The point of my 365 project is to tell a story very concisely in one photograph so that that one photograph tells a story and makes an impact.  For most days, that works really well for me, but sometimes I take a long series of photos, and I’d like to share more than one of them.  I thought I would put some additional Tulip Festival photos up for your enjoyment.

Audrey and Copper and Rouge came with us, and we had a great time.  The girls spent some time pretending to be flowers.  What gorgeous flowers they are.

Daphne and Copper couldn’t get enough of the flowers, and even though there were 40 acres of them to look at, the same tulips appealed to both of them.

Daphne definitely took the time to stop and smell the flowers.


Oh so cute!

Mr. Cyprus thought that the flowers were incredibly interesting.

Curiosity comes in all forms. “I wonder what this tastes like.”

Cyprus had a BLAST. He loved crawling around in the muddy field trying to explore all the flowers around. True to his nature, he was sweet and gentle with them, and only one of them was sacrificed. However, his pants got so dirty that I had to wash them over 10 times to get all the mud out, and the water wasn’t even running clean before I decided to give up.

Daphne did a GREAT job being cute.

Rouge got to explore as well while I attempted to take some photos of her for her mama.

Have I ever mentioned that my daughter is beautiful?

Cyprus wonders, “What on earth is my mother thinking?”

Even though Harney County is in the desert, it isn’t that far away from the forest.  Every year since I can remember, we have gotten Christmas trees from the forest.  It is fun and easy to get a permit to cut your own tree.

This year, the kids and I headed out with my sister and her family to get a tree.

It was a beautiful, sunny day.  It was so nice to be in the snow!

Daphne wasn’t very prepared, and she didn’t have a good time.  From the moment that the snow spilled in over the tops of her shoes, she started to cry.  It got worse and worse until we finally made it back to the truck.  I felt so bad for her.  See the tear?

I got her up on my back and carried her like a monkey.  Look at that nice blue sky and that beautiful pine tree behind us.

Cyprus happily slept the day away in the moby wrap.  His hat kept him nice and warm.

Josh and Noah were cute in the warm sun and the snow.

My sister did the cutting and the hauling.

Eli helped his mom.

They managed to find a very small tree for Daphne to take home and enjoy.

Didn’t they find a great tree?

And Daphne was much happier when we made it back into the truck.

Cyprus even enjoyed himself after he woke up.

I was trying to take a 365 photo.  This is a reject, but the scenery is awesome.

Cyprus was sad to say goodbye to all that snow.

Rebecca took me on a new adventure before the fall really set in.  We took the kids to a State Park near here called Champoeg.  It is really unusual because it is the place in Oregon where the paperwork was signed to set up Oregon as a state.  It is right along the river, and it is beautiful.  I had never been there, but I was excited for the adventure.

We managed somehow to stuff all three kids in our car.  I have been doing this for a while with an extra newborn seat in the back of the car.  I just took it out because it is too darn cramped back there.

It was still nice outside so we packed a lunch with us and had a nice little picnic in the park.  Daphne had a blast rolling around on the ground.

Cyprus was very mellow taking it all in.

I was trying to take a really nice portrait of the kids and I.  I think I managed to get something decent eh?

Mama hanging with the baby.

After out picnic we went for a nice little walk along the river.  We got to see the monument dedicated to the spot where the paperwork was signed.  I had a blast.  It is definitely a spot to return to in the future.

I took some photos a while bad of a story time that I went to with the kids.  Story time has become a pillar of sanity in a week of unknowns.  If there is only one activity I am going to in the week, it will be story time.  Wednesdays are really exciting for Daphne.  She loves every part of story time.

The story time we go to is for kids up to age 3.  The 3 and up story time is on Tuesdays.  We will probably switch soon, but I will miss gong to story time with Nola.

Daphne listens intently and follows all of Nola’s directions.

Can you tell that they were trumpeting like elephants?

When at all possible, we get Melissa and Jack to come with us.  Jack is always interested in what is going on.  However, he approaches the entire story time with great trepidation.  It reminds me very much of Daphne’s attitude towards story time from when we started going a year ago.

Daphne loves listening to the stories.

You can’t see it really clearly, but this photo has a story.  Daphne wanted to put on her own socks the morning I took this photo.  Rather than put them on correctly, she got really frustrated with them and ended up rolling them up into balls and stuffing the socks inside her leg warmers.  Very creative.

Another funny wardrobe choice was the fact that she decided to stamp herself with her daddy’s company “for deposit only” stamps that he uses on the back of his checks.  It even has the account number on it.  Silly.

Of course, bubbles are always the best part of story time.

Jack even gets interested in trying to catch and annihilate bubbles.

She caught one.  She always catches bubbles and brings them to me so that I can pop them for her.  Here she is offering one to me.

Cyprus even managed to get some bubble action in his deep sleep.

On a nice day, we even get to go outside and play at the park outside the library.  Melissa got double swing duty.

The rain has started recently, so we won’t be playing outside too much in the near future.  The kids are fun to watch in the park.  We will enjoy our indoor activities for now.

While my sister and her family were here, we got to head to the Oregon State Fair for some fun.

Of course the best thing about the whole trip was the stroller that we took.  The kids couldn’t stop fighting over it.

There was plenty to do.  Smokey the bear made an appearance and scared both Daphne and Eli away.  Noah was the only brave one willing to get a sticker from him.

Daphne made a necklace out of a piece of a tree.  It was to celebrate Oregon’s 150th anniversary.  She later gave the necklace to her dad.

After all that fun, Daphne was worn out, and she took a nap while we had some fun of our own.

Taking a rest on the lawn (Daphne does have a black eye and a bloody lip.  She fell in the parking lot at the beach.  It looks worse here than it did in real life.)

The hilight of the  trip was getting to see the petting zoo.  The deer was Daphne and my favorite part.  Who gets to pet a deer?

Noah is such an animal ham.

We found a big box of corn to play in.

The kids even found tractors to play on.  What a riot.

I have been attending the state fair every year since I was a little kid.  It was so nice to be able to share it with my sister and my children.

The Willamette Valley is really starting to become prime wine country.  We just happen to live in the very heart of it here in Carlton, but it really does expand up, down and across the entire valley.

Some of our friends have a nice little winery over by the school, and we were invited to come and help participate in the crush.  I couldn’t resist it.  I grabbed Melissa and Jack and drove straight on over.

The grapes were at their prime, and the winery was trying to get them in before the rains started (the next day).  Don’t they just look gorgeous in the sun?

The weather was starting to cool off all the way.  Despite feeling a bit chilled, the day was just beautiful.

There is something wonderful about grapes hanging in the sun on the vine.  It makes me think of the many thousands of years that wine has been being produced.  Among a changing world, this one thing stays constant.  What an honor to be invited to be a part of it.

Daphne enjoyed spending time in the sun.

Jack and Melissa got a chance to sit on the tractor and imagine they were doing the harvest.

They played so nicely together.

I love being invited to participate in cultural agriculture.  Nothing makes me smile more than the ability to share it with my kids.

Hi!

It has been a while since I posted an update.  The truth is that I have not been doing a whole lot of interesting things lately.  I am lucky to make it out of the house most days with both kids.  There have been many times that I have made it to the door on my way out only to decide that it is too overwhelming.  Many of the routine things that I was doing have fallen out.  I am just now becoming brave enough to try to get back into it.

I took Cyprus and Daphne to the pool on Wednesday, and it was a hit.  Daphne spent the entire hour swimming around the pool in incredible excitement.  She was really happy to be back at it.

It also turns out that Cyprus is a water baby.  I told Julie while we were at the pool that it was his destiny to be born in water because he is such a water baby.  He had a giant smile on face the whole time.  He loved exploring the water.  He put his hands in it and marveled at how exciting it all was.

After seeing how much fun it was for the kids, I have decided to head back to the pool with them more often.  I am hoping to buy a year pass to the pool so that I don’t have to worry about carrying cash with me all the time, it also saves money in the long run.  I would then have motivation to head out more often.  Lots of fun with the kids.

Other than that, I am cleaning and organizing my house so that I can redirect my focus on my kids and start working on a new, exciting project.  More on that later.

My sister came to visit us during her vacation from work.  The first thing we did was head over to the beach for a little bit of fun.

There was plenty of activity to photograph and plenty of photography going on.

Daphne and Eli wasted no time running off the energy they bottled up in the ride over.

She was so excited, she just couldn’t stop telling me about how exciting the ocean was.

Auntie Melissa got to play with Noah.  He LOVED the trip.

Running from the waves was the best game.  Especially since it was so incredibly cold.

Waiting for the next wave to come in.

Love the splashes.

There was so much to explore.

At some point Daphne fell into the water.

The wet clothes came off and the smiles increased.

Cyprus and I bundled up close together to stay warm.

Noah got to eat lots of sand.  He actually found it tasty.

Then Daphne was buried in the sand .

After our first adventure we headed down to the bay front in Newport for some fun.  We got some ice cream and had a lovely walk.

Daphne got to see the seals.  They were nice and talkative for her.

We stayed the night at the beach and then took a nice long walk the next morning.  The light at the beach was INCREDIBLE, and I couldn’t stop taking photos of everyone even though none of us had showered or cleaned up yet.

Look at the gorgeous Oregon beach.

Isn’t my nephew the most adorable ever?

The Oregon beach in the summer is the most amazing place.  We had such a nice vacation together.  Thanks sis.

Now that the first day of fall has passed, this post seems somehow timely even though it is a couple of weeks old.

The local Yamhill County Historical Society put on a Harvest Fest a few weeks ago, and we were lucky to take Papa and the kids along with us.  The Historical Society is an up and coming organization in our area that has a goal of restoring items that teach us about our history as a community.  They work to put on festivals to gather people and show them how we have come as a farming community.  We went to the 150 year celebration they held for the state of Oregon back in February, and I was excited to go to the Harvest Fest.

They started the day off with a parade of tractors.  They own hundreds of tractors that have been donated to the society.  Many of them work, and many of them have been restored to working order by the volunteers.  It was fun to see all the different tractors that were used on farms in our county.  The other cool thing is that they know the history of many of the tractors, whose farm they were on for how long.

Daphne watched from her daddy’s shoulders.  She was very interested.

Totally unrelated, but she was having a good hair day.  Look at those wonderful curls.

Back in April, they used the old farm equipment to plant a field of oats, so the point of the harvest fest was to cut the oats, save the grain and bale the resulting straw.

I was delighted to see that they were using mules to help with some of the work.  By the way, look at those lovely clouds.  It was the PERFECT day!

This was the machine that took the bundles of oats from the field and pulled off the grain (I think it is called a thresher).  The long belt along the front of the photo was connected to a tractor.  Again, ooh and ahhh at the lovely clouds.

We got to walk through the building where all the tractors are stored.  It was fun to look at them all up close and personal.  There are some lovely specimens in the building. One really adorable thing is that Daphne walked by this tractor and pointed out to me that it was missing an eye.  SOOOOOOO CUTE!  I think when you look at the tractor thinking it is missing an eye that you have the potential to see so much personality in it.

We then made it to another part of the festival where they had a tractor set up that kids were allowed to climb on and play with.  Daphne was a little shy at first, but she got the hang of it, and she really enjoyed sitting up there after a while.

They have an old covered wagon set up with a bunch of different things.  There are old chicken cages and toys from long ago.  They have a buffalo hide and some other cool things to look at.  The kids are allowed to get up and climb on the wagon to see what it is like to drive it.  I must say that making a trip to Missouri to Oregon in one does not seem like a fun summer.

Daphne was really interested in all the activities.  This is a photo of the back end of the threshing machine.  All of the straw gets blown away and put in a big stack to be baled later.  Daphne loved it.  This shows how she was all day.  Head turned to the action!

Look at that pile of straw!  Don’t forget to admire the clouds.

The oats were lovely looking.  Definitely ready to be harvested.

I got a chance to grab a portrait of Daphne in front of the golden oats.  The good hair day combined with the overcast clouds and the golden color of the oats made for a very lovely portrait indeed.

We got to grab a good ol fashioned lunch of hotdogs and hamburgers with papa.

After lunch, it was time to get some baling done.  This is the old baler that they were using.

Daphne thought it was VERY intersting.

We even got to see them working on the machine that cuts the oats.  It is a tw0-man operation.  One man drives the tractor and cuts and the other man pulls the lever to dump the clipping when there are enough of them.  Really cool operation.

What a handsome tractor.

These are the bunches that then go into the thresher.

Daphne showed me a stalk of oats they had cut.

I even got Papa to stop with Daphne in front of an old car for a quick photo.  That car was awesome.  It is an original Model T.  I would adore driving one myself.

After watching the harvesting and the big equipment demos, we headed over to the educational center.  Daphne found a washing board, and she got to work on the laundry.  She was still there 30 minutes later working hard at cleaning the socks.

When we did finally manage to drag Daphne away from washing the clothes, she got to sit in the covered wagon and be a pioneer.

On our way out, they had a blacksmith station with people demonstrating the skill of iron work.  It was fascinating to watch.  Daphne loved seeing the fire.

We had a total blast on so many levels.  I got to snuggle with Cyprus the entire time while he slept in my sling.  Jared and Papa got to walk around talking and hanging out with Daphne.  Papa got to see some of the old equipment that was being used when he was a farm kid.  He knows an AWFUL lot about those machines.  How cool is that?  We enjoyed the educational aspect and the fun activities for kids.  This is definitely an event that we will be doing yearly.

I woke up this morning with many things running through my head, so I got it up to get some work done.  When everyone finally woke up, I got some really happy smiles from Cyprus.  He used to be a little wary of the camera, and he spent the entire time that it was out looking at it with suspicion.  He is now willing to smile at it.  I am very impressed with how grown up he is looking at only 2 months.

When Daphne wakes up in the morning she really wants to play and snuggle with the baby.  He was in the mood this morning to let her snuggle with him.  He is looking so grown up to me in these photos.

She is not going to be able to hold him like this for long.

Daphne really is a very fantastic big sister.  She loves her brother so much, and I am glad he does not mind so much.

Daphne’s hair was starting to get really long.  She doesn’t like to wear it up, and it was hurting her a lot to brush it out, so I decided it was time for a hair cut.  I spent the morning styling the curls in her hair perfectly so that when I cut them off that I would be able to save them.  I have the first lock of hair my mom cut off me, and I thought it might be nice to continue the tradition with my baby.  I cut her hair nice and short.  I think I did a really good job on it for a first hair cut.

Daphne was invited to her friend Olive’s second birthday party, so we decided to go show off her new style.  I kept looking at her throughout the day thinking that she either looks like a Swedish milk maid or a little French girl.

Olive’s party was a tea party. Daphne was nervous at first, but she started to warm up to the idea.

Daphne eventually got so into the idea of a tea party that she wouldn’t leave the table.

Olive looked awesome in her party dress.

Daphne gave olive two pairs of hair clips that we made.  Olive has so much hair that I think she will be able to put them to good use.

Daphne really, really likes birthday parties.  Before we eat almost any kind of dessert, we have to sing happy birthday to someone so that we can eat the goodies. When we actually go to a party, she is so excited that someone is actually having a birthday.  BONUS, there is cake at a birthday.  She didn’t hesitate to dig in.  All she really did was lick the frosting off.

Daphne loves to get together with her friends.  I am always up for a chance to let her play with other kids her age.  This time they found some water guns to play with, and since it was in the 90’s, they had an awful lot of fun running around.

After the party, we headed out to a new Mcminnville Market trial.  Mcminnville is working really hard to create more of a community.  I like what they are doing.  They did a trial run of a new market featuring local vendors.  The idea is to take the old granary district and turn it into something similar to Pike Place in Seattle.  I am thinking of vending in a co op with some other people, so I thought I would check it out.  It was hot and the kids were cranky, but we did have a good time, and I liked the feel of it.

When we got back home, I started working on some canning, and the kids got to spend time with Jared.  Cyprus is getting really strong, and he is really able to hold his head up without much trouble.  A friend of mine gave me a Bumbo seat to try out.  It allows the baby to safely sit down and be held up so that they can participate in activities.  Cyprus likes it, and she will sit in it for some time sometimes.

Daphne likes it too.  She rarely lets Cyprus do his own thing, so she had to have a turn also.

I love watching Jared play with the kids.

I rearranged the dining room yesterday and put the clip on high chair at the table for Cyprus to use in the future.  I put him in it for the first time while I ate dinner, and he really seemed to like it.  I really love the photos I took of him in it.

He looks just like my dad’s baby photos.  They used to call my dad Winkie when he was little, so I have started to call him Winkie also.  He seems to really like it.

I’ve got a LOT of canning still to do after all those veggies we picked yesterday.  I worked until my feet hurt and then put everything away for tomorrow.

Jared and I are going to start having regular dates at night after the kids fall asleep.  I’m not sure how I am going to fit everything I want in, but I’m going to try!