Visiting Old Friends at the Oregon Zoo

It was a 75 degree Sunday, Kei was playing golf and had to get the kids out of the house. We arrived at 9am when the gates opened and stayed for 4.5 hours, saying hello to every single animal. We’ve had a zoo membership for about 5 years and so now some of the animals are like old friends. It felt good to be back.

Thomas put himself in charge of the map which only resulted in a few arguments.

As we walked around, I posted on Facebook about how grateful I am that our stroller days are behind us. We now have so much more freedom to relax and take our time without having to find ramps or stop for endless potty and feeding breaks (although we had a couple).

I am also grateful that I can stop and take a photograph without the fear that one my kids will run off while my back is turned for 30 seconds

We arrived just as the bears were being served breakfast.

This is the crowd that we had to navigate for a glimpse.

A favorite from the day. Goats are pretty cool – and able to stand still for a long time.

A quick stop to climb some statues.

It amuses me that his fingers are in the Lion’s nostrils. Looks uncomfortable.

Another favorite.

A tip for managers of Zoos around the world – if you want kids to read about animals, put the information on some sort of screen. Printed signs were ignored but if there was a screen around, we stopped Every. Single. Time.

Crickets and Scorpion lollipops. YUM!

This is the first time that we’ve been through the bird walk in a while. Samuel’s verdict? “It smells really bad in there.”

Overall, a wonderful, relaxing, sunny day at the zoo. I’m sure we’ll be back soon.

(Second) Best. Karaoke. Ever.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but Karaoke has to be one of my favorite pass times.

My first Karaoke experience was in Japan with a group of Postal Workers. It was at the end of my “Postmaster for the day” celebration, which was one of those crazy only-in-Japan things that I now look back on and wonder if it really happened or if it was a figment of my imagination. I shared the honor with Ultraman and was required to sign a few fake postal documents. I’m pretty sure it happened…

My point is that this very first Karaoke experience set me up to enjoy Karaoke the RIGHT way – without inhibition and with as much enthusiasm as you can manage. Also, with Sake.

It was the single most fun Karaoke experience of my life.

A couple of weeks ago, I followed up with arguably my second most fun Karaoke night ever. I don’t know exactly what made it so great. It could have been the great mix of friends, a diverse song list or the the just-enough alcohol consumption. I’m pretty sure it was a mix of all three. All I know is that it was the perfect recipe for a night of fun, laughter and some killer dance moves.

On to the photographs. Excuse the funky lighting and out-of-focus shots – although I much prefer the photos of me that are out of focus. Thanks to Suzi for picking up the camera.

And if you make it to the end, you might just find our eclectic playlist.

Apologizing in advance for the next one – sorry guys, but it’s awesome.

The next one’s blurry, but I love it!

I also love the photos that show of some of the complicated lyrics.

And that we’re not afraid to go a little gangsta.

Please don’t judge the playlist, although I think everyone can agree that we ended on a high note. 🙂

PLAYLIST

Title	Artist
Things We Do For Love, The	10CC
Son Of A Preacher Man	Springfield, Dusty
Willkommen	Cabaret
Just Give Me A Reason	Pink feat Nate Ruess
Don’t Let Me Down	Beatles , The
All I Wanna Do	Crow, Sheryl
Good Morning Starshine	Hair, The Musical
Cream	Prince
Amish Paradise (Gangsta’s Paradise)	Yankovic, ‘Weird Al’
Faith	Michael, George
You Might Think	Cars, The
We Are Golden	Mika
Rumour Has It	Adele
Seven Nation Army	White Stripes, The
I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’	Scissor Sisters
F#ck You	Cee Lo Green
What I Like About You	Romantics, The
We Belong	Benatar, Pat
Can’t Get You Out Of My Head	Minogue, Kylie
I’m Your Baby Tonight	Houston, Whitney
Is Anybody Goin’ To San Antone	Pride, Charley
Bad Bad Leroy Brown	Croce, Jim
Groove Is In The Heart	Dee-Lite
Play That Funky Music	Wild Cherry
Me, Myself And I	De La Soul
Party Rock Anthem	LMFAO Feat. Lauren Bennett and Goonrock
I’m Yours	Mraz, Jason
I Knew You Were Trouble	Swift, Taylor
I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing	Aerosmith
Stayin’ Alive	Bee Gees, The
Your Woman	White Town
You Oughta Know	Morissette, Alanis
Creep	Radiohead
Time Of The Season	Zombies, The
Empire State Of Mind	Jay-Z & Alicia Keys
Criminal	Apple, Fiona
Everybody Wants You	Squier, Billy
Harper Valley P.T.A.	Riley, Jeannie C.
All Night Long (All Night)	Richie, Lionel
Sweet Child O’ Mine	Guns N’ Roses
Raise Your Glass	Pink
Don’t Stop Me Now	Queen
Metro, The	Berlin
Home Sweet Home	Motley Crue
Sex (I’m A…)	Berlin
Nothin’ But A Good Time	Poison
Nuthin’ But A G Thang	Dr. Dre
Bullet With Butterfly Wings	Smashing Pumpkins
Moonage Daydream	Bowie, David
Get The Party Started	Pink
Mama I’m Coming Home	Osbourne, Ozzy
Total Eclipse Of The Heart	Tyler, Bonnie
Somebody That I Used To Know	Gotye feat Kimbra
Love Shack	B-52’s, The
Elderly Woman Behind The Counter	Pearl Jam
What It Takes	Aerosmith
I Want Your Sex	Michael, George

Chaos and Color

This week is shaping up to be a doozy. I need to work around some childcare issues which means interrupted workdays, I’m heading to Seattle for a day trip on Wednesday and that’s on top of the usual Karate/Soccer/Swimming insanity. My brother is coming to visit for the weekend so I’d better squeeze in time to tidy up and clean the bathroom and, to top it all off, I’m taking photos all day Saturday at TEDx Portland. I’m already exhausted and the week has barely begun. I’m just thankful I had the foresight to schedule a couple of May vacation days as a little birthday present to myself. I’m going to need them.

On the upside, the sun is shining and I have a billion photos of tulips to share. I know you’ve been eagerly awaiting them so I’ll just get right to it. I’d apologize for the number of photos in this post but what would be the point? 🙂

P.S. I’m thinking about submitting a photograph to the TulipFest photo competition but I can’t decide which. Please let me know in the comments if you have a favorite.

Photo by Thomas.

Photograph by Thomas

Photograph by Kei.

Now With Bigger Photos

A change of season brings a change to the blog. I’ve been longing to post bigger photos on here for a long time so, on a whim, I decided to update the blog template. No more header image, just a clean and simple design that will show my photos the way I want them to be seen (ok, I also want them to be displayed in a gallery somewhere one day but I’m taking baby steps).

I also plan to update the about me and contact pages but they require me to spend a little time finding the right words. Writing doesn’t come easy to me and writing about myself... well, let’s just say it could take a while.

Oh, and I also need to update my portfolio.

I’d better start a list…

In the meantime, I’ll procrastinate by posting a couple of new photos. I took these at Powells last week, otherwise known in our family as the best place to waste a few hours in Portland.

Words of Warning and a Love of Literacy

We’ve been on a reading and writing frenzy in our house lately.

Thanks to Pre-K, Samuel has discovered a new passion with writing and our evenings are often spent spelling out words so he can write us a love note or two (or five). He loves periods (puts them between every word) and his favorite words to write are like and love.

For Thomas, the second half of first grade has seen an amazing improvement in his reading ability. Now, anytime we leave the house, we have someone who reads every single sign, headline or menu out loud. It truly feels like he was struggling with his reading one day and the next day he suddenly just got it. I’m sure Pokemon has a lot to do with this improvement, as much as I hate to admit it. (Ever read one of those books as a bedtime story? Painful.) The Pokemon character names are often spelled phonetically and Thomas has spent months learning the details of every single one. I’m so excited that he has this new skill. I just know Thomas will love reading and this opens up a whole new world.

While we’re on the subject of reading and writing, I want to share a couple of signs that I found posted to the boys bedroom doors a few weeks ago. We had a bunch of people over for the Super Bowl and Thomas decided that it was a good opportunity to set some ground rules for his guests. I love how he put’s the “can’t do” list first and then follows it up with the “can’s”. For the record, jumping was accidentally put under the wrong list (he has a bunk bed and low ceilings).

Samuel was a little more direct.

“No girls in my bedroom”.

Here’s to making things crystal clear thanks to the written word.

Todays Photos of Seattle

Not much time to write today, just a few minutes to look back at some photos from my trip to Seattle last week. I found an hour to take a quick photo walk through the city and, although I wish I’d had more time, it was a nice inspirational boost. There’s nothing quite like a new location to make me excited about taking photos again. A little sunshine also helps (that was a special message for the Portland Weather Gods).

A quick walk along the waterfront confirmed that Seattle has the biggest seagulls in the world (in my very unscientific estimation).

Although I’ve been to Seattle many times before, this was the first time I’ve managed to stumble across the gum wall. In a word… ewwwww. As one colleague pointed out, I was lucky that I didn’t have my kids with me. Apparently they can’t help but touch something that looks so …ummm…. delicious.

Nothing says “If you trespass, you might die” quite like some very, very pointy artwork.

Thanks, Seattle. It was good seeing you again, even for a brief moment.

Today’s Photo of a Mountain Above the Clouds

When you live in a Portland winter, it sometimes feels like an airplane is the only thing that’s going to get you to a little sunshine. Not a bad view from my window seat to Seattle this morning.