Discovering Portland: Mt. Scott Pool

Why, yes, it does get hot enough to go swimming in Portland.  In fact, the past two weeks have been hotter than what I care for, personally (in the high 80s/low 90s).  It felt like March in Phoenix--hot enough to be uncomfortable, but not hot enough to swim).  We don't have A/C and our living room, kitchen and 2 bedrooms are upstairs, where it bakes in the afternoon sun.  One day, it was 105º upstairs (according to the thermostat)!  So, we went to a local indoor pool (yay--no sunscreen!) to cool off.  We have gone swimming at other (outdoor) pools a few times this summer, but we like Mt. Scott the best.  Had a blast!

Going down the lazy river/whirlpool

Big slide!

It took us awhile to convince her to go down the slide.....

Before long, she was went down all by herself (many times).

J-man

And yes, Peter and I went down the slide a lot too.  But, we had to put the camera away so we could have some serious fun.  Good times!

3 Years Later

It's been 3 years since we said goodbye to baby Ezra.  Those years haven't been easy and the pain of his absence is still as intense as the day we let him go, perhaps even more intense.  And, of course, we wonder what would have been--not a day passes in which we don't think about what he would be like if he were still here.  If God had planned for a miraculous healing and Ezra had been able to thrive and grow and live.  But, when we're thinking of those things, we remember the realities of that time, when we were making the decision about DNR.  Ezra was going to require 3 major surgeries.  Heart surgery for his valve, a tracheotomy because of the enlarged epiglottis, and brain surgery to insert a stunt to relieve the fluid build up on his skull from the hydrocephalus.  There was no guarantee that he would even survive those surgeries, much less that any of them would have allowed him to live a "normal" life.  He was so weak from pneumonia that he couldn't even breathe on his own.  7 failed attempts at extubation before we signed the DNR papers.   God was very clear in the days and sleepless nights that we spent praying for Ezra.  We wanted a miraculous healing; God wanted to be glorified through eternal healing.  It wasn't an easy decision to make, but we had enough trust in our God to put Ezra completely in His hands.  And so, Ezra went home.

We miss him terribly.  We know he would love Oregon as much as we do.  We recognized this "Eternity Day" with a trip to Multnomah Falls to spread some of his ashes.  This beautiful place has quickly become one of our favorite places in the world and we wanted a little of Ezra to be up there.  We did some prayer and scripture reading by the creek at the top of the falls and Jeremiah got to be the one to sprinkle the ashes into the creek.  We read from 1 Corinthians 15 (v. 35 - 58), the same verses that Peter shared at his memorial.  Here is the part that stands out the most for us, concerning Ezra's place now that he is gone from the earth.

1 Corinthians 15: 40 - 44 ~ "There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another.  The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.  So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body."

Happy Eternity Day, Ezra James.  We love you.

The Falls

The place where his ashes were scattered, up at the top of the Falls

It had rained in the morning; was drizzling while we hiked up.

Alayna was there too.....

How We Remember

Alayna's Summer Fun

While Jeremiah was visiting his grandparents in CA, we got to have some quality time with Alayna. We didn't get to go camping like we did with Jeremiah, but we had lots of fun park time, bike rides, walks, and hikes. Here are photos from our morning at Tryon State Park, as well as some photos from her trip to CA a few weeks ago (obviously, these ones were taken by her Grandma).

Tryon State Park

With Peter's cousin Stacy, at her baby shower

With Peter's Aunt Judy and his cousin's kids, Ben and Tyler

 With Grandpa, at GREAT-Grandpa's house

 With Great-Grandpa

 VBS at Church on the Rock in Antioch

Ashore in San Fran

J's Trip to the Homeland

Every year, we are blessed by Peter's parents, who take each of the kids for a one week (or so) visit with them while the other stays home with us.  This was the 3rd summer doing it (although J has had a couple other summers of it) and its a tradition we now look forward to.  Not only does it give Peter's parents an opportunity to spend quality time with the kids, but it also gives us a chance to have one-on-one time with them.  We love it.  Here are some photos from Jeremiah's CA visit, as well as a few from his trip to Diamond/Crater Lake.  (I wish I could put up all of them, as there are some great ones, but I decided to choose 12 good ones and the rest are on FB.  Sorry to the few readers that aren't on FB.)

Ready to head to CA!

With Antioch neighbor, Tommie

With Great-Grandpa

Crater Lake Visit

Snow in August?!?!  Yep!

"Beach" Fun at Diamond Lake

Biking around Diamond Lake

Discovering Portland: OMSI

Yesterday morning, I got a living social notification in my email and the deal of the day was a one-year family OMSI membership for half-price.  I wanted to jump on it, but since we had never been there, I waited.  Peter's parents are visiting us this weekend and it felt like the perfect opportunity to check it out.  So, yesterday afternoon, after Peter got off work (and a morning at the zoo), we headed to OMSI, which is about a 10-minute drive from our house.  Just within the first exhibition room, we knew it was a place we would go often.  It's really awesome!  Here are some photos:

 Our builder boy; already has plans to major in Architecture at Cal Poly SLO

 Earthquake simulation.....not at all authentic.  :)

 Our musical girl, discovering sounds

 There was a video game exhibit there.....of course, our family loved it!

 Portland is such an amazing city!

So, from now until August 31, 2012, we can get up to 6 kids and 2 adult guests per visit (in addition to the 4 of us)!  Plus, we get into the planetarium for free (ok, it's "included" in the membership fee) and 10 Onbimax movie tix.  All that for $72 for the year!  One visit for a family of four, with planetarium purchase is $64.  SCORE!  (Thank you, Living Social.)  We can't wait to go back!

Pierced

Before Kindergarten, we asked Alayna if she wanted to get her ears pierced as a "gift" for starting school.  She was adamantly against it.  But, over the course of the year, many of her classmates and friends got their ears pierced (or already had them pierced).  She started asking to get hers pierced, too, but we wanted to save it for a special day, like her birthday.  It kind of went to the back of everyone's minds until we went to the mall last week and she saw the "piercing pagoda" near the ice skating rink.  She talked about it for several days.  We decided to let her get them pierced as a "back-to-school" gift and decided to get it done this week, while Jeremiah was in CA with Peter's parents.  We took her on a special date to the Lloyd Center and let her pick out some school clothes (she didn't need much, thanks to hand-me-downs from 2 families) with gift cards left over from Christmas.  And while we were there, we took her to Claire's Boutique to get her ears pierced.  She chose a pair of earrings with her "birthstone" (which is really blue Topaz, but the earrings are actually turquoise zirconian).  She was SO brave!  She did great.  And she is so excited to start 1st grade (in 3 weeks!) with pretty earrings.  Our big girl is growing up.....

Getting Ready

Yes, she flinched!

All done!

Pretty ears!

Beautiful girl!