Our New Playground

Scott built this playground almost entirely on his own over Memorial Day weekend.  It was a big undertaking!  Here it is after completion.

In progress on day one - we had to move it into place about at this point.

End of day one - the structure was sort of in its final spot

Anna helped him a lot

Day two - we didn't get as much done on day two 'cause we had some other things going on that day.

So much work!

And the end of day three.

It looks great and the kids have had so much fun playing on it.

Here are a few other pictures...

The school year is wrapping up as well - here is a project John worked on at school for several weeks.

He was proud of it.

In a surprise rain/hail storm

All the kids still love the rain - no one is tired of it yet...except Emma.  She is a little tired of it.

A biology project Anna worked on - she was very proud of it

And here is our baby pumpkin patch

And baby strawberry patch

Just down the hill from our house is the Washougal River - lots of people go down there to swim, fish and kayak.  We crossed it on the bridge on this day.  I'm looking forward to swimming here over the summer.

Christmas!

Ah, coronavirus times.  I feel like I have both too much to do and too little.  In any case I haven't seemed to have as much time to update the blog.  So I am quite behind.  We had a nice Christmas this year.  Here are a few pictures form our holidays.

Just before Christmas break we got new countertops in our kitchen.  Here is the before picture.  The island was a big slab of brownish granite and the outer countertops were granite tile.

And here is after.  White quartz and white tile backsplash

It looks lighter now

Still trying to figure out how to change that wine rack for a regular cabinet.  It can hold our Martinelli's in the mean time.

We made a bunch of treats

Jello popcorn balls was one treat we tried

New stockings

Our tree

Our advent candle

Our tree star had some issues this year.  It stopped working regularly when our tree fell down soon after we decorated it.  I eventually had to replace the entire light string inside and now it's good again.  Hope it can last a few more years.

Christmas Eve dinner.  The past few years we have done a big cheese/crackers/fruit/veggie plate with spinach artichoke dip for our Christmas Eve dinner.  We started doing this because I wanted something easy since Moms are usually busy on the days leading up to Christmas, but now its gotten a bit more involved and not that easy since I make the spinach artichoke dip from scratch.  But its good and Scott helps me.  It's a nice tradition now.

We read the nativity story from the Bible and the kids help act it out each year on Christmas Eve.  We have a little program with songs interspersed and its nice.  Emma is the angel, Grant is a shepherd, Anna is Mary, John is Jospeh and Matthew is a wise man.

The kids with their special pajama pants from Ma2!

And Christmas morning.  I made cinnamon rolls the night before and they rise in the fridge overnight.  Then we bake them and German pancakes on Christmas morning.  We also have fruit salad with 7up, a Guptill family tradition.  It's quite the feast.  We eat first and then open presents but the kids are allowed to go through their stockings before breakfast. 

Ready for presents!

Their was a present opening frenzy!

Later on Christmas Day

The kids playing video games

Emma working on a gem craft she got from my brother

 

John was proud of his Lego creations

Matthew and Grant both had fun with Nintendo Labo creations

more Labo

more Labo

And each kid got a bike this year...except Matthew

Everyone had outgrown their bikes and we got rid of most of them in Utah.  Matthew already had a bike that was the right size and he got a skateboard. 

Grant's bike is a little too big for him to start on.  Maybe he can grow a few inches here quickly

Emma with her new training wheels bike

John is still learning to ride without training wheels and its been a little rough.  We ended up putting training wheels back on so he can get comfortable on this new, bigger bike.

We're working on it.  

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Settling In

We've been in our new house about a month.  I'm not sure if it feels a lot longer or a lot shorter.  Being in remote learning mode for school and hardly ever going out makes time pass in a weird way.  Anyway, we've made progress on unpacking but still have so many boxes in our garage we can't get either car in.  So lots to do still.  One weekend we took a break from unpacking and went on a little hike.

We hiked near some of the lakes in our town.

Lots to see and explore

Not too sunny, but we had fun and didn't get rained on.

I'm hoping we can hike a little further next time.

Back at our house here is the view from one of our upstairs windows.  That's the Columbia River below and then Oregon beyond.  Behind our house is some wild space.  There are plans for homes to be built back there but we don't know when that will happen.  We will enjoy the view for now.

Bunnies come into our yard a lot and leave little bunny droppings all over the yard.  Here are the boys wrestling in the grass one day.  We would like to keep the bunnies out so we're trying to fix the fence holes.

Emma playing out in the wild beyond

We can see Crown Point from right behind our house.  Cool!

We went on a little walk to a nearby park on this day and Matthew posed with Mt. Hood.  He has a pretty good view from his bedroom window as well.

Here are some in progress pictures from our house.  The entry way.

Entry way table

Formal dining room now being used as a kid school work space

Living room/school space

Two more school kids on the couch

Dining table space

Kitchen with tons of stuff out on the island.

The loft area full of boxes

Emma and Anna's bedroom

Kids bath looking super cluttery

Matthew's room all clean and tidy.  He wins the award for first room to be truly unpacked.

Loft again

Grant and John's room looking truly frightening.  You can see some mattresses in there if you look hard.

Master bedroom with a Matthew in it

Still going through boxes.

Some kids having fun in the master bath tub

Lots of bubbles

Dining room a few days more tidy

And we got new bunk beds for the kids.  So things are starting to look better in their rooms.  The bed below here used to be our guest bed - it still is I guess.  We were thinking of getting rid of it because we don't have room for it but decided to keep it.  We bought a loft bed in a similar color and it fits over the top of the other bed.  The ladder is removable.

Grant is on the bottom and John on the top.  Sometimes Emma comes for visits.

And here is the girl's new bed.

Anna was not happy about it on this day.

She had bumped her head on the new bed and was missing having her own room.

A day or so later she was feeling better about it when we got a new mattress for her that was the correct size.  She has been mostly really sweet to her new roommate, Emma.  Hope it lasts!

John and Emma have also had lots of fun playing together.  They built this castle out of blocks.  They love playing Barbies or Legos together or Minecraft.

One day they found a bunch of my high heels and wanted to try them on.  They had had a little disagreement about something just before we took this picture.  But usually they have been playing very nicely together.  The older three kids have made some friends in the neighborhood and scooter, rollerblade or bike around during free hours.

John and Emma have been helping me cook sometimes.

John was excited because he got an award at school for having a good attitude.  He was very excited and they announced his name in a zoom call with half the school so he liked that.  He got the certificate and a school lanyard sent too him in the mail.  Way to go John!

Since it's October Halloween is now front of mind for many people.  Emma and John already have their coordinating costumes planned.  Emma is going to be Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and John is going to be Prince Philip from Sleeping Beauty.  They are all ready!

And mom may be coordinating with them too.  Yikes!

We had a quick visit from Scott's aunt AnnaGene.  The kids had fun making a craft with her.

It has felt a little stressful trying to unpack, help all the kids with school work and do some online classes of my own.  Scott has his own stresses taking care of house things and working full time plus Air Force Reserve duty, but he still took time out to steal me away for a quick mental health break.  We went down to this sandy beach along the Columbia that's near our house.  Enjoying the sun while we can!