Feeling Sick?

 We have all been hit with strep! It has been Macy mayhem, with little relief to speak of.  Calvin, Oliver and J-P all came down with strep.  Two weeks later Oliver and J-P got it again sending us all to the doctor. We discovered strep growing in Cosette's ears and finally, I got hit with it, and knocked me down in bed for almost three days. I have risen from the dead since then and everyone is on the mend now.  Nothing like a sickness that can renew your zing for living!  I am still behind on laundry and many other things.  Stay tuned!

Oak Creek Talent Show

Calvin carries the Bastian name and by golly, he takes after my side. So much so that I can't help but think of Dad sometimes.  His school has a annual talent show and he wanted to get up and tell his jokes. For those of you who were in Idaho last summer, you've heard the pirate joke that Paxton heckled him for.  That was his main comedy with some other jokes mingled in there.  He wanted to wear a pirate costume for his act, so I left him to his own creative devices.  He got his audience to laugh and after the show he told his very proud parents, "I had so much fun up there and I loved it when the people laughed!"  I can only say where is the inhibition?  Calvin was in Kindergarten. The girls next to him did their rendition of the Thriller.

Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Dane

Here is a little anecdote just for fun. 

click on this link and enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUGcofz6kd8

Your Dog Stuck in a Tree?

So you've heard of the fire department getting cats out of trees right?  Well here's a good one for you.

The boys are playing in the back yard with the neighbor boy Cam.  They are playing in the trees and playing with Ammon too.  They decide to take his dog toy and put it high on a branch to make him jump up and grab it.  No problem, he's game for a little challenge.  He can usually grab something from about 7ft off the ground. Well this particular time he missed and came down with his paw getting caught in a branch.  Fortunately it was near enough to the ground that he could stand on the other three.  He pulls and pulls only to to make it tighter and worse.  So Ammon is scared and it surely hurts a bit so he starts howling.  Mind you this is a 165lb dog thats howling very lowd.  So Calvin and Oliver start crying and whaling that "Ammon is going to die!"  Christi is trying to help Ammon and he bites her in the process as he continues to escalate in his freaking  out. (no worries he didn't break the skin, nothing serious)

So Christi sends Cam home to get his Dad, she calls me, then Scott, then Tanya, then me again, then Scott again.  No answers. She is freaking out.  The neighbor dad, John, isn't home but the older sister Ali runs over.  Christi calls 911.  They redirect her once before she gets told that they can't help.  Christi says frantically,"What, you can rescue cats out of trees but you won't come for my dog?"  The lady on the other end tells her to take a deep breath.  Christi hangs up on her.  

Christi then sent Ali to the other neighbors house (Skip) for help.  

Meanwhile.....

Oliver is a very clever young man.  He gets busy during the chaos with his own solution.  He goes into the garage, opens up my chainsaw case and pulls it out.  He comes outside with the chainsaw and says, "Here mom, you can use this."

[Side note: She did get me on the phone after the multiple attempts.  I was traveling on the freeway heading home.  I was speeding home now fearing that Ammon was hanging from 6ft from one paw needing me to lift him up.  I was also adding the vet bills up in my head, (they weren't cheap)]

In a 

Just then Skip shows up and asks what he can do to help.  He pulls hard and manages to spread the gap between branches just as Ammon lifts up and he is free. 

Seemingly simultaneously, Scott shows up, John the neighbor arrives and the fire department pulls up in front of the house.  All just as Ammon had been freed.

They were incredibly nice and came through the house to see the now infamous dog.

In the end, Ammon is fine.  Upon request from the boys, Christi bandaged his leg (shown below).  They also elevated it on a pillow and draped a blanket over him.  Finally I arrive home to see him as I just described.  He hopped right up to his feet to welcome me and as if to let me know that he had just been through one heck of an ordeal.  

Pony-tails, Baby Yoga, the Big Bad Wolf and little things in between...

Calvin is never short on crazy ideas....here he is wearing his "safari shirt" (his decided a name for his shirt) and his mad scientist glasses. He wouldn't be complete without his Ninja sword that J-P made for him and Oliver. 

We have had a crazy winter here in Portland.  It has snowed like this three times since we moved here and all the locals say this never happens. Well, it certainly does happen and they closed the schools down twice because of it. Maybe because of all this crazy weather both boys and J-P got strep. Two of Calvin's close friends got it before he did and we are almost certain that 's where it started.

We found this antique children's rocker on the side of the road near our house in Cali. I finally got around to painting it and since then, everyone fights to sit in it. See what a little paint can do!

Snorkeling anyone? 

Cosette has learned this on her own. It cracks us all up! She does down dog with no hands.  Maybe from all the exercise classes I took while being pregnant with her?

Cosette's hair is getting long enough for me to make pony tails and these are her first.

Daddy's little girl!

One morning to my surprise we had some unexpected visitors! The Big Bad Wolf, Little Miss Riding Hood, and the Woodcutter! 

Ammon gets roped in to all of the boys ideas and he's good at playing along even when he doesn't like it.

Weekend at the Ranch

 We spent the long weekend out at the ranch for a little change of pace.

J-P worked on a little side project for work in his dad's shop and then decided, with some persuasion, to put up the zip line at Fort Caliver!

We assure you, it's very safe and very FUN!!!

Just look at the kid's face!

A little out of order, but you get the scene. 

Cosette was the side line cheerleader, clapping her hands as each boy went zipping away. 

Mt HooDoo

It was so cold, I mean in the teens. I think 15 to be exact.

I've kept my Dad's down, ski jacket and love wearing it. It makes me feel closer to him since his death many years ago.

The ski lift that I slipped off. It was so icy. I wasn't hurt thank goodness. 

J-P was a good sport playing ski instructor.  Very patient. He taught me how to ski when we met when I was 18.  I worked up at Sundance. I was a hostess in the Tree Room and employees skied for free.

What a view, huh?

Our little skier to be..

Hey how did this get in here? Just kidding, I just can't get enough of her!