Wednesday Scrimmage

The Xtreme scrimmaged Hillsboro last night in a very boring game - I quit watching the score after it was 2-0 and apparent that Mali's team would win easily. There was time for a lot of nice passing, so hopefully they learned something.
Andrew got to be one of the linesman. Here he is leaping into the stands to hang with us at halftime.

Soccer Weekend - With Austin

Lots of soccer this weekend - Mali had 2 games each day. They ended up second in their group, but lost their playoff game 5-0 today to the Hotspurs, who they lost to 5-1 in their last tournament. We brought Austin along today, which made it a lot more social and fun in the crazy rain and sun. Moose helped with that too, though he really wanted to play some soccer with the girls.


The neighbors are back from their after-school trips: Pablo&fam from their SF trip for the Roger Waters concert, and Dave, Gail, & Kelsey returned from their Alaskan cruise. We had an amazing dinner at Paul and Nancy's tonight - a smoked roast with a mushroom-pepper sauce, and an incredible Pinot Noir from their horseback winery trip.

Here's a photo of Mali from last weekend's tournament, during a game.

House of Glue

I think I'm tripping...
We're getting a new countertop in the guest bathroom, and sinks and faucets, etc. The guys are installing it now, and the whole house smells like glue.
I'll post a photo when they're finished.

High School Soccer

Andrew had fun at his first Southridge soccer practice, at least at the ending scrimmage. Moose and I stayed and watched, and Andrew looked good. The entire team, freshman - varsity, is together at these practices. There were about 25 kids there last night. It's nice that his friends Kyle and Eric are also playing. We can carpool with them, as well as Kyle's neighbor Harrison (a Sophomore.) The coach is young and energetic, and I've heard good things about the whole program. I hope Andrew likes it. Thursday will be fun, they are scrimmaging Westview.
We're also looking into Southridge swimming - apparently there is a summer swim program for the Southridge Swim team. Andrew is very interested in that.

Sports start for Summer

Dance is over, but swim team started Monday - every weekday morning from 9:00 to 10:00.
Today is Andrew's first soccer practice for Southridge H.S.
Mali also has soccer practice tonight, after a short hiatus.

Here they are, just after walking home from swimming yesterday:

Busy Weekend!

Crazy, busy weekend: Talent show, dance rehearsal, grandparents arrival, fence repair, crazy dinner, dance recital, bathroom remodel, Frisbee golf, dinner, and hot tub!

Friday was the last day of school, and Mali's talent show. She did a fun, short dance with Lauren and Rachel. I walked up to see it with Nancy, Zoë, and Hannah. After school Mali and Rachel went to Lauren's for dinner, then Mali had the dress rehearsal for her dance recital, then returned to Lauren's for a sleepover. We couldn't find her leotard for the rehearsal, so she faked it and Saturday Susy took her to get a new one after we tore the house apart and couldn't find it. It still hasn't turned up.
Saturday morning I sealed the grout on the new tile in the guest bathroom just in time for our guests. I quickly put Grandpa to work taking out the tree in the backyard and fixing the fence. We had a little help from the neighbors.
Then we picked up Zoë, went downtown to drop them off at the Newmark Theater, and went to dinner at Oliver Twist's across the street. Our food finally came about the time the show was starting, but we only missed half of the introductory filmstrip about the history of the Billings Dance Academy. And we got our food for free - if you don't count all the anxiety it induced.
Mali and Zoë did great at the dance - Mali seemed to be front and center for most of the routine. We also got to see Lilly, and Brenna seemed to be in half of the 30 routines.
Sunday was very busy, as I had Grandpa instruct me (while doing most of it!) how to install the wainscoting/beadboard in the downstairs bathroom, along with the sink and new toilet. Such a great guy I am to put him to work on Father's Day! He was great, but I tired him out. I tired me out too.
After they left for their long drive home I cleaned up a little and we all went to McMenamin's Grand Lodge in Forest Grove for Frisbee golf and to meet Paul&Family for dinner and to crash in the wonderful Japanese Soaking Pool there. The frisbee was great: Susy had Mali rolling on the ground over her first few frustrated frisbee throws. We were all amazed at Andrew as he managed to perfectly land his frisbee very gently at the very top of a very tall tree. He was a little sad after breaking his sunglasses tossing them down while climbing, but he recovered.

More photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/oregondad/
Susy talks Andrew into smiling:


Andrew in the Japanese Soaking Pool:

Dance Recital at Newmark Theater, Downtown Portland:

Nancy Ryles Talent Show, the last day of school:

Rocio's Birthday

Pablo took the usual suspects to Benihana's to celebrate Rocio's birthday. Then we came home and ate Alana's delicious chocolate-Bailey's cake with Pablo's homemade vanilla ice cream!
Here's the kids at Benihana's from my cellphone:

And here's Zoë and Mali back home:

Rocio after blowing out candles:

Last week of school

I'm in Redmond, so secondhand news:
Mali had her bowling trip yesterday - a reward for being a school ambassador all year.
Andrew has his math final: multiple choice and it takes two days - he's way over half done. It won't count for him anyway - he already has a 98 or 99% and it will only count for people on the border of some grade.
Susy's working from home today while the guest bathroom gets finished, just in time for the grandparent's visit this weekend.

Last night in Redmond I got to check out Dalton and his friend Andrew on their Green Machines, which I hadn't seen before. David is recovering from gum surgery so watched with Eric while Susan, Allison and I drank wine on the driveway while all the kids tore around the cul-de-sac on various vehicle types. Then Susan whipped up a delicious sausage stir fry for the grownups, and David and I played 3-Dragon Ante.

Mali Scores Two!

Mali played forward for the last five minutes of the game today, touched the ball four times, and scored two goals! She looked like a natural, but again they were playing a U-11 team, and they won 7-0. I was trying out my new lens, but of course missed her actual shots. Here's the celebration after her first goal. Sadly, I also missed the excited hand-flapping immediately afterwards - but only with the camera. I won't be forgetting the image of her turning around in shock, screaming and flapping her hands with excitement while running to the middle of the field to be mobbed by teammates:

Here she is, JUST before booting in Tessia's cross for her second goal:

Here's the celebration for goal 2:

And here's my happy girl after the game:

Mali's Soccer Style

Mali forgot her red uniform top, so had to wear a penny along with the new girls who don't have a uniform yet. But no one else had the stylish striped undershirt or the pink socks! Pippi Longstocking was mentioned. The exceedingly stylish outfit was caused by the return of February: It was COLD! It rained hard on their morning game and Mali was a ferocious wet rat. The weather was slightly better (less rain) for the afternoon game. They won them both against U-11 teams. Last night they lost 5-1 to the U-12 team that was third in the state.
From my cell phone, this is Mali's outfit and their home field - a very nice and new turf field at Aloha High School.

New Bathroom 2

Nothing is ever easy, is it? The nice lady at Macadam Carpet and Flooring, who was so quick to reassure us that she would take care of everything, neglected to order enough of the pretty blue tiles that go in the white tile squares. THEN she agreed to have the rest of them FedExed to us so we could get it done this week, and promptly forgot. After I called to ask about them, her manager called me back to apologize, and to say they would be delivered Saturday. Poor Kaupo had to pack up his stuff and will return Monday.

Anniversary!

Number 20! We found our way through the middle of the Rose Festival to the Spirit of Portland for dinner and cruise up the Willamette. Very fun, but roads were closed, which led to Susy running down streets in her bare feet, high heels in hand. No photo of that, but here she is fully recovered.

More:
The Rose Festival gave us some interesting sites. Here's one: a Naval dual on the Willamette.

Three-Dragon Ante

David got me into this crazy game, and I bought it for Andrew's birthday. When Mali left for dance practice last night, Susy decided she'd play a game with us. She played slow while she sorted out the rules, and beat us both easily.

New Bathroom 1

Kaupo is upstairs now with his man Jimmy, demolishing the kid's bathroom floor. Tomorrow they will lay tile. Soon a new countertop will complete the transformation - Randy came today and took measurements.

Sunday Barbecues

Andrew had Kyle over and I snuck in a game of 3-dragon ante with them. Mali had friends Rachel and Dana over, and they washed the car and I took them to the pool for a couple of hours.
Later, Andrew went to a barbecue with Austin, and we threw one at our house for the usual suspects except for Paul, who had already left for California. Andrew was missed, and Matias and Ryan were forced to play Xbox without him. Hannah, Zoë and Mali had fun with Moose, Max, and Tinkerbelle running around the yard, though Tinkerbell got the neighbor dogs all worked up and we had to keep them away from the fence. Andrew came home just as folks were leaving, and we fed him a hot dog and some cake.
Mali poses while washing the car. Click to expand and see the rest of Rachel.

Gengar watches Andrew Text. He had been ducking the camera, texting distracted him long enough for me to capture him.

Rembrandt Dinner

After a very hectic day of:
Driving home from Kirkland's Friday Night Poker Game,
Attending Ryan's graduation party,
napping,
driving Mali to Hailey's birthday party (PofC3),
biking with Paul and Pablo,
fighting off allergies,
Hurriedly showering and finding clothes to wear -
I was allowed to attend the Portland Art Museum's Rembrandt Dinner with Susy. It was great fun. Luckily we were only in the 2nd floor room for about 20 minutes, sampling desserts while we waited in line for wine. Susy suggested we try the third floor, which is where all the fun was, including live jazz, happier people, and much shorter drink lines. In addition to wine and beer, this time they also had vodka drinks courtesy of Absolut. We tried them all, and Susy gently guided me home.

From Redmond

At Dave and Susan's last night. We went looking for Dalton in Eric and Allison's backyard and discovered Susan having a glass of wine on their patio with Allison. We quickly joined them and ended up letting Eric barbecue for us while we talked of bicycling and the kids ate pizza. Very Nice - I should have taken a photo, their backyard is beautiful! I always forget about the camera phone.

This morning I had a nice phone conversation with Mali. She was already cleaning the kitchen, in honor of June 1st and the changing of the guard. She told me Soccer was fun and they didn't do much running in the heat, and she got Dairy Queen for dinner and Andrew ate pizza at Austin's. She also gave me the plan for tomorrow (it seems weird to me that tomorrow is already Saturday - probably because Monday was a holiday and now I'm up here where work is fun): Susy and she will attend Ryan's graduation brunch for half-an-hour before going to her dance recital rehearsal. Then the big excitement - Hailey's birthday party viewing of Pirates of the Caribbean 3.