Busy Fall

During the first week of September, the four of us flew in an airplane to New Hampshire to visit Melinda's father. It was the first time we had been back there in 3 years! The last time, Melinda was pregnant with Sequoia. It was a good visit; we were reunited with some old friends and family and the Keene Baha'i community. We also had a couple of adventures such as a trip to Green Acre. We saw the new Reimer Hall and we were able to go into Abdu'l-Baha's room and say a few prayers together. (Sequoia decided to hand us every prayer book on the table.) The kids loved rolling down the hill. After Green Acre, we spent time at the beach and saw an amazing sunset and the kids had their first tastes of Maine lobster. (Sequoia thought she liked the lobster -Tristan thought it was gross.. )

When we came home, our cucumbers had just about doubled in size during that week! (We really enjoyed our summer project of planting a vegetable garden) -We are still eating tomatoes..even in late October. Tristan has now added growing plants to his favorite things to do, besides playing with balloons, painting, and riding his bike.

Life "got hectic" very soon after our trip to NH. Tristan started back to his preschool-transitioning very easily this year. He was very happy with his new teacher and being able to play with his friends who he missed during the summer.

We also started having a neighborhood Baha'i school in our home. Mike and Melinda teach a 0-5 children's class upstairs every Saturday morning while someone else faciliates an adult ruhi one class downstairs. We had to finish unpacking boxes downstairs to make more room for the class. We had put the moving-in process on hold so we could "play" a little this summer-now, we feel much more settled. Mike unpacked his drums and now has a place to drum (those drums haven't seen light for 3 years!) Melinda also has a place to do some artwork if she can make the time to do it! In her spare time she has discovered http://www.facebook.com/ and been reconnected with many old friends. It has been a wonderful journey of reconnecting with her life "before kids" It's like rediscovering email all over again.

Now after nearly 2 months since the NH trip; we are hoping to find some time to play again. Our weekends have been almost completely filled with important events to attend-birthdays, a wedding (Congrats Tia!), a memorial, etc.. We started this past Sunday with a trip to the Pumpkin Patch and on Monday night, Mike and Melinda went on a date!

Very recently, Melinda's cousin, Nancy had her first child-Anna Remembrance Gunter! We hope to go up to Olympia soon to meet her! After we do that; perhaps we'll finally take a trip to the Oregon coast for a day.

Also in December, we are looking forward to celebrating our 7 year anniversary by taking a weekend trip while Grandmama watches the kids!

Moving Can Be Fun!

The most recent news is that we bought a house back in April. It was a 4- month roller coaster ride of emotional ups and downs that finally lead us to what seems like a very nice situation. The house is a 1961 remodeled ranch home with a well-lit finished basement, a fenced in back yard, and a nice neighborhood. The kids love the backyard because it is an extension of the house and can go outside any time they want; and the adults love the backyard because they can get work done a little easier. (LOL) We also took on the project of creating a raised bed vegetable garden that is now starting to produce tomatoes and green beans. We’ve already been enjoying the radishes and lettuce. Still to come are the cucumbers, green peppers, carrots, and onions that will take a little longer. (We have wanted to grow vegetables for years!)

Tristan has completed his first year of preschool. He goes to a cooperative preschool that mom and dad are quite involved with such as helping out in the classroom, maintaining the school website, attending meetings, going on monthly field trips etc. He enjoyed school very much and his favorite things to do at school have been painting and riding the bikes. He celebrated his 4th birthday in May and had lots of balloons (his favorite material plaything). He is still a very sweet and sensitive boy who will sometimes cry when he misses his best friend Allie, but this sweetness is also balanced with a very strong determined streak-(the Taurus in him). He has also always been and outdoor-boy. If he lived outside 24/7, he’d be the happiest boy there is!

Sequoia is almost 2 ½ now and enjoying talking, singing, climbing, and reading books. She is growing into a very intelligent, spirited girl. She has a wonderful personality. She is shy at first with strangers, but once she warms up, she often has people laughing at her mischievous antics. She is also very sweet and nurturing. She has a favorite doll that she carries with her all the time that is about an inch in size. (her little red baby) It often gets lost but it has miraculously been found every time, so far. Her intelligence was apparent really early on when she showed she could put words together at 1 ½ and then spoke full sentences by 2 years old. I think she has always strived to catch up with her brother and since they are less than 2 years apart, she can now do almost everything he can do and they play really well together most of the time. (They fight well too, but on the whole they get along well)

Mike has been working at as a Chemist in Portland for almost 4 years now. They inspect grains for pesticides that are imported/exported. The job has its ups and downs; there can be many challenges such as when the instruments decide to not cooperate, etc, This past year he had traveled to Chicago for a conference, and to Bangkok, Thailand to exchange some procedures with the other company there. Michael tries to keep up with his musical hobbies sampling and collecting music, and playing drums, and fits it in here and there when he can. Recently his grandfather (Donald Sutherland, 91) passed away after a short terminal illness. He was a sweet, generous, soul who is greatly missed.

Melinda, during the school year was busy helping with the preschool and teaching a children’s’ class on Sundays at the Portland Baha’i Center. In between those things, she usually takes the kids to the zoo, library, parks, community center, play dates, on walks, etc. (-; It is amazing how much there is to learn about parenting. She loves it-everything about it. It is great experience and she feels that she will know so much more about children and families when she goes back to work as a counselor. Right now, she feels she is in her “element”-basking in the love and challenges of being a parent. Sometimes she longs to be able to do an oil painting on occasion, but sometimes she can sit down with a good book after the kids have gone to bed. She just finished the last Harry Potter novel.

In December, Mike and Melinda will celebrate their 7th anniversary! For fun, we like to regularly go out for coffee and treats (-; We also like to go to the beach when we can, and recently went to Hood River and rode on Thomas the Train. We also very recently went camping near Mt. St. Helens (in the rain) and had fun adventures searching for banana slugs and snails, renting a motor boat, exploring a lava tube cave, and getting close enough (almost) to the volcano to see the cone building inside. It was a beautiful area to explore. During the first week of September, we plan to fly to NH for a week. We haven’t been back there for 3 years! We can finally return the favor of David’s bi-yearly visits. He recently visited us for the month of June.

So, that in a nutshell is what we’ve been up to recently. Please keep in contact. We’d love to also hear what you all are experiencing-the good and the challenging.