OMSI

Enjoyed the lack of crowds on a Monday morning trip to OMSI (science museum in portland).  Featured exhibit was Nature Unleashed:  Inside Natural Disasters.  Right up Hudson's ally with his current interest in hurricanes, tornados, etc.

 

Hudson teaching Kelley how to build a dam

water tornado!  

eating something suspicious...

they do sound like screeching baby eagles at times

Sabbatical begins

Brian's sabbatical started this weekend.  Eight weeks of no work.  It'll be tough, but somehow I hope to manage.

Off to a good start on Saturday.  Golfed in a.m. with Nate, chicken wing lunch, then Hudson and I went to our first Timbers game that night.  Free tickets from work helped convince me to take a 3 year old to the game.

Highlights of the game:

Seeing Max train drive down road
Loud jet flyover
Seeing a mascot (sadly didn't get to see him use chainsaw on big log, only does that after Timbers score a goal).
Ice Cream Oreo Sandwich


Guy walking around selling cotton candy
Making Dad buy cotton candy even though Hudson doesn't like it (Kelley probably put him up to it)
Soda, resulting in a shirt change.
Pretzel
Referee blowing whistle
Finding a penny on the ground
Spotting company logos he knows
Timbers army songs he could clap along to
Speakers playing Hudson's favorite song - Paradise by Coldplay
Learning the number 11 (Hudson's seat number)
Learning to lick his finger then clean my face
And staying up waaaaaay past bedtime

We made it till the 75th minute.  Not bad, my goal was halftime.  Sugar high must have kept him going...

Cousin Clifford took this picture... we're in 2nd row from top, i'm in light green shirt holding Hudson.

 Our view.  Sadly Timbers lost 1-0, but that seems to be how it goes these days.  At least they had lots of scoring chances right in front of us in the first half so Hudson got some excitement.

Eamon turns 1

Fun 1st birthday for Eamon.  Had lots of Kelley's family in town and some friends.  Eamon wasn't actually up to eating the cake, but everyone else enjoyed it.  Also managed to spread a very potent cold/flu germ to about half of the people at the party.  Just now completely getting over it in our house...

Egg free truck cake for Eamon...

which this was about as close as he came to eating...

Hudson "testing" Eamon's new dump truck crane truck with cousin Niev

lots of helpers showed up when it was time to open presents.

4th of July

Had a fun 4th of July.  Pretty tame fire work wise this year, but a few more years we'll be lighting up the street keeping other people's toddlers awake all night.

Snakes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These things are amazing!!!!!!!!!!!

Just like Hudson, Eamon loves a good blanky square.  Playing peek-a-boo with one from Great Grandma Pendergast

Bunny toy

Eamon playing with bunny from Uncle Ross.  One of those toys that he kind of liked when he got it, then 6 months later is the greatest thing ever.  Eamon was clapping along when bunny told him to, but of course by time I got the camera he was over that

June Stuff

Catching up on the events of June...

Hudson "graduated" from preschool age 2 to 3 class.  This pic shows just how excited he was.

Hudson's latest obsession is natural disasters.  Tornado's, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, forest fires, etc.  Here's a tsunami he made kelley draw

 and here's the "damage and debris" left behind.  Hudson colored in orange fire, brown and blue water and such destroying things.

Eamon enjoying some sun

H made a self-portrait on a plate at school

trying out Hawaii shirts from Nanna

 Finally warm enough for the water table!  Eamon Splash!

New sand box aka rubber mulch box.  Lots of fun and less messy than sand

Bed time milk w/ canoefest coozies.  Thanks Marshall's!

Eamon's 1st Art

Will be hanging this on the wall when i get home tonight...

We're back...

Since the countdown to sabbatical is less than 4 weeks away and Brian has mentally checked out of work, no excuse not to have enough free time to try this blogging thing again.

Since we last checked in a lot has happened, mostly good, but since having 2 kids greatly reduces quality and quantity of sleep we've forgotten anything more than a few days ago.  So we'll focus on recent past and maybe fill in a few older pics from last 6 months later on...

Eamon turns 1 on July 14th... hard to believe its been almost a year.  He's standing up on his own but no walking yet.  Not in a huge hurry for that because he's already a danger-boy climbing into dangerous scenarios constantly with no respect for gravity or the lack of bounce in wooden floors, cement, walls, etc.

Here's an early birth present from Nana we let him open.  As is typical for first birthday he is equally interested in the present itself and the packaging.







here's a quick after work trip to park near our house on one of our first summer-like days of the year



 Summery is definitely not in a hurry this year... but as the saying goes, summer starts July 5th in Portland.

In preparation for 4th of July we loaded up on sparklers, snakes, and snap-and-pops.  We did a practice run Sunday and Eamon found the snap and pops to be especially funny





 Cut to scene in garage:
Hudson:  Let's build a sling shot
Brian:  I don't have any rubber bands... what else can we build.  (looks around) how about a tree?
Hudson:  OK
A few hours later...
And then a few more hours later in which time I could have easily driven to store, bought rubber bands, and built 5 sling shots...

Unpainted version of tree.  Was fun to cut swirly lines with scroll saw that I never get to use so it was a fun project.

Time to paint, like all good artists in just underwear and socks

And here's the final product

Eamon wants in on the fun

Eamon doing his standing thing