The Grass Family Chronicles

Posted in: on Friday, December 25, 2009 at at 8:09 PM 2 comments  

This year, we took a trip to Zurbrugg Farms to get our Christmas tree. Our contractor, Roy Zurbrugg, own the farm with his brother and promised that customers get free trees! Grandma and Grandpa needed a tree, so they tagged along. Paul spotted their tree right away, but we needed to check out some other ones, just to make sure. It took a little longer to find ours, but eventually we had two perfect trees cut and ready to go. Grandma brought some hot chocolate for afterwards.

Posted in: on Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at at 11:13 AM 2 comments  

Paul and I got back from Maui last week, where we had a lovely vacation and ran the Maui Marathon.

Here we are before the 5:30AM marathon start:



And after, when it was really hot out!



We had an amazing vacation, which I may go into detail at a later date, but since the title of this post is "Marathons", I better stick to the subject at hand. Today was the Portland Marathon, and Paul being the crazy guy that he is, decided that he wanted to run this one, too. Only two weeks after Maui! Our friend Chris was kind enough to join him.



Since it was a rare occasion that I wasn't running with Paul, the boys and I went out to the course to cheer them on.



I had mapped it all out exactly, so we were able to make four stops along the course. We had lots of fun!

And here are the victorious runners at the finish line:

Posted in: on Sunday, October 4, 2009 at at 8:46 PM 3 comments  

*I was supposed to post this last week before we left!*

Caleb and Andy are both back to school. I am so happy to say that they are both enjoying themselves! I haven't had to nag Caleb about school at all! Here are some pictures of their first day.

Posted in: on Saturday, September 19, 2009 at at 12:30 PM 4 comments  

Posted in: on Friday, September 4, 2009 at at 6:10 PM 1 comments  

We took a couple camping trips this month. The first one was a quick overnight trip to Champoeg State Park. We took the tent trailer and it was a great time! It's not the most private kind of camping, but there are great loops that the boys really enjoyed riding their bikes around. All the boys also played some very intense rounds of Uno.



A couple weekends later, we went to the church camp out at Beaverly Beach State Park. There were tons of friends to play with, and Andy and Gracie played many games of Uno (Uno is very big in our house this summer!)



There there was also the bonus of being right next to the beach so we enjoyed some sand and surf and surprisingly mild weather.



Camping just continues to be more fun as the boys get older; they've been asking to go again already! We may be able to squeeze one more trip out before the summer ends...

Posted in: on Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at at 8:58 PM 1 comments  

Well, I have lots to catch up on! I will be posting camping trips, more beach pics, and other fun summer activities that we've been doing, but first I want to share the pictures from our family photo session. We went with a different look this year; what do you think?

Blue Lily Photography
go to the client section, password is "anna grass"

Posted in: on Monday, August 17, 2009 at at 2:51 PM 5 comments  

I am out of order here, but I realized that I never posted about the 4th of July! And I want to make sure you see the great pictures! :)

We had a fun BBQ at Grandma and Grandpa's - all the aunts and uncles were there! Afterwards, we did some sparklers as a warm-up for the big show that would take place at our cul-de-sac later that evening.





When it got a little darker, Paul started lighting our Costco-size batch of fireworks. The boys were enthralled!




Some of them were a little loud for Jakey.



It was a great time for everyone!

Posted in: on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at at 9:05 PM 2 comments  

Under Paul's coaching, Mindy has been training to run in a race and today was the big day. We all went to Mt. Tabor Park to support her as she ran the Mt. Tabor Doggie Challenge. So we don't have a dog - who cares? Mindy did an awesome job; she ran the whole way and finished with a great time! There was also a 1/2 mile kid's fun run, so we had signed the boys up to try it out. All of them. It was an interesting experience.





Caleb and Andy took off (Caleb with Paul, Andy with Mindy) and they ran the whole way, a lot faster than we had anticipated! Jakey was not into it.



He only ran the first bit because I started to run and he was chasing me to carry him. Oh, well. Maybe next year!

Posted in: on Saturday, July 18, 2009 at at 7:36 PM 4 comments  

Posted in: on Wednesday, July 15, 2009 at at 7:11 AM 1 comments  

I've come to realize that we're not the type of people that can laze around the house. In theory, it sounds amazing, but in reality we just can't do it. Paul took a week off of work, and during that week, we went to a parade, spent 3 days at the beach, went berry picking, fishing, spent a mommy/daddy evening at Edgefield and did a triathlon. Oh, and Paul taught Caleb and Andy how to ride their bikes without training wheels. But, I digress. Right now I want to talk about fishing. Caleb and a brief introduction to fishing on his school field trip, and had been asking about it on and off since then, so on a bright, sunny morning we headed to Horning's Hideout. It was a great place for us!



We had gotten the older boys fishing poles a couple years ago, but hadn't really used them, and Caleb and Andy are just the right size for them now! Mommy was freaking out about Jakey being in the near vicinity of flying fish hooks, but we all survived and managed to have a wonderful time.



Andy seemed to get easily discouraged when he didn't catch fish right away, but in the end he caught a small one and a bigger one.



Caleb was the lucky fisherman of the day; he caught three fish! And of course, Mommy caught the big fish of the day. Poor Paul was stuck putting the worms on the hook, casting, and taking care of the fish when we caught them so he came up with nothing. And Jakey? Well, he basically ran around and almost gave Mommy a heart attack as he almost fell into the pond numerous times, and don't even get me started on the fish hooks!

Posted in: on at at 7:07 AM 3 comments  

Clarke, Lorne and Christine were just here for a visit. It's been three years, which is more than Jakey's lifetime, so they hadn't met him yet. Our boys were a little shy at first, but quickly warmed up to them. Clarke and Lorne are probably the nicest people they've ever met! They played board games and, I think Caleb's favorite, hide and seek. Caleb was so sad to see them go. He cried himself to sleep and has been carrying a little photo album with their pictures.

Posted in: on Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at at 12:35 PM 1 comments  

While we were at the beach house, there was actually a day that was semi-nice for us to go play in the sand. It was windy, as usual, but not too cold. The boys LOVE the beach. It's quite a change from a couple years ago when they would freak out about it! Caleb concentrated on making a huge castle. Poor boy was so upset when Jakey would crush his buildings, but he was very nice about it and just put up more towers.



Jakey enjoyed getting buried in the sand.




Andy was really into playing t-ball and spent most of his time runnning around and hitting the ball.



We had a great time, and the boys are already asking to go back again!

Posted in: on Friday, July 10, 2009 at at 2:31 PM 2 comments  

There's been so much going on that I forgot to post about Caleb's birthday! For the first time, we had a birthday party at a place other than out house. Caleb had gone to Pump It Up for a school friend's birthday party during the winter, and he was determined to have his party there as well. So, we invited all his friends and had a crazy, good time! We spend 40 minutes in the first bounce house room, then 40 minutes in the second one. It was pretty bad lighting so I don't have any pictures to share, but believe me when I say there was lots of energy in that place! After the kids were all worn out we went into another room that was set up for cake and presents. With the help of our wonderful neighbor Claudia, I made an ice cream sandwich cake and it was a big hit! Claudia did the amazing chocolate wording in Star Wars font.





There were 23 kids there, so there were lots of presents to open. It was really too much, but Caleb sure enjoyed it!



It was a great day, and I know that I sure loved coming home to a clean house! :)

Posted in: on at at 2:30 PM 1 comments  

The beachhouse we stayed at was right next to a golf course, so Paul and the boys would sneak onto the course to work on their game when the coast was clear.

Posted in: on Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at at 10:46 AM 0 comments  

We went to the beach with all the Grass family- Grandma, Grandpa, Peggy & her family, Michael & Becky, even Lorne, Clark, and Christine! Had a great time and I will post some pictures for you all. Here's one of Jakey relaxing at the beach house and watching Buzz Lightyear on his iPod. :)

Posted in: on at at 10:43 AM 2 comments