Hardesty Trail

We may be very lucky here in Oregon and have a fabulous Spring! I'm always ready for Summer, so I'll take any sunshine I can get. I knew it was supposed to be nice this weekend, so I decided that we'd get some hiking in. Jamie has been sick for a week now and needed some fresh air, the dogs don't like the rain so they get cooped up in the house, and Makena always needs to get outside more.

We have hundreds of beautiful parks in the Portland Metro area, so we don't really have to travel far. We decided to start off at the Upper Springville trail in Forest Park. Somebody (possibly me) forgot the map, so I took pictures of the trail markers just in case. I took pictures of everything else too, of course.

Many parts of the trails were still wet and muddy.

Moxie needed a water break.

I've mentioned it before, but Makena is not fond of the outdoors or any sort of physical activity. So getting her out hiking always takes some talking in to. But she usually goes along with it in the end to make me happy. (She's such a good daughter.) We just take breaks as often as she needs them.

And most of the time, the rest of us are ready for a break too.

We walked a couple of miles before returning to the truck. I asked Makena if she was up for another hike tomorrow and I got "the look". Maybe we'll wait until next weekend.

Kallie's 5th Birthday

I spent Saturday afternoon at the Flaherty's celebrating Kallie 5th Birthday. (Jamie was home sick and Makena couldn't make it.) I can hardly believe she's 5 years old already!

It was a gorgeous Spring day so the kids had a great time running around outside.

Dylona always has pretty flowers growing so Kallie and I went over to take pictures of them.


Then it was cake a present time. Kallie was a little timid with the blowing of the candles, but she eventually got it.

Happy 5th Birthday Bug, we love you!

Good Things

I hope you all know that Earth Day is coming up on April 22nd!! I thought the above picture was a little 'funny' to share for Earth Day. It comes from an email I received from Uncommon Goods; a website with fun little goodies.

Easter 2012

Jamie was out of town Easter weekend this year, so the girls and I headed to Garibaldi. It was the first time I had seen Gram in quite a while. She always spends a few months in Washington before/after Christmas with our family.

My mom and I spent most of Saturday shopping. I always hit my favorite antique stores in search of new treasures. And now that we'll have a bigger house, I need lots of new treasures!

Then, because the teenagers love me, they colored eggs. (I know the secretly wanted to too.)

I think Hailee was the only one with her actual name on her egg. Everyone else received drawings of some sort. There were a couple of bunnies, a Ho-Ho-Ho egg, a "Fatty" (what Hailee calls Makena) and some random other scribbles. They added stickers to make Grandma Lori happy.

Rudy took the girls, the dogs and I took the beach later that day. It was a beautiful, sunny day on the Oregon Coast. Moxie and Maddie raced to the water and played as long as they could. Packer just enjoyed chasing and hiding her ball.

Then we ate and ate before heading home on Sunday.

Nighthawk - More Stage 1 updates

Interior before pictures here - Nighthawk Stage 1 and here Nighthawk Stage 1 Updates

The interior fixes for Stage 1 were completed. Final painting and patching the wood floor in the kitchen.
Final painting and flooring replaced in the laundry room.

And final painting in Makena's room.

There were some of the interior things that needed to be fixed in order for us to pass the second inspection. Finally, we can now begin tearing everything out (yes, even the stuff that was just replaced) to make the house ours.

Nighthawk - We have paint!

Mother Nature was good to us and gave us a few days of sunshine and dry weather around Easter. It was just enough time for the painters to paint the exterior of the house. I was so excited to see how far they'd come as I pulled on to Nighthawk Dr.

I was happy with our color decision too. (Decisions are often stressful for me you know...) And it's going to look so much better when the brick gets covered with stone.

They were able to get most of the exterior painted, but the decks and trim work still needed to be done.

I went back to the house a few days later, and the decks were painted too.

Our second inspection passed, so we are now ready to move forward with the interior remodel. What a relief! We were hoping to be moving in to the house by the end of May, but we're now thinking early June. Thankfully we don't have to leave our old/newer house until we're ready.