A Week at a Glance...

Okay, it's really more than a week, but you get the idea :)

So, almost two weeks ago I got to celebrate my 32nd birthday and Steve bought me this cake (chocolate with buttercream, and only about 5-6" across, which is still a little much for just the four of we) and he also went to the AT&T store for my present. I had told him that the only thing I really wanted for my birthday was a holster for my cell phone, so he bought me a travel package that included a holster, a car charger, and a bluetooth. I already had a bluetooth, technically, but it was a few years old so he got a new and updated version. I did have to trade out the holster that he chose because it was a bit bulky and I'm all about low-profile, but he did really well :) So this was my birthday cake that he picked out for me.
Later in the week I went to a friend's house to help out with her daycare kids while she went to an appointment and the kids had a blast playing with a race track for much of the morning. That's Kellen at the foot of the track in the glare of the glass door and Madison in the red shirt and jumper in the right corner.

On Aug 19 we drove out to Fort Yamhill (a.k.a. the Hidden Fort) as a cub pack and the boys got to learn a lot about archeology and the life of soldiers at the fort at that time. The fort is no longer standing there, but there are currently OSU archeology students working there excavating parts of building foundations and things, which is why they call it the Hidden Fort of course :) Obviously, the focal point of this picture is not the golf cart. On the left of the picture is our guide, who was taking the time to tell us all about the uniform and some of the items that would have been used by the soldiers at that time (sewing kit, diary, metal plate and cup, etc), while we have the boys lined up on picnic tables on the right of the photo. I know there's a really big tree in the middle of this photo, but the building behind it used to be the officers' bunk house and is currently undergoing a restoration process. The boards that can be seen along the upper areas that have the ends painted white are originals from the time it was built.
Here are some of the students and they are working on the bake house site. This is where the huge brick and stone oven sat that was used for providing bread and various baked goods for the whole fort.

This was the originally the site for what they called the Block House, which you can see overlooked the whole valley. There was a Native American camp just down in the valley so the fort was there to keep an eye on them; from the Block House at this vantage point they could see everything that went on. I put this photo in because I was hoping everyone would be able to read it, but I think it's probably too small. Oh, well. It was excerpts from a soldier's diary, which let you see some of the day-to-day stuff they were doing. Our tour of the fort wrapped up with a walk down this path under the trees; very cool. Everyone sat down to eat lunch and then we gathered once more while a member of one of the local tribes talked to the boys about some of the Native American items of that time period. He brought a pipe, a tomahawk, a flute, and various other items that I have since forgotten (already) but he told the boys about how the things were made and/or used and let them handle the things he'd brought.
And our picture of everyoen all together before we went home. Kellen is the black and white sweatshirt on the left end; he was wearing his uniform like everyone else but he never took the sweatshirt off.
And then, more recently, we went blackberry picking and invited Michelle's family to come with us. And I thought rose thorns were vicious! But we got lots of berries, and there are LOTS more still there. Then we came back to the house and put the washed berries through my food processor (Bosch meat grinder, but it serves the purpose) and made blackberry jam! Yummy! I had a jar break, so I ended up with two pints and two half pints, and I'm going to give one of the half pints to Steve's parents when we see them later today. We had a lot of fun and will definitely be going back sometime next week!

Madison didn't pick very many for the bowl, but she had a great time eating them!