The dreadful wind and rain

Every year Paul leads a kayaking trip for a group of grandmas and every year, we tag along for some fun on the Oregon coast. We stay in a yurt near Tillamook, OR and in years past, Aoife and I would play at the beach, explore small coastal towns and then meet the grandmas for big potluck dinners in the evenings. This year, the girls and I could only go for one night as we had to get back for school, but we were hoping this would be the year Paul could take Aoife out for a short paddle in the bay. Unfortunately, the wind was too strong for anyone to do any paddling, so we all headed out for some beach play and coastal town exploring. With this group, it's not possible to have a bad time!

Such a long time to be gone...

With this new blog, I'll post all the time. I will stay updated and write witty things and post amazing photographs. Or, I'll be realistic. I do have a few valid excuses--my computer was broken, family came to visit, oh, and I do have a newborn. How long do you get to call them a newborn, because my tiny little babe just turned two months old! It's true what they say--don't blink! And the other almost THREE!! So hard to believe, and yet it feels like they were always here.

Anyway, I'm back. The computer is fixed. The children are asleep. I'll try to post more.

In the San Juans

Paul and I packed up the kids and headed north to the San Juan Islands to celebrate our ninth wedding anniversary. The trip was perfect! So many great memories. Here are a few...

Silk and Sun

One of Aoife's favorite things to play with is a square piece of silk. Okay, several square pieces of silk. She wraps them around her and wears them as dresses, flies them behind her like wings or a cape, wraps her dolls and animals in them, etc., etc., etc. So, with my playschool about to open again, clearly we needed more. I ordered 10 silks (last time I ordered one long piece and cut and hemmed them myself--trying to hem them was definitely not worth the few dollars I saved ordering it uncut) and when they arrived, we decided we would dye them with food coloring. All the instructions I found online said to microwave the dyed silks to set the color. Not having a microwave, I pondered my other choices. Why, the solar cooker would do the trick! Here is what we did (should you ever find yourself in my very same predicament-on a sunny day):
First we soaked the silks in vinegar and water:

We then mixed some gel food coloring into the water and placed each colored silk in a plastic bag:

We placed these in the solar cooker for several hours. (Fast? No, but we were in no hurry):

And ta-da:

This Moment