Picture 117

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

A wet day in Vancouver. With the baby still taking his time, we have been entertaining ourselves. We took a little stroll on Esther Short Park in downtown, despite the moments of rain.

Picture 116

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

While at Winco, we saw artichokes for a wonderful price. I have not had them fresh before, so we got some and Rosanne cooked them for us. They were very tasty. 

Picture 115

Monday, Monday, April 25th, 2011

Today, we had the great fun of exploring the woods north of Battle Ground. Ruth, Rosanne, the unborn baby, and I went to Moulton Falls. We had a very nice time seeing the waterfalls and the interesting plants and flowers. Here I am climbing around on the rocks, though I may have worried Ruth and her mom a bit.

Picture 114

Sunday, April 24th, 2011

Happy Easter!

We had a nice Easter. In our Primary class that we teach at church, a thing I like to do before the beginning of class is show the kids a picture of a weird animal. We have done it a few times and they seem to like it. This week I showed them sea slugs. At first they thought they were icky, but they warmed up to them when the stopped and looked closely at the colors. We do this because we want them to appreciate the many wonderful things out there. That evening Ruth, Rosanne, and I went over to my mom’s house for dinner. It was a delicious ham. Sometime during the day we found time to color Easter eggs. Ruth got a Star Wars themed dye kit and I did the one that looks like Humpty Dumpty.

Picture 113

Saturday, April 23rd, 2011

Easter is coming. To prepare, Ruth made Bunny Buns. Here are the to-be-frosted bunnies. See how patiently they wait...some have already been eaten.

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Friday, April 22nd, 2011: Good Friday

My Due Date! (Baby is taking his time)

Baby’s 1st package.

These came in the mail today. The package was addressed to:Ruth and Dana and Little Viking. It was so exciting! Thank you, Leslie, for the so great knitted presents! Now we even have our own Robo-kitty!

Picture 111

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

Pizza time! Another trip to The Blind Onion. This time we got their veggie pizza, their Hawaiian, and the white sauce broccoli pizza. All delicious!

Being this pregnant so close to Easter, I have been tempted to get a maternity shirt with an Easter egg right on the belly. I never did that. But wearing this shirt kind of makes my belly look like an Easter egg…

Picture 110

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

Wednesday is Dana’s day off, so we drove out to the Holland American Bulb farm to see the tulips. The fields weren’t quite as spectacular as our previous trip, but there are plenty of tulips left to open.

Picture 109

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

Let the festivities begin! It’s pretty much a non-stop party when we have visitors. This week is no exception. See? Don’t we look festive?

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Monday, April 18th, 2011

Mom is in town! My mom arrived from Rhode Island with some presents for us. We got these great books from Mrs. medley (Thank you!) and some nice baby things from my mom.

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Sunday, April 17th, 2011

We went down to Salem tonight to have Palm Sunday dinner (aka pre-Easter Easter dinner) with Ivan and Terry. Dana’s step-brother, Ryan, has pet ferrets and let us hold one of them. This one is named Buster. He was very cute and friendly, but got nervous when the dog showed up to investigate. 

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Saturday, April 16th, 2011

Amidst all his other duties today, Dana vacuumed the car. Doesn’t it look nice? Thanks, Dana!

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Friday, April 15th, 2011

Happy Birthday, Else!

Today was Else’s birthday. She picked out her own cake: a tuxedo mousse cake from Costco. It was delicious. She even let us sing her “Happy Birthday,” even though we sounded less than good (and got worse from there). We love you, Mom!

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Thursday, April 14th, 2011

We had an eventful day complete with a dinner guest and homemade clam chowder, but got no pictures of those cool things. Instead we took a picture of our stereo, which we have moved into the baby’s room. It was nice to have Brian over for dinner. We watched Unstoppable. And the clam chowder was yummy.

Picture 103

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

Dana and I got a chance to go to the temple this week, something we may not get to do for awhile once the baby arrives. There were lots of pretty flowers and the sun was out; it was great.

Picture 102

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

While Dana is at work I sometimes channel surf in the hopes of finding anything good to watch. My search is almost always fruitless. However, a few days ago, I saw a lady making this on the public access channel and decided I could do it better. It still needs tweaking, but I am pretty satisfied with the result.

Picture 101

Monday, April 11th, 2011

We went over to Else’s in the evening and saw this little guy crossing the front yard. Dana followed him down the street to a neighbor’s where the possum let him take his picture. Isn’t he cute?

Picture 100!

Sunday, April 10th, 2011

We made it through 100 pictures! And so did you, readers! Hooray! These are our spoils from the library book sale this weekend. We paid for about 1/5 of these and picked up the rest for free at the end of the sale. Cheap books are kind of our weakness. And we’re OK with that.

Picture 99

Saturday, April 9th, 2011

Another stop on Officer’s Row: a tulip tree or tulip magnolia in full bloom. The blossoms are roughly palm sized and floppy. You can’t help but smile when you see them.

We stopped by Officer’s Row on our way home from seeing The Adjustment Bureau. It was more thought-provoking than I anticipated. It was a good movie; we’re still thinking about it.

Picture 98

Friday, April 8th, 2011

Dana’s brother, Anton has a reputation of throwing some pretty awesome dessert parties for his singles ward. He must like us, because he lets us come and party with him and his cool friends. He threw one today, so we made this Russian dessert we know as, Ptichye Moloko (птичье молоко). Literally translated, it means “bird’s milk,” (after a Russian fairy tale where the princess requests an impossible luxury from her suitor) and contains sour cream and gelatin with flavorings of your choice (look for the recipe to follow on our food blog). We made ours with lemon, strawberry, vanilla, and lime. This is a food Dana is in charge of making, and he’s very good at it.

Picture 97

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

Happy birthday, Grant Thomas!

I got this package from my sister just before I found out she had her baby this morning. Congratulations, Guptill Family! We are happy for you! And thank you for the presents

Picture 96

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

Ruth went shopping today. Among the items purchased were these. See if you can spot a common theme. She must have had a craving. You be the judge…

Picture 95

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

We felt a little behind on our movies, so we made a stop at redbox and rented 127 Hours and Tangled. We enjoyed both of them, although they are very different movies.

Picture 94

Monday, April 4th, 2011

Happy Birthday, Emily!

I took a walk down to the library and back along Officer’s Row. A few days previous, Dana and I drove by this small historic marker and realized we had never noticed it before. So during my walk I made sure to stop by and photograph it. The walk was pleasant despite the drippiness.

Picture 93

Sunday, April 3rd, 2011

Happy 119th Anniversary of the First Documented Ice Cream Sundae!!!

According to Google, Sunday was the119th anniversary of the first documented ice cream sundae. We couldn’t just let something like that slip past without celebration. So we made sundaes. They were delicious and had copious amounts of whipped cream (all good sundaes do, of course).

Picture 92

Saturday, April 2nd, 2011

As we watched the first session of General Conference, this little hummingbird came and sat in his tree in Else’s yard. Dana went out and took some pictures and videos. It’s fun to see the little signs of spring.

Picture 91

Friday, April 1st, 2011

Happy April Fool’s Day!

Oh that Balance Board, he got us good. He’s even wearing a funny hat in celebration, which is more than we did. Dana did text his sister and told her we had had our baby. We were soon discovered in our joke.

Picture 90

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

Ruth is preparing to fly an airplane on Wii Sports Resort. Being pregnant has made her extra good at multitasking. Notice that she is eating a popsicle, adjusting the volume on the TV, and preparing for her airplane flight with the Wiimote. Go Ruth!

P.S. Warmer days have finally come as Vancouver hits 60°F for the first time in 2011. This is the longest it has taken since the previous record of March 27th in 1955.

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Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

Rice Krispy Treats are yummy. These ones were extra marshmallowy due to a shortage of rice cereal. Oh well…

Picture 88

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

Everyday is a good day to have a milkshake. We had just gotten some fresh strawberries and Ruth made two wonderful strawberry shakes. It helps remind us that warmer days are coming…

Picture 87

Monday, March 28th, 2011

Writing “Thank You” notes for my baby shower. It was good times. I had to use a variety of stamps…. 

Picture 86

Sunday, March 27th, 2011

In an uncharacteristic bout of pregnancy-craziness, Ruth agreed to play Monopoly with me. I like this game and even have three different versions of it (Deluxe, National Parks, and Russian). We decided on my Russian one. It was fun, though some of the Chance and Community Chest cards were hard to figure out. I ended up winning…by a lot. It helped that I went to prison many times and didn’t pay Ruth any rent.

Picture 85

Saturday, March 26th, 2011

Today was a particularly good day. It was difficult to pick one picture, so we went with the Viking ship that we saw in downtown Vancouver. It was moored in front of a furniture store. This ship is for the Sons of Norway. We like Vikings.

Picture 84

Friday, March 25th, 2011

We went to a wedding reception at the Marshall house for some friends from 3rd ward. The food was tasty and the flowers were very pretty.