Halloween Special!

We got really really close to actually having two blogs posts in one month, guys.  Ah well.  I'm just excited I'm not writing about something that happened six months ago anymore.  :)  You probably are too!

So I know that we just had Thanksgiving and Evelyn's birthday party, and those are very exciting events with lots of pictures that I should share, but first you get pictures of Halloween and pumpkin patches.  Very seasonally late over here.  :)

OK, so here goes the photo dump:

In the airport coming home from Kansas.

Mikey's bench is installed!

My brother's bench is up on the waterfront now-- it's beautiful.  We had a tiny dedication ceremony once it was finished, which was nice.  We didn't do anything (except wallow) to recognize the 5th anniversary of his passing this last month, though.  It almost seems like a gory day to remember together... but we all do something of our own on that day, I think.

Visiting Grandma Evelyn, and insisting on driving.

We had a crazy month of October weather-wise.  One moment it was rainy and 40, typical Portland weather, and the next it was almost 80 and sunny.  It was crazy.  Evelyn doesn't really care what the weather is doing-- GF is an outside baby.

With the Source Climbing Center Mural in the background.

She is now constantly talking about 'rock climbing last Sunday'-- it's one of few days she knows, and definitely has nothing to do with actual dates, except that we do often take her to the gym on Sundays, so she's accurate.  I don't even think it's the climbing: of course she likes that, but I think it's that most of her favorite people in the world work at the climbing gym and live in Vancouver!

We did two pumpkin patch trips this year.  She loved it so much I couldn't help it.  :)  These are pictures from the first trip, with all of our friends: Michael, Crystal and Aden; and Shane, Julia, Eliza and Emory.  Evelyn is obsessed with Eliza.  She basically just runs around calling her name all the time, trying to get as close to Eliza as humanly possible, including sitting in her lap without asking.  It's pretty dang adorable, and Eliza is such a great kid, she just goes with it and lets Evelyn follow her around everywhere, and includes her in all her games.  We have some pretty great friends with some pretty amazing kids.

Evelyn refused to smile in every version of this photo.

One of Evelyn's favorite things to do.

It's a TIIIINY pumpkin!

Emory, Eliza, Julia and Shane.

Um, of course I put her on a pony.

I mean, how could I NOT?

Definitely a Dunbar.  I'm holding her shirt to attempt to keep her still for a single dang picture.

She decorated her own pumpkin!

A sneak peek at her costume...

The second time we went to the pumpkin patch was with my sister, who loves doing cheesy community and holiday events as much as I do.  And also loves doing them with Evelyn as much as I do.  So, pumpkin patch plus petting zoo:

So I'm a sucker for pony rides.

She LOVES IT!

Thank you Mamaw, for the tea set!  Evelyn is now completely obsessed with drinking tea and having tea parties.  In this one Frosty got in on the fun (I'm fairly certain Evelyn thinks of Frosty as her best friend).  Tea parties are now a daily thing.  With fake tea, of course.  But also fake crumpets.  It's hilarious to hear her ask for crumpets.  Also, I totally thought crumpets were like, delicious, flaky buttery pastries.  They aren't.  They're like English muffins with a fancier name.  TOTAL LETDOWN.

Feeding Aunt Nicky's chickens.  Nicky's house is like Disneyland to Evelyn.

Pumpkin carving party!

Oops.  Random picture from our first pumpkin patch inserted here, and I'd rather caption it than move it.  Evelyn loved this tractor, despite the look on her face here.

Brad complained the most about carving his stupid pumpkin,and his is the most awesome!

Jason's sister Kari came to visit us right before Halloween.  It was an awesome visit.  Poor Kari, we basically made her babysit Evelyn while we were at work for three days, and then made her tag along to all the things we wanted to do over the weekend-- but she was a great sport, and I think she had fun.  :)  It was an excellent way to really show her bits and pieces of our life, and she got some great alone time with Evelyn too.

Evelyn and Aden.  Buddies.

Halloween!  We went up to Shane and Julia's house in Vancouver, because they are awesome and their neighborhood is awesome for trick or treating.  It was POURING, but we persevered.  And by that I mean that Evelyn thought it was amazing, because who wouldn't want to walk down streets that were total rivers?  Splashing around and going house to house and getting candy?  MIND. BLOWN.  She kept leaving people's houses and just saying, 'He put candy in my basket...' like she COULDN'T BELIEVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED.

And then we got back to Shane and Julia's and she promptly forgot candy even ever existed in favor of tiny oranges that looked like pumpkins.

Spider's eggs!

For weeks afterwards all Evelyn wanted was a banana ghost.

Our soggy troupe.

The gang's all here, before heading out!

Our court themed Halloween family.  Yes.  I'm a nerd.

Yeah, so what else?  She is completely and totally obsessed with Frosty the Snowman.  My fault, I let her watch the original animated movie one time... now every snowman is Frosty, and she talks and sings to all of them, and I've had to learn like 5 verses of the stupid song because she basically wants me to sing it to her like a hundred times a day... toddler life, friends.  Not for the faint of heart.  :)

She is CONSTANTLY TALKING.  We've tried to start getting her to understand that sometimes quiet is good to have... it's failing miserably.  The only thing I can imagine is that my mother had TWO children talking at her constantly.  WOW.

At 2 years old, everything can be done on one's own, friends.  Except for speak English correctly, although she is getting much better at that.  Everything is 'My' instead of 'I' though.  But generally girlfriend is talking in sentences, more or less... and she's hilarious.  She's also asking 'Why?' these days... but it's like she doesn't really know what it means, because half the time she just parrots something her babysitter says as a response before I can answer-- "Because Eddie's still sleeping."  Ha! 

She has recently started asking me to cuddle with her on the couch-- talk about adorableness.  Guys.  When your kid can ask you to squeeze them... or tell you they love you without prompting... and now she's saying, "Thank you Mommy" without prompting... it's pretty dang sweet.  If you don't have kids, please ignore the entire above paragraph, as it'll make you want to barf.  Also, you'll think I'm completely obsessed with my child, which I am, but here's the thing-- pretty sure every parent is.  It's some crazy mind control worked on us by babies so that we're excited to have them instead of viewing them like the never ending slave drivers they actually are.

Jason's work is pretty crazy these days-- good and bad on that front.  My work has offered me a cool opportunity-- in February they are sending me to Kenya for a couple weeks so that I can participate in a Program Management training-- woot!  I'm really excited.  Also totally nervous.  But mostly thrilled.

OK, some parting thoughts for you:

At the age of 1 1/2 Evelyn started blaming her farts on her dad.  I'm so proud I just can't contain it.

Evelyn thinks it's totally appropriate to cheers whenever 2 people are holding anything remotely similar-- so, two toothbrushes, for example.  Or two leaves.  Or two forks.

Also, I was trying to explain to her about her birthday so that she would be prepared and know what the crap we were doing when her birthday party came around.  In advance of her birthday, because of my explanation (which might have included references to both cake and presents, the magical items of childhood), I can hear her wake up in the middle of the night and shout, "My birthday coming up!", only to fall asleep again 2 minutes later.  You're welcome Evelyn.

Also, when you ask her what she wants for her birthday, her first response is cake.  Her second is usually grapes.

There you have it folks.  Wisdom from the mouths of babes.  The most important things in the world?  Cake and grapes.

Part 2 of Summertime Catch Up

Oh dear lord, the summer is officially over.  Not just summer.  OCTOBER.  How does this keep happening to me?  I keep feeling like at some point, I'm going to get caught up on everything, I'm going to be at a place where I am only looking ahead and planning for the future...  dudes.  Apparently, Not. Going. To. Happen.

So let's keep talking about what happened several months ago.  :)

Coming back to the city after Yosemite was a bit sad-- I felt like Evelyn never wanted to enter a house again.  And the drive home was HARD, way harder than the drive out because we tried to do it during the day, which means Evelyn was awake, which means we took her out of the woods and strapped her into a seat for 14 hours.  Ugh.

But we made it home, and hopefully she isn't scarred too much.

She is hilarious.  The summer was HOT-- the hottest on record for us.  We got Evelyn sandals, which she wore a ton, but of course, whenever she was prompted to grab her shoes, she grabbed her boots.  Girl loves boots.  She must be a Portlander.  ;)

She is also obsessed with all things electronic, probably because we really try to keep her off of them and yet she sees us using them.  So she loves to have people show her pictures of herself on their phones (not a diva at all, friends), and she LOVES Skype.  If anyone wants to Skype with her, you just let me know.  She thinks its fantastic.  I can't tell if she really understands what is happening, mostly because every time we call my dad via Skype, she tries to feed him things, and then just laughs when he pretends to do so.  So silly.

Speaking of silly.  The other day, I was prompting Evelyn to get dressed, and of course she is getting to be quite a big girl, guys.  So she wants to put on the pants herself.  Only, she can only somehow manage to get both legs into one pant leg-- like, separating and finding both legs is too complicated.  So, both legs in one pant leg, she stands up to pull them up, and can only pull them up so far.  Then, she hobbles around looking for me and saying help.  Holy crap, it was hilarious.  Sadly, I was laughing too much to take video so that you could share in the hilariousness of the situation.  Next time, I'll try to do better for you.

July was a bit of a crazy month for us-- I've already mentioned working full time (you guys are all probably rolling your eyes at me right now because everyone except me works full time.  But listen, guys-- Portlanders have all banded together, and we've all decided that even if you love your job, working all the time is silly.  So part-time is where it's at!  Anyway.  I digress).  So in addition to being at daycare more often, Evelyn had to have a new daycare provider because our usual one was gone on vacation to Ireland.

Who knew that the single most stressful part of having a child would be child care?  Seriously.  Finding reliable and affordable child care is the WORST.  Terrible.  The people are wonderful once you find them, but dang.  The search makes me want to break things.  Hopefully I don't ever have to search again.

Anyway, so for that month she was with a lady named Ina and several other children, including one of my co-workers sons Leo.  Who Evelyn was obsessed with.  Also, she was obsessed with his toys, especially his Big Wheel bike.  She would wake up in the middle of the night saying "Big Wheel!"  Either that or "Rock!  Big rock!"

I think she was having a bit of a time processing all the adventures we were having.  :)

One day, Jason and I come home, and we start chatting with Evelyn about her day.  These are her responses:

Evelyn, did you have fun with Ina and Leo today?
I do!
Did you go to the park?
Yeah.
What did you see at the park?
Wing! (Swing)
Did you see trees at the park?
Yeah.
Did you see any animals at the park?
Yeah.
Were there birds?
No.
Did you see a dog?
Yeah.
How many dogs did you see?
One!
Did you see a bear at the park?
Yeah.
How many bears did you see?
One.
What color was the bear?
Boo. (Blue)

Oh man.  She answered with such certainty.

I went on my first backpacking trip since college!  It was completely awesome.  We got a group of ladies together, friends of mine, friends from work, etc., and spent two nights and three days out near  a place called Shell Rock here in Oregon.  12 miles, 2500 feet of elevation gain, we picked wild huckleberries and got totally poured on in a day long downpour (kept hiking anyway, set up camp wet, nothing can stop us!!!!).  We fit all 8 of us into one 2-person tent to eat chocolate and snacks and tell stories until it was dry enough to find some wood to make a decent fire.  We ate a delicious and huge gourmet dinner.  We saw like 5 lakes.  It was AWESOME.

Evelyn was at home the entire time!  I think it was the longest I've been away from her.  Let's be real-- it felt great!  And also sad, because I missed her. But I did not miss carrying her over 12 miles.  So.  Compromises.

I definitely want to do it again.  It even makes me want to try a solo backpacking trip, which would NEVER have been on my radar before.  I think I have a long way to go-- I'd like to make sure I know the trail well, and would want to practice a bunch first (aka go on more backpacking trips than 1), but still.  Wild, Cheryl Strayed, here I come.  Or maybe not.

 Kirsten's photos of our trip:

Estelle's photos:

A personal favorite of mine.  Caption contest?

And then, at the end of this most amazing of trips, this photo series happened.  Thanks to Estelle for capturing the magic.  I'm sure you guys will appreciate it.

Yes, you're welcome world.  You probably needed that.  :)

The weekend after my backpacking trip, Jason was running in a relay race called the Cascade Lakes Relay.  It's over 200 miles, lots of uphill, with a team of like 12 people.  Running all day and all night for two days.  Sleeping in a van full of sweaty runners and their dirty socks.  Running in the desert in 100 degree heat.  I know guys, it sounds like a DREAM!  Ha.  But lately Jason is really into running.  So he joined this team with some of the folks he runs with on Thursday nights, and was really excited about it.

They did really well too-- they took 15th overall, and 8th in their division!  Big time.  Evelyn and I drove out to meet them in Bend where it ended and got to hang out and meet all the folks, it was a good time.

Oh man.  And in amongst those things, we spent 4th of July at our friend's lake house in Vaugn, Washington.  We went to Leavenworth for a weekend.  We had my birthday, visited my grandma, went to a wedding...

Here are some pictures.

4th of July:

Julia with a sparkler mid-swim.

The hat.

Leavenworth weekend:

Chalk Monkey.

Enjoying the 'wing'.

Post crazy head smash.  She's Pig Pen.

I think I remember how to do this...

Looking for airplanes.

Also, I did several weeks of this:

Now, if that's not a cheesy camp counselor photo, I just don't know what is.

There was also a ridiculous series of events that happened during our summer camps, but it's really not the sort of thing that can go on a blog.  Remind me the next time we hang out and I'll tell you.  It might have been the most amazingly ridiculous series of events that could have happened to me.

I turned 34 this summer guys!  It was a great birthday.  I had to work (I love you, summer programming!), but it was a good day with a bunch of really amazing world changers from the MENA region, so I left inspired, which doesn't always happen.  Jason and I had a date night and ended up laying on the grass of the community garden, looking at the stars, almost like we were 10 years younger.  It was wonderful.  Plus, we had a BBQ at my sisters the next day, and my family is pretty great.  Silly, but great.

Naked cornhole?  Literally?

Plum face.

Plum picker.

Thinking about summer programming-- I wish I had parenting advice to give.  Or life advice, really.  It really is amazing how the older you get the more you realize you just don't know.  In summer camp, I met some amazing students.  Really respectful, engaged and interested people.  How do you raise such children?  Is it inherent in them?  We had some amazing conversations about some really challenging topics, and I certainly don't remember have that kind of talk, thinking about that kind of thing, at that age.  I think I was just trying to survive high school.  I could only see the future as far as turning 18 was considered.  These students we see from the MENA region-- I see the future in them.  What will the Middle East be in 10 years?  We're giving these kids tools, knowledge... but the reality is that they have extremely hard tasks in front of them.  We're seeing the worst humanitarian crisis of our generation with the civil war in Syria.  They will have to rebuild.  They will have to find peace, not just in Syria but in all of those nations embroiled in war and conflict, afflicted by climate change and dwindling resources... it's amazing to feel like you're seeing the future being built right before your eyes.

Sometimes it's really hard to balance all those things I feel like I have to balance in my life-- and when I have summers like this summer, I feel, more than anything, privileged to be able to work with such amazing youth.

OK.  Sorry.  My rant is done.

This summer there was a wedding, plenty of baby time, silly Evelyn activities:

Baby Claire, Evelyn and Baby Jude.

Baby bonding at the wedding-- we even danced our booties off with babies attached.  It was a proud day.

I climbed Mt. St. Helen's!  Like, for real this time!  As in, I actually achieved and got to the top.  Dudes.  Mountain climbing is hard.

The magical party bus, owned by Rayne Zaughsome.

Arrakis.

How close is too close?

Who wants a cookie?

Jason had an epic birthday party, in which Evelyn pooped on another lawn.  It was amazing.  I'd left the beach early to head back to Crystal's house before phase 2 of the party, so that we could get set up.  Evelyn was playing in the kiddie pool fully clothed.  I decided to take off those clothes, including the very saggy diaper, and almost immediately she squatted on the lawn to do her business.  I ran inside to grab something to clean it up, and by the time I got back, she was back in the kiddie pool,  naked, rubbing her butt along the bottom of the pool to dislodge any remaining poop.  Oh man it was gross.  Needless to say, that was the end of pool time. 

What is it with kids and pooping outside?  Or is that just Evelyn?  Maybe let's not answer that question.

Apparently on Jason's birthday I didn't take any pictures of Jason.

So many things!  I visited my brother, Adam and Maia moved to town and then promptly left again, my sister bought a house, we visited Kansas, we climbed in a couple indoor bouldering comps...  this blog is devolving into random words and pictures.

Introducing the nieces and nephews to another amazing game that they will soon become addicted to...

Evelyn and Uncle Bob!

Evelyn LOVES Michael Lary.

Top of the climbing wall with Nim.

'Driving' Grandpa Jimmy's truck.

Kansas BBQ-- delicious.

OK.  So there you have it.  Another super random blog that took me two freaking months to write.  :)  Hopefully the pictures are enough to make up for my random rambling.  Bye friends!