Life - In Pictures

We went to Tillamook State Forest a couple of weeks ago because the weather in Portland was forecasted to be around 85 degrees.  The water here weather it be the ocean, lakes, or rivers is incredibly freezing and is unlike any other part of the country that I have ever been to.  None-the-less on the rare days when it is warm here being by water is preferred no matter how cold it is. 

Andy, Elizabeth, and Sarah were the first to get in. Josh hemmed and hawed about getting in for what seemed like forever. The kids were all busting his chops about how much time it took him to get settled into the water. 

Striking a pose. 

Elizabeth realizing how freezing the water actually feels. 

Still thinking about getting in...

Andy taking Elizabeth down stream.

Sam and Lily found a large puddle to hang out in that was a bit away from the river. 

Andy helping Sarah navigate herself into the water. 

The three kids got caught in a dead pine needle flotsam.

Finally! Well, maybe not as he quickly got back out of the water after this picture was taken. 

Still waiting for Josh...

Waiting some more...

Maybe this time?

Can you tell by his face how cold he found the water to be?

Trying to catch up with the kids.

And caught up to them!

The same week we headed out to the beach. We had a fun day catching up on some much needed Vitamin D. We took the dogs with us too.

Our sweet girl, Lily.

I don't think I could love this boy any more. 

Andy made dinosaur feet. 

Lily was not at all impressed because Andy's concentration was taken away from her while he worked on this project. 

Josh was just laying around so Andy turned his lower half of his body into a mermaid tail.

Andy found this dead crab which freaks Josh out. Andy leaves around the house now in random places to drive Josh crazy. 

We lost the smaller lens of our camera, so these couple of pics of our new house aren't the best and I couldn't take any of our upstairs because I just couldn't get a good angle. The new house is a bit smaller than the last one and is about 1510 square feet. It has one less bathroom which puts up at 2 bathrooms now, but I love this house more than I loved our last house or even our Las Cruces house. (Although I loved our Las Cruces property.)

The kitchen is open and has ample storage. I love how the dining table has its own space.

This is our living room from the kitchen. I love all of the window in the townhouse. It has windows on 3 sides of the unit which is one more side than I had in the last unit and it makes all of the difference in the world. I also love that we are in the interior of the complex. I feel like I am living in a micro-city. It is pretty cool. 

Our school books for the upcoming school year which will begin at the end of July or the beginning of August. 

Today Bob had the idea to take the girls strawberry picking up in the Mt Hood area. We had a great time and ended up stopping at Lost Lake as well. It was a nice day.

I will say that Oregon in the summer is pretty hard to beat. It is really, really beautiful here. 

On our way to Lost Lake.

This is what we do when we log our forests. What was once all tall pine trees is now large swaths of ripped land in various states of regrowth. The brown that you see are the newest pine trees to have been logged. The newer growth can be seen alongside the older trees that have not yet been harvested. It is so ugly to see and takes place in so many of our mountains here in Oregon. I try to tell myself that unlike plastic wood is a renewable resource and that I should prefer the forests to be logged instead of more plastic made, but I cannot help but be sick to my stomach every time I venture out into the woods because inevitably this is what I see every time on jut about every mountain all around. 

This is what it should look like all around me. 

And this is what it looks like instead. 

Snow?! In June at Lost Lake there sure was still some snow left over from this past winter. It is crazy amazing to live in a place where there is still snow on the ground in June. 

We rented a rowboat and took the girls out on the lake for a little bit. It was cold this high in the mountain especially since the sun was not shining. 

By the end of the trip Elizabeth had had it.