Chickens Hatch

After 21 days of waiting the chickens started hatching.

"Taco" was the first to hatch

Stuffed Pebbles looks on as Julia prepares to transfer out of the incubator

Kids transfer chicks to the brooder

Playtime in the kitchen

More pics coming ... 

Strawberry Picking

Best time to go strawberry picking ... when Doug is not around to limit the pounds of strawberries that you bring home.

Classic shot

That's a LOT of strawberries

When Doug got home all the windows were open from burned strawberry pie in the oven. Other fun things included chocolate covered strawberries, strawberry drink(?), and smoothies.

School Stuff in May

Plenty going on at St. Agnes in the month of May ... 

May 7: Julia and friends at Nats game field trip

May 1: Missoula Theatre performs the Jungle Book 

May 7: RJ in newsletter holding he limbo bar

Julia was an alternate in the Gold Medal winning team for the Battle of the Books

What is Battle of the Books? It's a contest in the Arlington diocese that involves 5-6 graders reading books and answering questions about them. Julia got the day-off from school and a party by participating. She requested to be an alternate.

RJ's Confirmation

 After a few retreats, logging mass attendance, and some additional preparations it was time for confirmation mass.

Grandma and Grandpa came to town for the big event

Hillary and Logan attended and Bishop Loverde had a LOT to say in the homily

RJ, Liam, Desi, and Samuel

RJ and the Fence

Walking along the St. Agnes fence seems harmless enough.

Look ... a fence with a fun ledge to walk along ... 

... ouch

RJ slipped and got his arm caught on the metal spikes. For a while he couldn't move his arm without a lot of pain. On the following day he wore a sling at home. Two days later he went to the doctor. Four days later he was playing hockey.

Birds - almost

New bird made a very small nest in the side tree.

Mom guarding the nest

Babies in nest

pic

This tree doesn't seem to be good luck. The nest was empty 3-4 days later.

Business Trip or Boondoggle?

Doug's week long trek around the country.

San Diego

Top partners are invited to a rewards event every year. I was invited to socialize and mingle with the partners. 

Rock cave on bike tour

Nimble Doug avoids oncoming water

Lots of wild live to comment on ... talked about a 'silver' seal for a while

Vancouver

After a flight to Seattle and a 2.5 hour drive to Vancouver I got to see ...

Hastings street ... but the good part

View from the room

After a 4 hour drive back to Seattle I flew home on Friday afternoon.

Dallas

Trip to Dallas to visit Nothing Bundt Cakes ... first week in April.

Hotel was literally across the street from the airport ... amazing that I couldn't hear planes

Countdown to Chickens

Kids convinced Sara to hatch chicks and grow them for a few weeks. Then we will give them Logan and Hillary in farm country for eggs and other food-related things.

The neighborhood fox is more excited about this than Doug.

Julia's birthday card - front / folded

Card /basket opened up

 

Daily countdown ceremony

We will see how this works out. Apparently on/about May 10/11 the eggs should hatch.

Update: chickens came a bit early ... see the Chickens Hatch blog post for details.

Bellingham, WA

Driving back from Whistler we stopped in Bellingham to visit John and Valerie and rest before catching our flight in Seattle the next day.

First Stop: Bellingham Bike Park

Biking area with cheap bike rentals ($30 for both kids for a couple of hours) and various tracks with different levels of difficulty so you can build up.

Julia rides some of the intermediate terrain

In about 30 minutes RJ worked up to the middle jumps. We might have to head back so he can master the big ones ... and then go to the monster jumps on the other side.

Sara with John and Valerie in font of the pulp digester tanks from the old paper mill.

After biking we headed over to the harbor ...

Bellingham harbor 

After a home-cooked meal ... we walked along a rail-trail and saw a gorgeous sunset.

Night sky from John and Valarie's living room

We might have to head back here in the summer!

Whistler for Spring Break

We headed out to Whistler, BC for spring break. The top of the mountain was delightful ... the bottom was a little slushy with 50-60 degree temps.

Trip to Seattle ... kids in cockpit of 2-week old plane ... Doug announced "test flight"

We learned a bit of patience waiting in the hallway for others to get ready.

RJ waiting on day 1

Julia got in on the action

Day 1: the gondola took us up above the clouds, some nice Russian living in Vancouver helped with the photo

At first we spent a lot of time planning our routes ...

... as the week went on RJ just looked for any thrill seeking event

RJ is that tiny dot heading between the rocks

Day 2: Julia skied with her friend Matti Jane from school

Day2: after skiing it felt more like Easter when we went to the local church

Nice place, 2 bedroom/2 bath short walk to slopes (Julia struggled with manual ice)

Doug and Julia looked for the inukshuks. Julia was trying to frame the inukshuk, RJ was taking the pic.

Sara took this picture of a different inukshuk

Kids occupy themselves while waiting for adults to arrive at the lift

While trying to find the tree fort ... we ran into this bridge on a woods trail

Free fort and castle had slides (best use of Doug's helmet all trip)

Weekend lines were a bit long, rest was good, birds provided entertainment

Olympic village - Dairy Queen and local joint with bottomless sodas!

Doug was sick on Day 5, kids got pretzels

Crossed bridge on way to Whistler side ... followed brick paths for entertainment

Day 7: We ate 4 containers of bread ... then we got some cool stuff from the Kings Hawaiian truck