Family Portraits

family shot

 It was time. The last family portraits we had done Grace was bald and sitting on my lap. So we headed in to Portrait Innovations and got the quick package.

Hayden was obsessed with the frame - I think this is a must for Gabe & Maureen's upcoming wedding.

Hayden & Grace

Grace wasn't up for sitting still or humoring the photographer, but she was all about the boas. Thank goodness Hayden was up for it.

Family Photo Attempts

Breakfast with Santa

The Burke clan met up with the Busy Bee Bunch for breakfast with the world's tallest Santa Claus! No joke, Miss Kris & Miss Helen Barely made it to Santa's chest! It was a seven foot tall Santa! But, that made my big boys seem just the right size to be sitting on Santa's lap.

Bayley made sure to keep it simple for Santa - boy DS games, and anything Star Wars. Hayden...decided he does not believe in Santa. He figures, it's probably just mom & dad anyway. and he decided to tell this to our friends' five-year-old. Luckily, she told him to watch himself, or he'd wind up with coal.

Jingle the Elf was there making balloon animals for all the kiddos. What did the boys opt for? swords. In Jedi colors of course. And then a sword fight broke out with some of the other kiddos. Between impromptu balloon fencing and Santa belief killing...I'm not sure we'll be invited back next year!

One of my personal highlights was a pic of the Busy Bee alum with Santa. It always warms my heart to see these kids still friends.

Grace was not interested in Santa or his elves. She did manage to ask Santa for candy...and got a candy cane for her efforts. Maybe next year she'll be ready for it.

Crater Lake : Hiking

We did as much hiking as we could while at Crater Lake. Much more than my heel would have allowed just a few weeks ago - thank you cortisone!

The hike down to take the boat tour was our first. When the ranger said Cleetwood Clove Trail was one mile down and 5 miles up, he wasn't joking! (actual distance 2.2 miles) It was quite steep in places, but earned it's moderate rating because of all the switchbacks.

Bayley is a champion hiker, waiting at the trailhead for the rest of us. Jeff was next, even with 30+ pounds of girl on his back. Hayden and I...we enjoyed the view and he scavenged snacks from the other hikers.

After we recovered, we drove the rim and took in more exploring. Lady of the Woods is an easy trail behind the Steel Visitor Center. The highlight is a sculpture of a woman carved right into one of the giant boulders scattered by the volcano blast. Grace did this .5 mile hike on her own.

Vidae Falls was fantastic. I had a hard time believing it was completely natural. It looked designed for the most splash possible.

Next we treked up Sun Notch for views of Phantom Ship. The views were great...and scary. No guard rail! We tucked a sleepy Grace in the backpack for this .5 mile hike , but she perked right up as soon as she saw that blue, blue water. It was bright blue! We also spotted bear and wolf tracks! Bears have seriously big paws.

Our final hike was Watchman Peak, another moderate/strenuous like Cleetwood Cove. After the less than stellar performance of...well, me & Hayden, I wasn't so sure it was the best choice for us. Still, Jeff encouraged us to go since it's shorter (1.6 miles) and does the uphill first, instead of 2nd.

I'm not saying it didn't earn it's rating, but it was better than the first one. See that little lookout tower way on the top? That's where we went. The view was amazing.

We even managed to get a family photo!

Family Photo Attempts

We're not the best at this...

Mother's Day, Part Two

We headed up to Grandma Bobbie's and Grandpa Bills for Mother's Day dinner and a mini-celebration of Grace's birthday (tomorrow) and mine (next weekend) with Cold Stone ice cream cake! YUM!

Hayden brought home a Star Student poster and needed a family picture...but we don't have any. You may recall what happened when we tried to get one at Christmas. So, we made another attempt, with much the same results.





I left my camera up there, sut Gram-mo got a new camera for mother's day, so I was able to snag a few pics off her SD card :D

See What I Mean!?!

Grandpa Bill tried to get a family picture for us...and this was the level of cooperation our brood showed up with. Bayley was trying to do bunny ears behind Jeff, Jeff was trying to get him to knock it off and keep Grace in his lap, Grace was trying to run away, I had to hold Hayden's head in place...I think we're a pretty cute bunch, but we sure don't photograph that way! It's giving me flashbacks of my plan to do a picture of all three kids on our change of address cards. You know, the ones I never sent out.