it's autumn, no doubt

As you can tell by the pictures, which speak 1000 words, Maddie and Dame are super excited to be raking leaves. Good thing we only have one tree.

Maddie, earning her keep. ;)

Pretty red trees in Portland... and a not so pretty parking lot.

I think we picked the windiest day to go for a walk along the river. But it was fun!

Samson survived that picture, don't worry.

Emma's cool so long as she's gots her binks.

I was FREEZING! Ha.

Hooray for fall in the beautiful NW. :)

Emma @ 11 months

Here are a few pictures of Emma in honor of her being 11 months old today.

A month from now will be 1 year since she joined our family... what a blessing!

back at the Gorge

Here are pictures from a drive we took (one of many this past summer) up the Columbia River Gorge. Maddie was happy to have Samson along...

Emma LOVES being outdoors. And we love this carrier to tote her around in.

Dame and the kids, heading down the path to the water. We see kites and we want to investigate. :)

I don't think I need to explain this picture. Ha. Dame's getting better about taking some of me here and there. Even if it requires some prompting. ;)

And the kites belonged to --kite surfers! They came closer and did some neat tricks for the kids to see. Noel and Mad were quite impressed! But I'm not surprised since they like anything that's: "To the extreme!" Ha.

...down by the river, the Columbia River...

These pictures are from a while back, when Dame and I had an hour to kill before picking up the kids from... somewhere... I forget exactly, but it was a warm, cloudy summer day and it was so nice to walk along the beach.

This picture is looking east, up the river. Mt. Hood is behind the clouds, unfortunately.

Here's looking west, down the river. That's one of two bridges connecting Vancouver to Portland, and those are two jet skis I wanted to hotwire. ;)

My Damian, my love... and me too.