School Pictures

Here are a few pictures of Justin's school and classroom. Hopefully Tammy will have pictures of her room tomorrow!

The front of Ockley Green K-8

Side View

Main classroom from the door

More of the room

...

Back of the room with the reading area

The Activity Center (2nd classroom for reward time)

Apartment Pictures

Ok, finally... here are a few pictures of our apartment. There's nothing quite like going from a 3 bedroom 1880 historical home to a one bedroom apartment. But it works for now and we can't complain.

Living Room from the front door

Living Room

Slider to the back walkway

Kitchen

Dining Room

Bathroom

Bedroom

Bedroom (+ Rosco)

Cutest Dog Competition

Columbia River Gorge

We took the boys camping in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area! We camped at Eagle Creek Campground and hiked the Eagle Creek Trail. Fantastic first camping trip! Bam and Rosco slept most of the night with minimal barking. We hiked a total of eight miles (not bad for the first trip), and we saw three major waterfalls on the trail. The boys made it all the way to the parking lot and plopped down from exhaustion so we had to carry them the last 1/2 mile up hill to the campground. We plan to return to the trail and backpack all the way to Mt. Hood (next spring).

On the way home from the campground we stopped at Multnomah Falls off of I-84. Although a tourist trap, the falls were quite amazing at 542 feet. We are also returning here to hike to the top of the falls (1 mile of switchbacks).

Check out the pics!

Our campsite at Eagle Creek

"Check your vertigo at the trailhead"

Justin and Rosco checking out the ridge.

Lower Punchbowl Falls

Upper Punchbowl Falls

Metlako Falls

Multnomah Falls at the bottom

Multnomah Falls from under the bridge

Mt. Tabor

Justin and I went to Mount Tabor Park a few days ago. It is a great park that is located on a volcanic cinder cone. In the park there are 3 open-air water reservoirs, a few short(1-3 mile) hiking/running/biking trails, and a dog park that surpasses any we have been to. We explored one of the three main trails, which basically wraps around the hill. It had great city and mountain views and definitely left us wanting to see more! Bam and Rosco were excited to visit the off-lease area and stretch their legs. It was a great trip even though Rosco tried to bite a husky 10 times his size!

Tammy got the job!

I am very excited to announce that I have accepted a position as a lead teacher at a community preschool. I don't know a lot about the program at this time, but after I meet with the director again on Monday, I should know more. Head Start children will be placed into my classroom from the public school system (HS is run a bit differently here) and they will attend Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday with morning and afternoon sessions. On Mondays and Fridays I have prep days where I will collaborate with the one other teacher and the director. This program is only in its second year and my classroom will be new this year. Since it is so new I will get to help design and implement the curriculum. I think it is a great opportunity and I am very excited for a new challenge!

Thanks for all the good thoughts sent our way.

Updates from I-80

I finally found the cord to upload photos from the camera so here is a look into the looong journey west. I know there are a lot of pics, but we covered a lot of ground!


One last look at downtown GR. We had an amazing year and half living here. A really great place.


I soon dozed off and woke up hours later to this. Jeremy and Justin had walkies and were taking turns singing song lyrics to each other. I think this may have been Journey. This activity continued for the remainder of the trip. We also played name that song/artist in which Jeremy pretty much killed us.




We crossed the BIG Mississippi. And after that we didn't see much of anything.



Brock and Jeremy in the rear view.

Cows. Lots of cows. I am pretty sure this trip strengthened our desire to never eat animals again.

dogs... check. ipod... check. rand mcnally... check.


The Penske Brothers were excited to get back in that truck!



My favorite views of the entire trip. Renewable energy. I was soo excited.


I ate potatoes in Boise, Idaho. Kinda.

Bam rode like this.

And Rosco like this.




Finally we made it!!!