My goal for this summer is to be able to take a good shot of the moon. I think I finally have it figured out, but now I need to get a better zoom lens to get it closer. I cropped this one to get it bigger, but that is as close as I can get it without it getting fuzzy.

Here is a shot I took of the moon rising over Mt. Hood at sunset the other night.

Last weekend we went to Stone Cliff Inn for dinner, the rafters were just bringing in their rafts for the day and I was taking pictures of them. There were so many and it was pretty colorful. Then the waiter brought my wine and just before I moved the glass to continue taking pictures of the rafters, I saw the trees and sky reflecting in the wine and thought that was pretty, as I took this picture, I realized I even got the rafters in there too. Bonus!

The last night with the kids here.

Here are highlights of the week with Emily and Joshua here. It is so hard to narrow the pictures down, but here are my favorites.
Joshua was a bit nervous on the first ride up the lift...his little hands tell it all...but it really is a LONG way down!













It only took us one time up with the kids and they had all the confidence they needed to go it alone. Next thing we knew they were not even riding up with each other!




There were so many activities up there for them to do!

Misc. pics of the week.
Emily and I went for a couple of walks, the first picture here is one she took of our shadows, isn't it good? Joshua decided the swings needed backs, so he added in one of their little chairs. Emily and I started working on some knitting for the little babies that will be joining our family this fall. And of course we had to have a game of Monopoly.

Remember those giant marshmallows we had on the 4th of July? Well, I thought it would be funny to get mini marshmallows as a joke for the next fire and batch of Smores...topped off with Teddy Grahams and chocolate chips, we used toothpicks to toast them. They thought it was funny, but actually, they were REALLY GOOD!

We have this little game we play, the grandkids and I...as I tuck them in, I ask them "What was YOUR favorite part of today?" I ask them and they ask me. Sometimes we add in what was your worst part of today.

We always have so many things that we did each day, that it is fun to hear from them what their best part was. This week, we got to ride horses at Aunt Lindy's, hot tub at Great Grandma and Grandpa McCool's place, have lunch with them and Aunt Cyndi three times, play with my friend Pat's grand daughter, have a fire every night and make smores while we drink our lattes together, go see 'Despicable Me', and the biggie, on Wednesday, the plan was that we were going up to the Alpine Slide on Mt. Hood. It was a blast! They not only got to slide down the 1/2 mile slides, the got to ride up on the ski lift for their first time, jump on a giant trampoline, ride go carts, ride tiny canoes, mini golf, inner tube slide, hit balls in a real batting cage...the list goes on, they really have a fun set up there.

But MY favorite part of the WEEK was not any of that. Mine was on Wednesday morning. The kids had been telling me that we could not eat breakfast, that we needed to go to McDonald's. They never just ask to go out for breakfast, that was weird to me. We worked it out so that on the way to the mountain, we would stop in and have breakfast. As we headed up to the counter, Emily, so in control and grown up said..."Just find a place to sit down...WE ARE TAKING CARE OF IT!" I was like, "WHAT?, well, OK, here is some money go ahead.." She said, no way to the money, that she and Joshua were paying! I was not about to let them pay for it, but they were determined, Joshua grabbed my hand and started pulling me to a table and said he would guard me there, and told Emily to go on. And he did, he just sat there giggling while we waited for Emily to return. She came back with three sausage McMuffins and three boxes of something I had not seen before...THAT was the surprise...something that they had had with their Dad and just KNEW that I would love. Cinna Melt is what I think they called it. And they were right, it WAS good! So THAT is what my favorite thing of the week was...not that they bought my breakfast...but that they thought up a surprise FOR ME...that was so cool! It is so amazing to see them so grown up!

My WORST part of the week? Having to take them home on Friday!

I had special company last week. Joshua. The morning after the 4th, Emily was headed off to Summer Camp so we decided that Joshua should stay here for a few days of 'Grandma Camp'. It was unplanned, so they had to make a quick trip into the store to buy him a couple pairs of underwear and a pair of shorts and shirt because all he had with him was what he had on and that was jeans and the forecast was HOT and sunny. He told me later that the reason that he decided to go along with his parents to buy the new stuff was that he was afraid that they would come back with something like ‘Dora the Explorer’ underwear or something. He has his own special way to make me laugh.


It is not very often that I spend time one on one with the grandkids, so it was really special to have the time to get to know him all on his own. He liked it that he was getting to stay without his sister too, but it was nice to see how often he let it be known that he missed his sister. Some of the activities I suggested he declined saying “no, let’s wait until Emily is here to do that with us” We had a bonfire every night and he got to burn a stick to his heart’s delight. Fire is so fascinating to little boys, but especially for him. I let him pick out where we would have lunch and so I had the pleasure of eating fast food burgers EVERY day (he didn’t like any of the places I suggested), BUT he loves his coffee, so that was nice to have my morning and evening lattes with him. We went to see two movies while he was here. First, ‘How to Train Your Dragon’, it was so cute. The next day we decided on ‘Toy Story 3’. It is 3-D or regular. Now, I have never seen a 3-D movie, so I thought it sounded like something he would think was cool. But as the time got closer, he seemed to be getting a little nervous. Just before it began, he asked me how scary I thought it would be. TOY STORY?? SCARY??? Somehow, he put the 3-D part together with scary movies. When it was over, he went on and on about how it was NOTHING that needed 3-D glasses for! He liked it, but I think that he would have liked it better if I had not taken him to a 3-D one so that he would not have been so worried beforehand. I liked it too…but I am wondering…AM I THE ONLY ADULT WHO CRIED AT THE END? Isn’t it so nice that they make those cartoon movies for adults as well as kids?

p.s. we were the only ones in the movie, so that is why I was able to take pictures.

and don't forget, you can click on the pictures to see them bigger.

I saw a new recipe in the paper for these. Whoopie Pies.
A cross between a cupcake and a cookie. Filled with marshmallow creme frosting. They looked so fun, so I decided to make them for the 4th when the kids were planning to come up. I made Chocolate and Smores ones. The Smores were my favorite. Made with graham flour and filled with the marshmallow frosting and dark chocolate ganache.

John and Rachel and Emily and Joshua drove up after church. First we picked the raspberries and then we had ribs along with a bunch of salads, then we toasted marshmallows. Take a look at the size of those marshmallows I found! HUGE. The kids loved them. Joshua especially liked it because he could burn it, tear off the burnt layer and then burn it some more! After that, they lit off some fireworks.