First Day of School

The boys first day of school was on September 5th.  Katrina (Hyrum's sister) had a tradition of serving donuts and juice on the first day of school for all the neighborhood kids.  I guess since we bought Katrina's house we are now in charge of keeping this tradition going.  Katrina helped us out this year by buying all the goodies but I have a feeling we'll be on our own next year.

Townsend and Emerson are now in 3rd grade.  They are both excited about school and especially love being able to walk to and from school.  They leave the front door and walk about 2 blocks and they are at their school...it's fabulous!  No more bus rides.  The only problem is they walk through my door in the afternoon at 2:15, that's pretty early to have the kids home but I'll take this small sacrifice of my afternoon to have my boys off that long bus ride.

Julian started preschool on September 11th.  He only goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-11:30, so it's not like I have lost my little man all week.  He LOVES school and loves that he gets to go to school like his big brothers.  He is going to Calvary Lutheran preschool and I'm so happy with the teachers and the program, and Pastor Matthew is pretty cool too.

 The first day of school donut tradition:)

Emerson, Milo, Grant and Townsend enjoying some donuts.

Townsend with his teacher Ms. Marshall

Emerson with his teacher Miss Delplanche.  I continued the tradition of bringing a German schultute for them on their first day of school.  I wasn't going to this year (because we aren't in Germany anymore) but they asked for one and I felt it would help them transition to their new school.

Julian on his first day of preschool

Julian with his teacher Miss Christy

Solo Trip to Utah

In 1994 I went to Brisbane, Australia for a year as an exchange student.  I was 16 years old.  I was a real pain in the butt and I'm pretty sure my parents just wanted to get rid of me.  I was moody.  I was spoiled.  I was selfish.  I guess I was just a silly girl that hadn't grown up yet.  My time in Australia changed all that.  I became confident, co-operative, giving and basically a happy and well adjusted young adult.  I have my fabulous host family to thank for a lot of that "growing up."

One of my host brothers, Adam, now lives in Utah with his American wife, Kacy.  They recently added two beautiful girls to their family.  My host mom and one of my host sisters, Corrine, came to Utah to see the babies and I decided that I just had to go down and see everyone.  After all, it's a lot cheaper to fly to Utah then it is to fly to Australia.

Since it was just a few short days I decided to fly down on my own.  Oma flew into Portland to help watch my crazy family and I got an awesome break from my kids!  It was so much fun seeing everyone again.  I have been so lucky to have the Heindorff family in my life and I will always be grateful for their love and guidance during my year in Australia.

 My host "Mum" and Corinne at Cafe Rio.  I mean, come on, you can't get this stuff Down Under:)

The two precious angels straight from heaven, Eden and Lauren.  I spent a lot of time snuggling these two babies and remembering what it was like 8 years ago with my own little ones.

While in Utah I stayed with Hyrum's sister, Andrea.  Here we are with her family at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival.

My Mum with Adam and Kacy's three older children.  I can't imagine having twins after already having  3 kids to take care of but I know Adam and Kacy will have a fabulous time with their five happy and beautiful kiddos.

End of Summer Fun

And just like that, the summer is done.  Here a few quick shots of what we did the last weeks of summer vacation.  

 Townsend, Milo and Emerson at a park in downtown Portland.  Milo is a year older than the boys but he is pretty fun to hang out with and very easy going.  Maybe it will rub off on the twins?

 We found some yummy home made ice-cream in Portland.  Not as good as gelato but way better than Baskin Robbins!

 How cute is this face?  Our last trip to the beach for the summer.  When we first got to the beach it was foggy and cold but then the clouds rolled away and we had blue skies.  Pretty lucky for a day on the Oregon Coast.

 My three boys, what can I say?

 I love this photo of Julian.  He is so content to just hang out and play on his own.

 Julian's hair really needed a cut.  I took him to a cute little salon where he could sit in a taxi and pretend drive the whole time.  

 Julian and Oma on a hike near Portland.

 Grant, Townsend and Emerson on the hike.  Grant is the same age as the boys and pretty crazy himself.  A perfect match?

The boys showed their true European identity when they found this lake up in the mountains.  What a bunch of cute little bums:)

A Visit to Washington

I am super lucky to have a good friend just 3 hours away.  When Hyrum was in residency at Fort Lewis in Washington I was pretty much a single mom.  If it wasn't for Kari Christensen I think I would have gone crazy.  She was always so willing to go to the zoo, hang out at the house and let the kids be crazy or just talk over some lunch.  She gave me some much needed adult conversation when all I had at home were two crazy 18 month old boys.  I'm sure we will be heading up to Washington often to play with our friends, the Christensens.

Bonus:  My parents are on a mission in Washington right now, just 45 minutes from Kari's house so it was fun to see them too.  I love that my boys get to have Grandparents close by for a few years.

 Maggie having fun at the pool.

 The boys trying to splash Maggie

 Kids playing on a sculpture at the zoo.

 The shark tank is always a hit:)

 Emerson in the shark jaws!

 Maggie, Emerson, Max, Tessa and Townsend (and that's just half of Kari's kids!)

 Kari pushing little Eli and baby Jonah on the swing (the rest of her great kiddos.  Yeah, I know, she doesn't look like she has had 5 kids!)

 My parents apartment complex has a swimming pool...very cool!

Julian helped Grandma make chocolate chip cookies.

Life in Oregon

Moving to Oregon in July was such a great idea!  The sun has been shining since we got here and we have only seen rain on two occasions, both at night.  I hear from people that I need to enjoy this weather while I can because, come October, it's a whole different story.  I'll take what I can get.  We have had a lot of fun the last few months exploring our new surroundings.  Here are a few of the things we have been up to:

A day trip to Canon Beach.  This beach is just about an hour from our house.  It's not really a, "jump in the water and swim" kind of beach, it's more of a, "play in the sand and waves" sort of beach.  Too cold, much too cold.

Julian and I in front of the famous Haystack Rock

Berry Pickin'!!!!!  So far this summer we have picked about 20 lbs. of blueberries, love it!

Our city, Hillsboro, had a summer celebration and Julian joined in and painted some of the mural.

Hyrum started his new job.  This is what greets me when I walk into his clinic...it makes me smile:)

My niece, Ellen, cut my hair.  It only took Hyrum a few days to notice I chopped 8 inches from my hair!

Hiking on Sauvie Island.  Can you tell this trail was NOT very stroller friendly?  Hyrum pushed him for 3 1/2 miles through brush like this, what a trooper!

At the end of the hike we came to this gorgeous beach, so I guess it was worth it in the end:)

One day I took Julian for a ride on the metro.  It wasn't exactly like the trains he was used to in Germany but he was still pretty happy with the ride.

The metro took us right to the Portland Children's Museum where he had lots of fun with the shopping area and, of course, the train table:)

We are having a good time exploring our new surroundings.  It is so hard to make friends and so I have been doing all this exploring on my own but one of these days I'm sure I'll have a friend I can call on to do fun things with...one of these days.

Scout Camp

This summer the boys had the chance to attend Cub Scout day camp for the first time.  They had so much fun and can't wait until next summer for another camp.  Lucky for us the camp is located just about a mile away so it was easy to walk to each morning.  They were at camp from 8:00 to 3:00 each day for a week.  The twins got to meet a lot of the boys in their church classes as well as boys they would get to know in their new school.  There was a medieval theme for day camp this year so all the troops had names like the "Archers" and the "Blacksmiths."  They got to play fun medieval games like fighting dragons or storming the castle.  Overall it was a fabulous experience and they loved each day.

 Townsend getting ready to shoot a BB gun for the first time!

 Emerson takes aim with his BB gun

 The boys sitting with their group, troop 520 or "The Merry Men"

 Townsend painting his coat of arms

Emerson takes aim with his bow and arrow.  He got a bullseye for archery and BB gun!

The Long Drive

I flew from Portland to Salt Lake  on July 1st.  I got to hang out with Oma for another few days and then the boys and I packed up our Hyundai Elantra and hit the road.  It turns out, three kids in the back seat of a car tend to fight a lot and get on each others nerves during long road trips and I was wishing I had my van to drive.  But, I was determined to have fun on my long trip to Oregon so our first stop was Lewiston Utah for some 4th of July fun with my friend Kari Christensen and her family.

Lewiston 4th of July parade with Maggie Christensen.  They sure throw a lot of salt water taffy at this parade, the boys each got a full bag!

How cool is this for a swimming pool idea?  Blow up the river raft, add water and let sit in the hot Utah sun for a few hours...the kids all loved it!

We can't visit with Kari's parents without a trip to the baby cows.  Kari's dad owns a dairy farm and the cows are always a big hit.

We also can't miss the chance to go to the Lewiston ice cream shop "home of the Fat Boy" ice cream sandwich:)

Julian was just in heaven riding around on the ATV with Kari's brother in law Jensen.

What's the 4th of July without sparklers?

I love this one of Emerson...what a crazy kid.

We left Lewiston on the 5th of July and headed to Driggs, Idaho.  We visited Driggs for two reasons.  One, to see my sister Kristen and her family and the other was to see Hyrum's fathers gravestone.  I loved that my kids got to have so much fun with their Porter cousins for a few days.  We went swimming and jumped on the trampoline and played games...I think the boys really had fun!

Playing with Porter cousins on the trampoline

A visit to Opa.  I'm so happy the twins are old enough to remember Opa a little bit.  The cemetery in Driggs, where Opa is buried, has quite a few Durtschi family members in it.  We played a game called "find your name"  All my boys have Durtschi ancestor names for their middle names and we were able to find all 3 names in this cemetery.

We left Driggs, Idaho on July 8th and headed for Boise, Idaho.  We stayed a few nights with some good friends we knew during Med School days, Krystal and Dan Knorpp.  They had chickens to play with, a sandbox to dig in, art supplies to create crazy things and of course, fun kids to play with:)

Townsend playing with one of the chickens.

Emerson and Sophie using their creativity

All the crazy little monkeys playing at an indoor jungle gym

The boys helped Marly turn the sand box into a wading pool.

We had so much fun visiting with family and friends on our way up to Oregon.  We left Boise on July 10th for one final 6 hours in the car to make it to Portland.  We made it safe and sound.  Hyrum had worked really hard to get the house all set up for me and the boys so when we got home all the beds were made and ready to fall into.  Boy, I sure needed a good rest after a crazy week of traveling!