Welcome to the family

Or in Nanny's case it might be "la familia." Nanny is the latest addition to the family. She comes to us all the way from East L.A. (Yes, Los Angeles, California.) She was found as a stray and brought to a shelter and then, because of her wonderful personality, she was brought to a rescue in Eugene, Oregon. After less than 10 minutes of meeting her, Jillian was able to lay next to her in her bed. Most of these pictures show Nanny doing what she does best, loving others. Seriously, even after having the best dog ever (Missy), this is the most lovable and loving dog I have EVER met.

Holes in Her Head

Last night we went to see "Rise of the Guardians" at the movies. We had a few gift cards that hadn't been used all year. It was an enjoyable movie and afterwards we went to see the cost of a starter pair of earrings for Jillian. (Mom and Dad already have their ears pierced.) What I didn't realize is that Julie had brought some of Jillian's money with her. Jillian was all gung-ho to get it done, so... She is REALLY proud of her new earrings.

It's a father - daughter thing.

1st Grade picture

Isn't she cute? Just like the cuteness of the lion before it pounces on you.

Just for Grandma R

A Halloween left over.

Halloween!

One of my favorite holidays to celebrate. The night before we did some pumpkin carving. That's Julie's owl, John's demon, and Jillian's own design, the bow tie pumpkin. She did most of the cutting herself and then let me carve a little dimension into it. On Halloween night, Jillian convinced me to put some make up on before taking her trick or treating. We hooked up with Owen and his dad, Chris, and brought in the big haul!

Disney, Birthdays and Hauntings

The weekend before Halloween we were invited to see Disney on ice in a company suite at the Rose Garden arena. The kids enjoyed the show and Dawn and Chris brought a princess pink "Happy Birthday John" cake complete with Disney castle.
Jillian had really been getting into ghost stories and hauntings before the holiday. We told her about several places in Portland that are actually haunted. Saturday we took her to Rimsky's for desert. Although the place is not haunted they do have a couple of "trick tables" that move in slow motion. Notice how high the table is on Jillian when we got there and how high it is when we were eating our deserts. Believe it or not she didn't even notice until we pointed it out to her.

OOOOOPPPPPPS!

I just realized I already posted about camping and even some of the pictures. I'm getting old.

Camping! Oct 13th

I kept telling Jillian we would go camping in the high desert of central Oregon when the weather turned colder. Well, on what turned out to be the first rainy weekend in Portland, we high tailed to the other side of the mountains. Except for the first night (Friday) of showers and rain, it was beautiful weather and we had a great time. We saw plenty of wildlife, did some hiking, and just enjoyed the cool dry weather.

The County Fair! August 18th

Shortly after we got back home from Alaska, we decided to go to the Clackamas County fair. Jillian had a good time riding some rides, seeing and petting animals, especially the fluffy bunnies, and visiting the butterfly garden.

Victoria, BC; The Gardens

We finally got to see sun! Although upon awakening we weren't so lucky. All of our hearts sank when we awoke to see thick fog. Then, while eating breakfast, we literally broke through the wall of fog and entered the land of sunshine! These are all pictures taken on our first stop in Victoria, The Butchart Gardens. We especially like the 3 generation "album cover" picture.

The Sea

The next 2 weeks, I mean days, were spent at sea. Jillian spent time in the pool and on the climbing wall. Even Grandpa got in on the action on the climbing wall. We also went to a towel folding demonstration and treated Jillian to the sushi restaurant. She impressed all the staff there by eating 14 pieces of sushi.

Skagway, Alaska

And now we continue to our program already in progress. Or are these reruns? Here is a smapling of pictures from our second stop of the cruise, Skagway, Alaska. The majority of the day was nicer weather, but as you can see the fog and rain did move in for the afternoon. While we were there Jillian tried on a 50 lb pack, and fell over, we saw the old train ice cutter used to clear the railways, saw a sweet 1956 ford, and picked out some rocks with Grandma. They also had these strange trash cans for butts. I tried to get Jillian's in one, but it didn't fit.