Family & Friends Archives - Page 2 of 8

Sledding on Mount Hood [VIDEO]

This winter, we’ve taken a few trips up to Mount Hood to go sledding, which has been a lot of fun. It’s been fun for the kids and their friends, and frankly, fun for us to play in the snow too!

I put together a quick video with some short clips and photos from our adventures.

Jack at his first basketball game [VIDEO]

Jack has expressed an interest in basketball for a couple of years now, ever since he started peering out of our windows and saw the boys across the street playing in their driveway.

Since we now live in Rip City, we decided that a trip to go and see the Blazers would make for a great Christmas present, so I took him on a father-and-son trip to see them play the Mavericks.

Family pictures 2018

We followed on from our family pictures success of last year when we found Cascade Photography and asked them to come and take some more photos of us this year.

Again, they did a stellar job and we were really happy with them.

This year, I vowed to make plans for summer and make the most of it. Well, I pretty much failed at that and didn’t do nearly the things that I had hoped for, but we still got out and enjoyed ourselves.

We continued on with our regular activities, like our Home Depot workshops, but we also had a trip to the coast with some friends, which included a hike on Cascade Head. On a separate trip to the coast, we took a ride on the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad, which the kids enjoyed.

At the end of September, we attended the Oregon Air Show. Funnily enough, Jack’s favourite thing there was not an airplane, but rather a jet-powered big rig, which could accelerate to 300mph in about 11 seconds and overtake planes flying overhead. Continue reading “July – September 2018”

A visit from Granny and Aunty Shelly [VIDEO]

Perhaps the biggest event of this year so far has been a visit from Aunty Shelly and Granny. They came in the middle of September to see our new home in Oregon and spend some time Jack and Ellie, which they haven’t done since June 2016.

Well, we didn’t waste any time. Since Ellie had started school, Jack got to spend some special one-on-one time with Granny and Shelly. We did a fair amount of wine tasting, exploring Portland, activities like bowling and eating out.

We also did a hike up Beacon Rock, which Jack impressively managed all by himself.

Then there was a trip to the beach, where Jack was flying his Spidey kite and encouraging him to go higher and higher (see the video below).
Continue reading “A visit from Granny and Aunty Shelly [VIDEO]”

April – June 2018

Jack has really been coming into his element since turning three. He’s definitely come to be known as a “goofball” or a “joker” and I think that these photos really prove that out.

In these three months, Jack laughed and played a lot. In fact, he played so hard that he also fell from the play equipment at the park and gave himself a black eye/nose/cheek/lip. He really took it like a champ though.

Mama also started bringing him along to the Home Depot workshops that Daddy and Ellie have been going to for a while and he’s surprisingly good for his age. He just needs to be a little more tame with the hammer! Continue reading “April – June 2018”

January – March 2018

As we came out of our December sickness into the new year, we spent a fair amount of time cosied up indoors. We didn’t let that stop us though, and we made sure to get out for the Portland Winter Light Festival. Continue reading “January – March 2018”

December 2017

Sadly, December was full of a lot of sickness in our house. Everyone caught the flu and spent a few weeks recovering from it. But nonetheless, we tried to make the most of our first Christmas in Oregon.

There was baking, building snowmen, tubing, Christmas trains, Santa, and of course, Santa. Continue reading “December 2017”

Jack: my hiking buddy

These past two weeks, I’ve had family visiting from the UK. With a view to ensuring that they saw as much of the PNW as possible, we would go places that we might ordinarily give second thoughts to taking Jack to.

However, I am so glad that we did because one day, I wanted to take my family hiking in the Gorge, so we headed for Beacon Rock and I told Jack that we were going to climb it. Continue reading “Jack: my hiking buddy”

Sweet pleas from Jack [VIDEO]

This past weekend, Martina and I took a much-needed trip away from the kids. On the second night, we got an incredibly sweet video from Jack as he was going to bed, telling us how much he loved us. It made us think how much we missed him, even though we were enjoying time away from the kids. Continue reading “Sweet pleas from Jack [VIDEO]”