Snow this week

We had two fun days with some snow. Monday it was more icy than snowy. The strange thing is my parents are at about 200 feet and had more snow than we did at 336 feet. But that changed on Wednesday when we had lots more than they did. Thankfully it still melted early so driving wasn't bad at all. It was pretty while it lasted though. And of course Riley was not happy that it was gone so quickly. haha Here are two photos.

Monday. I took several photos and stitched them together, then did a little processing in Photoshop to give it this neat look.

















Wednesday. Again I took several photos from Maddie's room and stitched them together to make this panorama.

Portland Auto Show

update: Photos are now on Flickr.

We went to the Auto Show today. Nothing terribly exciting or thrilling. Some neat/cool cars, some blah cars, and a lot that were nice. But the kids really had a great time. We let them get in as many cars as we could. They wanted to sit in every car and we were getting tired after only making it through about a quarter of the show. I got some good photos of cars and them in the cars that I'll post to Flickr sometime soon.

We did have fun going through the Motorcycle area. Riley and Maddie had a blast sitting on the ATV's. We went into the everyday motorcycle section and within 10 minutes had horrible headaches. They had a DJ playing rap-ish type music with HUGE bass that was way too loud and just didn't sound good. We couldn't talk normally, had to raise our voices and it was just not fun. I really wanted to find someone in charge to tell them how horrible that was, but decided it wouldn't do any good, that one person wouldn't matter and they'd just say, "Ya, they were some old farts who don't know music and motorcycles." Well, the kids had fun anyhow.

The exotic cars were fun, though you couldn't sit in them which sucked. I mean sure, I'm never going to own a $300,000 car, but it would be fun to at least sit in one. Oh well, it was a fun day. Now we're just waiting until Sept when the 2009 Honda Fit comes out so we can get one from Larry Miller Honda - dealing with Pattie Brown the internet sales person who's AWESOME!

Don't Watch Me...

Maddie has really gotten into dancing. She used to just sit quietly and watch the Wiggles, Doodlebops, and other shows. But now she wants to dance to the music - and she's started singing some of the words.

The other day I was watching her dance. She saw me, stopped, and said, "Don't watch me, Daddy." I said ok, turned away, then turned back. She caught me and said it again. But with a smile. Recently she was at my parents and did the same thing.

So that's her new thing now. Dancing to the music, but you can't watch her do it. LOL!

Fun with Riley at Wunderland

Last night Marci and Maddie went to go spend some time with her sister. This left Riley and I to find something to do. We started by playing in his room and having fun with cars, then left for Wunderland.

It was great because it was almost empty. we didn't have to wait for a game to become available. We played a few games where you get the tickets you can exchange for stuff, but spent most of our time (and money) playing driving and shooting games. The driving games were ok, but the shooting games were a blast!

They were two player games where we worked together to fight the bad guys. When I'd die, I'd quickly feed four more nickels into the machine so I could keep playing. When Riley would die, I'd hand him my guy and feed more nickels in so he could keep playing. We spent most of our $10 in nickels on those games. It was a great time!

We got a few tickets, but not enough to get anything. Riley said next time we need to get THREE bags of nickels - one for the games where you move the giant claw and hope to grab something, one for the shooting games, and one for the games that give you tickets. LOL! Talk about a really fantastic time.

Marci said she and Maddie had a lot of fun too. They went to Ikea, but only had about 30 minutes to look around and they might go back Saturday. That's fine with Riley and I, more time for us at Wunderland! :)

Another icy morning

More ice this morning on the drive in, though not as bad as yesterday. Well, not as bad weather-wise. This morning we couldn't see the ice - black ice - so people figured, "I can't see it so it must not be there," and decided to drive fast again. Yesterday people were respectful and kept a safe distance behind me. Today I had people right on my tail all the way to work. Watching the news before I left I noticed more accidents today.

Yo, moron's, just because you can't SEE the ice doesn't mean it's not there! geez...

Icy drive in

This morning there was some ice on the roads. It wasn't that bad, but after listening to the news and walking on our street, I decided to wait an hour before leaving. Instead of leaving at 6:15am, I left at 7:15am.

Our street was pretty icy, but I managed to get out. Several times my brain would say, "This is stupid! Turn around! Go home and wait until it warms up!" I would have to remind my brain that the side roads are always the worst and I was reserving the decision to drive in until I was on a main road. My brain wasn't happy about this until I got to the main road. It was MUCH better. When I finally got to a very busy road, it was pretty much all gone, just a few patches here and there.

Whew!

The most surprising thing to me was people behind me were actually at a safe distance! Normally I've got at least one person on my butt really close, but this time everyone stayed back. Very weird. Could Oregonians actually be learning how to drive in bad weather? Nawwww, I must have just had some freaks behind me. haha

I have Play-Doh in my diaper!

Maddie was running around this morning saying, "I have Play-Doh in my diaper". I thought she meant she had a poopie diaper, calling the poop Play-Doh. Nope, she had taken a full jar of Play-Doh and put it in her diaper alright. Why? Why not! hahaha

p.s. A Christmas recap post will come soon, photos are on Flickr.