Country Living

Alright folks, so this is how we start the day...I slave away starting the fire to keep us all warm while Armando relaxes on the couch with his feet up. (just kidding, but why not take advantage of the picture?) The wood stove has become our best friend this winter. I absolutley love that this is our source of heating for our house! It is so cozy to have the stove cranking out heat and I feel a sense of accomplishment upon lighting every fire (something that I never got from turning up my theromstat!) There is a nice satisifaction that comes with chopping firewood and stacking it into the stove and setting it on fire with the wall street journal. ( I have a bit of a grudge against that paper because I can never get their crossword puzzles done). After getting the fire started its off to school for the boys at 8 am. This is way too early...I see the sunrise, which is nice, but just really early. Its great that they are home at 2:30 and have plenty of time to enjoy playing outside or in, doing chores, or hanging out with the fam.

Our driveway is now a quarter of a mile long, which makes for a great track to ride just about anything with wheels! It is scarier to longboard down than Oakledge though because it is much narrower! The kids love the space, except when they have to haul the trash cans down to the end of the driveway each week!

As you can see, Cassie has really taken to life on the farm. She fits in so well! We are still having her sleep in the house, although sometimes we think she may prefer to be out in the pastures!

We're Back On-line!!!

I have internet access!!! And you all thought that I was just really busy and couldn't update my blog! Well, my friends, I hope that I can start catching up with you all and let you know what life is like here in Oregon. Tonight I will begin the update with a few pics from the road trip out here at the first of September. It was the maiden voyage of the little RV and the kids thought we were truly traveling in style! They had a ton of fun acting like they were at home as we cruised westward toward our new adventure! We ended up taking the drive in two days and spent a beautiful summer night along the snake river on the Oregon/Idaho border. I was tempted to take a small detour up to our former home of McCall, Idaho, but had to pass since the kids had to get here and start school.

We stopped a lot for scenic breaks, especially along the Columbia River Gorge. This is always my favorite part of the drive. You go from a dry, desert gorge to the lushness of the Pacific Northwest within an hour, all while following the same river....very cool.

My kids reminded me of little hippie children all along the trip. Scotty was shirtless with his over-sized sunglasses, stopping to browse at all the little rest stop curio shops. Cassie's hair was a long flowing mess and she ran around barefoot. Jax blew bubbles and read books and took naps. Armando looked like the captain of his ship as he cruised down the road. I tried not to complain too much about the sweltering heat through the desert since everyone else was enjoying themselves.

And then we reached the farm. We got the moving truck unloaded, bought a new truck (since we had sold the land cruiser in utah), registered the kids in school, and then Armando was off to work at Bandon Dunes down on the coast for a couple of months. He absolutely loved working down there again and we will all go down with him this summer. He brought back a lot of his caddie friends to hang out in Portland on their off time and started his putting green project here on the farm. I will post pictures of that little project next! Jackson is in a school class with his cousin Andie and both boys get to ride the bus home! This was the beginning of our adventure and look for more posts to follow quickly to chronicle the rest of what we have been up to! We miss all of friends and want you all to come visit anytime!

Homeward Bound!

Well folks, this is it. We are officially heading to Oregon! For those of you who live nearby, you know this; for those of you who don't, you may have heard rumors starting as early as last year. They are finally coming into reality, so I decided to let everyone in on a preview of the life that is awaiting us. I actually didn't grow up here, but we are headed home to my parents farm! About 6 years ago my parents bought a 45 acre plot of land just outside of Portland. Ever since, we have thought it would be awesome to join them. They have planted a gorgeous orchard (above) with the help of my sister and her family (just a few miles away), are cultivating an awesome garden, berry patch, and vineyard, and my dad has it all set up for the sheep and goats that he has always wanted! (talking my mom into that part is another story) Bunnies and coyotes already run wild, so we thought we would head up there and add some real "livestock", namely jackson, scotty, and cassie to the place!

When my parents moved here, this was the existing house. When they first moved in, it was affectionately dubbed "the icky house" by my niece. It turned out to be very charming and cozy, "the cottage" as Scotty now calls it, and we are going to be living in it! (it has really cute red shutters now--thanks mom!) Armando has grand plans for the front yard and putting green!

And the best part about this whole thing is that we get to be so close to grandma and grandpa who can teach us all about how to grow beautiful flowers and wonderful food, teach us physics and art and piano, tell us Horatio and Henrietta stories, and in general make life a wonderful family experience! We look forward to this new adventure!

The Oregon Coast

Aaah, the joys of beach vacationing...the endless sandbox, the sound of waves crashing, the tide pools, and the sunshine...oh, wait, not the sunshine because this is Oregon and we BUNDLED UP, but a very excellent way to spend a few days for sure! The kids and I spent a few days with the rest of my family in Lincoln City while we were in Oregon. It was beautiful and the kids loved every minute of it! We walked out to the tide pools one morning (this was a first for my kids) and saw tons of starfish, anenome (sp?) mussels and a really dark and scary sea cave.

They were loving every minute of it...poking things and scrambling over rocks and gathering shells. It was also very nice to return to the house and have a nice hot tub waiting!

The beach we were staying at was also a very popular spot for kite boarding and it was super cool to see that up close. We always see it being done in the gorge, but this was the first time I had seen it on the ocean. Those guys were getting serious air and it was like they were just hanging there. I would love to try it sometime, although as my age advances, so does my fear of sharks and other things lurking in the water...

All in all, a great time!

GIRL POWER!

I know it has been mentioned before, but the girls in my neighborhood rock!!! This weekend we took a trip down to Las Vegas (the first time that i have ever been down there) to do an all-women triathlon. It was an absolute blast!

Kudos to my friend Wendy who graciously took pictures of all of us! This is my first picture on the bike! yeah! so the race started early with the first wave leaving at 6:30 am, a good thing since it was 100 degrees that day! the swim was in Lake Las Vegas, which was very smelly, but a very nice temperature. Kristi says it smells because the sewer lines go under it and they leak...thanks Kristi, i wish that you had told me that after the race! so i tried not to swallow too much water and ended up having my fastest swim time!

if you are wondering which one is me, sorry, none of these ladies! i told my kids that i was the one in the very front though.

Just to let you all know, getting into a triathlon wetsuit is a team event--after they're up and zipped there is a lot of bootie-slapping, just like the major leagues. At this race they even had "wetsuit strippers" guys that had you lie down and put your legs in the air as they yanked off your second skin. Where's that picture?? (be glad you missed it!)

To all my dears friends that made this weekend possible--i love you all! to my dear husband that kept my kids happy, fed, and safe this weekend; you are the best daddy and husband in the ENTIRE world! to all the other cool girls that i know--come join us next year!

9 YEARS!

today we are celebrating the best 9 years of our life...thats right, we have been married for almost a decade! sometimes we can't believe that time goes by so quickly, but i am so glad that we have been able to do everything together! (i just want to tell the #1 man in my life that you are the most incredible husband and father and i am grateful for you everyday!)

our life is filled with giggles, smiles, snowboards, golf clubs, dogs, putting greens, family, and a

whole lot of craziness and love! i wouldn't have it any other way!

I love you armando and look forward to the rest of our wonderful life together!

catching up again!

it seems that i am always playing catch-up these days! here are my excuses for being a blog-slacker: 1) our computer crashed and we had to get a new operating system after trying everything else for a couple of weeks. this is a problem because i generally take a little longer than the average bear to figure out something new! 2) i spend my free time finding a way to take everyone skiing; 3) my house always needs to be cleaned--especially after easter--the easter bunny will not be allowed to bring easter grass into my house next year! 4) you get the point--it hasn't been a high priority.
here are a few pics of the lastest happenings. there was an easter egg hunt at our pool, featuring the easter bunny. cassie had seen the advertisement poster for weeks and couldn't wait to go"baby-swimming with bunny!" so we braved the throngs of screaming children pushing through the water for eggs and met the bunny.

jax was the only one to officially "meet" the easter bunny, but cassie pointed, smiled, and hid from him a lot.

this is jax and his best friend jayce. jayce happens to live across the street--a very convenient thing if you ask me! they had to do a biography book report and then displayed their character in a wax museum. it was really fun, and worked out great for me since we had a wild west sheriff costume! (did you know that wyatt earp was one of six boys? all of them actually worked together at one time or another...and the term "riding shotgun" comes from the guard sitting with the satgecoach driver for the pony express? i read the book after jax.)

life is going on at the kennon household...jackson will get baptized next week, scotty loves to do art and craft projects and is loved by his school teacher who tells me every time she sees me how much she enjoys him; and cassie loves her brothers and her friend nate. her favorite sayings right now are "what the heck" and "nasty". we are so proud.