Japanese and Rose Gardens, and Baking in Every Sense of the World

My nice, cool Oregon has broken tradition and heated up along with the rest of the world.  The last few days we've been battling 90 degree weather...which isn't so terrible if you're in Utah dry heat (well - it's still pretty bad), but when you combine the heat with the humidity it's like when you get shortening on your hands and you can't get it off, even with water...except it's your whole body slathered in the Crisco and no amount of showering will get it go away.  Hopefully that portrayed just a little of what the stickiness is like with the humidity here.  We've pretty much gotten used to it - we're addicted to fans and spend lots of time in our room where the wall air conditioner is.  Ross and Ruby run/roll around in nothing but, and we have smoothies, sandwiches, and salad for dinners.  Going to church on Sunday was a treat (it's a treat anyway) with the central air there.  It would have been nice to stay there all day!  Anyway - that pretty much is how Oregon is doing right now.

I was a bit heartbroken last week.  We showed up to the farmer's market ready to get more strawberries for me to can this time...but the rain the week before had ruined any that were left for the picking.  We hoarded on the raspberries instead and I canned (for the first time) 15 jars of raspberry jam.  Yum!  Now it's time to start experimenting with the different berries now that we have the staples of jam done. :)

We decided to go visit the Japanese Gardens in Portland last Friday.  The library here has a sweet pass to visit some of the great museums and gardens here in Oregon - so we decided to test out the Japanese Gardens.  Of course we decided to go on one of the hottest days ever!  At first we were embarrassed of our sweat stains...then we looked around and everyone else was sweaty too - sorted!  We hiked up to the gardens, and after about 10 minutes of trying to keep Ross on the path and not IN the gardens, we found the Koi fish.  He was good the rest of the time.  If we wanted to go somewhere else we'd just tell Ross "Let's go find more fish!" and he'd get on going. :)  Don't worry - we only duped him a few times and let him see the fish again at the end.  It was actually very calming.  They keep all the gardens and greenery down to human scale "so as not to overwhelm the human spirit" and make you feel at one with nature.  They had fascinating little fountains as well.  It would be a great place to go and relax - I told Steve we should go on a date there sometime - it's quite soothing.

Love my boys :)

The Koi fish...$1000 each - seriously?!

Daddy and Ruby hangin' out watching the fish.

Love my cute boy in a baseball cap.

 

Looking for more fish. :)

Ross LOVED the stairs through the natural gardens.  He counted all of them and walked them all by himself...twice!  Since we couldn't take the stroller, Steve and I each took a turn going through them.

A Ruby red rose

 
We had some lunch, and took a quick peek at the Rose Test Gardens.  I can't get over the sweet smell of all the roses there that hit you the second you walk in them.  Ruby - our little trooper - was starting to lose it since we robbed her of a decent nap that day - so we headed home and let her finally have one.  It was quite a fun day.  I love exploring Oregon.  I'm so not done with it yet. :)

Love me a cute baby in a bed. :)

Sparkly :)

Cute flower girl

Ruby trying out the johnny jump up. :)  Ross was a little jealous.

Trying to keep cool - diaper style!

Sunday Steve was teaching a class, as was I, so to sweeten the deal, cookies needed to be baked.  Ross was extremely excited to help.  He did pretty much all the dumping of ingredients and cracking of the eggs.  We were very proud of the finished product. :)  

Excited to get some baking done!

 

Watchin' it mix

This apron is too cute - especially with this cute boy in nothin' but a diaper. :)

Still masculine in the apron - showing the muscles!

A little flour escaped. :)

Have a cookie! :)

In the update department, Ruby is now saying "dadadadada" all the time now.  I've tried to get her to say "mama," but "dada" is the way to go.  She's so adorable.  She has rice cereal or oatmeal  three times a day now and does really well with the spoon if she's paying attention (still Quasimodo style though - haha).  We broke out the high chair since she has joined Ross in the "legs too chubby for the Bumbo" club.  She gets stuck and doesn't like sitting in it for very long.  She does much better in the high chair.  If she's been awake too long, she's very unhappy going to sleep, but if you get her at just the right time - she goes down like a dream.  

Ross continues to be hilarious.  We're attempting to get him familiar with the whole "potty" idea.  We got him a little potty chair which he likes to sit on if his pants are on...but doesn't want to take them off in the slightest.  I got a bunch of books from the library - they even have a "book kit" complete with dvd to try and get him excited about it.  He likes to let us know when he poops and wants to be changed right then - but doesn't want to go in the toilet in any way.   Hmmmm - this will be interesting.  
He likes to sing lots of songs, play with his trains, building tunnels for them to go through, and bounce the ball outside with his daddy.  I love seeing him with his hat on, a ball under his arm, saying "Come on Dad, Come on!" It's too cute.  He has dance parties with me and Ruby.  He is her biggest comedian I think.  We cannot get her to laugh like he can.  She LOVES watching him - it's hilarious!  

Steve got a pretty sweet stethoscope for his birthday, it finally came.  He looked like a kid on Christmas - he immediately took all of our pulses, heart rates, and listened to our breathing....multiple times.  So fun.  We've finally got a chore/dinner chart in order and have been pretty good at keeping it so far.  It's nice to have some order in our house. :)  So life is still good in the Whitehouse.  :)