Young Readers
On Saturday evening while camping, we caught Cassious and Kennedy reading away. It was too adorable not to take a few pictures. Kennedy continues to have a strong draw towards books and reading. Lately, in her classroom, they've been learning letters - last week it was the letter 'H' and this week, she informed us, it's the letter 'J'.
Labels: Bean
Fort Stevens continued
Kennedy wanted to build sand castles, or as she calls them "ups and downs." As soon as she puts them up she knocks them down. We think this is a carry-over behavior from her earlier years putting up blocks and tearing them down with Uncle C.K. The beach at Fort Stevens has an old shipwreck on it; you can see it in the distance.
Kennedy watched as Heidi buried Cassious with sand. Kennedy's favorite part was jumping in the hole.
Labels: Bean
Fort Stevens
We packed up and met our friends Lee, Heidi and Cassious at Fort Stevens (near Astoria) for the weekend. Susan and I are thinking that our tent is jinxed as we have yet to take it to a place where it hasn't rained on us. At least this time it rained all night and stopped in the day.
Turns out we should have brought our bikes. They have great trails for biking, walking or skating from the campsites to the beach. We hiked the mile or so and were rewarded with a beautiful sandy beach.
Of course Kennedy went straight for the water. Here she is with Lee.
Heidi and Cassious went further out than our comfort zone. The water was so cold!
Labels: Bean
Zoo Concert with Friends
We met April, Carol and their twin grandchildren, Morgan and Jason, at the zoo on Wednesday for the Los Lobos concert. It was packed! The sold out sign was up by 5:00 p.m.
Apa (aka April) took the kids all over the place - to the elephants, the play area, the sand box, the sea otters place... They wore themselves (and Apa) out! Here they all are riding the goat.
Labels: Bean
4th of July
A few remaining photos from the Thornton visit a couple of weeks back. We spent the afternoon of the 4th of July at the Zoo Concert. It was so hot that day so Kennedy sported a rare ponytail.
Our friends Laural and Peter joined us for the afternoon. While Peter was snoozing in the shade, Laurel and Gayle danced up a storm with Kennedy watching - not quite sure about this display of silliness.
To beat the heat, we got a few snow cones; here's Kennedy with hers...
Happy couple...
Labels: Sanford Family
Foam-a-rang
We put out a blanket at our park today. Susan read a magazine and Kennedy and I played with her foam throwing objects. This one is the foam-a-rang, which acts just like a boomarang only it doesn't hurt as much when it accidently hits you.
Later a few boys came by on their skate boards and practiced some moves in the open brick area. Kennedy was fascinated by their activities and watched them for a good while.
Labels: Bean
No, no no. Otay
We stopped by Dairy Queen on the way home from picking up Kennedy in Oregon City last night. Kennedy loves ice cream cones.
She's also full-on into her "No" phase. "No." "I don't wan't to do that." "I don't want you to do that." The funniest thing she says is "Otay."
Labels: Bean
Visiting the Grandparents
Kennedy spent the night at her Grandparents (Anderson) home last night. Susan and I went to a K.D. Lang and Lyle Lovett lawn concert at Edgefield. It was very nice even though we sat way far away from the stage and had the worst view ever. Apparently K.D. has a new c.d. being released in the new year.
We missed our little bean, though I'm sure she had great fun where she was. Here's a photo of her from our brunch at Mother's Bistro a few weeks back.
Labels: Bean
Movin' On Up
This was a big week for the Anderson family... Kennedy started her new preschool class at the daycare - it's big girl school for sure. To mark the occassion, Kennedy wore her new dress on Monday for the first day of preschool.
Ever the clown, Kennedy had one last pose for me before we headed out the door. Silly girl!
Labels: Bean
Ma Na Ma Na
Uncle C.K. has been entertaining Kennedy with the "Ma-Na-Ma-Na" song since she was an infant. When he sang (well, maybe
croaked is a better word than
sang) "ma-na-ma-na" to her as a baby she would laugh and laugh. He came over on Sunday and they watched the Sesame Street and other versions on the computer.
Of course, they also listened to the multiple versions of the "Spider Man" song which Uncle C.K. also introduced to Kennedy at an early age.
Labels: Bean
Families Win with Court Ruling
Go K.D. and Jeana! Read the
press release by Basic Rights Oregon that an Oregon Court Rules that Oregon Laws Unconstitutionally Discriminate Against Children and Families of Same-Sex Parents.
We are so grateful that K.D. and Jeana and
Basic Rights Oregon are out there on the front-line for families like ours. We went through the same scenario they did with their sons. Kennedy only had one parent (the birth mother) listed on her birth certificate until 3 months after she was born when we went through the adoption process.
Labels: Basic Rights
Tent Camping
As we camp more, our equipment gets more sophisticated. We used to have a 4 person tent. We squeezed in our bags and dry goods along with our cots, etc. No more squeezing anything in with this crazy big tent. Look out, next thing you know we'll have a fifth wheel trailor like Grandma and Grandpa Anderson. Seriously, we're perfectly happy with tent camping... until it rains, like it did on Sunday. We had to pack it all up and out in the rain and sandy mud. When we got home, we set the tent up in the yard and got all of our gear cleaned and dried.
Susan and I agree that we like mountain camping better than we like coast camping. We love going to the coast, but all that sand makes for a messy tent and sand-filled sleeping bags.
Labels: Bean
More Cape Lookout
Kennedy's pretty good at making up games. Here she is playing the climbing game. She climbed on the fence and screamed hello to the ocean.
Kennedy liked having so many other kids around to play with. Here she is showing another child how to do downward dog with one leg up. Good balance!
Cape Lookout with PLOP
We went camping with several members of the Parenting Lesbians of Portland (PLOP) group at Cape Lookout this past weekend.
Cape Lookout is south of Tillamook and as beautiful as much of the Oregon coast. In this picture the tide was out and Kennedy found a few broken sand dollars. Here she is showing one.
Kennedy had a great time and particularly liked playing in the tent.
Labels: Bean
Pics from OHSU
Here's a picture of Kennedy with her backpack and the teddy bear OHSU staff gave her pre-surgery this morning. Kennedy packed her backpack last night in preparation for this mornings trip to the hospital. No food or drink though!
She did bring Lamby with her though. Lamby was with her for her last ear tube surgery too.
Labels: Bean
Ear Tubes - Round 2
This morning we woke up bright and early and headed to the hospital so that Kennedy could have a surgery to get ear tubes placed. About a year ago, she had a set put in and they made a huge positive difference in her. A couple of months ago they fell out and we've been battling the fluids and infections since. Happily, the procedure went well and we hope this is the final round of this little game. Time will tell.
Labels: Bean
White River Falls - continued
Here is a different shot of the Lower Falls on the White River. The weather that day was about perfect; earlier storms had cooled the temps down to the 80's or so.
A great shot of Kennedy above the falls. It was a bit breezy - thus the wind-swept look here...
Thornton family.
After a while, the terrain got a bit too treacherous for Kennedy so she and I stayed back to explore the flowers. Eventually, Gayle, Sheryl and Heather also turned back. Ryan and David continued on the trail without us for a small ways but decided they'd reached the end of the trek before too long.
On our way back we stopped at the bottom of one of the first few falls. There were kids (locals, we assume) swimming all over the place so we decided to wade into the water. That look on my face is the shock of the cold water; I don't get how kids can swim in this stuff but I know I always did too as a kid.
We headed back to Maupin, OR - where we spent the night prior to our rafting adventures. We about wore Kennedy out!
Labels: Sanford Family
White River Falls
One of the coolest things we got to do while Gayle and family visited was to hike into the White River Falls area. You can park at the top and look at the first two drops in the river - which are spectacular. However, looking down the canyon, you can see there is much more to explore -
wo that's exactly what we did! Here is out descent to the first falls at White River.
The terrain is so starkly different than what we're used to in the lush Willamette Valley where we live. This park is located on the east side of Mt. Hood and thus gets much less rain than we do. (I think the stats are something like 300 days a year of sunshine.)
At the bottom of this first decent there is an old abandoned electrical generating station. It's all boarded up - but that didn't stop David from exploring from a safe distance.
The going was slow with Kennedy - as we had to be extra cautious on some of the rocks - but totally worth going so she could see all of the sights too. She especially liked to pick the wildflowers.
As we
decended further into the canyon, the terrain gave way to huge, enormous, gigantic, terrifying, heart-stopping drops. It didn't stop the Thornton family from exploring on the rocks.
For a big
scaredy-cat like me (who is terrified of heights) seeing the kids perched on the
exge of the cliff was a bit nerve wracking.
Labels: Sanford Family
Waterfront Park
while Gayle and David were visiting we had the opportunity to meet my folks for brunch at one of my favorite restaurants. After eating we wandered to the waterfront to enjoy a little shade before heading out for the day's adventures.
Here's Kennedy with Lolli the Hippo. Kennedy loves this little animal and has been taking her with her wherever she goes.
Labels: Bean
Peter the Bike Racer
We went to Alpenrose today to watch Peter race. When Kennedy wasn't running around she took to wrapping up in this camp chair.
We sat above the track and watched from our chairs except when Peter raced, then we all went to the fence to cheer him on. In this photo from the left are Andrea, Kennedy, Laural and Max.
Peter is the second one from the top and he won this race. This is one of the early laps. There were 83 laps in this race and by the time it was over Peter had lapped the field twice. He's amazing.
Kennedy played "Where's Kennedy?" using my hat with Laural.
Labels: Bean
Kennedy the Lion
Grandpa and Grandma Anderson stopped by today and we watched a disney movie,
Miracle, starring Kurt Russell as the coach of the 1980 olympic winning USA hockey team.
Kennedy played a "lion" for the grandparents. Here she is pretending to paw Grandpa.
Labels: Bean
Banana Bread
We had some very ripe bananas this morning so Kennedy and Susan decided to bake some banana bread. Susan pulled out an apron from Mema and wrapped Kennedy up in it.
It's a bit big, but works well if wrapped around and tied.
Kennedy was a good helper.
Labels: Bean
Bolts and Pegs and Stuff
Uncle David helped Kennedy construct this toy out of her bolts and pegs and stuff.
Every time we pick it us she says "Don't take it apart!"
Labels: Bean
More Cannon Beach
I don't know where Kennedy got this tiny basketball from, but she wouldn't let go of it most of the trip.
David and Kennedy spent some time in the water. She laughed and laughed and laughed each time a small wave hit her feet.
Here's a nice shot of the Thornton family with Haystack rock in the background.
We rolled up Kennedy's pants for water play, but eventually we just let her in. She was having so much fun! Gayle and I took her a little deeper but still held on to both of her hands.
She didn't seem to mind the cold, but we took her out anyway and bundled her up in a jacket to keep her warm. She snuggled into Gayle. The Pacific ocean will give you quite a chill, even on very hot days.
Labels: Sanford Family
Tillamook Cheese Factory
Like many good tourists we stopped in at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It was a Sunday so the workers weren't in the processing room, but it was still good. Kennedy likes the cow replicas. She kept wanting to pet this one.
Labels: Sanford Family
Multnomah Falls
On the way back from Maupin we stopped in at Multnomah Falls. It was just about dark and Kennedy was asleep in her car seat so I stayed down with her while Susan took the rest of the family up to the Falls. We didn't have time to climb to the top but if I'm honest that didn't bother me too much. I've climbed to the top before and it's a bear to get up there.
Here are Gayle and Heather.
And here are David and Ryan. It was a good thing we took jackets with us because it got really chilly once the sun started going down. Plus it's always cooler at the Falls.
Labels: Sanford Family
Heather and Elle
Elle buddied up with Heather right away even sleeping with her every night.
I think for those first few cooler nights, Elle helped keep Heather warm.
Labels: Sanford Family
Aunt Gayle and Kennedy
Kennedy sure loves having family around. She gets so much love and attention. Before Gayle left this morning she asked Kennedy if she would talk to her on the phone if she called. I think Kennedy said she would. We'll have to see how that plays out. She's chatty in person, but not on the phone yet.
Labels: Sanford Family
Susan
I think this is a sweet picture of Susan. Gayle took it last night at the Harbor on the waterfront. Kennedy has started calling Susan "mom" instead of "mommy" now. When she wants something she says "Mom, Mom, Mom..."
Labels: Bean
Monkey Tail Tree
We went out in search of a Monkey Tail Tree (aka
Monkey Puzzle Tree) and found one at Warner Pacific College on SE Division. This is one big tree. You can just see some tails in the background near Ryan and Heather.
Labels: Sanford Family
Reading to Kennedy
All of the Thorntons did their fair share of reading to Kennedy while they were here. Kennedy loves being read to. Here's Ryan reading one of Kennedy's many Thomas the Train books with her.
Labels: Sanford Family
City Biking
Gayle and Ryan and Sheryl did some city bike riding. They rode across the Hawthorne bridge to downtown and the waterfront and met Susan and the rest of the crew at McCormick and Schmick's for a good seafood dinner.
Portland is such a bike friendly city and it was good to be outside. Here are Gayle and Ryan preparing to head out.
Labels: Sanford Family
Forest Park
We packed our lunch one morning and went to
Forest Park, a municipal and public park just on the west side of Portland's downtown area. As you can imagine, there are a lot of trees. We tood the Big Stump map from our Forest Park collection and drove out to a trailhead on Germatown road.
Ryan and Sheryl took mountain bikes up and rode in a good ways. Heather and David rode a bit too.
Labels: Sanford Family
Timberline Lodge, Mt. Hood
After Ski Bowl we made our way up to Timberline Lodge. There's still a bit of snow out.
Kennedy was very tired from her day and rode on Uncle David's shoulders as we took a stroll up the mountain. We thought their matching ski bowl stickers were funny.
Ryan decided he wanted to be carried too and got on Gayle's shoulders. She didn't last too long but made it further than most people would.
Labels: Sanford Family
Adventure Park on Mt. Hood
While Ryan and Heather did some reverse bungy jumping, Kennedy headed to the kid section. Susan helped her with the rock climbing wall.
Kennedy reached out for the points well. Look at this stretch. We can see some rock climbing in her future. Uncle C.K. could certainly give her lessons.
What kid doesn't like this part of the fun park? She got in here and didn't want to leave. She also really liked the canoe water ride.
We went go-carting before we left. Here we are getting ready to start. We took over the course. From left to right are Ryan, Heather, David, Gayle and Sheryl.
Labels: Sanford Family
Adventure Park on Mt. Hood
We've never been to the Adventure Park at Ski Bowl on Mt. Hood in the summer time before. It's a cool place with a ton of activities. There was no way we could fit them all in but we did do a lot in one afternoon. We rode the Alpine slide quite a bit. Kennedy rode with Susan once and then with Sheryl once.
After those two rides she decided that Aunt Gayle was her sliding partner and wouldn't get in the sled with anyone else.
Gayle and Kennedy must have gone up and down 5 times and it's a long lift ride up there!
Another activity was the tube slide. It wasn't as long but it was pretty speedy. Kennedy was a real trooper and rode this about 3 times too, all with Aunt Gayle of course.
Labels: Sanford Family
The Spruce Goose
The girls (Susan, Gayle and Heather) headed to the outlet malls at Woodburn while David, Ryan Sheryl and Kennedy went to McMinnville to the Evergreen Aviation Museum to see Hughes' flying boat also known as "The Spruce Goose". All I can say is WOW! You can see some of it behind David and Kennedy. It has 8 engines.
It's the largest wood construction and largest wingspan airplane ever built.
Kennedy liked following Ryan around and sitting in the airplane chairs. She would get in the seat and buckle herself in as if she were embarking on a real flight.
Ryan scouted out a fun section for Kennedy and they played a while with the various planes and simulators. Kennedy liked this little plane scooter the best.
Labels: Sanford Family
Disc Golf at Grand Lodge
Instead of coming back to Portland from the coast, we spent the night at McMenamins Grand Lodge in Forest Grove. We got up the next morning and played disc golf. Gayle and her family enjoyed all the different trees on the grounds. Check out Gayle's disc form.
I think everyone liked disc golf. It's not as intimidating as regular golf and you can play in bigger groups. Here's a Heather action shot.
Ryan is a pretty good player and has a lot of potential when he's not losing his disc to some tree. Ha. Here he is waiting his turn by some blackberry bushes.
Labels: Sanford Family
Cannon Beach
Susan and Heather headed off for some shopping in Cannon Beach while the rest of us walked the beaches. We met up at Haystack Rock later in the day and Kennedy was worn out. Here she is on David's shoulders.
Kennedy had a lot of fun with her Uncle David. The second night he was here Kennedy was about to go to sleep when she popped up and said "I like Uncle David. I'm so happy." It was very cute.
It was an overcast day at the beach and much cooler at Haystack than in Oswald State Park. Here are Ryan and Gayle walking towards Haystack rock.
The tide pools were just coming out. If you look close you can see Ryan in the distance.
Labels: Sanford Family
Oswald State Park
Gayle and David and Heather and Ryan spent a week with us. We went white water rafting on the Deschutes River in Maupin and it was an absolute blast. We obviously were so excited and anxious that we didn't get a single picture! Maybe we can get some from Gayle and David. We also went to the White River falls and enjoyed our hike there.
After Maupin we headed to the coast. We hiked in to Oswald State Park to give Ryan a look at one of the local surfing scenes. Here are Kennedy and Gayle on the hike in.
Turns out Kennedy loves the water too. It was a mild day at about 66 degrees. The water was very cold but Kennedy didn't seem to mind.
Oswald is a nice little cozy cove. Here are David and Ryan getting their own feet wet.
Labels: Bean
Elephant Ear
We went to the opening zoo concert with Kennedy and it was packed with people. Susan and Kennedy shared an elephant ear. Kennedy would put it up to her ear and play like it was her ear and just giggle away.
Labels: Bean
July 4th
Sorry for the silence on this end... We've been so busy getting our house ready for a big family visit that started last week. In town visiting is Sheryl's sister, Gayle, and family (husband David, daughter Heather, son Ryan). We've been having a total blast - so there will be lots of photos soon.
In the meantime, you'll have to settle for news without photos... More soon, we promise!
