Zoo Lights 2015

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went to see the zoo lights.  This has become a favorite tradition of ours.  The Oregon Zoo decorates the entire zoo in lights in the shape of animals and things.  We also ride the zoo train around the zoo to get a great view of the lights.  My mom went with us this year.  My parents had been visiting from CDA.  Here are some of the things we enjoying looking at.

Waiting For The Train

One of The Zoo Trains

Some Lights

Our Train

Ready to Go

A Furry Friend

Lights

Can you guess what this is?

Simon's Class Has Chapel

At school a few weeks ago, Simon's class was in charge of Chapel.  They helped to lead song service.  Then they acted out a short play.  It was very cute.  I thought they did a great job!

Song Service

Song Service

The Play

The Play

Salem Visit

A few weekends ago, Jeff had some work meetings in Salem.  So the boys and I joined him on Friday evening.  The boys got to swim in the pool.  We had a nice dinner with people from Jeff's work.  We spent the night in the hotel.  Then we got up on Saturday to return home.  But before we left for home, we walked over to the capitol building and looked around.  They had a war memorial, statues, flags from all 50 states, etc.  The boys enjoyed running around.  We walked around, then returned home.

Soccer Party and Singing

The boys ended their soccer season at the end of October.  The teams had a party to celebrate at a place called out Out of This World Pizza and Play.  It has lots of big play structures, a bounce house and arcade games, and of course pizza.  The boys love it.  The rest of the students did too!  They played and then had pizza and were handed their medals.

The following Saturday, Daniel's class sang for church at the Beaverton SDA Church.

Harvest Fair

This year for Halloween, TVA, the boys' school (and where I teach) had a harvest fair on Saturday night.  Each class and some of the area churches set up booths and had games and food for everyone to enjoy. It was a fun night.  Our family dressed up as the M & M's.

My booth did a ping pong toss.  It was a big hit and we were busy handing out ping pong balls and running round picking them up when they landed on the floor!

The boys enjoyed the hay ride, tricycle races, a cake walk and many other fun games.  It was a fun night!

Simon and one of his classmates

Our Booth

Simon doing the tricycle races

Jeff's Birthday

Last week was Jeff's birthday, Monday to be exact.  But on Saturday we went over to his parent's house to have dinner and celebrate.  Here are a couple of pics.

On Monday, his actual birthday, it happened to be a day that the boys had no school, but I needed to be at school, so he took the day off to spend with them.

On a sadder note, this week, there were some deaths that we heard about that were very sad and tragic.  I can't imagine what these families must be going through.  My prayers are with them, and if you pray, perhaps you can pray for them too.

Pumpkin Picking

This year we went to Kruger's Farm on Sauvie's Island to pick pumpkins and enjoy the fall fun.  We started out walking through the corn maze.  The boys were able to locate every number in the maze.  They were very proud of themselves.

After that we climbed on the hay ride and rode out to the pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkins.  Everybody came back with a nice pumpkin.  The rule is, everyone has to carry it out and carry it home.

After the pumpkins were safely put away in the car, we enjoyed some pumpkin pie and caramel apples.  What a tasty treat!  We also bought some yummy farm fresh produce.

We had a great day!

Soccer and Sam

Things have been so busy for me lately.  I haven't had time to post much.  But here are some pictures from soccer and from Sam's presentation.  More to come later!

El Dorado Adventist School Alumni Weekend

Last weekend, Sept 18-20, we drove down to Placerville, California where we used to teach.  Jeff had been asked to speak for the church service for alumni weekend.  We got up early Friday morning, and drove down.  It took about 9 hours.  It was a long drive, but the boys did really well and weathered the trip.

When we first got down there, we stopped at my sister's house to pick her up, then we drove up to Apple Hill.  This was a favorite place of ours to visit when we used to live down there.  We visited a couple of farms, had some yummy snacks and bought apples of course!

Us at a farm in Apple Hill

Silly Pic!

We stayed with our friends Nathan and Lori.  We got up Saturday morning and headed up to the school.  It was so much fun to see former students, parents of students we had taught and faculty who we used to work with.  Jeff did a great job speaking about "lessons learned" when he had been a teacher at the school.  We spent a long time visiting with people after the service.  Then we drove back to my sisters's house to visit with my family a little more in the afternoon/evening.

Nathan introducing Jeff

Jeff speaking

Daniel with "Uncle" Jerhet 

Our boys playing with fellow P-Ville kids 

The boys with Cousin Elle

Sunday morning we got up and made the drive back home.  Again, the trip was long, but the boys did well.  It was a fun weekend!

Pints to Pasta 2015

On September 13, I ran in the Pints to Pasta race here in Portland.  In the past it has been a 10K run, but this year they added the half marathon.  I still decided to only run the 10K.  In the past, the route was all downhill, crossing one of the bridges in Portland, running along the waterfront and finishing at the Spaghetti Factory.  It was a very beautiful running route.

This year the route was a little different.  The very end had an uphill finish, running through a bit of downtown Portland, and then going back downhill.  I'm not sure I liked this route as well, and I am hoping they change it back the way it was in years past.  Also this year, they started 15 minutes late because people hadn't arrived at the start line yet.  They have to shuttle the runners of the 10K to the start line, then people run back to the finish.  I felt like if people are late getting on the shuttle bus, that's their own fault, and the race should have started on time.  The last complaint I had was that the port-o-potties normally at the start line were about a 1/2 mile away.  The official said they were bringing more closer to the start line.  But it took them about 40 minutes to actually do this.  That was annoying as well.

I hope they work out the kinks from this years race and have a better race next year.  Because normally I really like this race.  The weather is great, the route is fun.  I'll have to see about next year.