Aaarggg, Another One Bites the Dust!!

So I have a couple weeks to catch up since I devoted last weeks post to the PWCL Safety in Numbers event (and rightly so). Last Saturday, we partook in our first official Pirate festival. This is an annual festival held in a park beneith the St. John's bridge. It was great! Lots of stuff for kids, including hundreds of people dressed as pirates. Dressed in our shorts, t-shirts, and sneakers, we were the exception.

Despite the coats and cold-looking weather, it actually wasn't too bad. The kids even had ice cream.
Course Siena had ice cream...on her coat.
Here's a shot of the St. John's bridge from the Pirate festival, as well as some fun facts about the St. John's bridge (for the maybe one of you that enjoys my history lessons):

The bridge was built within 21 months and one million dollars under budget. At the time of its completion, the bridge had-
--the highest clearance in the nation,
--the longest prefabricated steel cable rope strands,
--the tallest steel frame piers of reinforced concrete,
--the first application of aviation clearance lights to the towers, and
--longest suspension span west of Detroit, Michigan.

It has also recently been renovated and a couple of my Kinney ancestors had a hand in its initial construction.
There were many blow-up pirate themed jumpy areas for kids. Course, only Siena was brave enough to go jump in them. She LOVES these things!!

There was an area of juggle balls, foam swordes, and ribbons for kids to try out. These guys had fun with those.

Here's Siena trying to figure out how the swirling ribbon works.

Daddy was able to provide the necessary hula hoop lessons for the kids. Shake those hips Honey!

And of course, Rogue was the sponsor. For anyone unfamiliar, Rogue is BY FAR my favorite brewery, and trust me, I've tried a lot. For any beer lovers, I highly suggest trying this establishment. There are restaurants in Newport, OR and downtown Portland. My personal favorite is the Shakespeare stout.

Last Sunday, we also attended a neighborhood end of summer party hosted by my carpooling buddy Robert. We got to meet a lot of neighbors and plan a couple tentative play dates for the kids. I was also invited to join the Oak Grove Girls (OGG) which, as I understand it, is a group of neighborhood ladies who meet for potluck monthly.

As a financial gal, of course all of the financial news of the last couple weeks has been fascinating. I have followed it closely. Nothing like watching a historical institution like Lehman Bros. close up shop while others like AIG get bailed out. I think many of us saw something brewing a couple years back with all the loans and subprime boom. It was obvious that a bubble was bound to burst. However, I don't think anyone expected this big of a burst. And yes, the new house next to us is still unsold and is the property of WaMu...

or is it...as of Friday it looks to be the property of JP Morgan...

In happier news...HOW ABOUT THEM BEAVERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And if the Beavers unexpected victory wasn't enough of a Thursday bliss...SURVIVOR STARTED!!!!

This weekend was quiet. By quiet I mean that we only had like 5 outings. I took the kids to Party City yesterday so Siena could choose the theme for her upcoming 3rd birthday party. There were lots of lovely little girl party themes to choose from.

Would it be Disney princesses?

Perhaps Dora the Explorer...

Maybe the cute little Hello Kitty would be the theme for her?

Nope. My precious little daughter chose.....










Lightning McQueen. Hand down. Despite my not to subtile suggestions (see above).

So Cars it is. I guess it is her party after all. Luckily she did pull out a doll today and start playing with it...

Safety In Numbers!

September 12 was Safety In Numbers - PWCL's (Portland Women's Crisis Line) annual awareness and fundraising event. Of course as a member of the board of directors, I attended. However, after 2.5 years on the board, attending isn't an obligation, its an event I look forward to.

In case anyone is wondering how I came to be involved with PWCL, it isn't the greatest story but I'll tell it anyway. I am a big fan of the author Ann Rule and have read most, if not all, of her 20+ books. I found that a recurring theme in many of her true-crime novels was domestic violence and sexual assult. I came to believe, and still do, that I am nothing but lucky and fortunate to have not had experienced this in my life. I really started to feel for all the many women out there that have to deal with this and simply wanted to help.

I have learned so much in my time with the board, including some of the startling statistics of sexual assualt and domestic violence. Hopefully these will shock you too:

-Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend per year to three million women who are physically abused by their husband or boyfriend per year.

-Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime.

-Nearly one-third of American women (31 percent) report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives, according to a 1998 Commonwealth Fund survey.

-Intimate partner violence is primarily a crime against women. In 2001, women accounted for 85 percent of the victims of intimate partner violence (588,490 total) and men accounted for approximately 15 percent of the victims (103,220 total).

-As many as 324,000 women each year experience intimate partner violence during their pregnancy.

-Three in four women (76 percent) who reported they had been raped and/or physically assaulted since age 18 said that a current or former husband, cohabiting partner, or date committed the assault.

-One in five (21 percent) women reported she had been raped or physically or sexually assaulted in her lifetime.

-Annually in the United States, 503,485 women are stalked by an intimate partner.

-Eighty percent of women who are stalked by former husbands are physically assaulted by that partner and 30 percent are sexually assaulted by that partner.

PWCL answers thousands (literally) each month from individuals seeking help from a domestic violence and/or sexual assault situation. For additional information about this organization see: http://www.pwcl.org/.

Now onto the Safety In Numbers-

Here's my friend Sarah and I at our table.
My cousin Craig was in town from Illinios and joined us at the event.
City Commissioner Nick Fish talking with another guest:

One of our co-chairs - Rebecca Sweatman (center) - at her table at the event. I'm sure she'll be thrilled I posted this picture...

In the center left, PWCL's awesome Executive Director Rebecca Peatow-Nickles with Nick Fish.

Amy Wagoner was our event chair this year and put on a fabulous evening. She was also dismissing her MC abilities but I'm convinced she could have a career in it if interested...

Below are the fine folks who have devoted so much of their time and energy to making our PSA. Please check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEVcw71GVV4 or look for it on tv soon!!

This is Kelly who has done a great job as our auctioneer at the event for the last 2 years.

One of the biggest treats (for me) was our honored speaker, Justice Betty Roberts. She gave a very inspiring speech it is great to have the support of such an accomplished Oregon woman bring to light and support the issues PWCL is addressing.

PWCL is committed to ending sexual and domestic violence. The staff of PWCL works so hard every day in an effort, ultimately, to eradicate this form of violence to the point where a place like PWCL is no longer needed.

As friends and family of mine, I'm sure by now you can tell that this is a cause near and dear to my heart. I would love if you'd donate money to PWCL. However, I know that isn't viable to everyone. All I really ask is this: when you're in the situation where a friend, coworker, classmate, family member, etc. comes to you to discuss a domestic violence or sexual assault situation they are in, please give them PWCL's phone number. Even if you just suspect there might be something going on, give them the phone number and lend a sympathetic ear. The phone number is: 503-235-5333.

LIVE! For 3 Days Only: Cousin Craig!

Day 1: Big Family Dinner at YaYa and Papa Ron's house!

My Aunt Janene and cousin's Carrie and Craig were in town this week from Illinios. Regular blog readers will know Craig from the weekly "cousin craig" comments. Since they live in Illinois, we don't see them very often so it was nice that they decided to come out this year for a visit.

We all congregatated at my parent's house Thursday. Below is Janene and my aunt Lucie.
Here is Janene with Aunt Annette:
My cousin Curt and his wife Dee joined us for the dinner. Yup, that's YaYa in the background...

Mom was on better behavoir in this picture and kept her bunny-ear fingers where they belong...here she is with her big sis Annette.

My cousin Brian is showing off his new tattoo...Annette had her share of comments about it. I'm sure that's why he came wearing a sleeveless shirt...he knows his Aunt Annette...

I'm not sure what Siena was doing but she was having a good time doing it.

After being stung by a bee a few weeks ago, Siena has developed a fairly rational fear of the insects. Here's Papa Ron protecting her from the scary bee's with a fly swatter.

Aaahh, there's the Craigster on the left. He was a picture-taking maniac all week.

Somehow Siena got her hands on the fly swatter. This is not a good thing. If you never thought a fly swatter could be used as a weapon, just give it to Siena.

Walt and Janene...

Cousin Carrie, YaYa, and Janene enjoying dessert.

My kids ate so much sugar at this event that by the end of the evening they were running around in circles and performing Riverdance. They didn't finally settle down until after 9 when we got home.

Day 2: The Oregon Zoo.

The Oregon Zoo was founded in 1887, making it the oldest North American zoo west of the Mississippi. The first zoo site was near where the reservoirs in Washington Park are now. The zoo became world famous in 1962 when the Asian elephant "Packy" was born. He was the first elephant born in the Western Hemisphere in 44 years and is (as of 2006) the largest Asian elephant in the United States at 10.5 ft (3.2 m) tall and 13,500 lbs (6,100 kg). A total of 28 more calves have been born at the Oregon Zoo, including 7 sired by Packy, making it the most successful zoo elephant breeding program in the world.

The trio of Janene, Carrie, and Craig had breakfast for the second day in a row at the Original Pancake House. We would have joined them as that is definitly the best breakfast restaurant in town, but as it is so good, the wait is pretty long to get in usually which is a situation our toddlers don't do great in at this age. For any unfamiliar with this restaurant though, just check out their web site at www.originalpancakehouse.com which features pictures of their specialties...the Apple Pancake and the Dutch Baby....ohhh its good stuff.

Anyway, zoo. I thought it was cool to see the top and bottom of a duck swimming so I included it here.

Here's the kids, Luis and Craig comparing their heights to those of bears. Luis and Craig might have a fighting chance with the sun bears and black bears but that's about it.

A new baby elephant was born about a week ago and we got to see him. Unfortunately he was a little camera shy and hid behind his mom as we tried to catch a picture. He's a cute little guy about 365lbs currenly and has been named Samudra.

Here's my own little babies sitting on a baby elephant statue.

The happy zoo-goers: Carrie, Craig, Luis, and Janene.

We saw some cool animals. Here's a rhino.

And a gazelle-thing. Yeah, yeah, I didn't memorize all the animal names. These were pretty little thangs though so I took a picture of him.

And a zebra...

The kids behind some bars checking out the zebras...

And the giraffe...

Even at the zoo there is a car, albeit a stripped-down safari Land Rover. The kids were thrilled. Siena took the wheel...And Mason manned the rear.

One of the best exhibits at the zoo were the lorikeets which would land on your hand if you had a cup of fruit nectar. That's me with one on my hand.

Mason got to feed one.

So did Siena.

Day 3: Pittock Mansion

The Pittock Mansion was originally built as a private mansion for The Oregonian editor Henry Pittock and his wife, completed in 1914. The mansion opened to the public in 1965, and has been a community landmark ever since. Roughly 80,000 people visit the Pittock Mansion each year, and we were a few of them.

YaYa decided to join us and volunteered to take the back seat with the kids...

Here is an exterior shot of the Mansion:

Mom and Mason in the dining room:

The kids weren't so much into the tour and the history of the house but they had a good time running around the grounds.

Here's mom outside the Guest House.

The gardens and the view from the mansion are incredible. Here's Siena by some of the flowers. Nothing like her chocolate-covered face next to a bunch of roses...

Here's the view of downtown from the garden. The tall building in the middle is my former place of employment.

Craig and the ladies were heading back to Illinios today. It was nice seeing them and being able to carry on a verbal conversation rather than our usual email conversations for a change.

On an unrelated note, how about those Ducks yesterday? If only our fantasy team could pull out a miracle this week...