Yikes!!

Okay, okay, I completely bailed on the summer posting. But who can blame me, a girls gotta enjoy the Oregon sun when it's out. Here is a brief summary of our Summer

We had an awesome water balloon fight with "Uncool Mike" back in May.

Mom took some "Special Mommy time" with Aunt Julia in Utah.

June was kinda wet, so I helped mom and dad with some of the house chores. 

I also took a stab at a new past time, Photography! I call this "Hey Mom"

July brought better weather, and Clara got to try her skills on the trike. 

 We spent some quality time with the Leslie's up at Mason Lake in Washington.

 Now these are some hot chicas!!

August was super cool! We went to Danielle's wedding!

 We got to ride on a cool old steam train with Dad

 and Mom!

 We even had time to bury me in the sand at the Jersey shore! Poppop is an awesome sand castle builder by the way. He should get a job in construction or something...

Did I mention they have cool rides on the boardwalk? Dad said he and Mel went on this one once. I don't see how either one of them would have fit in it.

September was another wet one, so we had some good clean fun inside. Here we are sporting our flashy outfits from Aunt Mel!

We taught dad how to Trot, and Canter.

He got so good he and mom decided to go try out a fancy ranch near Bend, OR. Don't they look cute all dolled up? Ye Haw!!!!

Well that was it for our summer, here is a quick glimpse into how our fall has been going so far. 

 Hayrides!

 Piggy back Rides!

And Pumpkins!!!!

Until next Time!!!

Easter, Spring time visitors and all around good times

Hello once again from sunny Portland. It has been 80+ degrees out for the past couple of weeks so you can't blame a girl for not wanting to spend time inside updating a blog. I wanted to keep you up to date in case I completely disappear for the summer. 

We've had all kinds of visitors this spring. All of which I had teach a thing or two about Portland while they were here. Here I am showing Amber the delicate process of making donuts. They are a Portland staple right up there with waffles and daddy juice (beer).

Easter was a blast this year. We went down to Grandma and Grampa's to have an Easter egg hunt. Clara and I decided to have a little fashion show since we looked so darn cute in our Easter dresses.

I SEE AN EGG!!!

Clara says "Hey! This one is Empty!! DAD!!!"

Overall it was a great time. Clara really enjoyed getting to find eggs and I think this may have been her first sugar rush!!!

Mema and Pop Pop came to town and we went to check out the Tulip festival. I found some rock'n new kicks.

Then Mom and I found a sweet ride. This totally beats a minivan.

But nothing beats a tractor. After a few lessons from Pop Pop, I was ready to set off on my own.

The whole family took some time to stop and smell the flowers and look at all that sunshine!!

All I could think about were the tractors Vroooooommmmm, Vrooooommmmm!!!

There were all these people taking crazy photos of the flowers, so I figured I'd have a go. I'm pretty sure I have a future as a photographer.

Here is another beauty. I like how my finger focuses the attention of the viewer on the finer points of the yellow tulips. you don't want any distractions from the sky.

Then I tried my hand at being a flower. Here are the angry flowers from Alice in Wonderland! Grrr

Back at home Clara and I helped with the laundry. I'm pretty sure there is room for one more in here... Let me talk to mom and dad about that.

Look a purple balloon. It matches my sweet outfit from Mema

Here I am back behind the camera practicing my portraits. Say Cheese!

In honor of Cinco de Mayo Clara and I held a parade. I'm following in Daddy's footsteps and playing the bass drum. Clara is apparently going to be a snare drummer. See how jealous she is of me?

Until Next Time!!!

March

I'm sure most of you know, but just in case you've forgotten, March is my Birthday Month!!!! So that means you have to be extra nice to me. That and because I'm so darn cute, you'll just want to be nice and send me presents anyway.

 Just a little more cuteness for you

Okay, onto the festivities. Mom and Dad hosted a picnic in the living room for my birthday. We started the whole thing with awesome chocolate cupcakes that I helped Mom and Grandma make. They were super yummy.

Little did I know that all of the sugar was to help fuel the real fun in games on the Tumble Bus. Here we are stretching. It is always important to stretch before working out as we don't want to strain a toe or anything.

Next was a little bit of gymnastics and upper and lower body strengthening. Now the goal is to do a pull up and then pick your legs up and scissor kick your legs in and out. I got this one...

Clara needs a little work on her grip strength, but she's got the concept. Sign us up for the 2024 Summer Olympics, I hear Portland might put in a bid....

Next we got in a little bit of cardio on the trampoline. We did some single jumps and we sat around and the instructor helped us pop some popcorn. What a blast!

Last but not least a little work on our abs. Here Clara is demonstrating how good a workout a hardy laugh can be. It was a riot.

The sun has been out an awful lot lately. I think we're having one of our driest March's on record. That being the case, we've decided we need to hit up the park as much as possible. Clara loves the slide.

It is important to remember that style is everything when going to the park. Now I like to sport the flashy casual which normally consists of a pare of comfy yoga paints, preferably not of the see through variety. A nice casual fleece top, and of course the latest in designer Tinkerbell eye-wear. 

For those of you who sent me a gift, I'm trying to be as on top of things as Aunt Mel is. So you should have gotten a thank you card in the mail. Personally crafted by yours truly (with a little help from mom perhaps....)

Next stop SEATTLE!!! Being the social butterflies that we are, we had a birthday party to attend to, so we decided to make a weekend of it. We drove up on Friday afternoon stopping at Harmon Brewing, which Dad says has some really good Daddy juice. Also this is where Mom and Dad spent some quality time waiting to meet me for the first time at the hospital in Tacoma! All I know is they have big grilled cheeses and Clara loved the pizza. They also have these cool little boards with games on them, I played with something daddy called an etch a sketch, that things was weird, I kept spinning knobs and these lines were popping up all over the place. It was fun to shake at least.

After our awesome night of partying at the hotel courtesy of Airbnb, we were off to visit some of the sights. Mom and Dad said we needed to sleep more, but how could we when we spent the night in Mommy and Daddy's room? They said something about getting a two bedroom place next time, BOOO!!! 

After delicious coffee and some yummy breakfast at Zoka Coffee, our first stop was the ferry terminal, but we just missed our boat, so we had an hour to kill. We walked up the big hill to Pike Place Market and we got some fresh Apples, as I am so eloquently displaying. That place smells fishy 

The plan was to take the ferry to Bainbridge Island and grab some lunch, but since we missed our boat, we were a bit late. So we basically took the ferry across the sound, got off, and right back on again and made the return trip. Clara and I had a BLAST!!! no need to do anything other than ride a big boat.

Once Clara learned the ropes, she and I let mom and dad out on deck for a family photo. This might have to become a Hodge family tradition. We'll have to take Clara to the San Juans so we can see some whales next time.

We were able to grab some lunch at the Crab Pot which was really yummy. The steak fries were awesome not to mention the fish sticks. Then off to the Birthday Party.

Clara got dressed up in one of her favorite outfits from Mom, and decided to sport some goth lipstick. (aka dark blue frosting from the really cool cupcake lady bugs at Parker's party)

After the party we hit up the Elysian Brewing for dinner. Clara and I split another grilled cheese, this time Clara got a little upset with the whole sharing business and flung a plate off the table which managed to shatter into a few hundred pieces on the floor. SORRY!!! The staff was really nice and helped clean up

The next morning we headed to Portage Bay Cafe for brunch. TALK ABOUT AWESOME!!! I got two pieces of french toast that were each as big as my head. Clara had a GIANT Mickey Mouse pancake which we finally finished today. Mom took part in the pancake fixings bar and dad had delicious Salmon and scrambled egg hash.  We all left with full bellies and leftovers. Portland may have some competition in the Sunday brunch department. (I still think Waffle Window is the best in terms of charm and yummy goodness though)

We stopped back at Uncle Rob and Aunt Claudia's place for one last visit before we hit the road. Parker reminded us all how old she was and we set off towards home. What a GREAT weekend!