new title: auntie

Just one month after we welcomed little Emmy, Mo and Tory had their own stork delivery! Not only is he adorable, but he made me an Aunt, and Mark an Uncle, giving our two munchkins their first cousin. 

Something so unflattering about pictures taken in the early mornings... whooptiedoo!

While visiting, I was happy to see Mont still harbors a love for "poopies!", and I think it is safe to say the feeling was mutual. Bowie loved Mont, or he loved Mont's crumbs.. either way, they made very cute playmates:

In Max's room, there was tons of fun/cute/ and adorable things. My two favorites were this:

And this. This was cross-stitched by Mark's mom Stacey the year before Mark was born. How sweet is this?! We were lucky and got one as well, but it's completely different. I may just have to do an Animal ABC's for our nursery. Must have taken a lot of work:

Mossbrae Falls

We almost missed this one... This stop was solely for Mark. When he told me that the hike along an active rail road was the only way to get to these water falls, I started having second thoughts. We even drove past the illegal trail head, and I saw it was a very narrow trail head. I put my maternal foot down and said no, he would have to do it alone. My inner-adventure seeker was bummed out.

I was sad to have missed this adventure, but am proud of my motherly instincts. Mark said that he DID have to jump into the bushes when the train came roaring past him, and that even to his adult ears, the train was incredibly loud, and only mere feet away from him. So glad I didn't take my toddler and newborn. Yikes times a thousand! But good golly... beautiful shots!!

Crater Lake

Next stop was Crater Lake, and we were just in time to have dinner and enjoy the sunset. You better believe I asked Mark to take the Nikon out again. So beautiful!

Little did I know, when Mark left at 4 am the next morning to capture the sunrise, he would see the most beautiful sunrise he has ever seen... and he's seen a lot! Right time, right place, that's for sure:

Oooh it is so nice having him interested in photography now!! I'm not so grumbly anymore!

Mt. Hood

The morning we were leaving, Mark set out in his blue jeans and boots to get some film shots of Mt. Hood. I asked him to take the Nikon too, so I could get some pictures to share, since I wouldn't be making that trek with two sleepy little ones! It was majestic; the pictures almost do it justice.

one more:

brrrrr! looks cold

the timber line

While routing our drive from Washington to California, Mark thought it would be interesting to stop a few different places along the way. First stop, was the Timberline Lodge at Mt. Hood, Oregon. The outside of it was actually used for the horror film The Shining... scaaary! 

Doesn't it look like it's sinking into the snow?? That's Mt. Hood in the background:

Once we got the kiddos all snug and asleep, I grabbed the camera and walked around the hotel, exploring every nook and cranny.

The snow has totally encased the back side of the hotel, covering all the windows with about 20 feet of snow:

When you walk in, there is a huge mosaic, then there is this huge painting. Mark said when he went downstairs with Mont to grab more luggage, he actually saw a huge St. Bernard just walking around... I never saw it when I went down right afterwards.. I think it was a ghost. ha!

Fun facts:

Out of all the rooms...:

We had room #102. Wonder why PO Boxes still don't look as fancy as this:

Nearly everything has been kept as it was decades ago. I can just see all the skiers sitting here anxiously hearing the weather reports and cautions before hitting the slopes back in the day before skiing was as popular as it is today:

Since I'm not a huge winter-sports sorta person, and if I had lived back then, I probably would have been found here playing some fun table tennis.. competitively, of course.

This is only one of the stairway carvings. There were so many other animals carved into the stair posts:

This was a fun find. Remember these old school notebooks? I remember finding some of my dad's way back as a kid (whatever happened to those, dad?). See the skier on the folder? That was used from this picture taken on the slopes of Mt. Hood. So neato:

And that concludes this tour..

Ruby Beach

Grey has always been a color of comfort for me. Growing up in an extreme desert as a child, the thunderous days of rain have always been a favorite, and I'm sure they always will be. The greys found on this beach hold that same special color, so forgive me while I indulge my color palette for a moment: 

the rounded rocks from years of being tossed around in stormy beaches:

the bleached color of broken driftwood:

stacked rocks (not my doing, but I did have fun adding the fallen rock back to the top!):

Mark is becoming quite the accomplished photographer.. even though I may grumble while he takes a few extra moments, the wait is worth it nearly every time. He has gotten some spectacular shots on our outings thus far:

I'm curious, what is your color of comfort?

photo gram

In an effort to play catch-up, here are some photos from WA via my iphone. I keep telling myself that once I get to an okay point of catch up, that I will blog more often and more regularly once again. Let's see if that holds true! 

The drive through the forests of Olympic National Park (after the previous post's pics were taken). This is only 7 miles from Forks, WA... so dream on!)

While in WA, I was lucky enough to visit with my dear friend Aubrey, and her three children. Even though it was her birthday, because she is as generous and giving as she is, she of course, had gifts for all of us. She is so, so, so wonderful. She is one of my friends I would take wherever I move if I could. Here is Emmy's sweet something: I fall in love with these little kickers every time she wears them.. so perfectly sweet.

Every day, multiple times a day, I would find my dad staring out at this.. and then when I would stand up with him, I couldn't pull myself away easily. I love visiting their home! Not only is it peaceful and lovely, the surroundings are breathtaking.

When I first arrived, my mom told me there were giant tulips in the yard. I was thinking they would just be a tad larger than the normal 3 inch tall tulip bud. Boy, was I wrong! Hold out your adult sized hand.. go on! Stretch out your fingers as far as they can go. These pedals were as long as my thumb tip to the tip of my middle finger!!!! I would have taken a photo of my hand doing this next to it... but my hands always look like alien hands in photos. So sorry.. just take my word for it. These were a good 7 inches!! Take a look at the bottom right hand corner and you'll see the typically sized tulip. Oh! They were tremendous.

Hoh Nat'l Forest, WA

Opening a book of fairy tales, reading over those mystical words, your mind begins to paint pictures with shockingly vibrant colors, and dark charcoaled shadows. 

Seeing the Hoh Forest in person, literature-like scenes where dwarves, giant spiders, unicorns or even terrifying werewolves would be common place began to materialize before my eyes. (are you thinking of the same books as I am?)

Just as I began thinking that I could almost lay down and fall asleep on the blanket of soft moss, my eye would catch a slimy trail from a giant banana slug, and that thought didn't seem so appealing any longer. 

We even were able to see some elk in this cove of trees. Mark took a better picture than this on his panoramic film camera, but this blog may never see that one, unfortunately. 

Just trust these photos when I say it was beautiful.

ps - this forest is a mere 10 miles from Forks, WA (I was so excited)

the pest

Anyone ever read the Beverly Cleary books about Romana the Pest? My little sister read it, and I think this was her edition. I even remember she loved the story... perhaps she even tried one or two of Ramona's pesky tricks on me, I'll never know:

When my mom was visiting, I ordered the movie Ramona and Beezus from Netflix, and for the record, I am giving it a rave review. Just thinking of it makes me want to watch it again. I laughed, I cried, I swooned, I adored...  truly, I did it all. Sorry mom, you were right next to me while I was on the roller coaster.

There's a lot of love,

a lot of funny, (I almost lost it when I saw this part... even looking at the picture has me rolling again)

and a lot of just plain old family fun:

I think I'm going to add this to my movie collection, I liked it that much. So, even if you have boys, even if you've never heard of these books, even if you don't like happy things, go watch this movie. You have my 5 star recommendation. "It's picture-perfect, right?" Right.

dandy lion hunter

We're here in California! It's hot! It's full of bugs! It's dry! It's sunny! While I miss Alaska terribly, I'm also having terrible amounts of fun with my little lion hunter.

There are so many new things here to show him. For instance, yesterday we watched a spider catch a fly.. seriously, we were both enthralled.

He has learned that he is brave enough to go down big spirally slides all alone, and he tries so hard to make his sister laugh in the car that he ends up cracking himself up instead. It really makes Mark and I laugh!

Today at the library, after I bored him with my book-search, he found some majorly fun toys. When I pried him off it, I had to stop his screeching with hilarious attempts at getting a drink from a drinking fountain. He's always played more than drink, but it at least stopped his terrible-2-screeches. Stinker.

We have found a killer mall (even has my favorite furniture store), killer strawberry shakes, and killer bugs - one of which was left smashed on my wall by the previous live-ins - yes! It's a good thing California has beaches and movie stars! Oh, and I do love this tan I've already traded my whiteness in for. It was a good trade, I tell ya.

I have lots more I could tell this blog, but it's a wee bit late, and I'm a wee bit tired. I'm off to carry my wee-est little one upstairs in her basket.

a Washingtonian day in the life of Mont

as seen through my iphone:

wake up:

 do his chores (ha):

 eat his chocolate cake for breakfast:

take care of his little sister:

 walk to the park:

 run to the slide:

ask, "what's thaaat?!" about 5,000 times:

 meet the local deer, scares them away, learns a new word:

does some yard work (another ha):

 takes a bath, learns how to maneuver a boat through whale-infested waters:

gets rosy cheeks, then goes to bed: