Sunriver

We just got back from 6 days in Sunriver, and it was such a treat! I drove over last Wednesday with the boys and my mom. Lourdes and Jo flew into Redmond and met us in Sunriver that night. Brady joined us Friday afternoon. Even though we only had one sunny central Oregon day before several days of clouds and rain showers, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I won't recap each day, but here are some highlights:

• Making bird/squirrel feeders out of pine cones that Owen collected and then watching the animals enjoy them
• Bend Children's Museum--I could make a whole separate list of highlights just under this category. Owen loves this place and could spend a whole day there!
  
• Walking through the village
• Visiting open houses and thinking about our own possible Sunriver house
• Goody's ice cream shop (3 visits, to be exact)
• Bike rides--including Quincy's first ride in the bike trailer and Owen's first rides on the tag-along as well as a 2-wheeler with training wheels.
  
• An afternoon at the beautiful High Desert Museum--Owen has been playing "High Desert Museum" ever since we got back to Corvallis and sleeps with his new river otter puppet
• Having 3 grandmas on hand which meant that I shipped the kids downstairs and TWICE slept in until 9:00!!!
• Dinner at Merenda in downtown Bend
• A pony ride followed by lassoing an iron calf (or trying to)
  
• Playing at Fort Rock Park--Owen and Quincy both went down the slides more times than I can count. Unfortunately, we never had a camera there with us.

Most of the pictures were taken on Lourdes and Jo's camera, but here are a few that I took.


Here is Owen riding Houdini
Owen, Brady and Lourdes roping the calfOwen and I riding bikes (or should I say bike?)
Quincy and Brady watching the bike riders
Here's Owen trying a 2-wheeler

In this picture Lourdes is demonstrating to Owen how Eagles use their talons to catch their prey. Owen is really into birds of prey these days.
I love this picture of Owen's excitement about Thomas the river otterOwen reading a sign. This is what he was saying: "Be very quiet so you don't scare the birds, and stay on the path."Here's a picture of Owen and me inside the tipi
Quincy outside the High Desert Museum

Bill's Visit

Bill Clinton that is. So the former president made a campaign stop at good ol' Lincoln School on Monday (this is the school where I teach). All school staff members were allowed to bring guests and be in the VIP section. We debated for a while about whether or not to take the boys and finally decided that they should get involved in politics as early as possible. (See earlier posts regarding Owen's interest in the campaign).
My mom picked Owen up from Seedings (his play school) and reported the following conversation to me when she got home:
Annanne: Owen, we're going to go home and play for a while before going to Mommy's school to see former President Bill Clinton.
Owen: Who?
Annanne: Bill Clinton. He used to be our president.
Owen: Like Bush?
Annanne: Yes.
Owen: My mom doesn't like President Bush. (pause) How many other presidents have I not met?

Brady, Stan, my mom, Owen, Quincy, and I all arrived at Lincoln at 4:45 for Bill's scheduled 6:00 speech. We were let into the gym at 5:15. An hour and 45 minutes later, Clinton still wasn't there, and the temperature in the gym had escalated greatly. Suddenly the campaign organizers started ushering everyone out saying that they made a last minute change because so many people had shown up that there were more people waiting outside than there were in the gym, which was already past capacity. I was pretty upset, not only for ourselves, but for a number of our Lincoln students who had been standing in their front row spots waiting for an hour and forty five minutes only to be escorted out to somewhere in the midst of the crowd. Anyway, as luck would have it, we got ushered out and ended up right in the front row just a few feet from the bed of the pick-up that BC spoke from.
And how was the speech? Actually, it was really great. He spoke for over an hour, and it was so refreshing to listen to such an intelligent man and be reminded that I haven't always been smarter than our president (a feeling that I'm not at all comfortable with--feeling like our president is truly dumb, that is). I have to say that I have been loosely backing Obama from my perch on the fence for several months now, but I'm really seriously considering changing my vote now. I told Brady that it's sort of like tuning into a sports game and not caring who wins and therefore cheering for the underdog. I guess that's why they bother making these campaign stops, isn't it? Quincy got tired, and Owen got a little bored, but they were really great. BC made the rounds at the end of his speech. He shook both Owen's and my hands and then cupped Owen's cheek in his palm. Owen picked out a big pink button that says "Hillary Rocks!" afterward. We arrived home at 8:30!

Here's a conversation that took place in the car the next morning.
Owen: Mom, who did we meet this morning?
Mommy: Do you mean last night?
Owen: Yeah, who did we meet last night?
Mommy: Bill Clinton.
Owen: Yeah, Bill Clinton. That was a long day!

Here are some pictures that my mom got from her vantage point, which was behind the truck.

Here are Quincy and I listening to the speech:

Here are Brady and Owen listening to the speech:Bill making the rounds:

Mother's Day

What a great Mother's Day! Brady got up with the boys so that I could sleep in, which I did until 8:20! What a treat! My mom and I went to church with the boys, and then we met up with Brady at the pool. Quincy was too sick (another ear infection and rattly cough), so Brady and I went swimming with Owen while my mom brought Quincy home. With a little help from Stan and Owen, Brady made a Mother's Day feast. For those of you that know that Brady's cooking repertoire normally consists of sandwiches and wiener wraps, try not to fall off your chairs. He made pork chop calzones, which are thick pork chops stuffed with prosciutto, provolone, fresh basil, and fresh sage. To go with them he made grilled marinated asparagus, and Stan made mashed potatoes and strawberry shortcake. It was all so delicious! We missed Linda, who is on a trip to Arizona with her girlfriends. The boys gave me a very sweet giraffe charm for my Pandora bracelet. I love it!

Brady Prepping food:

The inaugural meal on the new BBQ:
Quincy playing while we were waiting for dinner:
The feast:

Owen--just a little update

This posting is just some journaling about Owen.

Owen is so much fun. Granted, he wants to have a lot of decision making power and is constantly testing out what he has control over and what he doesn't, but he is such a joy, and it is such a pleasure to be his mom. He seems so grown up these days. I can't pinpoint it, but I feel like he's just made one of those developmental leaps. He cracks me up all the time with very hilarious things that in the moment I'm sure I could never forget. But then when I actually sit down to write them down (like right now), I can't remember them. This is a huge frustration for me because I know I'll never be able to recapture them.
He has an amazing imagination, and it is so fun to just stand back a little and watch and listen to where his imagination is taking him at any given moment. He loves to take all of the cushions off the couch. When this happens, Owen is instantly transformed into a baby otter and the pile of cushions to his rocks. He entertains himself for an hour at times.
Another favorite game these days is "Aomatsu." For those of you who don't live in or visit Corvallis often, Aomatsu is a great Japanese restaurant here, and it is Owen's favorite! He loves to sit at the tepanyaki grill where the chef performs all sorts of entertaining tricks while grilling your food right where you sit. Owen is also a big fan of sushi. He downs entire orders of sushi and asks for more. He and Abuela created a great pretend Aomatsu chef game when we visited California last month. Needless to say, Owen was thrilled a few days after we came back to receive an Aomatsu package from Abuela--everything you need to play sushi and tepanyaki grill chef.
Owen also really loves swimming. We have been taking water babies and then water kids classes with him since he was 6 months old. This week we switched to swimming lessons where he is in the class with other kids and a teacher but without a parent. He has only had one lesson so far, but he did great! In fact, he passed level 1 on the first day. It was so great to watch him from the stands. He listened to and cooperated with everything his teacher told him, and he thoroughly enjoyed himself the entire time.
We are lucky in that for our birthdays my mom and Lourdes got Brady and me a family membership to the pool, so we can go whenever we want. Mom and I took the boys swimming for an hour last evening. Afterward, my mom took Owen out to play in the lobby while Quincy finished nursing. When I got out to the lobby my mom said, "Owen was just telling me about when you went camping and a moose pooped on your car!" To my recollection this has never actually happened, but this is just one tiny example of Owen's imagination and sense of humor. By the way, he then said, "Yeah, he pooped on the Subawu."
I wish I had a video camera on him 24/7 so that I could capture all of the great things that he does and says. Yes, 24/7 because he often says some pretty funny things in his sleep too.