Flippin Out!

What do you think if Intel folds do Ella and I have a circus future?

Momma is starting to show. Due date of mid July means she is getting close to the half way point.

Sorry no appearance tonight from Hanna, she's a bit sick and went to bed early. The good news sick or not she is just the happiest baby!

PS. In case it wasn't obvious you can double click the photos to get full size images.

The Goonies!

Bad night last night. Ella rolled out of bed into a nightstand at 11:30pm. It took a good hr to calm her down. It made for a rough night. But she didn't even notice it today.

We went to Astoria today, home of the Goonies Movie but we didn't find a map or buried treasure. We did climb this tower at the top of a hill. It's a 160 step spiral stair case up this tower to an overlook. It was super cool. Anita doesn't like heights and turned back half way. We also had a deluxe seafood lunch of fish and chips.

The girls got lolly pops and Hanna loved hers.

Then it was back to the beach at seaside to play in the sand. We built some sand castles, chased seagulls, ran from the surf and a long walk.

Howdy

I walk around the apartment complex saying Howdy to people. It seems to surprise them but it gets a smile. It's how I'm going to keep my wild west flavor while we travel around the world. Speaking of travel we took the train for two stops tonight for fun. It stops right out back of the apartment. Ella loves the train, plus two stops down is the Performance Bike store so we went in to look around.

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Then I made Anita be the total tourist, to her embarrassment, to take this photo of Ella and I.

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Here are a couple of photos of Hannah C. and Hanna D. I think they are going to have some fun this summer.

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And here is Ella and her new best bud Jackson. Jackson is a great big brother to Hannah C.

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Ella and Hanna had a bath. Its amazing to watch them both keep growing. Ella is really starting to have fun and actually play with Hanna. She has almost stopped hitting her but will shriek stop when Hanna goes after something that belongs to Ella.

Now you can see Hanna in motion, she is on the go!!!

random stuff

Hanna always wants to be tall like her big sister.

We invited Jackson Currier over for the day to play with Ella. First was the Zoo in 34deg wet weather but it was great. As they say in Portland you can't wait for it to not rain to do something. Also I hear carrying an umbrella is a sure way to tell who is not local. With the constant drizzle umbrellas aren't really necessary. They spent the rest of the day playing at home.

Yesterday our van arrived along with the camera battery charger, that's why no update over the weekend. There is a great view of Mt Hood from the plant I want to get but will have to wait for a clear day. Today is 1/23 so lets see how long it takes to get the photo.

Also check out this link from the snow storm. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMzeiMJQrvk The snow was wet and heavy and very slippery. This is a steep hill on the east side of Portland. This is just crazy, someone said they saw this clip on CNN.

here is an photo of the two girls while they were in Croatia this summer.

Last weekend was some snow play up on Mt Hood and time around the apartment. Hanna is really getting pretty good at walking now also.

Snow Snow everywhere

What a lucky year! Two big storms in Abq then move to Portland and get hit by another Monday night that in large shut down the city by Tue. Ella isn't such a fan of more snow or the snowman daddy made for her... Think she was just tired at the end of a long day.

Moving gets hard. We've been to the grocery and other stores 4 of 4 days from Sunday to Tue. It took all 4 trips to get the kitchen stocked up to a place that feels like it did at home. Good news is we think we found the store of choice (cheap, close and well stocked). Dad still needs to find a propane tank so he can grill a steak or two (the girls love them). Here Hanna hides her disappointment with daddy eating chicken from the store.

The Big Beginning

Christmas came and went quickly with getting ready to hit the road. But there was still a lot of excitement in our house in anticipation of Santa's pending arrival.Christmas was good and now we have a scooter to put the wooden track in our house to work. Gotta get em ready early. Does this girl look like she could grow up to be crit racer? Daddy is going to loose his rep as the helmet police with this photo. We had a big party for family and friends. Lots of food was ate and wine and beer was drank in anticipation of the madison exhibition.
The fans were great and came from near and far! Sat morning getting on the plane was a pretty sad day with the reality of leaving. Here are Ella's best playmates Milo and Natalie. As a tip if you get to the Abq airport early take some time to check out the model airplanes by the ticketing area. It’s really cool. Grandpa showed us the B-52 model, his first job after college was instrument testing including some 1-5am runs against high power jamming equipment. The flights were good and the girls were champs! Airports are fun and delays are spent playing on escalators and moving sidewalks. We got in a little late to Portland Sunday but luckily drove straight to the apartment. Found the key and let ourselves in. The moving truck driver came first thing Sunday morning and we spent the day unpacking.
Having our stuff here really makes it feel a lot like home. Our next steps are to start exploring but the stairs are good enough for Hanna, she loves them and spent all day defeating daddy's roadblocks. Thanks to everyone in Abq for making our send off so special. It made us feel so good to have such great friends. Guess there is nothing like leaving to get you to figure out how lucky we are and how many great friends we have!

Time for bed, I gotta get to work early tomorrow.
love the doornbos'

PS. Next post will have more Hanna photos to make up for all the Ella photos in this one.