Sick girls

Gemma, Posa and I have all been sick with the flu/cold. Gemma had a bad ear infection too (diagnosed on Wednesday) and Mariposa still has a cough. Somehow Marcus and James have not gotten sick, and Bunny only a little bit. I am on the mend, able to do chores now but still have to take breaks and naps. My cough is lingering but it's not too bad. I'm looking forward to being done with it, though.

This was the scene at our house the other day:


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Tillamook

On Monday we went to the coast. Since this was very much a culinary trip for Joe and Steph (see his blog, http://joelovespkg.blogspot.com/2012/03/portland.html ) we knew we needed to do the "Trifecta" which starts with, where else, Tillamook!

Ice cream cones (before lunch!) while taking the self-guided tour:





Then the cheese samples:





Then on the road again....


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Jideo-cashing in Hillsboro

On Sunday we went to Mass sans Marcus, Gemma, and Posa (sick) and then to Elmer's for breakfast. A nice afternoon at home, watching MSU basketball and hanging out. Marcus had made us a fantastic Dini-and-meatball dinner and we ate it early so we could go out geocaching in the evening. Here we are on our way:





The first site was a dud. We think the water was too high.





Next we went to a new forested park that had THREE caches! We put in the coordinates for the closest one and off we went. Daisy had fun with us too.





James found it! It was in a hollow log (right below Bunny's hand):





We exchanged some goodies. At this point Marcus had to take the younger girls to the van because they were cold (and Gemma kept running off). Bunny took a shell and we left some jacks and other things.





We gave up on the other two caches, maybe next time. So we stopped at DQ instead!











Then at home all cozy and warm Joe and Steph had an art project for the kids. They painted wooden picture frames. Gemma really liked this as you can imagine. Joe quickly helped her with her frame then we shoo'd her away so the other kids could work on theirs.





Now they have a nice memory, and a place to display a memory!





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Auntie Joe and Daphne

My brother Joe and his girlfriend Stephanie came this weekend from Colorado for a visit. Other than the fact that some of us were sick, we had a great time! They came into Hillsboro on Max right after the St. Patrick's Day parade and we picked them up and took them to the Nut Farm, ready or not. The kids already love their Uncle Joe, and they took immediately to Steph:





A tour of the farm, our two remaining ponies (Joe better watch out, it looks like one of them is trying to bite his butt...).





Showing them the rest of the farm life:











Mariposa likes Chuck. He is a good rooster.





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Fr. Juan's birthday party

St. Patrick's Day was also Fr. Juan's birthday! We all met at the Big House for a fantastic dinner, and grammae had to bring out the kids' table because of extra guests (Fr. Juan is a popular guy). Notice Nicole and Eliot's green hair:



Presents time! All the kids just -have- to gather around and help.


We all left VERY full (and maybe some of us a little tipsy, not me of course but maybe some others). It was a great celebration for one of our favorite people!

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Daddy-Daughter Dance

Pictures from our church's annual daddy-daughter dance:


Bunny got the same face paint as last year: "I (heart) my dad"





She had a blast, it was a special time with daddy.





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We're back!

Well, it has been a long time since I blogged, hasn't it? I think I will blame it on the auction--I ran the family portion of our school's auction earlier in the month, and it really took up a lot of time. 15 minutes here for an email....30 minutes here to type a document....3 hours there for a meeting...this is all time that I WASN'T doing chores or schooling or putting my feet up. So blogging was really low on the priority list.

That was a few weeks ago though, surely I had time since then, right? Maybe I did...but there was a lot of school and housework to catch up on, and sleep too. Then it seemed like a "big deal" to do a blog post when really it is not. So here I am, I just got a good talkin'-to by a few people last night (you know who you are) so I stole back the hi-pan from Gemma and am finally finishing my first post back.

I will do some old posts from the last month mingled in with some new ones. Here's a picture to start:


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