Haley and her dad at the Oregon Coast Aquarium.
He took the day off work to go along as a chaperone
on the fifth grade field trip.

Haley and Angel touch a ray.

The girls in Haley's group checking out the view from under the tank.

Saturday we went back to the Oregon coast as a family. Of course the weather was cold and windy instead of warm and calm like the day before. (The beach hates me! ;) )

Danny spent most of the afternoon crawling in the sand or scrambling up the dune cliffs.

This is Tom's favorite photo of Jeff.

Megan spent a long time making a trail by dragging this piece of driftwood along the beach. Then she and her dad followed the trail FOREVER to its end.

Sarah enjoyed the beach the least. Daddy built us a windbreak to sit in for a while and then put her to sleep.

We had a fun time and are determined to get back on track with at least one outdoor family outing each month!

My little copper-top

I realized that most of our extended family didn't even know that our latest arrival has some red to her hair! So here is our attempt to show it to all of you who are far away. Of course, it's cuter in person, and you're always welcome to come see for yourself. ;)

What have I been doing with my time lately? Well, Haley had a Revolutionary War unit at school, and they did a parade and a "wax museum." We put together a statue of liberty costume that her friend Marcella wore on the float, and here is a photo of Haley in her Betsy Ross garb. It occupied all of my time for about 4 days, but I have to admit it was kind of fun sewing again.

I don't have a photo now, but Jeff's first grade music program was this week and he did a great job. He even had a part introducing one of the songs. And Megan went crazy getting a picture book of her own creation all illustrated and ready for publishing. The fifth-graders have been working on the same thing for half a year, but at the last minute some teachers read a story Megan had written and decided that if she hurried she could be included in one of their batches. She wrote a myth about how pearls came to be.

This weekend we are eating the food from our 72-hour kits to see whether it is adequate and how we might want to change things (plus it is just time to rotate some of it out before it expires). So far Tom and I are feeling a little bit hungry. Wish us luck!