Playing in Portland's Parks

One thing (among many) that i admired about Portland is that they really take care of their public spaces. They landscape them incredibly well and they always look beautiful! In fact, I took the kiddo out of the jogger at one point during our run for a Kodak moment:

(a bit overexposed due to the Sunrise but you get the gist!)

We first hit Washington Park, which quickly became my favorite. I loved exploring it on a run the next day and knew that if I lived in Portland, that would be part of my daily routine. So gorgeous!

Washington Park is home to the Oregon Zoo, Children's Museum, Arboretum, Rose Gardens, and the Japanese Garden.

After our morning run, we decided make a trip out of our visit to Washington Park. We stopped at Trader Joe's for some picnic food and continued on our way, stopping once we reached a great kids playground area

There was another family there and Cutie Face loved to people watch:

After getting our fill, we headed to the Rose Gardens. I'm usually not a sucker for roses but these were GORGEOUS.

Despite fighting fatigue, we decided to head to the Japanese Gardens, too, and we're so glad we did! It was restful, peaceful, and rejuvenating!

The obligatory self-portrait that J and I find ourselves taking everywhere:



then a nice woman offered to take a family portrait
(still can't figure out this overexposure issue)



Cutie Face got into the waterfall, too (and, no, thankfully not literally!)

She was also intrigued by these creatures:

We loved exploring Portland's parks but they sure did wipe us out!



On Friday night, we hit Jamison Square Park and Cutie Face had the time of her life playing in the fountains!











City parks done well are so awesome! Way to go, Portland!

Bridgetown (err, Portland, OR)!

I learned something new on our vacation--Portland is known as "Bridgetown" because of all the bridges that span the river.

Our first morning in Portland we woke up bright and early (still on EST!) and went for a run, experiencing the bridges first hand:

Steel Bridge at sunrise:

the lovely I-5 bridge:

When Uncle Noah (or, our brother) came to visit, we crossed several other bridges just for kicks. It really reminded me a lot of Boston and Cambridge...and how much I miss that city!

Eastcoast meets the Westcoast!

{I told you I was going to do some crazy posting...and here goes! This time around I'm going to post-date them so that they actually reflect the dates that we were in Portland...works better that way when I'm trying to put together a blog book in chronological order!}

I forgot to take pics of Cutie Face during our two plane rides but they really were uneventful (thankfully!). When we arrived in Portland, our bags came quickly (yay!) and we were off to the T-Met (Portland's public transportation).

Cutie Face loved riding the train and looking out the windows:

One of the perks of J's job is that he incurs thousands of travel points. We had enough points to stay at the Westin for FREE! YAY!

Cutie Face LOVED the king sized bed and the pillows. If she had it her way, we'd be the ones sleeping in the crib:

We set her up at the business desk to eat some broccoli and avocado.
Delish:

Then we were off to hit the town!

Yes, we brought our baby jogger. It is such a great stroller!

After walking around for quite a bit, we realized it was 8:00 EST and we were starving! So we stopped in for Sushi happy hour (its good to have east coast timing--you can hit all the happy hours and be legitimately hungry!).

Cutie Face LOVED the rice and the edamame. Everything else was blech to her but delicious to us!

Wiped out from our travels, we headed back to the hotel early, threw the kiddo in bed, and enjoyed a decent night sleep...until we all woke up at 4AM!

Top 5 things Monkey will miss in Florida...

1) Playing with First-Cousins-Once-Removed
(but we'll just call them her cousins)



2) The ocean! So warm! So big! So fun!

3) EARLY morning dates with Poppy at Starbucks



4) Seeing her cousin every minute of her waking hours



and...

#5

THE POOL!
Monkey won't be the same without it...

On a heavier note, I don't want to leave Florida, either. When we came down two weeks ago, my grandpa was still alive and not even in hospice. Forever after when we come down to Florida, my grandpa will not be here.

I don't know why I'm viewing it like this but I feel like if I leave, everything will change but, if I stay, I can live in this little world where my grandpa was still living and breathing among us.

Weird, I know, but this is just as much a journaling of my thoughts as it is a blog of Monkey's life and i wanted to remember this feeling of loss and change. Grandpa made a visit to Florida what it really was all about--laughter, family time, remembering old times and making new memories...swimming in his pool, talking about his childhood, watching him come alive with the young lives surrounding him. Oh how much he touched our lives and how much we will miss him the next time we come to Florida...

Grandpa Tunney

The twin, our mom, and grandma, worked on Grandpa's obituary...I know you all never knew him but he was a wonderful man! What follows is a brief bio on a wonderful man that I am proud, thankful, and happy to have known as Grandpa:

Teunis Vet, 81, of Bonita Springs, went home to be with the Lord on August 15, 2009. Son of Dutch-born Cornelius and Pleuntje Dekker Vet, he was born January 28, 1928, in Paterson, NJ.

Tunney, along with his parents and six brothers and sisters relocated to Hornell, NY, in 1940. A son very much devoted to his parents, Tunney worked alongside his father in textile mills in Pennsylvania while commuting home to New York on weekends. It was in Hornell that he met his future bride, Vivian Wyant in August of 1949. The pair was engaged by Christmas of 1949, and united in marriage on March 24, 1950, in Arkport, NY.


Tunney dedicated the majority of his working years to the railroad industry, starting his career in the accounting bureau, where he was elected as a local representative with the Erie Railroad in 1950. While a full-time railroad employee, he went on to become Division Chairman of the B.R.A.C. of the Erie RR, Vice General Chairman of the Erie-Lackawanna System Board, and served as General Chairman of the Erie-Lackawanna System Board from 1969 until 1976. After another railroad merger, Tunney became Vice General Chairman of the Conrail System Board in 1976 and Supervisor Trustee of the Norfolk Western System Board in Roanoke, VA, also in 1976. He was instrumental in the merger agreement of the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks in 1982.

After a successful career with the railroad industry, Teunis and Vivian retired in 1988 from Fairview Park, OH, to Bonita Springs, FL. He remained a consultant, writing legal briefs for the B.R.A.C. until 2007.

Tunney and Vivian lovingly raised their five children in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Teunis is survived by the love of his life, Vivian, his five children and their spouses: Kathy and Mike Hyman, Susan and Jerry Burum, Cherie and Thomas Vet, Pam and David Vet, and Martha and Gary Vet. Tunney leaves behind 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Though preceded in death by his parents and four of his siblings, Teunis is also survived by his brother, Maarten Vet and his wife Sue, as well as his sister, Ada Kunicky, and his many nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held on Wednesday, August 19 at 12:30 pm at McGregor Baptist Church in Fort Myers to honor Teunis, a well-respected and much-loved man. A memorial fund has been established in his name at ABWE: 522 Lewisberry Rd. New Cumberland, PA 17070.

We have created a shutterfly share site with lots of videos and pictures of our hero. Feel free to browse our galleries and smile at grandpa and the wonderful man he always was.

http://teunisvetinpictures.shutterfly.com/

Busy day and its only 1/2 over!

The ironic thing about my grandpa's passing is that we now have more time to do "normal" things. Of course, we will be planning Grandpa's memorial service and making a video for it (which will most definitely take a lot of time!) but we are now somewhat "free" to go throughout our day.

We all woke up at 4:30 AM when we heard the news and, unfortunately, no one, including the babies, could go back to sleep.

To pass the time before they were able to go back down for a nap, the twin and I took the kiddos to the putt putt this morning (no...we didn't play a round with them--we took them to see the safari animals on the course).

clearly, they're thrilled


she learned how to make an elephant noise.


she says, "brrrrmph" So cute!


Now we're working on the hippo noise

Monkey wants to know--do YOU know what noise a hippo makes? Because we certainly don't!

After a nap, the twin took Little R to Whole Foods while Monkey (or cutie face or Baby C...i can't decide what to call her!) and I went for a fun swim in the pool--she LOVES swimming and we've swum every day this week right after her nap and before lunch. Its good timing...sadly, no pictures as i'm the one playing with her in the pool but we hope to get some soon because her bathing suit is SO cute :)

After lunch, we took the cousins to a playground in Florida. The one oversight is that there were NO TREES or even any artificial shade so the swings and the play equipment was quite hot. Monkey didn't mind, though, and loved getting a ride on the babyswing:



They are now back down for their second nap and I think I might join them!

Sad but Happy News

The fabulous man who came up with the moniker "Cutie Face" for our daughter (and now our blog!) went to his eternal home very early this morning.

1 Corinthians 15:54-57

Then when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this scripture will be fulfilled:

"Death is swallowed up on victory.
O death where is your victory?
O death where is your sting?"

Repost: Going to Florida

I'm sorry to keep doing this to all of you who read both of my blogs but we're running out of town which means I'm running out of time :-o so i'm reposting from Monkeys on the Bed!

-------------------

Hi friends,

Well, my sister has outdone me again and posted:

1) about Baby C's first year
2) about Baby C's first birthday party

and

3) about all the gifts she made for Baby C

Maybe you didn't click on any of those links...but you MUST click on the last one to see how talented my sister is!

And now to more serious things...

I won't be posting much at all (or even responding to emails or getting on Twitter!)

My mom and I, Baby C, and the twin and the cousin are driving down to Florida today.

We are going to be with my grandpa and support my grandma for at least a week

I'll miss you, Bloggy Land! But we'll be back!

Blog Title finally coming into play!

You may remember from my first post that I mentioned that we wanted to name our blog "cutie faceS" (plural) because we wanted the blog to grow with our family....

well, as hinted at in the post title...

Cutie Face #1 will have another little Cutie Face to contend with in 6 months!

Unfortunately, the wee one was displaying typical second-child behavior (or so I hear!) and being difficult. We couldn't get a good picture even after 10 minutes of probing! So no gender news yet but here is the "best" picture we got at 12 weeks, 4 days:

And to give you an idea of what cooperative Big Sis, Baby C looked like at 12 weeks 6 days...

Yeahhh...looks like this one will be fun or at least really really good at hiding!

More details to come, for sure, but right now this tired mama needs an N-A-P!

Meeting an old/new friend

Baby C met one of my oldest Georgia friends for the first time last week. We had lunch at a nice Thai restaurant and I finally remembered to snap pictures that mean something (not just 1000s of random pics of C!).

She loved the G-man and constantly gave him smiles, straight from the get-go! No warm up for her.

Thanks for having lunch with us, G! We hope you come back to Georgia again (permanently!) soon!

GroBaby...Model...?

One of my new favorite diaper brands (GroBaby) holds a weekly picture contest on their Facebook Fan Page. I decided to see what C could do at the end of the day...turns out she is quite hilarious...but maybe not model worthy!

click on the pic to see the hilarious face she is making on the far left



I love these diapers! Especially because they SNAP!

Adultnapped!

Hi friends! J stole me away from my baby, my apartment, and my computer...and all for a wonderful cause!

He surprised me with a 6th-anniversary trip back to the North Georgia Mountains.

In case you read both of my blogs, I don't want to copy and paste...but just in case you only read this blog, here is the link to our mini-vacay:

Adultnapped at Monkeys on the Bed!

I ❤ my husband!

Friday Night Date Family Night

J and I typically have date night on Thursdays. It was a long-established tradition that started when he began working for his consulting company. He usually travels Monday-Thursday, coming home Thursday night. We would celebrate his weekly homecoming by going to our local sports bar, Taco Mac! (So much history with the Mac--I even went into labor with Baby C while there!)

Anyway, Taco Mac is family friendly and we used to take C in a sling (J would wear her!) or in her carseat--she slept the whole time! We finally stopped taking C when she stopped sleeping through our dates.

We kind of missed having C with us, though, so we've recently established a tradition of walking ~2 miles to a very family-friendly restaurant in Candler Park--Fellini's.

J loves their pizza, i love their salads and C...well, she loves just about everything about it! And...of course we have photographic evidence to prove it {what first child doesn't have pictures chronicling every minute of their day?}

the fountian is clearly a favorite of C's and ALL the other kids!



well, most of the time:



C also loves it because she can kid-watch. She stares and waves and smiles at them all night long



and, even though we take her after she's already eaten dinner, she always helps me eat the copious amounts of cheese (that I can't eat!) and olives (don't worry--she doesn't choke!) that come on my salads