vroom, vroom, vroom

my day of testing came as a mother and i failed miserably. but the pressure was too great. there were tears and puppy-dog eyes and some really, really good arguments. in the end i caved and we now own a honda crf 50 (that's a kids dirtbike for those not used to motorcycle lingo). according to the boys in our family this small piece of metal will have great power "to draw our family closer". i'm expecting great things!

as Kai rode around with donnavan you could barely make out over the dirtbike noise the sound of "vroom, vroom, vroom" coming from his little mouth. yes, boys have sound effects wired into their system at birth.

so you may be wondering, why the sudden desire to blog. it begins with the sun which allows me to enjoy being outdoors which gives the boys a chance to play uninterrupted for hours which causes me to want to take photos of their highly imaginative play which drives me to want to share these photos which leads to a blog post.

the following may appear to be straight out of a vampire novel. and if vampires were to feel comfortable anywhere, silver falls would be the place with its moss laden trees and mist covered ground. we were there in February for a conference for Don's work. black and white was definitely the only way to go with these pictures.

i chose to live here

i used to kneel by my bed as a little girl and pray with all my heart that it would snow the next day. i loved snow! i loved missing school. i loved sledding down the big hill in front of our house at lightening speed. i realize now that i was a naughty little girl. for somewhere over in idaho there was a poor freezing soul that would give anything for the snow to cease. who’s little boy would look out the window one should-be-spring day and with awe and delight exclaim, “hey mom, what's that green stuff i see coming out from under the snow?!”. yes, no longer am i that innocent little oregonian. idaho has robbed me of my love for snow and showed me the realities of this incessant pest. i have to keep telling myself that I did choose to live in this cold climate and can only wish for spring to hurry itself up.

luckily our cold winter has been more than eventful. christmas was laid back and perfect. (yes, santa did forget me in his note to everyone but he more than redeemed himself with an amazing lens for my camera.)

ahhhh... the stockings.

the wonderful tradition of reading the other wise man christmas morning.

the first picture with my awesome new lens.

i LOVE christmas!

our winter also included a trip up to canada. now i want you to know that canada is a very “special” place. this is probably the only place on earth where people would CHOOSE to go out in -30 weather to visit a zoo (a zoo of all places!). and it’s not like just a few people do it. i believe the whole country was there. as usual though, we had an awesome trip to the cold white north as you can see in the photos.

a wild sledding trip!

tears included.

our little king of the world.

jeff and zane ready to head down the slope.

supermodel sloanie...

and an intense jace.

and of course, lights at the zoo. only canadians and the crazy tourists.

well, hopefully that will be all the winter i will have to document on. not likely… but hopefully.

i chose to live here. i chose to live here. i chose to live here…