New Grass

Getting ready for grass....Jason rototilled about 6 inches down and then spread lime on the soil before laying the sod

Patio and raised beds before the sod was laid

One of the last big projects left to be done in our backyard re-do was to put in new grass in the big mud-pit in the back half of the yard. We didn't want to have to wait the 6 or more weeks to be able to walk or play on newly seeded grass, and we want Ella to be able to run and play back there a lot this summer, so we decided to sod the rest of the yard. It was much less expensive than we thought it would be, $0.32 a square foot, so we went for it. Jason got the ground all prepped and Dale helped him lay the sod. It was a day of torrential down pours, so certainly not ideal working conditions, but they were troopers and got the job done. It'll be a couple of weeks before Ella can really run wild on the new grass, but it will be SO nice to have done. The new grass may not match the old stuff perfectly, but we figure neither would seed we laid, and who's to judge right? :) So what if we have a dividing line down half the yard....it's in preparation for future red-rover or bad mitten games! Hooray for a yard that is finally looking complete and feeling like it's our own!

Laying the final pieces

Jason and Dale were a muddy mess! The weather was terrible to work in, but nice and wet out which is good for the sod. Almost finished - nice work guys!

Tram Ride

I think she's saying "Wow, so much to see!"


View of the city from the tram

That's a long way down!

Looking at the view outside

The observation deck

We always look for the tram when we're crossing the Ross Island bridge, or driving down I-5. Ella gets quite a kick out of seeing it. She was thrilled when we got close enough to see it in person, out of the car, and even more excited when we told her we were going to take a ride in it. We got lucky and missed the rain showers and got to look around a bit at OHSU and looked at the beautiful view of the city from up there.

Enchanted Forest

Jason and I both took many many trips to Enchanted Forest when we were kids. We have fond memories (and whisker burned memories because I was scared to death and smashed up against my uncle's face in the haunted house), so we decided to take Ella there for a bit of nostalgic fun. We were both prepared for it to be really run down and to look like it'd been there for 30+ years, but it was in good condition and was really a fun time. They had lots for little kids to do, including a train ride that our little train fanatic loved, and a cave ride with scary monsters to shoot that was much scarier than we had planned...can you hear us saying "oh look at that silly wolf with the blood dripping from his teeth - how funny Ella!" in an attempt to make it not so frightening. She bought it pretty well and was smiling most of the ride. There were slides to go down and all sorts of secret passage ways that were built in the 70's and 80's - perfect for 2 and 3 year olds to fit through, not so perfect for grown men to squeeze through and certainly not sized for this pregnant lady to force herself into. Jason was quite the trooper and went through them all with Ella, I kept waiting for a holler that he was stuck mid way, but thankfully it never happened. :) What a fun day, we'll go back for sure!

Western Town

Down the old lady's shoe slide....countless times!

Climbing the castle stairs

Look up the witch's nose before we go inside :)

Snow White's House

Alice's Rabbit Hole....chance #1 to get stuck (and for a butt shot)!

They made it out of the rabbit hole, with smiles on their faces even!

Ella is quite the jabber mouth these days. She just goes off at times and we can understand about every 3 words. If she sees the camera she usually stops talking, so it's not often that we can catch a gab session like this - videotaping behind her back seems to be the only way.

Canstruction

Jason's architecture firm competed in the annual design and build competition called canstruction. It's a contest where groups construct giant sized structures made out of canned food, and then all the canned food is donated to local food banks. The contest was held in pioneer place mall. There were 6 or so architecture and engineering firms that competed here in Portland, it's a nationwide thing though, so they have these contests all over the place. It was close to Easter when they did it, so Peeps was his firm's theme. Turned out well & they had a fun time. (check out canstruction online, you will be amazed at some of the creations!)

Playdate PDX

The castle play area - what fun!

The ball shooter arena

Going down the BIG slide side by side with dad

We went to this fun new playplace called Playdate PDX, last week. It's in the pearl district. It's a lot like discovery zone was when we were kids...but the tubes seem bigger so parents can climb through them a bit easier. Ella had a blast! There were slides, hills to climb, a light up dance floor, tubes to crawl through, obstacles to climb through - great fun (and exhaustion) for kids and parents alike! It was only $4 for the whole day...pretty sweet deal we thought. It was really close to Jason's work, so he walked over on his lunch and chased/played with Ella. The place is owned by 2 doctors so it's very clean and seemed very safe. We'll be back!
(Sorry for the blurry pictures, they were from my camera phone)

It was a really big, fast slide - I went down it once and decided that was enough, didn't think the baby boy inside would be into such a wild slide ride!

Going down the tunnel slide

3D Baby Boy

He says "It's all "okay" in here", or maybe he's meditating already

Face and arm pushed up against his cheek

This is his face with his arm up by it

Can't wait to tickle those tootsies!

Hand by his face

Profile (there isn't really a hole in the back of his head, it's just how the image was taken)

Hands by his face, it's getting to be a tight squeeze in there

Hand and arm by his face