Out in the Garden

Remember to take the time to stop & sit on the roses...he he. We've been so busy around here lately, this seemed appropriate. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the short tour of stuff that's blooming at our house. This red rose belonged to Michelle's Mother-In-Law & almost universally refused to bloom for her. Since she's passed away it blooms almost constantly all summer. Michelle claims she's getting divine intervention.

Love this little pink shrub rose, but this bush is getting moved to make room for the butterfly garden that is coming soon to the backyard.

Michelle has had this rose bush since 1988. It even moved with her to the new house 15 yrs ago & is now huge!

This delicate rose Michelle inherited from her Grandpa. It's always a special occassion when it blooms.

We love this Rhodie with the big showy pale pink blooms.

Michelle has always loved lilacs, but her mother is allergic, so she couldn't have a bush when she was a kid. A friend gave her this bush when it was a baby off a sucker from her plant.

Tadpole update & Riley's Recital

Look! A tadpole with legs! Soon they will be moveing right out. Sorry, it's been so long since I've posted a blog. It's been nuts around here! One of these days we gotta get some sort of a schedule or something & then stick to it.

These tadpoles are growing like water weeds, but no back legs yet.

Hmmm, same story here-definate growth, just not the leg kind.

See, look how big they are getting!

Here is the program from Riley's recital today. This was all Riley all the time Recital & she sang all these songs. She did an excellent job & we are very proud of her!

Just about have the new garden in!

Michelle got mad at the front planter & took everything out. I decided to help out in starting it over. Here I am getting the necessary tools out.

I love this Gerbera Daisy. Michelle has selected several...seems she likes them too. There's also several herbs, geraniums, and she planted nasturium seeds.

Here I am taking a ride on the Garden Goose. Fortunately, Garden Goose is pretty good natured about giving rides.

This is the Gnome One Eyed Jack and his buddy Yertle the turtle. They help with the weeding & Yertle is tasked with eating slugs & snails-ewwwww.

Here are the tomatoes, and in the background is a cucumber, and a gourd of some type (I forget which, fortunately Michelle keeps the labels). We LOVE tomatoes! So we grow several types.

Hitty Comfort comes to work with Michelle & Ashleigh

Hitty Comfort is one of the HittyGirls travel dolls. She was knit by the very talented Fung Hicks. She is currently visiting with Michelle & the girls. Yesterday, she came to work with us. Here we are posing in front of the phone computer monitor & the CAD (computer aided dispatch) computer monitor. The keyboard that you can see is for the phone. The CAD keyboard is down on the lower part of the desk.

And here I am sitting comfortably on Hitty Comfort's lap. We are now in front of the radio computer monitor. The keypad to the left also works the telephone computer. It was a good day to be at work, there was a pursuit of a motorcycle that ended in a foot pursuit, and some other stuff.

Ashleigh's Busy Day

Riley & Gregg raced again today...I really got to get Michelle to get me a car.

There was a drainage ditch w/about 6inches of water that was full of tadpoles. Since this will dry up soon we gathered more tadpoles and brought them home. Our little pond is filled to capacity now. Some of the older tadpoles are getting hind legs.

The beautiful lilac bush is the backyard is blooming. It smells REALLY good.

We've got one lone chive blooming in the backyard...doesn't smell as good as the lilacs.

And we've got irises blooming in the front yard! We have two different colored ones, but they look really good together.

Race Day!!!

Well, finally after getting two races & the test/tune rained out we got to race today! I was trying to get into Riley's gear, but alas too big for me. I'll just have to talk Michelle into a race car my size.

Here's Riley's new supergirl sticker. It must be lucky, she got 2nd place today!

Field trip to the Oregon Coast Aquarium

Today we went with Riley's class to the Oregon Coast Aquarium...this is the aquarium where Keiko used to live. Here are Riley & I trying on the old fashioned diving helmet.

This is a giant prehistoric shark jaw! The teeth are bigger than me! How scary!

Here is a darling sea otter that was entertaining us with his water acrobatics.

Michelle got some really great pictures of the jelly fish. Who knew they'd be so photogenic?

Here are some other ones. These kind of look like buttons when you look at them straight on.

This is a skate that is swimming above us in the shark tunnel. The tunnels are really fun, they are like a reverse aquarium. I'll post some pictures of the sharks later. Michelle is still sorting out the pictures.

Tomorrow we race!

The Hittys take over Ashleigh's blog...just this once

THE DRESS arrived at our house last week. This dress is owned by none other than Hitty Lotzalove Sevashteen & she agreed to part with it so that it could visit other Hitty homes for a Sisterhood of the Travellin' Dress project for HittyGirls.

Hitty Maureen O'Hara claimed it first.

She likes the rhodies that are in our backyard.

Hitty Hitomi wore THE DRESS to Mingus Park.

Here she is at the entrance to the Japanese gardens...this is the Choshi Bridge.

She loves this peaceful pond.

Here she is with an overview of the park. Doesn't she look darling in THE DRESS?

Here are her favorite rhodies in the park...they are a lovely delicate pink.

Michelle likes the Japanese Maples.

These ferns are just lovely aren't they.

Here is Hitty Colleen smelling the first rose of the season. It's a lovely old bush, and has these intense red blooms. Unfortunatley, this one has some rain spots.

Hitty Colleen wanted a good shot of her with the rose.

Here is one view of the Bay from the top of Telegraph Hill. The other side of the bay is the Bunkerhill & Millington areas. To the left would be Eastside.

Raggedy Hitty wore THE DRESS to Joanns. We were trying to find a patch for one of Riley's shirts.

Then we went to Michelle nirvana, the yarn section. These are lovely and soft.

To the right of Raggedy Hitty is the McCullough Bridge which is quite the landmark for North Bend.

So THE DRESS is being packed up and readied to be sent to it's next destination. The Hittys sure had a lot of fun with it while it was here.

Happy Mother's Day

The Field Trip

We just got back from the overnight field trip. Here are some pictures from the Portland Zoo. Behind me are Sun Bears. It was great to visit with some almost relatives.

And here are some American Black Bears. They're doing the smart thing on a sunny afternoon and are napping. After running around with all the kids all day I could have used a nap & so could Michelle.

These two characters were stationed outside the gift shop. They are the biggest teddy bears I've ever seen!

Our next stop was OMSI. Here is one of the stations where the kids get to figure out how to use pullies. There was lots of activities to do here, but we were so busy doing them, this was the only picture we took.

Our first stop was the Oregon State Capitol...but Michelle downloaded the other memory card first so these pictures are last. This is a cute beaver statue outside the building. Riley really liked it, so here is a picture.

Here we are at the north side of the building. At the top of the building is the Gold Pioneer. We walked all the way up there to see him closer up...it's like 400 steps! We had a great time, but now I'm exhausted & want to go sleep in MY bed tonight, so goodnight!