Columbia Gorge Hotel

One of the benefits of Gary's job is that Evan and I get to travel with him.  In November, he had meetings at the Columbia Gorge Hotel in Hood River, OR.  While Gary sat through meetings, Evan and I explored the area.  It was really great to just have a couple days of one on one time with Evan.  

Columbia Gorge Hotel

We got a 2 bedroom suite, so Evan had his very own room and huge bed.  He thought it was pretty cool.

View of the Columbia River from our window.

Waterfall right outside the hotel. 

The grounds of the hotel were really nice and there were lots of walking paths and fun things to look at.  I love this picture of Evan's shadow.

Gary always has to get up really early for the company breakfasts...and I NEVER get up that early to go.  One of the days we were there, I took Evan to breakfast in the nice dining room of the hotel.  We were the only ones there that morning and we had a great seat overlooking the river.  I got to experiment with taking some pictures in natural light with the new camera. 

Patiently waiting for his waffles to arrive.

Spotting the waiter with the food!

We drove around a bit until we found a pretty good spot to take a picture of Mt. Hood.  I wish it would have been a clearer day, but at least we kind of got to see it.

Bonneville Dam and Fish Hatchery

Evan and I went to the Bonneville Dam and Fish Hatchery.  The fish ladders weren't very busy because it was the wrong time of year, but we did go see Herman the Sturgeon at the hatchery.  Herman is 11 feet long, 500 pounds and 70 years old.  The picture I have below is not Herman, but stil a huge fish.

Bonneville Dam.

Evan was fascinated by these huge leaves.

Mischevious little smile!

Huge sturgeon.

Some other type of fish.  :)

The sturgeon pond has this viewing area below where you can watch them swim around and around.  Evan and I watched for a half hour or so. 

Preschool Costume Parade at Lifecare

Evan's preschool class had a costume parade at Lifecare today.  They sang a few songs and recited some fun poems as they went from room to room.  Some of the residents even gave them some candy!  I'm going to try to get video of Evan reciting a poem or 2, but no promises!

Grandma Elsie Olivia Marks

Grandma Marks passed away on October 14, 2011.  She was 90 years old.  We will miss her greatly, but we are so happy that she and Grandpa Marks are together again!  Grandpa Marks passed away when I was in 6th grade, so Grandma was without him for a lot of years.  She always said that she was mad at him for leaving her so early.  :)  I can't even imagine the joy she must have felt seeing him again.  I'm so grateful that we know families are forever and that we will be with our loved ones again.  This is the last picture we have of Grandma.  It was taken last month when Evan and I went to show her the crown he made in preschool.  While we were there Grandma said of Evan, he sure is handsome especially for a young boy.  :)  I'm so glad we have it, even though it's not the best quality because I took the photo with my cell phone.  We love you Grandma and look forward to the day when we will see you again!

Ready or Not...Here They Come

I've been such a slacker when it come to our blog!  Well, I've been a slacker in other things too, but....  :)  I'm still not very thrilled with my actual blog background, but I suppose I shouldn't put off posting just because of that!

I thought about trying to catch up on everything we've done since January, which was my last post, but it is not very likely that that will happen, so I figure I'll start with pictures from yesterday.  That's right, less than a day old!  We got a new camera, which I'm toally excited about, so I took over 100 photos yesterday of Evan while I was trying to figure some stuff out.  So, here are a whole bunch of pictures. Some of the are a little blurry, but I still liked the photo, so I put them on here.  Hope you enjoy!

Lincoln City, OR - January 2011

We made another trip over to Oregon in January.  Gary had work meetings and we added 3 more nights and stayed in a condo on the beach.  It was a nice relaxing trip and we didn't do much because it was POURING rain most of the time.  The rain finally stopped for awhile the day before we left, so we were able to spend an hour or so on the beach.  Not sure what happened with my formatting below...I've fixed it several times and it just keeps messing up!

Evan is always so fascinated by the shells or rocks that he sees.

Nothing like dragging around a stick.

The look on Evan's face cracks me up for some reason.  i'm not sure what he was saying or doing.

I have a picture like this from every time we have gone to the coast.  They are always kind of blurry because they are so far away, but I love them.  It's going to be fun when Evan is all grown to see how he grew each year. 

These 2 pictures are a perfect visual for shy we love going to the coast in the "off" season.  We had this whole beach to ourselves almost the whole time.

What a cute nose!  :)

I love this face!

Hey, this one too!