You know its....

You know it's summer in Oregon when school is out, the strawberries are ripe, the Spyder is out of storage, the top is down and you're not only freezing, but you have to stop twice to put the top up so you don't get rained on. Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! It's June for heavens sake WHERE IS THE FRICKIN' SUN?
P.S. I heard that the Nat'l Weather Service has registered 4, count 'em 4, sunny days in Salem since April 1.

Grand Floral Stroll

I made rose garlands for our hair.

Fun people, perfect weather.

Our shady reserved seats.

Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde float. Lovely!

Last weekend, Al, Porter, Jana, Finn & I joined 2500 other walkers and kicked off the Grand Floral Parade in Portland. The Grand Floral Parade is a our version of the Rose Parade in Pasedena and is every bit as good (just not as big or famous). The 5 mile walk starts in NW Portland and crosses the Steel Bridge to the Collesium. From there it heads down the east side of the river then crosses the Hawthorne Bridge and meanders all over downtown. 500,000 parade watchers cheered and clapped for the walkers as we strolled down the parade route. Right after the walkers finish, the big parade starts. Marching bands, equestrian units, clowns, crazy motorcycle cops, and gorgeous floats. This family friendly, easy walk will become a DeBacker/Avison family tradition. Next year we'll get AJ, Maryanne and JJ to join us. All had other obligations on the 12th. At the end of the walk, the event organizers had chairs set up for all the participants in a prime parade watching area. No spending the night drawing chalk markers for our lawn chairs for us. We'll just take a delightful walk and watch the parade from our reserved seats. Ahhhhhh!

How cute is this?

Today Jana and Finn and Porter and I took a little shopping trip to Life Source in South Salem. Porter just started walking this weekend so I thought...why not have the P man push our cart. He loved it and was the talk of the entire store. He just walked up and down the aisles smiling at one and all. He did stop to look over the merchandise several times but decided to stick with the bananas, lemonade & yogurt.

Happy Birth Day and Birthday.

On May 14th, Maisie Claire Lee was born to my neice Sammie and her husband Austin. As you can see she is a beautiful baby. Truly. What fun to have a girl baby in the fam.

May is also the birthday month for my little pal Sarah. She turns 4 in a couple of days so I took her to Red Robin for dinner. She was thrilled to have a special dinner with a surprise treat for dessert and a couple of presents to open. There were lots of laughs and messy fingers, chocolate milk and an adult hot fudge sundae compliments of Red Robin, balloons and a whole bunch of servers singing and clapping as they celebrated Sarah. Needless to say, I dropped a very hyper 4 year old off at home...right a bedtime. HeeHee.

Yesterday, The Zoo Really Was.

A heads up for next year to all of you who decide to do Mother's Day at the Oregon Zoo; be prepared for rediculous crowds. The gorgeous weather and a Mother's day brunch made for a gigantic crowd. We did have a good time though, even if we didn't get to see all the exhibits. Porter loves the animals and it's a treat to be with him no matter what we're doing. When we got home, Jana and JJ had prepared a lovely meal for us; beef brisket, delicious asparagus and mashed potatoes and carrots. Al made a cake on Saturday so we enjoyed that for dessert. It was so great to be with new mom Jana and old pro mama Maryanne to celebrate the day.

A Fun Couple of Weekends

Happy Birthday!

Key Lime Cake - so good.

Grandpa and his boys.

Grammy & babies r us.

Beautiful flowers and beautiful Porter.

Such a good helper!

Enjoying the gazing balls.

We have been suffering through another typical Oregon Spring...sunny and warm, cloudy and cool, rainy and cold and hailing and really cold, all in the couse of 6 - 8 hours. Twice, Porter and I left the house to take our walk in the glorious sunshine. When we had reached the point of no return at Staats Lake, the rain and wind blew in and drenched us both with cold cold golf ball sized drops. I had thought to bring along a waterproof covering for Porter but it's not recommended that you put a plastic garbage bag over a baby's head and face. So although Porter's body was dry and warm, his little face was wet and cold. It's an interesting study in mental toughness to be a mile away from home, have a crying baby in the stroller, AND have an overwhelming need to pee! But we made it home and after drying off and warming up, all was right again.

Crazy Oregon Spring is also the time when annuals need to be planted. So we packed Porter into the car and headed off to our favorite nursery where we purchased petunias and other wonderful color spots to fill our yard and pots with lovely color all summer long. Al planted 7 huge pots with an asortment of flowers so they should be gorgeous by the time summer shows up.

Last weekend, Jana and Finn, Maryanne and Porter and I met my niece Sammie (Jeff and Kerry's eldest) at Washington Square for lunch and shopping. Sammie is expecting Maisie Claire any day now, so it was fun to squeeze in some girl time with her before her big day. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory then picked up a few things at Pottery Barn for Kids, Jack & Jill's and Baby Gap. Sammie was hoping that walking might get labor going and maybe it did just a little. I got an email from her this morning and she's having some stronger contractions as well as some other indicators that L&D is coming soon. Can't wait to meet you Maisie!

Last night at our family dinner, we celebrated both Corban and Lauren's birthdays. As they will be out of town on their actual b-days, we combined them last night with a taco dinner. AJ made yummy margaritas and we kicked off "taco season". With the Enns' 2 b-days, then JJ's at the end of May and finally AJ's in early June, Thursday night dinners will have a decidedly "Cinco de Mayo" feel for the next couple of weeks. Birthday people get to choose their dinner and they all choose tacos. Ugh! Fortunately they all like different desserts so it's not completely a lost cause.

Spring Has Sprung

Sammie's Baby Shower

Darling Sammie & Porter

Austin's big excitement: The Diaper Genie

Austin really knows Sammie's circumference

Sammie & the DeBacker clan

hosts, sister-in-law and mom-in-law

Easter & Two Birthdays

Porter, Beckham. Beckham, Porter.

Easter kisses

Happy Sweet 16, Lauren!

Last weekend was a busy one. We had Bob & Peg Kirkland here from Thursday evening till 7:00 Easter morning. We said goodbye to them and then rushed off to the 7:45 service @ church...Praise God for His beautiful "saving" plan called Easter. Later that morning Al and I hosted Easter brunch. Thankfully I got all the prep done on Saturday night and everyone helped by bringing food for brunch. It was a fun time together with family and until the end, I didn't take one picture. Sheesh! We did celebrate both Porter and Lauren as they each had a birthday that weekend. Lauren turned 16 and Porter turned 1. Lauren was exhausted and Porter had an awful cold but they both soldiered through. We missed Jana, Finn and JJ as they stayed home to rest before a busy day with JJ's fam.

Bob & Peg

This past weekend, Al's best friend from high school & college came up from Chico, CA for a quick visit. Bob brought his great wife Peg,and together they brought some of their cool musical instruments. Bob and Al spent hours and hours together when they were young, playing water polo and swimming AND writing and playing music. After college they lost touch and Al played his guitar only occasionally. Bob however, became a high school English teacher AND a professional musician. He and his wife Peg and two fellow music makers have made several CDs and travel all over playing gigs. Bob is heavily into the mandolin and is called to play with different bands on a regular basis. Peg has a gorgeous voice and plays guitar and percussion. Needless to say, our house was filled with music all weekend and Al played till his very out of shape fingers nearly bled. He was in heaven! On Saturday, Al and Bob played a little water polo at the Kroc Center. Al hurt his shoulder and Bob threw out his back...not the young jocks they once were:-) We did some wine tasting and sight seeing and had a yummy dinner at Farm to Fork in Dundee. It was so cool to re-connect with these old/new friends. The 35 years just disappeared and we talked and talked and talked. We have plans to visit Bob and Peg in Chico and I know they'll be back this way sooner rather than later. So fun!