DeGoede's 2012

~erica

Yesterday we made our annual trip to DeGoede's in Mossyrock to see the Tulips. Between baseball, rain, and everything else going on its been hard to find time, our church had Community Serve so we had an early service and then we had to be back mid-afternoon to start dinner. The kids weren't too happy to have to go, in some ways outings were easier when I could just pick them up and strap them in their carseats and the promise of a treat made them compliant. Now they want treats like "can we go to lunch at Spiffy's in Morton and get burgers as big as our heads?" Umm, no....

Last year we took Grandma Hendrickson so she could see the tulips for a last time. My mom, grandma, and great-aunt also went with us.

The Troll at the end of the bridge... "Mom, this is my happy face!"

Arin's Senior pictures will be fun, he likes to dress up and pose for the camera.

The gift shop/ nursery was closed since it was Sunday so we couldn't buy any tulips to bring home, however Jonah has a game in Glenoma Tuesday night so we can stop on our way out and buy some. Then just he and I will eat at Spiffy's on the way home after the game.

Shepherds (the Bible kind, NOT real ones)

~erica

Today is my first real day of Christmas Break (the last 3 days of last week didn't count, but more on that later, maybe). Tovah stayed home from school with an awful cough but no big deal. At 8:30 the phone rang and our friends at Black Sheep Creamery needed some shepherds for the class of first graders that were coming out to  the farm this morning. Could one of the boys be there at 9:30, in costume? I figured Arin would want to do it, he loves to dress up. As soon as Jonah was reassured that he would be a Bible Shepherd and not have to mess with the sheep as a real shepherd he was in, Isaac negotiated it as school for the day, and Arin wasn't really given a choice. Problem: it's 25-degrees out there and all our shepherd costumes are for little guys (like, we could have outfitted most of the first graders from our costume box) but nothing for big boys. Polypropolene took care of the cold and grandma and grandpa have bathrobes so we were off.

The first grade class from the Christian School arrived all dressed up ready to learn about being a shepherd and meet some sheep (and eat a cool Shepherd's lunch of bread, cheese, and fruit).

The teacher read them a couple of Christmas stories in the barn while they are distracted by the hay, the sheep, the smells, etc.

Who's this in our house?

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid... And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Luke 2:8,9,15,16

These shepherds look like they got woken up and put on their bathrobes to see what was the matter.

Have you ever met a sheep? Jonah spends a lot of time down there and he knows what they are like and avoids spending too much time around them. They are utterly stupid and too stubborn for their own good. There is nothing cute and cuddly about them and they usually run the other way when they hear their Shepherd's voice. Hmmm, cuts a little too close to home for some of us....

Note: these are all straight out of my camera and I can see the need for some Photoshop editing but I wanted to get this post up, it's been too long since I blogged. Also we've been home 2 hours and I'm still cold with all my layers on and a big cup of hot chocolate inside me.

Our Oregon Trip

~erica

Monday the kids and I headed down to Portland for 3 days of being tourists. With our Pacic Science Center membership and staying at my aunt's it didn't cost much more than gas and fun food.

We went to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. They had 2 featured exhibits that we wanted to see; Narnia and Game On. Narnia cost us $2 each to get in. They had costumes from the first 2 movies and sets and props. There were some hands on exhibits warning against global warming (I think the link was the big thaw in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe- never mind that was caused by magic). There was a wall of ice that you could try to climb and some chain mail and armor to try and lift. The second exhibit was about the development of video games. They had everything from pinball machines and arcade games to Wii, Kinect, and a Virtual Reality game. They had Pong set up a big screen, it just seemed wrong. The boys could have stayed in there for hours but it was so noisy! I looked for PacMan but couldn't get near it if it was there.

We went to stay at my aunt Ann's house. My cousin Paul's family came over for dinner and my cousin Fae came in with her new baby. We gladly held the baby all evening, the kids fought over who got to hold her. Noah is as blond as most of the cousins in my generation (I was the exception- I always had brown hair).

(Turns out no flash, night time pictures are better when they are black & white.)

Tuesday Ann & Kaitlyn went with us to McMinnville to the Evergreen Air & Space Museum. Kaitlyn had been to the museum before but it was new for the rest of us. My membership got in 2 adults and all the kids in the party, we had wanted to go when we had a membership to the Boeing Air Museum but because Evergreen has an IMAX it is actually a science museum and not an air museum.  I'll be writing a post on the value of memberships to places, but I'll just say here that these 2 visits would have cost more than we paid for our Science Center membership, even at the Platinum level.

My friend, Mauri, met us the parking lot for a 5 minute hug and catch up; I hadn't seen her since she moved down there 2-3 years ago. She had to get to a class but it was nice to see her even for just a few minutes.

They had old airline seats all over the museum instead of benches. Every time the kids sat down they buckled their seat belts. Every single time! Towards the end of the second section of the museum I sat down and figured out how to recline the seats then I didn't want to get up and drive the hour back to Ann's.

The highlight of the museum is Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose. You can go into the fuselage and look both ways. They filled the wings with beach balls for flotation- remember that the next time the flight attendant tells you to use your seat cushion.... It's a huge airplane but they have so many airplanes around it and the building is so big that it's hard to get a real sense of its size.

Rounds of ammunition in the wing | I finally got a picture of the Berlin Wall (I didn't have any film when I was there in 1988) | 24 kills

Sig Sauer (why does the name seem familiar?) | This banner says "Pacific Theater" | Time Magazine cover with "Race for the Moon"

 

Arin with his head up the exhaust vent of a Saturn rocket | Isaac inside the bigger exhaust vent of the rocket | Boy Scout sash is a "typical" boys room of the 1950s (but I think those are all modern badges)

In the hands on area they had an infared camera and you could see yourself on the screen. We were easily amused and stood there for quite a while rubbing our hands together to heat them up. The lighter areas are the warmer areas. Arin and Rush's noses were black and Rush's curls were jet black, he looked like Bernard from The Santa Claus. The display of guns was of special interest to the boys and they all liked playing outside on the playground. Tovah got to push the button that started the Saturn rocket countdown so she was happy. The boys want to go back with Ryan (and he'd like to go too), maybe we'll go if we go down to Homeschool Day at Oregon Gardens on Sept. 13.

There's a Sonic around the corner from my aunt's so we made sure we were back in Hillsboro in time for Sonic Happy Hour. Everyone got a 32-oz. drink and was happy.

Wednesday we were going to go hiking at Multnomah Falls but it was too hot and we were ready to be home. We headed across town to stop at Ikea for a shower curtain for the boys' bathroom and swedish meatballs. We're having them for dinner tonight as soon as Ryan gets home (we could bring them home frozen since we had the coolers with us).

Homestead Pioneer Fair

Today we got a preview of next year's topic of study- I took Tovah to a Homestead Pioneer Fair up in Tumwater. We're going to do Prairie Primer which is a unit study based on the Little House on the Prairie books. She and her best friend, Jillian got to pretend they were doing the same type of chores as Laura and her sisters.

Hoops is one of the games played in the schoolyard and with friends

They got to wash clothes, make candles, spin wool, split firewood, and make biscuits. They also got to make rope, punch tin, and use woodworking tools.

The weather was beautiful and the girls had a great time. Tovah did tell me that she needs a dress for next time...

Trip to Canada

This is my trip to Canada with Centralia First Christian Church. We went up for the Winter Retreat and we also got to hang around Olympic Village and downtown Vancouver. We were going to see an event but the tickets were too expensive (some were going for $1500!)

We went to an indoor water park. It was fun jumping off a five meter tall diving board!

These are some pictures of the trip:


The church we stayed at.

A picture of a medical clinic and pharmacy from the moving bus.

Rush being silly.

Mt. St. Helens

This is Spiril Lake before the May 18 eruption

We went to Mt. St. Helens on September 10, 2008, to work on my Forestry Merit Badge. On May 18, 1980 Mt. St. Helens erupted, blowing away 1,300 feet of the summit. The eruption killed 57 people. Ten million trees were flattened in seconds. After almost 30 years the mountain is still recovering, however the first trees planted after the eruption are ready to be harvested.

The Toutle River above the Sediment Dam

Reforested areas of the mountain and the crater

The Burke Museum

The Burke Museum features changing exhibits for the general public to enjoy on subjects ranging from current research and recent discoveries in natural history to the finest traditional and contemporary cultural arts.

My favorite part was about all the dinosaurs, even though they say that the dinosaurs lived millions of years ago (I'm really interested about dinosaurs since I read "Jurassic Park").

When my mom was little she saw a mummy at the Burke Museum but its not on display now.

Notes from Erica: The Museum is on the University of Washington campus just off the main entrance on 45th. It is free the first Thursday of the month. You can sign up for an educator newsletter and see the classes and workshops they offer in the Natural History discipline. Last year they did some workshops for Boy Scouts to earn their Geology Merit Badge (of course we had just finished that the month before). Evolution is very prevalent but they have fabulous skeletons and exhibits. We saw special exhibits on Antarctica and gemstones as well as Native cultures of the Pacific Rim.