Pool Party

Well, we are in the adoption pool (not quite yet, but the wheels are turning and its no longer in our hands... a day or two more).  Since we have no idea when baby will come, this seemed like a good way to have a baby shower.  Mom and Gma planned everything and did a great job of not making it annoying.  It was mostly hanging out with people we love.

WE managed to get 'in' before Dasa had to leave so I had both my girls.

Some onesies painted by everyone

Kids had fun playing outside

The cake was silly but the kids loved it

Ali really wanted an eye, so now she looks goth 

It was fun and we are excited that baby could come any day now (or month, or year... the average is 18 months)

Slow Food retreat

Eric has been volunteering with Slow Foods Southwest Washington on their board.  They had a weekend retreat up on Mt Hood to work on consolidating their goals etc (every non profit's to do list).   I tagged along as a spouse to go hiking and play in the snow.  But since I care a lot about their work, I ended up helping out.  

Warren runs the southwest Washington chapter, and this is his family cabin in Government Camp.

I did eventually break free for a short, wet, snowshoe hike.

Iron bacteria in the well

Yuck

Dining month

Fogo de Chao with Dasa and family.  Hugo ate more than me!

Easter

Easter, American style

Boy did I have fun putting easter baskets together.  All the candy I never got.  ugh.

Hiding eggs was fun too.  The kids came over the day before and dyed them

Turns out there aren't many hiding spots in our living room

I think the kids were happy though

A rousing game of King of Tokyo after

Pretty good Easter if I say so myself

Industrious Hugo

Hugo helping weed!  a dream come true

Red Rock Canyon (and Vegas)

So a Vegas hotel room and a dry night later, we got out of the city as soon as we could and went to Red Rock Canyon.

So did everybody else apparently, but it was still pretty

This is Red spring

I love Joshua trees

So yep, red rocks

called calico rocks

Looks like an apartment building

The creek at the bottom of the canyon was sweetly green

Looking out from the calico rocks

Hike to the keystone thrust

I think the thrust is the thing on the left, but we didn't do the whole hike due to time

The really cool thing was the group of Bighorn Sheep we stumbled across.  Can you see them?

Here is a zoomed in view

It was also interesting to see the pattern of the fire a few years ago.

Pretty place

We went to a Cirque du Soleil show that night, and walked the strip.  Ugh, so not my thing. 

Back to the park the next day to finish my grading.  Not a bad view to look up from work for, huh?

Then a celebratory hike up first canyon (term papers graded!)