Photos!

PHOTOS!!!
and just a note: Jes and Benjah had a baby boy this morning... name yet to be announced, but they are leaning toward "Ash." Updates soon.


Its been a little over a year since I got back from Thailand and moved to Eugene. Here are some photos from that year (in reverse order just to be confusing)
It is spring in Eugene, which means lots and lots of flowers. Our back yard shows the remnants of an old orchard, with plum trees white with blossoms. Miss Malia P. , my kitty, loves the great outdoors, and is becoming more and more adventurous. It helps that our entire compound is like a huge kitty jungle-gym with awnings, trees, roofs and all sorts of fun things to climb on.


























We have a lot of work to do in the garden. Its hard to manage such a small amount of land with so many people who have so many ideas. Brian and Benjah are making sure to plant some good medicinal for us, and Crystal has created a beautiful prayer garden. I worried about vegetable space, but it looks like we will have functional roof gardens, as well as some space in a community garden, and in a neighbor-friend's yard.












With Benjah and Jes expecting, we have had some new additions to our household. With Lisa taking off on a number of adventures, we have filled her space with her friend Bergere from Wisconsin. We have also welcomed Jesika's brother Paul and his partner Terra


Easter Dinner:


Terra and Bregere and neighbor Rich examine our holiday feast.

The men take over the kitchen: Goat, Bregere, Paul and Sean



Miss Katherine is the best egg deviler ever!

















I made my first batch of vegetarian "gramma's" meatballs.


As usual we made way too much food.



















Terra working on a baby blanket......







Some time ago



This is us asking the baby to turn around in Jes's belly.



And miss P watches













A trip to the coast:

















Sean and I spent a weekend at the coast recently. We romped in wetlands, strolled on windy beaches, found agates in the gravel, and even ate muscles.


































The skunk cabbage was so beautiful and bright. I couldn't stop taking pictures of it.




























Yellow water lily roots exposed in a meadow near the Hobbit Trails.
























Our house:


In the snow.


Bellys:



































To the mountains:

Sean and I went with some of my friends from work to a "cabin" near Sisters. This mansion belongs to the family of Ally's husband, and we had a great time playing pool and ping-pong, cooking scrumptious goodies in the amazing kitchen, and playing Cranium.









Me, Sarah, Ally, and Kate. Sarah and I are the only ones Who still work at the Shedd.

































More pics of the house



























Christmas




We had some special guests for Christmas. My mom and Jesika's parents and her sister Ellen all came for a visit.











































































Thanksgiving!


Lali made sure we were all dressed fabulously for the occasion. And we all cooked fabulous dishes of course, lots of them.




We had A LOT of friend over for the feast. Arjay and Cynthia (friends from Waveland who moved to town) brought an amazing butter cream pie (or probably two or three of them). Heather and Eric came down from Portland, and Jesika's uncle Van came over and made his famous Caesar salad. Kiki was in town too, and her friend Dan came down from Seattle to see her. Jeramy was also here, and Kitty was living with us... basically we just had a bunch of great people here to share food with.




This is Kitty. She made Deviled eggs, which were great, even though the shells were really hard to get off.














We love making food together.




















Like I said, we had tons of food, and shortly after Thanksgiving our refrigerator broke. Luckily it was cold outside, and we were able to store most of the food on shelves on the porch.

































After dinner we were treated to first class entertainment, with Sean on Bass, and Van and Arjay playing guitar and singing.





The rest of us were just comatose from all the food.















TIC ceremony


We swore ourselves to each other on top of Spencer's butte.











OPAL CREEK:

Sean and I hiked up this beautiful creek and camped on its shore. The water was such an amazing color: like nothing I had ever seen.



There were plenty of opportunities to swim in secluded pools, and to hike up little tributaries into tight gorges with rock walls blanketed in soft green moss.














































Ultimate
I didn't want to bore anyone with a bunch of photos of Ultimate, but I thought this one was kind of cute. This is a pic. of the girls from the Alaska team I played on for Spawnfest (we were the champions in our division)!

And this is Sean, on our way to the Beach tournament in Seaside. He is sporting a really tough looking black eye, but it isn't ultimate related... it was a work injury. I'll let him tell you how it happened.


We took our time getting to and from the tournament, stopping at nice beaches and waterfalls en route.














The weekend of the beach tournament also marks the transition from the Jefferson Street house to 1110 W 27th. THe rest of these photos are from when we lived in the old Ken Kesey house on Jefferson.




Sushi is typical dinner-party fare in our house. This may be from my birthday.












These are two of my favorite ladies in the whole world.


























North Fork of the Smith River:
















This was a lovely hike with Sean. Beautiful waterfalls, lots of greenery, and lovely flowers.
























































































and because we were practically there already, we took a quick trip to the beach after our hike.















Back at home.


Spring in Eugene: There are so many flowering trees here. The tulip trees are pretty spectacular.



Its nice to have Lynn so close by. I try to see her every time I go up to Portland, and she has brought the kids down here once.








OK, one more ultimate photo...............................................



















Sean's crazy hair. don't you just want to muss it up?



























This was my first baby kitty when I first moved to Eugene. Her name was Yoshiko, and she sadly had a very short life.


















War protest in downtown Eugene.

















We went on a hike when I first got here. It was a good welcome back into the Northwest.





















I stayed with Lynn for a few days on my way to Eugene. The highlight was taking Waker to go see the ducks.