Summer, Please Don't Go

Greetings from the Northern Dunlap's.  Everyone seems to be having busy summers this year.  The Northern clan is no exception.


We did some traveling...

We went to SF and saw two GIANTS games!

We helped Mom and Dad with the shed

We biked in Sacramento with my Dad

We did a house project...

Scrape, scrape, scrape, sand, sand, sand all the paint off the railing for the deck

Harder than it looks trust me

All re-painted!

We harvested lots of yummy vegetables...

Empty garden beds

Full garden beds

Carrots!

Peas!

Beets!

Finally TOMATOES!

 My flowers bloomed...

Stargazer lilies

Roses

Gladiolus

Justin is at Burning Man this week so I'm home alone with Zoey. I cooked lots of delicious fresh veggies and went for lots of walks since I finally got this off:

BOO...walking boot for 3 weeks (guess all that running caught up with me...I'm not 100% healed but enough to walk around without the boot)

Looking forward to having Justin back!  I'm hoping we'll keep the summer weather for a few more weeks since it took so long for it to appear.  Hope everyone else is enjoying summer as much as much as we are!

Pics from Anderson's

It's been a while since I blogged so here's some pics from our trip with Mom and Dad and then just various happenings.  We've been having a good summer but wow two little kids is a lot of work!  It's all I can do to keep everyone fed around here.  They are precious and worth it but endless demands, laundry and dishes does make me feel like Cinderella minus anyone evil to blame :).   When it comes to family Dunlap's and my family I am abundantly blessed and grateful!....well enough rambles here's the promised pics....

Of course most have seen these but May brought the birth of our beautiful girl Abriela Anderson!  Thanks to Jen I have a decent pic of me with the kids. Also thanks to Jen I had some much appreciated help with the baby !  

 Rilan has been a very sweet loving big brother for the most part...especially considering he lost his only child and only baby status and has really had to share a ton of attention.  He's a super good sport and so cute and sweet with her.

 Dad and Mom with Abbie when we went up to visit.  Was a great visit and we loved being there and spending time with Mom and Dad!

 A great pic of mom with Abbie! :).  

 Brianna with Abbie :)

 Thain and the kiddies very recent pic :)

 Thain and Rilan motorcycling (very slowly) up at his brother's

 May look like a total contradiction but hey we all know looks can be deceiving and in this case too! :).  We went to a fun dinosaur museum park a few days ago and Rilan posed for a pic :).  He's really a sweetie but dangerously destructive too!  

 Amber just got back from a trek monday!  She's been doing good and having a good summer as well! 

A beautiful sunset view and picture taken up in Huntsville near were Thain and I got married.  I took a drive with the kids the other day!  So pretty!

Pool, garden, and good pictures of Mom and Dad

Instead of emailing these pictures to Mom, I am going to post them here.  If you want to copy a picture and save it to your computer Mom, just right click on the image.  Then click on save to and specify where you want it saved.

I was sorry to miss the family gathering at Mom and Dad's for Father's Day!  Someone post some pictures of the shed for me.  It sounds like Jill has gotten a lot of painting done.  Other pictures would be appreciated too!

The bird I hit in Utah stayed with us all the way to California.  Luckily, the deer that Nate hit didn't join the bird for the rest of the ride.

Bronco was Granddad's little buddy out in California.

The happy couple on their 46th anniversary.

We are glad you still love each other!

I love this one.

And this one too, they are all good, so I had to post them all.

This is where the kids are every free moment they have.  Thanks to Mom for Deven's birthday present!

The kids with the biggest kid of all.

Here's the next day, with a friend over.  

Here's my garden, focused on the baby lettuce.  Everything is doing well, must be that horse manure we put on a couple of months ago.  The plastic thing in the left corner is one of the "walls of water" protecting a tomato plant.  I planted the last of my peppers and tomatoes today.  It's supposed to be in the 80s this week, so hopefully no more freezing.

Happy Summer to you all!  Love, Jen

piano recital part 2

Emily playing "Whirling Leaves"

Bronco playing the book he got from Grandma.

Piano Recital for the Family

Here are the videos again Mom, I don't know where in cyberspace the blog posts went to, but I can't find them anywhere!

I have been teaching the kids a song a week in their piano books.  I can't believe how well they are doing, and I thought you'd like to hear a little performance.

Ben playing a pirate song

Deven playing "My Invention"

Business at the Blaines

My indoor garden this year.  Nate built this grow light for me, and it's working really well!

Ben and Deven are soccer super stars this spring!  Both boys scored two goals in their games on Saturday.

The wildflowers in California were gorgeous!

Our kayak adventure on Clearlake

We drove over to Fort Bragg and enjoyed a walk on the beach.

If you can't read that sign up there it says "LumberJacks, where the big boys eat."  I thought it was funny!

All ready to hunt for eggs at Grandma's and Granddad's house.

What are you finding Aiden?

Deven counting his eggs.

A fun game of Phase 10 with the kids, Grandma being one of them.

Watching over the flock.

Our six new friends.  Now we have to build the coop!

The kids playing "Just Dance Kids" on the Wii. I played with them, and it was fun. Although it would be just as entertaining to watch the dancers.

I am trying to upload videos of the kids playing their piano songs, but am not having luck.  I'll try one more time, but I might have to email them to you Mom!

Spring!

Hello family! We had a fantastic visit from Mom and Dad the weekend before last and are beginning to enjoy the spring sunshine that they brought up with them.Signs of spring are all around us and we are hoping you snow bound or season-less folk are enjoying this time of year as much as us Portlanders.

One part of spring that has been especially great this year is observing all the changes that are taking place at our new house and neighborhood. Some of work from last year is beginning to pay off as well. The side of the house is abloom with tulips and daffodils and the necta-plum we planted in the front had a few blooms on top. Hopefully we will get some fruit.

The afore mentioned necta-plum blooms.

In between our garden beds we planted a half-wine barrel full of herbs.

Back to the visit last week: Here is Mom posing for a photo for my phone.

We didn't let them stand around for long. Before we let them enjoy Portland we had them do some serious work. We chopped down the tree in front of our house. It was a noble aged tree. Our octotarrian neighbor mentioned how it had been there for as long as she had been next door, some forty years or so, right Alisa? We also put together and stained some adirondack chairs and table we found at home depot for the front porch.

After all the work they insisted on taking a bit of a nap. I still had a long list of chores for them to do, but I suppose they earned a few winks. 

We had some great meals and great times! Capping off their visit, we went to a funky little Portland restaurant called "Ned Lud." Portland's version of fine dining. It was a fantastic meal! 

While there I spotted a pretty famous dude, Harry Shearer, the "it goes to 11" guy from Spinal Tap for those that are familiar. Behind that incredibly goofy awkward smile is him. I had Alisa take this snap-shot to, hopefully unobtrusively, document the spotting. 

Mom bought us and them matching gerber daisy's. We are going to have a plant-off to see who can out garden whom. I think she already gets bonus points for "smuggling" hers across the border. OK, it turned out they didn't care about plants.
 
Hope you are all doing great!