarn Along: A sweet little dress

 Joining along with the Yarn Along with Ginny over at the lovely and inspiring Small Things blog. Please join in to share what you are making.

 This little dress knit up quick, mostly on the go when watching my son at swimming lessons. I finished it in a week.  It was fun to have a quick colorful knit after my huge whale knitting project.

I found this pattern on Ravelry it is Sweet Sweater Dress by Lion Brand Yarn. I made a few mods by knitting the skirt section in the round to keep the striping coheasive. I also added a crocheted bottom to add a ruffle and to keep the bottom from constantly rolling up.

A fun, fast knit. My daughter loves it and has worn it several times already. I think there might be a end or two that still needs weaving in since she snagged it from me so quickly.

I have not found the time to read lately.  We are so busy with the end of the school year with the kids events and concerts and promotions. Whew. Not to mention planning a cross country move that seems to be in the future for us this summer. Brain officially fried.

Still Rockhounding in the Heatwave

Wow, it was a hot one this weekend. Due to some health problems hot weather makes me really ill so I was avoiding it as much as possible.

We did end up at the river for a while on Saturday to have a picnic. I realized it was way too hot to not jump in the river despite not packing suits for the kids. They were happy to jump in anyway. I haven't owned a swimsuit in years, think I need to get one. Especially since it is looking to be 90 all wee. yuck.

I was the only crazy person looking for rocks despite the large crowds of people on the river. Found some good ones, although I almost cooked myself. I can't wait to go back on a cool rainy day!

Parades Galore...

Sophie marched in the Jr Rose Parade this year with her school band and Nalah and I had a great time at the parade together. We made it with just barely enough time to see Sophie march and pick Solomon up from school.Smarter parents pulled their kids out for the afternoon, I didn't even think of that. I guess I like to live dangerously. 

This was also the week of the Storybook Parade at my Son's school. This is our 8th and final year. So bittersweet, I always loved this sweet parade. The children dress up as a favorite character from a book and Solomon decided to dress up as Horton from the Dr Seuss book. Nalah wore her lamb costume that I made for her for Halloween and marched in the parade too, she was pretty pumped up even though she only made it a few blocks, she really wanted to be part of things. So sweet. Sophie and her band class marched in this parade as well and provided great tunes such as the "Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. It was fun to have them both in the parade again this year.

Only four more school days to go.We have a very busy week ahead.

                            Nalah caught that t-shirt from a t-shirt gun they fired off from across the street. She was pretty happy about it and had to wear it immediately.

                                                     So sweet,waving at the parade.

                                                   Sophie's school band at the Jr Rose Parade.

Horton

                                                                   

Getting hot and sweaty at Catherine Creek

Saturday we spent doing chores and packing and purging the house so we were all ready to spend Sunday out in nature,despite the hot temperatures. We chose the Catherine Creek area on the Columbia River near Lyle, Washington. It was very hot (91 degrees), but beautiful. There were wildflowers everywhere and it smelled so good like cedar and sweet grasses. It was a short scenic hike, good for little ones. Much safer than our family hike to Lava Canyon a few weeks back.

We rewarded our little sweaty kiddos with a trip to the awesome childrens park and ice cream in a treehouse at Mike's Ice Cream in Hood River. 

Multnomah County Fair 2015: Pig races and a blue ribbon winner

Wow things have been super crazy around my house, even more than usual as we are trying to plan where we will be living after July. So crazy and stressful. Hopefully I can catch up and show some pictures from our latest adventures in the next few days. We don't know how much longer we will be in Oregon so we are soaking it up while we can. Sometimes you just need to take mental break from all the stress and go have some fun.

For the holiday weekend we always stick close to the city which for us is very weird because we are always trying to escape the city on the weekends. But holiday weekends in the beautiful nature around Portland gets crazy crowded and for me takes away the whole purpose of getting out of town in the first place. So for the last several years on Memorial Day weekend we have visited the Multnomah County Fair. It is always a good time.

This year I almost died laughing at the pig races. They had names such as "Sloppy Joe" and "Luke Skyporker". My kids loved it too, even my teenager!

The fair is held at Oaks Amusement Park but admission to the fair is free and so are most of the activities. My kids are happy to just watch the rides rather go on them, so it works out pretty nicely.

This year I also entered the whale I knitted into the Fiber Arts section of the fair and guess what?

"Humphrey the Humpback" won a first place blue ribbon, ten bucks and some yarn.

Pretty fun!