Happy Halloween!

One Batman:


And one puppy:


(who wagged his tail with every step, and I was dying it was so cute. I wish it hadn't been too dark to get video of him out there!)


Just as we set out for trick-or-treating:


I have lots more pictures but have to get Josh to bed. Will post more this weekend!

Happy Halloween!

Fall 2008 School Pictures -- Josh

As usual, the boys' school pictures came out really well. They're so expensive that we sometimes half-hope we won't want to buy them, but the photographer's use of natural light and natural poses seems to capture such good portraits.

We ordered the first pose for Josh.

Fall 2008 School Pictures -- Lucas

Lucas' are really good too. I love the way his little foot is tucked behind his leg in the first one, and we love the look of him at the window, but we didn't choose those. The third one just makes me laugh, with his somewhat blank stare. We went back and forth over whether to order the fourth or the fifth. The fourth seems to really capture what he looks like (to us anyway) at this age. But the fifth has a great laugh. In the end, we went with picture #4. We'll probably get a set of sibling pictures made for the holidays, and we figured he'll be smiling in those, so we chose artsy for now.

Pumpkin Patch 2008

Our fifth annual trip to the pumpkin patch (as a family; John and I had gone before as well, and before that, Scout and I. Scout was so cute on the hay rides!). We decided against waiting for the afternoon's sunny weather, to avoid the crowds and the conflict with naptime. So it was overcast and a bit cold, but lots of fun all the same.
The pumpkin patch was just starting a bonfire when we arrived around 9:30 am, so the boys posed on the hay bales while we waited for the hayrides to begin.




Then onto the hay ride:

In the pumpkin patch itself

Just off the tractor:

Lukey:

Other than the near-chopping of our heads, perhaps one of our best family pictures lately:

In search of the perfect pumpkin:

Luke was so happy, he did not want to be carried (despite the very uneven ground, not to mention the vines that kept tripping him) and just loved running all around the fields:

The Return Ride

Back at the Farm

We had just arrived back at the animal pen when one of the farmers came and deposited a bunch of ears of corn and other vegetables to feed the pigs, and let the kids do the feeding! I have to say, pigs have very large heads, and are pretty aggressive eaters. I seriously considered the possibility that Lucas might accidentally get chomped! He's pretty little. But all was well, and it was a fun and unique experience. Until the pig peed. That was gross.



While I kept a vigilant eye on Lucas, Josh got away and started up the hay bale tower. I found him at the top, but by the time I had my camera out, he was already on the way down for the next thing. Go go go.

Then it was on to the chickens and roosters. Josh did a pretty good "cock-a-doodle-doo," but Lucas just roared a long, guttural noise for his rooster imitation. He is such a little caveman sometimes. The people around us laughed, so I guess it has its charms.

Driving the tractor. Always the best part (for them).

We hope to carve our pumpkins next weekend, and we'll share photos when we do!

We're Back!

Whoa! I can't believe it's been 5 weeks since I've posted anything! Sorry for the long delay. Things were very busy right before we left for our Disney trip, and I was working 12+ hour days, and working more after the boys went to bed, and then of course we were on vacation for 8 days! Upon return, I had an appellate brief to finish in just a few days, and then this past weekend we had a small fire in our kitchen. So I've had my hands full! But I didn't mean to neglect my blog for so long.

The trip was wonderful, lots of fun and way too much to do. Disney offers so many opportunities and events, there is something for everyone and always more to do. I will try to post some pictures or memories for each day of our trip as we go along here.

But for today, an introduction. We flew on Wednesday, Sept 10, and it was practically an all-day travel day with the distance and the time change. Josh and I dropped Lucas off at school at 8 am, came home for our bags, and then literally ran to the bus stop to shuttle to the light rail, and then ride to the airport. Two flights later, we landed in Florida after 9 pm, and it was 10:30 before we were checked into our airport hotel. And it was HOT. And humid. From then forward, I was sweating and my hair was frizzy and in a ponytail, until about a day after we returned to the sweet 60s of Oregon.

We rose around 9 am the next day, and shuttled back to the airport to await the rest of the family. The Orlando airport is a kids paradise--there are several Disney stores, a Sea World store, a Space Shuttle store, an MGM store, all not only with lots of enticing merchandise, but with statues of Mickey, Goofy, Snow White, Superman, the space shuttle, etc. We could spend hours there (and did, waiting for our return flights, but that's another story...)

Josh and I met up with my aunt Pat first, and took some pictures with Spiderman and Goofy. Then we headed to the food court to eat while awaiting the rest of the Finches. This is one of my favorite stories. A man sitting a few booths away was bald and congenial looking, and Josh says to aunt Pat, very matter-of-factly: "That guy eats crazy foods." He thought it was Andrew Zimmern from Bizarre Foods on the Food Channel! He started telling Pat about the funny things the man eats: octopus, bugs, etc. I debated sharing the story with the man, but didn't know whether or not he'd take it as a compliment, so I kept it to myself.

After breakfast, everyone else arrived, and it was off to the Disney shuttle, which took us to the Disney World complex and to our hotel. The Disney World complex is HUGE--bigger than two Manhattans, I think they said. I was expecting a much smaller scale, but it is all so spread out. Our hotel was great. It was called the Beach Club, and you can guess the theme. The very large pool had a sand bottom, along with a lazy river and a vortex, and a great pirate ship slide. We were right next door to Epcot.

So, after checking in, we headed over to Epcot for a bite to eat, and then some rides. More on that to come...

In the meantime, here are two photos:
Josh and Monica with Mickey:

And the cruise ship:

Check back soon (probably not too soon though :) )!

A new look

As you can see, I've reformatted the blog. It was time for a change. I've been blogging for almost two years now, so I thought a change of design would be good. I may keep tweaking it a bit, or maybe not, depending on the time at hand (which will be very short with all the work I have to do before we leave for Disney next week). Hope you like it.

If there is something you find hard to read or distracting, let me know. I can play around with font colors and size, so maybe I can fix it.

Also on the topic of a new look, both Josh and Luke start in their new classrooms tomorrow. Luke moves from the infant room to the wobbler room, which means no more crib at school! He'll take naptime on a mat like a big boy. And Josh moves into "Older Preschool" (OP), which is much larger than his current/previous room and has its own big sandbox. These changes will present some challenges as well, so wish us luck!

Off to get the boys to bed so they'll be well-rested for their big day tomorrow!

Lake Almanor, day 6.5

Josh assumed picture-taking responsibilities for Gene's birthday party. Gene and Gail invited three other couples to join our family for cocktails, sushi and other appetizers on the back deck to celebrate Gene's 75 good years. Josh catalogued it all: we have a picture of the door, a coaster, a beach ball, Gene's gifts, the wine bottle, and several other inanimate objects (or objects d'art, depending on your point of view).
He did manage to get at least one picture of each attendee too, which I have to admit is better than I would have done. He is usually surprisingly adept at framing the picture well too, but this night he was a little off. Must have been the champagne. (JK) But since they are the only pictures I have, here are Josh's slightly askew photos.

Monica, Lucas and the birthday boy:

Gail:

Curtis mid-chopstick:

A composition study of sushi and wasabi:

The Markleys (v. 1.0):

Another thing Josh is good at (besides looking cute in his own pictures, see below) is getting good pictures of Lucas. Lucas just loves his big brother. While he will try to take the camera from me or otherwise not cooperate with having his picture taken, Lucas gave Josh a great smile, and Josh got by far our best picture of Lucas all week.

Josh and Papa's "old bear for an old (Cal.) bear" wine stopper:

Lucas smiling for Josh:

Josh smiling for Mommy:

An example of Josh's still life photography (discussed above):


It was a nice party, followed by a wonderful dinner and some nice reminiscing. Happy birthday again Gene, we all had such a great time celebrating with you!

Luke's first haircut

Today was a monumental day--Lukey's last day as a baby. He is walking, talking, eating table foods and feeding himself, moving from the infant room to the wobbler room at daycare, completely out of onesies and into big boy clothes, but he still had his baby curls. No more. After much deliberation, I let him get a haircut today. He didn't even need to sit in my lap. He was such a big boy. I teared up a little. He's a toddler now.

Josh went first (along with Iron Man):

Oversmiling for his "after" picture:


Luke's "before" pictures, with a close up of those baby curls:



He was breaking in the race car seat even before it was his turn:

The action photos:




All gone!


Luke was happy with the end result at least (as were we, even though I'm a little sad to see the tangible proof that my baby is growing up):


Maybe now people will stop saying how pretty she is when he waves to them.

Lake Almanor, Day 6

Day 6 was Friday, August 1, Gene's 75th birthday! And birthdays mean one thing to Josh: cupcakes! Josh's class makes cupcakes for each child's birthday, then they eat them after naptime. So as soon as he heard that PaPa's birthday was during our vacation, all he wanted to know was when we'd get the cupcakes. He helped pick out the cupcake foils, the candles, and the sprinkles, and showed them to every employee of the grocery store, explaining it was PaPa's birthday. He was so excited!
When the day finally came, Josh was all business with mixing the batter. The marble cake we had chosen proved a little frustrating at first, but once we got all the batter in the cups and just had to stir and mix them, things picked up. By the time we were adding frosting and sprinkles, we were in high cotton.



Ta-da!