Along the Columbia River

A few weekends ago, we ventured out to explore more of our new home. We went to a beautiful park along the Vancouver waterfront, where there are many restaurants and opportunities to go out on the water. Gorgeous! It was a warm, sunny day, and Emilio's family was up for a visit. After walking along for a bit, we stopped and grabbed a bite from a hot dog vendor. Yum! Everyone was out enjoying the day, bikers, people walking their dogs, roller bladers. We felt right at home!

Neftali, Jonathan (cousin) and Solomon. Note the big ship passing
in the background. It's carrying a huge shipment of sand.

Beautiful sunny day

The bridge between Oregon and Washington

Solomon being coy - don't let it fool you! :)

The Columbia River "beach" with a hint of
Mt. Hood in the background

Yummy hot dogs!

Daddy's helper

Nefty is such a little helper! Now that Liam is getting so big and strong,
Nefty can help daddy give him his bottle.

School

The school year is in full swing. It's hard to believe that September is almost over. But is also a relief, since the first month of school is loaded with late evenings at school - and LOTS of meetings! The kids have already won me over, and I am eager to move forward into the adventures of second grade with them!

I am very blessed to teach at Sarah J Anderson Elementary. The enrollment is approximately 750 students! Huge for an elementary school! About half of those students are in the dual language program, and half in the regular ed program. The school is basically 4 times as large as the school I taught at in Eugene, so needless to say, there are many adjustments for me to make regarding the building, procedures, moving around, and other things in addition to the large number of students! But the staff is great and I feel very much at home. And I think I'm finally getting my classroom the way I want it... maybe. :)

Now to start preparing for conferences - only one month away!

Church Picnic

Our church has an annual picnic on Labor Day weekend, and since we're new to the congregation, we thought we'd go check things out (and hopefully meet some people). We caught the 9 o'clock service Sunday morning, headed home to rest up and prepare a picnic meal, and then headed to Lewisville Park in Battle Ground, Washington. Battle Ground is a town about 20 minutes north of us, in a beautiful country setting.

Liam is thoroughly enjoying the music at the picnic.
If you look close enough, you can almost see his two bottom teeth!

I must say, I have three handsome little men! (and one handsome MAN!)

Nefty's practicing his soccer moves. He has his "soccer face" on.

Me trying to get a pic of the worship band that blessed us with great music while folks munched, played games, and chatted with each other.

Solomon, a.k.a. The Cookie Monster


We showed up too late to catch the water baptisms in the river (bummer), but were there just in time to hear the results of the church bake off. I'm going to have to start planning for what I'll enter next year (definitely not my chocolate cookies, though my boys don't seem to mind that they're not perfect).

As new additions to the congregation, we don't know many people. We were enjoying the beauty of our surroundings, but yearning to make connections with some other young families. And God is so faithful! A gal, Anna, came over to us with whom both Emilio and I had talked to briefly before. She re-introduced herself and her husband and 7 1/2 month old son. She also introduced her dad, who interestingly enough, was born in Guatemala to missionary parents! Then we met the pianist, his wife and three sons. He, Jason, is an avid soccer fan and his sons all play. God just plain blessed our socks off, knowing how much we wanted to meet people, but also how scary it can be to go and introduce yourself to unfamiliar faces. Right when we started to become discouraged, He sent Anna to encourage us. God is good - ALL THE TIME!

Family time

While we enjoy the last few days before I go back to school, we decided to visit the Portland Saturday Market. We frequented the Eugene version (mostly for the delicious food!), and wow! The Portland market is 3 or 4 times as big! Lots of vendors, lots of food, music, and all along the beautiful waterfront. What a great day we had! I tried to catch a few images of the market and our time there, but didn't quite come out with what I wanted.




One of the many bridges along the Portland Waterfront

This guy was frozen until a person or group of people came along.
Then he would move like a robot. Pretty cool to watch.

Walking back to the car. As you can see, Nefty was pretty wiped out.
And Solomon is hiding behind daddy in the backpack.

There he is...

While we enjoy the last few days before I go back to school, we decided to visit the Portland Saturday Market. We frequented the Eugene version (mostly for the delicious food!), and wow! The Portland market is 3 or 4 times as big! Lots of vendors, lots of food, music, and all along the beautiful waterfront. What a great day we had! I tried to catch a few images of the market and our time there, but didn't quite come out with what I wanted.

My little drummer boys

My husband has a proclivity to want to learn every instrument there is, including the guitar, harmonica and drum to name a few. He brought a djembe drum home with him from Guatemala, and has been teaching the boys a few rhythms.


Practicing the rhythm for "Another One Bites the Dust"

Of course, Liam wants to bang too...

Demonstrating his sitting skills as well as his rhythm abilities
(with dad behind him just in case)

No, he's not grumpy. He's concentrating while he plays along
with a latin song (reggaeton is popular in our house)

Still concentrating...

Liam is waiting his turn... and supportively chewing on the drum rope while Nefty plays

My new classroom, part 1

Windows that look out to the hallway in front of my classroom

Look to the front of the room. My desk is off to the left,
paired with a nice, large bookshelf and file cabinet.

Looking from the classroom door to the outside.
A nice view of a little patch of country. The wall off to the left (with the white board) collapes to unite my room with my partner teacher's room for large group activites. Pretty neat!

Another perspective of the space from my desk. It's a great room, clean and newer.
Soon it will be filled with 24 students!

I cannot believe that I am going to have students in my room next Wednesday! Needless to say, I have been working busily (as has my husband!) trying to get my room in order. It takes much longer than you might realize, especially when you want to be prepared and organized with some activities right off the bat, as well as certain classroom systems (attendance, library) that students ideally can manage themselves. We already had back-to-school night last week, and my room was almost finished... but not quite. Of my 24 students, 18 showed up with their parents! What a great turn out, and a great way to start the year!

These are a few of the "before" pics - stay tuned for the "after"!