hippy fair 2008

Today we attended the 2008 Oregon Country Fair. (For those who have never heard of the Country Fair, click here. It's not your typical County Fair...) This is Kenton's 4th time, my 3rd time, & Finn's 2nd time. Kenton had to scope it out himself before he was able to convince me that it was safe to attend. The Country Fair has a bit of a reputation in Eugene & I wasn't brave enough to be the first in the family to attend.

So, Kenton took charge by going by himself in 2004 & has been a fan of the fair ever since. He's the reason we have gone 3 out of the 4 years & will probably attend for many years to come...though I think every other year is a good amount for me. I enjoy the atmosphere & the food...not so much the crowd & the heat. But we had a very enjoyable time this year with our friends, Stu & Jacque (who also are frequent fair-goers).

Finn & Jacque during our first food break. :)

Checking out some of the costumes while they were not in use. It can be a little spooky when people walk around on stilts while wearing animal costumes (even for me). :)

I love the look on Finn's face. Not too sure what to think of the performance on stage. ;)

The crowd.

Getting a little worn out.

For my dad. Have you seen this before? A feathery drum bike is right up your alley, Papa. Minus the feathers, maybe... :P

Listening to nature.

Never a shortage of butterfly/fairy wings. Finn was pretty excited to see so many butterflies in one place.

After a very short nap, Finn was re-energized & ready for more action. He was definitely a good sport, for being stuck in the stroller most of the day. I think he enjoyed watching all of the hippies & tasting our food. He even tried a taste of my Falafel! So brave. :)

*For more pictures, check out the newly added album to the left.

a grand finale

On Friday night, we attended Sandy's final recital for his Master's degree in vocal performance. As always, it is such a treat to hear Sandy perform. He really has such an amazing voice & incredible talent.


The recital was held at First United Methodist Church, a very beautiful church in downtown Eugene. (One of the songs Sandy sang was a duet.)

I enjoy being in older churches with cool architecture & stained glass windows. I've never really attended a church like that, so it's fun for me. :)

After the performance.
Nicole's mother, Eileen with baby Adalie.

For Carolyn. We were having a hard time breaking into his conversations. He was the star of the show after all. :)

Katrina, Sandy & Kenton
Finn stayed with Jacque & Stu while we were at the recital. Always nice to have a little grown-up time....

The Millers
Sandy, Adalie & Nicole

Nicole & Sandy

One more of the sweet little baby.

here we come...

I've been going through my photos from last summer, getting ready to print some for scrapbooking. Also, I have been messing around with Photoshop - practicing a little digital scrapbooking (probably more like hybrid - a mix of digital & traditional scrapbooking). So here are some photos from the last Country Fair. We're going again tomorrow, this time with our friends, Stu & Jacque. We always have a good time & are excited to see what Finn thinks of it this year. There are always lots of interesting sights...& people. :) Can't wait!

Last year, we went with Kenton's brother, Brian + met up with my parents a few times.

photos by jesse

Mismatched water wings.

Cohen.

Sadie.

Carolyn??? ;)

Tyler. He lost a tooth while swimming. Apparently, it was time.

Katrina. Eating yogurt.

We met the Chase & Williams families at the Blinkhorn's pool on Sunday for a picnic lunch & swimming! It warmed up just enough for the water to be enjoyable & I was thankful for that. Finn is becoming noticeably more comfortable in the big pool. He wanted to jump off the diving board onto a floating raft, but needed a little help from Kenton. He doesn't exactly get both feet off the ground when he jumps. :P

Jesse stayed out of the water & had fun playing with my camera. All credit goes to Jesse for such cool portraits. :)

independence day

Blackberry Fool with Strawberries instead
(because blackberries were crazy expensive!)

We celebrated the 4th of July with our friends, Carolyn & Jesse. We didn't really make any plans until that day, but everything worked out well & we even saw some great fireworks!

Our little BBQ dinner in the backyard. Finn loved having a whole ear of corn on the cob to himself. He ate the whole thing! He dipped it in BBQ sauce & seemed to love the combination...the rest of us were skeptical. :P

Serving our yummy dessert. The recipe is from Everyday Food magazine (which I love) & was really easy!

Our family - Finley is almost 20 months old!

After dessert, we went to Alton Baker park to see the fireworks show that was planned for Art & The Vineyard. We weren't sure where the best spot to view the fireworks would be, but we managed to get close enough.

Jesse & Kenton

Carolyn & Finn. Finn was really enthralled by the little fireworks that people were setting off before the show.

Katrina & Finn. It's been awhile since we've had to wear long sleeves; Finn kept chewing on his sleeve. :)

Our view was a little obscured by trees, but we saw most of the show without a problem. We'll definitely try & go next year if we can. It was fun to be able to hear music from the event nearby, plus people were lighting off their own fireworks. We didn't have to bring any of our own! To top it off, we even fed the ducks (+ some baby ducks!) at the pond. A very memorable Independence Day!

summer swimming

This week, we had a few opportunities to swim...or at least to cool off in the water. Finn was a little cautious about getting into the Henry's hot tub (they're keeping it cool for the summer), but he slowly became more comfortable.


He really got a kick out of splashing Dad & Pappa. We hope he doesn't try this out on other kids the next time we swim. :\


On Wednesday morning we got another chance to swim in a great big, outdoor pool. A couple from our church has a pool that they let anyone use whenever we want! So we met the Chases, Ruddicks & Carolyn for some pool fun! It took a bit to figure out which floaties worked best for Finn. In the end, water wings & a small blow-up ring helped Finn feel the most confident in the water. We need to go swimming more to help him get used to the water. He had a great time & didn't want to get out. He seemed to want to go down the slide, but we weren't ready to let him try that one. ;) I think he would have been shocked by landing in the water instead of on the ground!

our side of town

On Tuesday, the Mom's Group at church met at the Petersen Barn park near our house to play. It was pretty much me & my sisters with our kids, plus one other mom from the group with her kids. But it was great to have an outing that was closer to home for us.

Finn was a little concerned about sharing his front loader with Griffin. :P

Action shot. Finn was a little timid about the slide at first. I think he's starting to realize that they can be a little scary sometimes. But it didn't take him long to get comfortable again.

Tyler stayed busy making volcanoes & burying himself in the sand.

Ronan & Sadie climbing the ladder

Sadie. I didn't get any photos of Cohen, but he was there too!

Kenton met up with us after he finished some errands & it was great to have Dad with us at the park. We stayed for the free lunch for the kids & then said goodbye to the aunties & cousins. I'm sure we'll go back & try that park again sometime. It was fun for Finn to have sand to dig in...we don't have any great areas to dig in our yard & he is really into playing with diggers & shovels. :)

it's official

Check out our listing here. Tell your friends, spread the word...we're selling our house. And now I am taking a deep breath. :)

playing hard

On Sunday, Kenton drove to Kelso, Washington with Stu & Jesse for a Heroscape Tournament (which Kenton won, by the way!). My wonderful friends Carolyn & Jacque came over to hang out & to help keep Finn entertained. :) He loved having so much attention & we even did fun stuff!


After Finn's nap, we went to dinner at Laughing Planet: a very kid friendly restaurant with yummy food & cool dinosaurs on the tables. :)

Finn, Carolyn & Jacque

Finn just learned to say "cheese" when he sees someone taking a picture!

After dinner, we stopped at Sweet Life to get desserts to-go & then headed over to Riverplay Park. This time I was prepared with cool digging toys & construction vehicles. Ironically, Finn was more interested in the playground equipment this time. At least at the beginning...


He went down the great big slide alone & got bumped around a bit. So Jacque went down with him a second time & they both got bumped around a bit. :\ It's a pretty scary slide!


After the slide action, he was more interested in the sand & enjoyed playing with his own dump truck & bulldozer. I was happy to not have a tantruming child. :) I do want to try & find a cool backhoe soon so that he can give that a try...

We came home & Finn got a bath before going to bed. It was so nice to have Jacque & Carolyn helping me with Finn. I would have been pretty worn out with Kenton being gone all day! It's nice to trade off a bit with keeping him entertained. Thanks friends! :)