Friday, March 18, 2011

The Circus!



       Intermission-there were Elephant rides, pony rides, and face painting
                            Tiger jumping through the ring of fire!!
                                             Here's the tight rope walkers

We had the Circus come to town on Wed. March 16th.  I thought it would be fun to take the kids to the Circus.  I didn't get very good pictures because of the lighting and holding Shelby-but we had lots of fun.  Holly's favorite was the Acrobats performing Little Mermaid and they were dressed up like Mermaids-of course.  Carson's favorite was the dirt bikes racing inside the ball.  I liked the balancing acts and dare devil performances-those were crazy.  I was so worried they were going to fall!  The tigers were neat.  It was a fun family night out and the kids first experience.

Little Hurricane in Sutherlin

                                                         This is what happened to our shed!
                                                      Our shed use to be covering all this stuff!

On Sunday March 13th we had a bad storm.  At first it wasn't that bad-you know-some rain, some wind.  Chris noticed in the distance some really dark clouds and we knew it was going to be a thunderstorm.  However, we had a Hurricane!  It was hailing and the wind was blowing at about 60 MPH.  We lost our shed-the wind picked it up and threw it into our neighbors field.  Our trash cans got tossed and cans went everywhere.  I saw our trampoline lifting and I'm surprised that didn't go flying.  So-after the heavy wind died down some-I ran out there and started picking up cans that were all over the field.  I noticed that big metal thing in the neighbors yard and asked Chris what it was.  He took one look at it and said, "That's our shed!"  I didn't know at first.  I couldn't believe it.  There were trees down all over Sutherlin. A lot of trees completely uprooted.  Chris' parents had 3 trees fall down-one fell and hit the side of their guest house.  Other people had trees hit fences, cars, houses.  Shingles came off roofs, metal roofs blew off, a tree fell and took out the powerlines.  We saw three poles down and the lines in the street.  We were without power from 2PM-until 2 AM-and that means water too.  I'm glad that no one was hurt in our family and that we had minimal damage.  Some people I talked to weren't as fortunate.  Oregonians can handle rain-but we have really mild climate-just a lot of rain, but never like this.  It was crazy.  We spent the afternoon cleaning up everything that was exposed and getting prepared if the wind started up again.  I'm glad it didn't.  So-we ate over at John and Soozee's-they cooked on the BBQ and we ate by candlelight.  Then the kids slept with us-All 4 of us in a Queen size bed-not very comfortable-but Holly and Carson felt safe and that's what matters most. 

Coaching Basketball

                                                                The Yellow Panthers

                                                            Holly's first year of Basketball

                                                        Last Game of the season
                                                      
Chris and I had lots of fun coaching Basketball this last season.  Chris said he wants to do it next year too.  Now we are more prepared and know what to expect.  This year I think we did pretty good though.  Chris did all the coaching and I was his assistant.  So my job was calling the team, making schedules, making flyers for invites, etc.  I took pictures of the team and individual pictures of the kids-which next year I will get a professional photographer.  We had an end of the season pizza party and all our kids came (which was great!) and we handed out their pictures in these neat Basketball frames and their metals.  I think the kids had a great time and we enjoyed our group of kids.  I'm looking forward to next year when Holly and Carson can play! 

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Shelby is growing SO fast!




Look at my happy baby!!  She is growing so fast and she loves to sit in the walker now.  She is having so much fun learning new things and to use her voice more.  She gets so focused on something and grabs for everything. Tonight she was trying to grab Chris' ice cream-she really wanted it.  You can tell already-she is so determined and wants to learn more and more.  Have I said already that she is the best baby!!