Life at the Shaw's

Well, I am trying to chase up on the blog.  

Wow, we have been busy the last two months going here and there.

Thomas is still enjoying his braces.

Thomas and Chris went backpacking last weekend to Humes Ranch. (Thomas's first backpacking trip.  He loved it!!!) 

They said they had a great time.  

Maggie turned 2 this weekend.  

She had a wonderful day on Saturday.  We took her for a walk, let her play on the beach and threw rocks for her.  We came home and watched a dog movie (Marley and Me), gave her a bone and a stuff animal!!!

Happy Birthday Maggie!!!!

Lizzy lost her tooth the week of Easter.  

 This past weekend Henry was able to go on his first scouting camp out.

He was so excited to go and had a wonderful time.

He was able to stay up late, eat donuts, and hot dogs.  Henry identified 23 animals or traces of animals.  

A couple of weeks ago, Henry joined the Swim Club.  After only a week on the swim club Henry had a swim-a-thon.

He did 152 laps in 2 hours. 

WOW!!!  

Lizzy was able to get her hands on a horse a couple of weeks ago.  

She was in 7th Heaven.  

The Lion King

In March we went to see The Lion King.  

What a fun weekend we had.  It was very pleasant weekend enjoying each other company.

We were able to travel on the ferry, eat at the Cheesecake Factory, be cultural enhance at the play and the next day Chris and I went to the temple.

On the ferry!!!!

At the Paramount Theater

I love to go to plays.  

It is great that my children are old enough now they can with me now. 

I enjoyed The Lion King.  I really like all the puppets.  The music wasn't the best part (compared to Les Miserable or Wicked) but it was still good.  My favorite part was when the people were grass and as they danced it really looked like the grass moving in the wind.  I really like the big elephant, and the giraffe. It was a fun night.     

Lizzy at the hotel.

Isn't she cute.  

Yes, she wears a mask every night.

California Trip

Well, after Portland we decided to make the extra couple of hours of driving to Palo Alto to visit the California Cousins.  The kids were so excited to see them.   

Sarah had a full schedule while we were there.  So off we went to San Francisco the first day. 

We ended up at the Believe it or Not Museum for the first couple of hours.  

There were so many amazing things to see.  

I really like the Kaleidoscope. 

The kids like the circle thing (Henry and Lizzy's favorite thing) You went in and you couldn't balance really good because the walls were moving.  It was interesting to do.

The mirror maze was fun.  

The crazy fish with fur on it was my favorite.  Annika liked the objects that were made out of toothpicks.    

Next, stopped by the Rainforest Cafe and ate lunch.  The kids enjoyed it.  

Oh-yeah, did I mention it was pouring rain while we were in San Francisco. 

 Sarah says it hadn't rained all winter (was 70 degrees the week before and the week after we went).  

We stopped by this arcade with all these games from different eras.  

There were some pretty fun ones.  The old ones were really hard to actually win.   

Next stop was Alcatraz.  It was also cold and wet but luckily the tour was inside.

It was really pretty on the island.  The flowers smelled really good to me.  It was interesting to listen to the tour and learn about the history of the island.  The island had a lighthouse, there was a fort on it at one point and of-course the famous jail.  

The next day we hung out at home, went to the Build a Bear workshop, Lego store and played Laser tag.

Every chance Eli got, he was attacking the boys.  

There is Goldie, Lizzy new puppy!!!! 

Henry photo bombed the photo... 

The third day we went Gold Panning in Jamestown.

WOW!!!  It is hard work.  

You dig up dirt and then sieve through the dirt gently, moving the big pieces out of the pan until there are very small pieces.   

In the end we ended up with some gold.  If you look at the top of the pan there are some flakes of gold.   All that work of digging for a couple of hours and not much to show for it. 

The cousins divided it up 5 ways and they each got a couple of flakes each.

(YEAH, it did not rain that day.  It was nice and sunny!!!!)

The last day were were there, Sarah told them they could play video games all day.

When asking the kids which was their favorite thing they did while in California, they answered video game day.  Yes, video games are fun but I think it is because they love hanging with their cousins.  

(we also got ice cream that day and played at a park!!!!)

Things we have taken home from the cousins this time.  

My children loved green beans that Sarah made (the steam ones).  We have had green beans every week since then but we have not had seaweed.  We also learned to play Settler and love playing it now.  

Portland

We went to Portland the last part of March to hang with Chris while he had a conference there.  

It was really fun to go to Portland (since I and the kids have never been there.)

It is a little joke of mine---where ever I go it rains.  I never see the orange dot in the sky but I get a lot of liquid sunshine.

We had plan on tandem biking and a few other outdoor things while in Portland but as you see it was pouring rain and we had to change our plans.    

The first day we went to Powell Book Store and was there for a long time looking at books.  

These store was awesome.  Any book you were looking for was there and had at least a couple of versions of it.  The Pride and Prejudice section was three bookshelves long.  We also hung in the hotel, swimming, ate at restaurants and had a Jamba Juice (my kids are hooked)  

The next day it was still raining so we went to the OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry).  It is a couple of cool exhibits.

Okay, this is how smelly Henry's farts are--they glow!!!!

(You can tell what age my children are!!!)

We went on a tour of the SS-581--the last non-nuclear, fast attack submarine.  

I decided I could never live on a submarine but I really enjoyed the tour.

There was an exhibit on skating called Tony Hawk/Rad Science.      

It was really fun because it was totally interactive.  

Next we went into the Turbine area.  That was the kids favorite place.

Thomas spent a good while making different cup thingy's fly.  It was interesting how cutting the cup in  different ways made it flew better or worse.   

Lizzy liked the twirly thing.  

Henry hanged because he wasn't feeling good. 

After the OMSI, we had to ride the tram (picture below).  

The clouds parted during this time and we could see downtown Portland.  

The kids enjoyed it. We basically rode up it and then took the next tram down.

Thomas thought this sign was really funny!!!!

We had to go to VooDoo donuts.  

The original VooDoo Doughnut place there was a long line every time we went there (and since donuts are not my thing I felt it wasn't worth the hour and a half wait).  So finally, we decided to go to the VooDoo donuts on the other side of the bridge and it was a 5 minute wait. Were they as good as everyone said they were?  I guess.  I am not a doughnut person so I cannot give a good opinion.  They did have weird choices.  Lizzy picked a bubblegum flavor doughnut, there were M&M, Thomas had an Oreo one, VooDoo Doll with Cherries inside it.  I had a sugar one and Henry had a plain Maple Bar.          

We finally meet up with Chris and walked along the waterfront trail for a little while.  

Even when it wasn't raining the children were getting wet (with the encouragement of their mother!!!!)