Multnoma Falls

We moved to Washington about 10 years ago. We love it. We love the fact that on a clear day you can see mountains in just about every directions. As much as we adore living here, we haven't taken advantage of all the amazing places we have access to. Many of our friends take regular trips to the mountains to go skiing or travel a few miles to some hidden cabin in the woods. Our family has taken a number of road trips to Portland and it is a great escape from our regular lives.
Trey had a show in Portland he needed to go to which would've meant he'd be gone for a big chunk of our weekend. So we asked Andrew if he could watch the dogs and loaded up the kids and their swim suits and took a last minute overnight trip down I5. Trey thought it might be fun to drive a little bit further and stop off to see Multnomah Falls on our way into Portland. I'm so glad he did. Despite my fear of heights, we trekked up the path towards the bridge that looks straight at the water fall. It was beautiful. I gave August a chance to take some pictures, and then Hazel took her turn. It wasn't a long trip, but it was at the perfect time.

Portland

The kids had another long weekend so we took the short drive to Portland for the night. I love handing the camera over to see what they see when we walk around new cities.
We started the day at Stumptown where we had warm drinks and good treats.

Then we walked down to Powell's and saw many interesting sights along the way:

Hazel headed right for her "just right books" and picked 3 to read to me...I love Dr. Seuss and the confidence his books have given my daughter.

Trey was happy to introduce us to VooDoo Doughnuts...he and the kids thought they were great...I thought they were sick.

Bang, Clang all over again!

I feel like the new year has finally begun. The kids are back into their school routines. They wake up pretty ok during the school week and get right to homework after school. The snack drawer is full and they help themselves when they're hungry...life is good.

Some updates:
The bathroom is pretty much done...we're still waiting on a custom mirror but the sinks are done and boy do they look good. I'll post pictures when it all comes together.

The Fleet Foxes are playing Saturday Night Live this weekend...and Trey and I are going to New York to see them live! Holy cow, I'm so excited I can not stop thinking about it.

We've begun some more remodeling on the house. The basement was semi-finished when we moved in...there was carpeting and the walls were finished but it hasn't been very usable because there's a huge heater down there. Trey has envisioned another great extreme makeover...the room that we were using as a junk room will now be a real bedroom. We'll have the TV in this room too which will make it much easier to hear having it far away from the heater.
So out of town friends and family...you'll have a nice place to crash soon at the Many house.

It was the summer of 2008

I feel like I owe you all so much after being away from the computer for so long. We've done so much this summer, here are some sneak peeks into all our comings and goings:
We did a bit of shopping.
Celebrated our 10 year anniversary.
Took the kids out to eat.
Finally saw the flamingo's.
Went to the dog park a bunch.
Got henna tattoo's at a street fair.
Saw some movies.
Had a picnic or two.
Recorded a song.
Celebrated Jonah's birthday.
Ate some Top Pot.
Had friends over.
Went swimming with Jonah again.
And Again!
Visited family.
Saw Uncle Justin in a whole new light.
Went to Sasquatch!
Got our nails done!!
Went on trips.
Slept on planes.
Cheered for Aunt Kathleen.
Celebrated Rosie.
Had Royal over.
Spent some alone time.
Went to Mexico.

Read a ton of books.Celebrated Sub Pop.
Celebrated the Shoop wedding.Watched Nicole sing.
Ate some GOOOOOD food.

And that's just part of what we've done. I still have to get the pictures from our trip to North Carolina and Michigan. But this is all I can get through now. I'm looking forward to the kids coming home so we can get everything ready for the school year. Hazel in 1st and August in 4th! We have school clothes to buy and lists of school supplies to tick off.
I'll post more memories as they flood my computer.
I have some pictures from the Shoop wedding up at this website:
http://gallery.me.com/jennifermany
Feel free to poke around.

Thanksgiving Day

we went on this trip for 2 reasons...one was that Trey's mom is celebrating her 60th birthday party here, the other is that, well...it's thanksgiving and Trey has family out here.

part of thanksgiving day was spent at Trey's aunt's house:

now this house is amazing.  the land is kind of out there on the outskirts of Baton Rouge.  there's a pond out front that reportedly has hosted a few gators.  we ventured out to see if we could see any eyes poking out of the water but couldn't see a thing:

on our way back to the house we were greeted by this little beast:

Shawn made some killer jambalaya:

and Trey was oh-so-happy to eat his fair share:

he may have eaten Hazel and August's share as well...they didn't really know what to make of the spicy food:

at least she looks good pretending to be a Cajun: