Hello Buddies! I miss you and wish I could come and play. How are things in Fresno? Are you learning how to swim Collin? Are you having fun playing with your Ariel doll Muffin? Well, anyways, I miss you and want you to know that you will always be in my heart. You were my first best friends! Be good to your mommies and daddies.
So this is our home away from Fresno, for the time being. This is the house that I grew up in, where my mom and dad are still living. The top photo doesn't do the house justice as the covered patio is filled with our belongings (you can see that I have had to store my treadmill outside, but it's sure nice to run when it's cool out). The upper window to the right is my sister's old room, where Aaron and I are staying. The second picture is the back yard where all the fruit is. There is an apple tree, back left and directly to the right in the photo is the cherry tree that's older than my dad. The bushes are raspberries. You can't see them, but there also is a plum tree and three grapevines. We have had fresh fruit every day since we've been here. The apples will be ready to eat in a month or so. The third photo is my parent's side yard. Notice the beautiful Japanese Maple in the lower part of the photo. Yes, so like I said, this is our home for the time being. We are looking into moving into a cute little townhouse about two blocks away from my folks and five blocks away from Zoe's school. Hopefully I will get to go in soon and do some measurements to see what furniture will fit. I will post photos when I get them.
Did anyone of you have one of these when you were little? This is Zoe playing on my Fisher Price Music Box Record Player that my sister and I played with when we were young. It has 4 of these thick plastic "records" that plays one song on each side. The orange one plays Au Clair De La Lune and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The green one plays Hickory Dickory Dock and Edelweiss (which was my favorite when I was a little girl because it was in The Sound of Music). The blue one plays Jack and Jill and Humpty Dumpty. The light blue one plays London Bridge and Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone? My mom and I were trying to figure out how to get it ot work all day long. Did it need new batteries? Was it broken? We tried to unscrew the bottom and everything. Nothing worked. When my dad came home from work he looked at it and immediately figured out that all you had to do was turn the wind up knob on the front of the player and it would work. Geez! Like mother, like daughter! Thanks Dad!
My mom and dad, sister, her boyfriend, Michael, and the girls and I went to the Washington County Fair last night. The sights, sounds, and smells brought back lots of fun memories for me as a kid who spent many a summer at the fair involved in 4-H, rabbit 4-H that is. Yes, my sister and I were skilled in the delicate art of rabbit training and showing. It took hours and hours of work to make sure our little bunny was going to be obedient on the judging table, sitting still and quietly on his little carpet square, being calm while we performed various techniques for the judges like showing them the straightness of his back and front legs, answering questions about particular breeds and diseases, and then there was confirmation. No, we did not put our bunnies through a class on Catholicism, this was basically a section of the competition when our little bunny was on his own. He had to be looking his best, no molting or crooked teeth, he had to be as perfect to the breed standard as he could be in order to win the coveted crown, "Best of Show." At a rabbit show one year, my agouti Netherland Dwarf, Penny, won this award! But it always seemed like he was in the middle of his summer molt during the fair and he never came close. Rats! I mean, rabbits! My sister and I had lots of fun and learned lots about raising animals during our time in 4-H. Happy Hoppers forever! 
Tonight, my mom, Zoe, Eve, and I went over to Aaron and my old elementary school, Peter Boscow, which is now condemned and in the process of being torn down, so the girls could ride bikes. This was Eve's first try riding her new bike with Zoe's old helmet and pads. She only rode for about 5 minutes because it was, "too hard," and then made a bee-line for the swings. You can see in the first photo how excited she is to have her picture taken (note the shoes on the wrong feet).
Zoe lost her 4th tooth yesterday while she and Eve were playing. She struck this pose for me right after it fell out. Can't you just see the left hand on the hip? 
This is the pharmacy in Downtown Hillsboro (kind of like the pharmacy/post office in Easton, only it's surrounded by a bunch of cute shops and antique stores). The pharmacy has been one of Downtown Hillsboro's landmarks, it was there when my dad was a kid, a looooong time ago. :) So the main reason this place is famous is for it's soda fountain atmosphere with the long bar and swivel stools, plus the incredible Umpqua ice cream. This is my mom and dad and the girls enjoying their first taste of Oregon ice cream. Zoe had bubblegum and Eve, of course, had chocolate. Chocolate, after all, was one of her first words. 
