The Great House Project

After four years of living in our house, Nick and I have finally decided to settle in. Jake and Carol moved out of our basement over Labor Day weekend, so we moved our bedroom and Lilah's bedroom downstairs into the basement. Then, we turned our old bedrooms into a playroom for Lilah:


and a new office for us:

It's been a couple of weeks now since we've made the change and WE LOVE IT!! Suddenly our house feels much more spacious and the lay-out makes a lot more sense for our family. It's wonderful having an easily-accesible office, it's lovely having the bulk of our laundry all on the same floor, it's easier to feed the dog, the house seems to stay cleaner longer, ect, ect.

Honestly, we should've done this sooner!!

Zoo Day!

Now that my friend Andrea is a stay-at-home-mommy, we've been able to get the kids together. Last week Andrea (who's also a zoo member) treated us to a day at the Zoo.



The girls playing on the grass while Zander looks on:


I will go on record and say I was a Bad Mommy. I told Lilah to let me get this picture of her quick before the dinasour tried to eat her. You can imagine how that ended. I barely got this picture before the tears flew. That was one realistic dinasour exhibit....


Of course she got over it just as quickly and moved on to pretending to be a slithering snake:

Chloe and Lilah:

Lilah and I came home and passed out after this trip. But it was a lot fun and hopefully we'll be able to get the kids together again soon...

Happy 3rd Birthday, Lilah!

Dear Lilah,

On September 13th, 2010 you turned three. We celebrated your third birthday the day before with a small pony party for you and your friends. You were so convinced that your birthday was the 12th that when Daddy and Mommy whispered "Happy Birthday" in your ear on the 13th you got mad and said, "It's not my birthday!"

You are still a busy, fearless girl. You are imaginative, strong-willed, and super-sweet to your parents and friends.

You enjoy going to "school", which is really your day-care while Mommy works. You have many friends there and are "one of the girls" according to the teachers. You also like going to the barn with Mommy to either "help" her teach, or play with the kids there. You enjoy showing off your riding skills to anyone watching. Your best friend is Addie, with whom you alternately fight and love on. You are enthralled with Addie's little sister, "Baby Mira." You try to take good care of Mira whenever you see her.

You also enjoy playing with all your cousins on both sides of the family. We like to see you playing with your cousins and hope you are close to them when you grow up. You also love seeing both sets of grandparents and will ask to go to their houses.

Our hearts break when we realize how fast you are growing up. You continue to be our perfect angel who has brightened up our world since the moment we knew you were on the way. We love you beyond words Lilah.

ROAD TRIP!!

As an end-of-summer vacation, Nick and I decided to do a road trip of the beautiful state of Oregon. We arranged to meet friends and family along the way!

We used the Roundhouse as our "jumping off" point. From Sisters we traveled to John Day through the fossil beds. Here we stopped to take a look. Lilah was bent on walking Simon herself!




We arrived in the afternoon at Nick's nephew's house in John Day. Cousin(?) Kaitlyn is just three months younger than Lilah, and they had a blast exchanging toys and playing in the backyard:


We later took them to a park:

Lilah's Daddy reads to the two girls:

The next day Nephew Keith (who's only younger by a couple years) took us to see the salmon spawning in the John Day River. Yum, yum.... You spawn Salmon so I can eat you and your children for dinner!

If you look closely, you can see a ginormous salmon in the middle of the river:

The group looking for salmon:

The good friends: (Lilah talks a lot about Kaitlyn now!!)

The day after we traveled on to Burns, where one of my best girlfriends lives. Auntie M & her new husband (as per our June blog) took us out to see the beautiful Steens in Burns' backyard:

This is Kiger Gorge. It's high elevation and very windy, so Nick has Lilah bundled up in his arms while we checked the gorge out:

The newlyweds overlooking the Alvadore Desert

Auntie M!!

After a long day of driving around, Michelle (Auntie M) and Boyce took us to the local hot springs:

Soon it was time to hit the road again. We took a different route home -- constantly taking new roads and highways we've never driven on. Thank you Lilah for being so good in the car!! She was a star.

We saw a lot of beautiful country and a lot of wide open spaces. Makes us want to pack up and move! We are thankful for a safe, fun & interesting trip, and thankful for being able to see people near-and-dear to us. We will have to do it again!

On the way home:

Hood to Coast

Shortly after finishing chemo, Nick informed me he was going to run Hood to Coast. I was skeptical. Even the doctor raised his eyebrows when Nick told him of his new goal. Racing a major race like Hood to Coast six months after finishing chemo ... But yet there became a quiet connection with Nick's cancer, to Hood to Coast, and Nick was determined to run.

And... Nick went on to successfully finish his first Hood to Coast race!

I did not see Nick run his last leg, or cross the finish line. Instead, I waited at home with Jake, Carol, and Lilah. We decorated the house and made a gift basket (which included hand-designed t-shirts by Carol & fam) for celebrating.

Making Nick's t-shirt: His shirt has our hand-prints and written messages.




Lilah's shirt says "I'm Proud of my Daddy"

Opening the gift basket:

The decorated living room:

We didn't talk about what Hood to Coast represented to us. We didn't even try to think about it because we hope & feel our cancer story is in the past. But having Nick run Hood to Coast was emotional for both of us.

Nick -- we are proud of you and we love you!!

Roundhouse 8/10

Ahhhh..... the sweet Roundhouse... This year we just haven't been going over there that much. Maybe it's the fact that we lived in central Oregon last summer?? But it seems we have begun a yearly tradition of an August weekend with friends (to celebrate our shared anniversaries/birthdays/ect) so we made sure to get over there for that! This year we were joined by the Heimer and Willis family, plus Willis family members visiting from England. Altogether we had five children and eight adults -- a busy house!

We checked out the local fish hatchery:


and Simon lost his tennis ball (it sank!) in the Metoulis


with the Heimers (they are expecting #2!)


and the Willis family:

Back at the 'house:

and I had to take a picture of this, 'cause it fits the stereotype of British with their tea! We had four native Englanders visiting with us, and this is the first time I've ever seen this used. In its proper entireity. :)

In all the activity, Lilah sacked out. I was THRILLED to be able to have some mommy-snuggle-time. Of course, since Lilah doesn't nap anymore, we paid for this siesta that night -- Lilah didn't go to bed until almost midnight!

At Scout Lake:

The Willis family minus Addie:

I was so excited to go and wasn't let down. I'm looking forward to the next trip over!!

Texas Visit

We had a nice surprise when my sister Naomi informed us she was going to be visiting with her kids in August. Lilah loves playing with her cousins!

Ava and Lauren put on a birthday party for Dad, here's a cousin shot the night of the party:


We went to a "Sprayground" one day:


Of course fearless Lilah found the tallest thing she could climb on -- she wanted to go to the very top!


We also went to the beach. Lilah was asking tonight when she could go again with her cousins:

Group shot at the beach!

Next time it's our turn to travel to Texas!