Family Pix and Hood River
Last week our niece Robin joined Stacey for a visit to Portland. It was such a treat to have them both here at the same time. Kennedy certainly enjoyed the extra attention.
On Thursday, Sheryl and Kennedy took the girls to Hood River to have a wind-surfing lesson in the Columbia River Gorge (which I'm sure many will attest to being one of the premier wind-surfing areas in the US).
Kennedy wore her new Roots gear from our recent trip to Vancouver. Sheryl brought the wagon and a good deal of toys to keep Kennedy occupied while Stacey and Robin were taking their lessons.
After some hard-core classroom time, the girls were ready to try their hands at the real deal. But first, some river-side practice. Here's Robin practicing on land:
Finally, the river greets the girls. Stacey was quick to get the gear up and running. Both girls had a great time and are itching to try it again.
Labels: Bean
Our Girls
So sorry for the silence on this end - we've been running non-stop since last week with Stacey's visit. She was joined by our niece, Robin, on Wednesday night so we've been having a blast. Sadly, Stacey and Robin had to go home on Sunday - so now life returning to the regular grind.
We'll have much more photos of the family visit this week. Today, we'll start with a couple of great shots of Stacey and Kennedy. Am I the only one that thinks they are just the cat's meow?!?
On Sunday a week ago, Sheryl, Stacey and Kennedy went for a bike ride along the Willamette River. Here are our girls getting ready to go.
Labels: Bean, Sanford Family, Vacation
Wild Hair
It's been such a treat having Stacey here for this visit. We've been busy hanging out, eating out, walking about, etc. Today Stacey picked up Kennedy from daycare and they went treasure hunting in a few local resale stores. The wig photos are hilarious - but you'll have to wait for those; we'll get pictures downloaded soon (we promise!). So in the meantime this funny picture will have to suffice for today...
This photo is from my company picnic several weeks ago and managed to capture the crazy effects of static electricity that inevitably show up on certain plastic slides.
Labels: Bean, Sanford Family
Scissors and Reading with Stacey
We're just exploring supervised play with scissors. Kennedy calls these her "shark" scissors and really likes them.
Last night Kennedy asked Stacey "Can I sleep with you?" They read stories from
Just a Little Critter Collection and we could hear them laughing in the room. This morning when she woke up she came to our room and told us "I slept with Stacey" and then informed us that she was going back downstairs but we shouldn't come. Guess she thought she could keep Stacey all to herself. Ha.
Labels: Sanford Family
Black Bear Sleeper Set
We picked up this Canada black bear hat and sleeper on our recent trip. Recognizing that a new baby is going to be a shift for Kennedy, we've been having conversations with her about having a baby brother or sister. For example, we talk about how she has an older sister, Stacey, and how she'll get to be an older sister to the new baby. Speaking of Stacey, she's flying in today! Yay!
Labels: Bean
More Vancouver BC
We went to Seasons Hill Top Bistro at the peak of Queen Elizabeth Park for our anniversary dinner. I thought it was cool that we at dinner at the same place Clinton and Yeltsin ate at a summit in 1995. The views of Vancouver were spectacular, the service exceptional and the food good. Susan ate steak and lobster and I had the black cod (a first for me). Our dessert was served with a nice anniversary touch.
When we were walking through Harbour Green Park we came across this Dennis Oppenheimer sculpture
Device to Root Out Evil . It's a beautiful sculpture, especially as it is installed between buildings from one perspective and between the water and the city from another perspective. It's representative of so much of what I've been mulling around in my head for the past years about church sanctioned rigidity, hatred, arrogance...
As most good tourists do, we made our way to the Capilano bridge. It's 450 feet in length and 230 feet above the Capilano river. Walking across it can be quite intimidating. It sways and bends a great deal.
Labels: Mommies
Hats Galore
We picked up a few hats for Kennedy in Vancouver BC. This one is a Vancouver games hat for the 2010 olympics. The city is literally under construction preparing for this big event.
We think she looks like such a Pacific Northwest girl in this hat from
Roots.
And this one, also from Roots, is sure to keep her ears warm this Fall and Winter.
Labels: Bean
Granville Island
We took the ferry across False Creek to Granville Island. We ate a good meal (nachos and burgers) at Bridges before exploring the area. One interesting thing was that regulations require that all burgers be cooked well-done.
The market was fabulous and quite large. We wished we'd gone here first and bought items for a picnic instead of eating at Bridges.
There were a few perplexing cultural things in Vancouver. One example is this board area for announcements -- things you might see stapled onto light posts in the states. Another example is the blinking green traffic light. We finally solved that mystery by asking one of our servers at a dinner outing to explain them to us. She said the blinking traffic lights are controlled by pedestrians and they only change if a pedestrian pushes the button to stop traffic.
Labels: Mommies
Vancouver BC
Susan and I returned last night from an anniversary trip to Vancouver, British Columbia. What an amazing city. I'll have more pictures from there later. As much fun as we had we were so excited to get home and see Kennedy. She stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Anderson and had a great time.
We read a lot of books when we got back to our house. Kennedy looked at her books as if she'd never seen them before! "Oh wow. Read this to me?" she would say.
Labels: Bean
Big News - Baby
Well, we suppose it's about time that we spill the beans on our pregnancy. Given a few past false starts at a sibling for Kennedy, we've held off with the news - but I suppose now that we're over 13 weeks along it's about time!
Today I went in for a new test (First Trimester Screen) that checks the baby and some of my blood chemistry to look for early indications of genetic abnormalities. Luckily, the anatomy looks great - it'll be a week or so on the bloodwork results. All scariness aside, it was a great opportunity to see what all was going on down there.
It was so exciting to see this new little Sprout (moniker adapted from Kennedy's codename: Bean). The little one was dancing all over the place (I have *got* to remember to stop drinking fruit juice before these scans) and move to its internal beats.
So, without further ado... World - meet the newest Anderson. We won't know if its a boy or girl for several weeks yet (but that didn't stop me from trying to make out the anatomy!) - but we'll keep you posted on the developments moving forward.
Labels: Bean Too
Emu Watching
Kennedy and Laural really liked the emus. Here's Laural telling Kennedy all about them as they watched one particular emu. When we tried to move on to other animals, Kennedy said "No!"
Labels: Bean
State Fair Food
What's better than state fair food? Peter and I were making up names for new fried foods all day. My favorite, deep fried chilli-cheese bbq chicken-fried-chicken cotton candy. At lunch we settled for bratwurst (curry and regular), hotdogs, bbq'd corn, fries and fried artichoke hearts (Peters pick).
We had ice cream in the afternoon.
Labels: Bean
Oregon State Fair
Laural, Peter, Sheryl and Kennedy went to the Oregon State Fair in Salem, Oregon today. Susan had to work (insert sad face). It was the last day of the fair so not many of the stock animals were left. But there were some. We saw some miniature bald faced hereford cows. I'd not seen this miniature breed before. Very cute. Here are Laural and Peter on one of our breaks. I think Kennedy was eating some shaved ice on this break. Peter is still recovering from cracked ribs in a recent bike racing accident. Ouch.
Of course, we hade to find the fair's carousel. Kennedy picked out a white horse. It was pretty warm today and Kennedy took over my hat, a gift from Aunt Shelly from her recent fly-fishing excursion in Canada, early on and wore it most of the day.
In the 4-H exhibit hall Kennedy found legos to play with while we looked at the exhibits.
Labels: Bean
Play Doh
Kennedy has a lot of independent play time in her new preschool class. They also focus on fine motor skills. At home Kennedy has shown a lot of interest in plahying independently with her play-doh kit.
Labels: Bean
