all kinds of stuff ...

trip to the rhodo garden in portland

mt. hood trip with Susan and Anna

well, any good trip starts with a practice drive ...

On the car ride up, Anna put stickers all over Eli's face, he seemed to enjoy the experience

Our "adventure" was pretty low-key, but this sled and snow shoes made it fun

adventures with our friends ...

Eli and Minya have a swimming adventure -- impressing all the girls with his tattoos ...

pretending to be a baby, there's a classic picture of my brother doing the same thing at that age

playing "guitar" with dad. Eli is very interested in guitars, a teacher at school plays one, and we often pretend Eli is a guitar ...

Eli and Dad go to the zoo

big boy bed and other adventures ...

More dirty laundry ...



Puzzles have been very popular lately and the completion of one always deserves a round of applause.



Eli and I went to visit our friends Holly and Filip and their new baby Maya. Here's Eli with those beautiful girls ...

Our big new adventure! Dad took the front railing off of the crib and now Eli has a big boy bed! This has caused some excitement in our house and signals a new level of responsibility and confidence for Eli.

First night sleeping in the bed = success (still won't have anything to do with proper alignment or covers though ...)

Testing it out ... this is pretty cool ...

I'm liking it ...

I'm loving it!

It's fun to pretend to sleep on the stairs (which leads, inevitably to tickle attacks ...)

fun part of every day ...

another fun zoo day with friends

We went on a rainy zoo trip with our friends Anna, Braeden, Kaia, Rowan and baby Reese (and Susan, Kristen and Amy of course!)

Eli and Anna checking out the "tall zebra" which was Eli's favorite that day

He's so tall!

Hippos were pretty great too -- it's rare to see them walking around like this

Amy, Reese, and Rowan who is amazed by the lions

Susan and Anna

I love this picture because it shows how quickly they would all disperse and re-converge at every stop

boy in the bubble looks a little anxious ...

The lions are scary for Eli, he was glad to see them just sleeping

We always love seeing Sumudra, the baby elephant

Kaia having a lot of fun giving her doll a mud bath

Group shots are tough, this was the best one I got ...