Portland Field Trip

With all the budget cuts to schools, Sexton Mountain Elementary (Alayna's school) has been very lucky to be able to keep PE and Library and Music classes.  For the last two years, however, they haven't had any field trips.  There was one earlier this spring, where they walked to the local wetlands to do some restoration work with the SOLV team.  But, they haven't had any of the 'get on the bus and drive far away' field trips that everyone remembers from elementary school.  All this is preamble to say how special last week's field trip was.  All the kids from the multi-age classes (2nd and 3rd grades) rode the buses to downtown Portland, where the parent volunteers waited for them.  We broke up into groups of 1-2 kids per adult and wandered through downtown.  (Yes, there were that many volunteers)  Each group was given a list of places to visit, with some facts about each, some questions to answer about a few of the stops, and some things to watch out for as we wandered.  It was a really fun morning.  We met at Pioneer Courthouse Square, walked to PSU and through the park blocks, to the library, and then down to Portlandia, before heading back to the square for lunch.  After lunch, we headed to the Chinese gate, and down to Ankeny Square, and to the river, and then took the Max back to the square to regather and send the kids back to school.  My Google Earth map with that path says we only walked for a little over 2.5 miles.  It definitely felt like more than that.  Alayna and I were in a group with Arielle and her Mom.  The girls were real troupers.  For a couple kids from the suburbs, getting to see an active downtown was a bit of an eyeopener, and they really seemed to enjoy it.  I was really glad that I got to go on the field trip, too. 

Alayna's arm span is exactly one Lincoln plinth

Wow! She's big!

Sexton Mountain takes over Pioneer Courthouse Square for lunch

Alayna the statue

Alayna and Arielle attempting to read Chinese

Where in the world are you, today? 

Hayhurst Triathlon

Alayna finished her first triathlon today.  She had a great time and I am very proud of her.  When she was done she kept saying, "I'm so glad I did it!" She did a 50 yard swim, a 2 mile bike ride and a 1/2 mile run.  She walked for some of the run, but she finished strong with a run to the finish.  The bike portion was definitely her best part, even on her old, heavy bike.  At the finish line, there were two kinds of medals, the bigger ones for the parents who participated with the kids, and the smaller ones for all the kids.  She saw the two types and immediately asked for a bigger one.  She's very excited to do this all again next year.  The triathlon was a fundraiser for the Friends of CARRA (www.friendsofcarra.org), which funds research and support for kids with arthritis. 

Alayna with her teacher (and the organizer), Jim Hayhurst

Finishing the first lap of the bike ride

Running to the finish

The finish line!  (notice that the medal they tried to give her

is different than the one she ended up with. )

Swimming!  (Alayna is in the second lane from the bottom)

Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas to all my family and friends!

Christmas Trees

This year's Christmas trees came from the same farm as last year. It was a lovely day, but a bit cold.  Alayna wasn't with us this year, but it was still fun. 

(Roger takes such wonderful photos, don't you think?)

The littlest tree came home with us.  Alayna and I decorated it with a lot of bright lights and a lot of old and new ornaments.  I think it turned out well. 

We also helped Mom and Dad decorate their tress, which was much larger.  Alayna got to go up on the ladder to hang ornaments.  It's a little hard to see here, but Mom has a death grip on the back of Alayna's pants. 

Learning Celebration

This fall, Alayna's class had a learning celebration. All the parents got to visit the class, listen to some poems and songs, see some of their classwork, and see some photos from the year so far. It was a lot of fun. These kids have certainly been busy in the last few months.

Me=really busy

I know I haven't posted anything in a while. I'll try to catch up soon. Just stop looking at me like that, OK Dad?

Halloween... or the one night a year when you expect your kids to pretend to be someone else and beg for food.

Happy Halloween to all!

This was a fun year. We took Alayna to Forest Grove to do the Trick-or-treat downtown, followed by some more trick-or-treating . It was great fun to see all the kids (and adults) in their costumes. We saw an ATM machine, a laundry basket, and both Mario and Luigi. But wait, before we get there, we must start with Lisa's party last weekend, and the pumpkin carving Friday night...

My friend Lisa's Dad has a small garden (only about 10 acres), and he grows all kinds of wonderful things, like pumpkins. So every year they bring home a bunch of pumpkins and have their friends over to help dispatch them.

Alayna got to carve her own pumpkin, with a little help.


There were some very creative carvers...

And some very large pumpkins...

After most of the carving was done, it was time for the pumpkin roll. We rolled or threw pumpkins down through the woods to see how far they could go. Some of them made it pretty far, and the largest ones made very nice splats against the trees.

Friday night, we carved pumpkins with Mom, Dad, Jen and Roger. We carved some good ones, too.

Ok, back to Halloween...
Main street in Forest Grove was quite busy. The fire department was giving out glow sticks for all the kids to use when they went out later after dark. I think most of the town was there. It was a lot of fun.

Back in May, Alayna had a part in the Broadway show at church. We made her a poodle skirt for the show, so, voila, instant Halloween costume.

We all dressed up a little. Mom wore her pumpkin shirt, and Hannah (Jen and Roger's dog) wore the pumpkin hat until she managed to get it off her head.

After taking all of FG's candy, we moved on to my parent's neighborhood. She only hit a few houses, but it was enough for a six year old and her family.

The Great Pumpkin Adventure 2009

It's October, and a sunny day in the midst of a lot of rain, so, the only thing to do is to go to a pumpkin patch, get a little muddy, and pick a pumpkin, or seven. We found a great, new (to us) pumpkin patch in North Plains. It's called Lakeside Farms, and is, surprisingly enough, located next to a large pond they call a lake. It was a lot of fun.


You could walk to the patch, but, as they have a lake, there is a better way to travel:
There were two lake monsters and a shark that came out of the water next to the boat, and a little stand with pirates and a cannon.


On the way back, we took the train, which was also very fun.

There was a great bunch of old farm equipment that was probably full of germs, but the photo op was too great to pass up. So, here's Alayna on a tractor...

... and an old wagon.

There were even pony rides. Alayna's pony was named Raven. He was a very nice pudgy pony.


Alayna getting a wheel-barrow ride on some of the pumpkins.


Once Jen and Roger added their pumpkins to the wheelbarrow, we had a good pile. It was a great pumpkin day.

Camping

Alayna and I went camping with Jen and Roger in the Tillamook Forest. It was very nice to get out of the city and into the woods, even if for just a night.

We went to the beach for a little while. It was a perfect fall beach trip: cloudy and cold, but Alayna waded in the ocean anyway, and so did Hannah.

After the obligatory, and much desired, visit to the cheese factory (squeeky cheese!), we went to the Wilson River so Alayna could swim. It was much warmer there than at the beach. She swam for about an hour, crossing and re-crossing the current, and racing Hannah for her toy. We gave her a little head start, and she beat Hannah most of the time.

First Grade

Alayna's first day of "big kid school" was Tuesday. Now she gets to eat lunch in the cafeteria, have PE and music classes, and be ever so much smarter than those pesky Kindergarteners. (Not that she wasn't already smarter.) I don't want my little baby to grow up. Maybe in 12 years I'll be throwing her out the door, but for now, I just want to make sure she's happy.

Her teacher is Mrs. Goei. She seems very nice, and willing to give Alayna all the hard books she is ready to read.

First day riding the bus:

Reading!

Alayna's favorite things are her books. She looks at all the pictures over and over, she will only go to sleep listening to one of her stories on CD, she loves being read to, and she loves reading to others. One thing I didn't know, was that she could read them silently. We were cleaning the house today, and I got caught up with a magazine article. Alayna was supposed to be cleaning up her room, but she got distracted, too. I didn't hear anything out of her room for a little while, so when I went to see what she was up to, this is what I found. She was halfway through a Junie B Jones book, and she said she read the whole thing, she wasn't just looking at it. It looks like all this practice really is paying off. We had to clean up her room together later, but I was glad to see her doing something new.