All moved in and staying busy...

Since moving into our new house, we have been keeping very busy.  Beside unpacking, we have replaced the tile around our fireplace, painted out the entire garage, and Steve is now in the process of building garage shelving. Thankfully, life has been more than just unpacking.  Only two days after we moved in, we received a visit from my cousin Cameron and his new wife Miriam who were visiting Portland all the way from Calgary!  We met them at the zoo so that I could enjoy some time visiting with them while the kids were occupied with the animals.  It was wonderful to meet Miriam and instantaneously know that she is absolutely perfect for Cameron and fits into our crazy family!  And the kids warmed right up to them as well!

On another day we also took a morning and checked out the Tualitin Hills Nature Park with Christie and her kiddos.  It's a great interpretive nature center and trail system and we went for a nice little hike.  The older girls brought their nature journals and enjoyed sketching all the plants and critters we came across.  Christie and I spent much of our time on the look out for poison oak.  But we did see some amazing creatures including a bunch of fire-bellied newts swimming in a stream.  We also saw a garter snake that was basking on TOP of a thorny blackberry bush.  Who knew that garter snakes could climb thorny bushes?

Finally... we've been able to make some time for some "Mommy fun" as well!  I have been missing taking photos, so when Molly asked to have her picture taken in a nearby field of flowers... I jumped on the opportunity!  I think she just really wanted an excuse to wear her new "back to school" outfit. 

In just over a week the kids head back to school. I am particularly excited about this considering they will have been off for three full months this summer.  I will have three mornings all to myself for the first time in seven years of motherhood!  Yippee!