Oregon Country Fair 2013

Seven under seven!  That's a lot of little ones to have camping behind the button booth.  As always, the Fair was a lot of fun for all of us, young and old.



 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conan is 4!

We had a party on Saturday with lots of friends and family.  I can hardly believe it's been four years already!




 The party featured balloons, party hats & favors, a cake decorated with toy cars and a monster truck (Conan picked the design himself), a game of pin the tail on the donkey, temporary tattoos for everyone, face painting (which turned into finger painting because we forgot the paintbrushes - not that the kids seemed to care), photos with a fun circus-themed cutout (painted by my talented cousin Heather), punch with dinosaur ice cubes, and of course, presents!

 We held the party at the Fairhaven Park Pavillion, which is a multi-use public building right by the playground. Unfortunately, it was a very cold, stormy day with too much wind and rain for playing outside. The kids had lots of fun running around inside, bopping each other in the heads with balloons and generally having a grand time playing together.

 All in all, it was a fun smorgasboard of awesome stuff. Theme parties are for babies, right?  No-one can deny that Conan is a big boy now!

Thanksgiving 2012

We hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year.  Conan was very excited to have ALL his grandmas and grandpas and GG and cousin Chloe and Uncle Jon and Uncle Brian and Abby and Nikki come over for a party.

 

A few years back I got a dinosaur muffin pan.  Turns out, dinosaur ice cubes for the punch bowl are even better than dinosaur shaped muffins.  They were a hit with all ages. I may never make muffins in it again!

 

Mom and GG had come over and helped with two days of cooking, and everyone else brought dishes to contribute as well. We had a great feast.

The menu included:
Turkey (salted and roasted in a traditional style - delicious)
Stuffing (with bacon and turkey drippings)
Grandpa Dave's vegetarian stuffing
Turkey gravy
Brian's Vegetarian gravy
Cranberry sauce (with lemon, rosemary and pears)
Oven-fried Red Snapper
Butternut Squash with browned butter & thyme
Parsnips with Pears, Apples, rosemary & Maple syrup
Mom's Homemade Rolls
GG's Apple Sauce
Abby's Roasted Sweet Potatoes (or are they Yams?)
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Anita's Macaroni salad
Nikki's Potato salad

 

And that's not even counting the 6 pies we had for dessert.  It was truly a feast.  Everyone had a great time, it was a great group of people to be thankful with.

 

After dinner and dessert, the kids changed into their PJs for a 'jama party and stick dragon rides.

Happy Thanksgiving, one and all!

Sequim Bay 2012 Campout

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lake Sylvia

Super Ultra Family Campout 2012 was a total success!



Lake Sylvia was a beautiful venue for our campout. I was initially not impressed - the lake is small, tree-lined, and not very far (5 minutes? maybe less.) from the nearest town. But it delivered big fun. We swam in the water right from our campsite as well as visiting the designated swimming area, the kids formed a tricycle gang and rode up and down the campground road, we paddled all around the lake and explored its nooks and crannies in our inflatable kayak, we saw otters, canada geese, and millions of newts, and we ate and drank and generally had a marvelous time together. It was everything a family campout should be.

Update: More pictures, collected from all the cameras on hand, can be viewed at Gabe's site: http://www.gabetaylor.net/General/lakeSylvia2012/
Bonus newt video:

Olympia

This past weekend we went to Olympia for Eric's "Barty" celebrating his completion of the Bar Exam. He looked far more relaxed than I've seen him in the past several years - it's good to be done with school and tests!

 

Our visit also happened to coincide with the "Paddle To Sqauxin" with canoes from as far north as Alaska arriving in Olympia Sunday morning for a day of ceremony and celebration. We went down to the beach to watch them come in.

 

Some of the canoe crews sang beautiful chants as they came into the inlet. I caught a little bit on video:

We also spent some time at one of Conan's favorite pastimes: looking under rocks for crabs.

 

Morgan is sure growing up. She's 3 now, and so confident and independent!  It's really neat to see her turning into a big girl.

 

Lots of people were out to watch the canoes come in, including large flocks of kayakers. It was very festive.

 

Back at Casa Taylor, the backyard fun complex was very popular. Conan and Morgan played together for hours.

 

It was wonderful to sit in Gabe's lovely gazebo and listen to the kids playing happily.

 

It's a long drive to Oly, but it's always worth the trip. We'll have to visit more often!

Not-Quite-The-Fourth Party

With the fourth falling on a Wednesday this year, it seemed like a good idea to have a party the preceding Saturday. It was a wet and overcast day, but the rain cleared off just around 4 so we headed outdoors and had a great time despite the gloom. Hard to believe it's almost July, with the coats and rainboots, but we're adaptable.

I roasted a leg of lamb (tandoori-yogurt marinade was amazing) and we had lots of delicious sides. The kids particularly liked the unattended chip bowl.

 

A brief sprinkle of rain after dinner drove everyone onto the porch, but luckily it didn't last too long.

 

Our porch really is a nice place to hang out on a damp day. The beer cooler being on the porch might have had something to do with it too.

 

Hey, is he getting out some FIREWORKS?!

 

The little kids had a blast, as usual, running through the colored smoke from the smoke bombs. The grown-up kids had nearly as much fun lighting them.

 

Nothing like running through some who-knows-how-toxic purple smoke for a good time.

 

After we ran out of smoke bombs, the kids played for a while in Conan's "beach" - also known as the worlds tiniest sandbox. Apparently it's got room to fit more kids than we estimated!

 

Devious Kiah made off with the sand dollars. I didn't actually see what she was doing when I snapped the picture, but it does explain why I found a cache of sand dollars hidden on the porch the next day.

 

Finally it got dark enough for the REAL fireworks. I didn't get any pictures of them, but they were IMPRESSIVE. The kids stayed up until after 10:30, when they turned into pumpkins and just couldn't keep their eyes open any longer. Grown ups sat around the fire much later than that, enjoying the first taste of summer (really! it's summer!) we've had this cold wet June.