Veteran's Day Visitors

(Yes, I'm backed up on posts from November.) Just a week or so before Thanksgiving, we had some visitors over the long Veteran's Day weekend: Grammy and Grandpa Rhyne! With their days off, they came up to see their two grandkids, Alton and his cousin *P, and soak up some Oregon beauty in the fall.
We had a busy few days of fun, and it looks like Grandpa wound up in the most pictures with Alton this time around. Both of them enjoyed their reading and playtime.
Grandpa was barely in our door from the airport before Alton had him turning pages.

We went out to a family dinner--all the Rhynes. First there were some hand games....

Grammy clapping and playing patty-cake with *P


Alton even found a way to read in the restaurant at the table.

Alton also enjoyed some pajama-Lego time.

More books!

For our family dinner together, Alton was in charge of adorning the freshly-made pizzelle with powdered sugar. Mmm!

Foggy mornings and wet slides are nothing to Alton and Grandpa. Armed with coffee and a towel, Grandpa wipes down the sliding surface and he and Alton have some fun!


Peek-a-boo!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...Tortillas

It's that time of year again. No, not Christmas. At least, not just Christmas. No, it's the time of year when I start to daydream about all of the fantastic handmade garments and trinkets that I can make for gifts for the people I love, and then wind up with way, way too many things on my plate to get them all done! It's always a nailbiter, down to the wire, as to what gifts I'll manage to complete from my uber-list in time for Christmas Day. This includes the time that Andy and I got in the car to drive down to Santa Maria for the holidays and I made a knit hat for my brother during the car ride itself. So I apologize for being slow on some of our posts for the next little while!
In preparation for Christmas, we have managed to procure our Christmas tree

and decorate it...

and get the little Christmas Express Train all set up. Andy bought this train as a surprise for his parents years ago, and Alton has gotten a real kick out of seeing it set up at our house for the past two years.


Tonight I put together a dinner that doesn't scream "holiday season" to most people (including me). We'd received quite a few dry pinto beans in the Thanksgiving share from our CSA. Those would've been great in a pot of leftover turkey chili if you were feeding a crowd, but we were a small group in our travels, so I saved the bean preparation for when we returned home from the holiday. I made a huge batch of the beans, put some in chili, some in burritos...then needed more bean-centric dishes! Tonight, I opted for huevos rancheros for dinner: a big omelette of eggs, beans, some onion and chopped red chard for healthiness, and my inaugural batch of delicious, chewy, homemade tortillas.

It was actually a pretty easy and extremely tasty recipe. You can find it here.

Alton definitely enjoyed his share, but the best part of my evening was when Andy, the self-proclaimed formerly picky eater, bit into the huevitos and said, through a mouthful of tortilla, chard, and egg, "This is awesome." Success!

Bakin' (not bacon)

What could be better on a cold winter's weekend morning than baking bread? Andy and Alton show you how!
Saturday morning: Alton pours the yeast into a bowl of warm water.

Watch as it bubbles.

Stirring the yeast completely into the water.


Daddy gives him a little help.

Flour, rising time, mmm baking time! The two loaves of bread turned out beautifully.

Sunday morning, Alton celebrates his efforts with an egg over-easy.

Delicious!

He's so proud of his tasty bread!

The recipe was given to us by our friend Cindy, and can be found online here. It was an easy recipe and so resilient, we found out! After letting the bread rise in loaf pans for awhile, we decided it needed just a smidge more rising time, but we were on our way out the door. We took the dough in tow to my cousins' house, where we let it rise a bit more before popping it in the oven to bake while we "watched" the first hour of the U of O / OSU football game (also known as the Civil War). Then we had to grab that freshly baked bread to go while we drove out to Hood River for a ride on the Polar Express train! With driving time, train time, dinner and our trip home, the loaves sat in the back of the car until 9:30pm, when we arrived home and put them in the breadbin. Sunday morning, they were still soft, tender, and absolutely mouthwatering.

The Goodnight Train (by Andy)

This is a video of Alton reading his book, The Goodnight Train. It is one of the three books we read at night time. This one is the one he reads all by himself. He knows it quite well, so I thought I'd record him reading it. He's reading a little faster than normal because he knows I'm filming him (and you'll notice his quick glances to the camera, too). This video is actually posted to YouTube because of its length (just under 3 minutes). He's reading pretty quietly, so you may need to turn up the volume (he doesn't start talking until 8 seconds in). Below the video, I've typed up the words to the book so you can follow along.


The Goodnight Train
The Goodnight Train gets set to roll.
It's being shined and filled with coal.
Wash the cars off with a hose.
Scrub the engine's dirty nose. (Scrub-a-dub! Scrub-a-dub! Toot! Toot!)
All aboard! The sun is down.
The Goodnight Train is leaving town.
Find your sleepers! Grab your teddy.
Climb right up! Your bed is ready!
"All tucked in," the porter cries.
"Pillows fluffed. Now close your eyes." (Whooooooo! Whooooooooo!)
Wheels are turning. Smoke drifts high,
painting clouds up in the sky. (Huff-a-puff-a! Huff-a-puff-a! Choooooo! Chooooo!)
Slumber, lumber up the hill.
Cars climb slowly up until...
Roll the corner, rock the curve.
Blankets bounce with every swerve. (Rock-a, rock-a, rock-a, rock-a-Shhhhhhhhhh! Shhhhhhhh!)
Fly through a tunnel black as ink -
in and out before you blink.
Dreamland: 20 winks ahead.
Catch that freight train whizzing past!
The Goodnight Train is moving fast! (Choooooooo! Choooooooo!)
Cars sway on the wooden track.
Wheels go click. Wheels go clack.
Glide across a plain so flat.
Gently toss this way and that. (Clickety-clack! Clickety-clack! Clickety-clack!)
Curl through farms of fuzzy sheep.
The sleepy train slows to a creep.
Pushing toward the station's light,
cars crawl on with all their might. (Chug...chug...chug!)
"Sweet dreams ahead," the porter sighs.
The tired train can close its eyes.
(Alton points out some of the characters in the picture.)
Home at last, tucked in and snug,
the engine snores its final "Chug!" (Hush-a, hush-a, hush-a, hush-a- Sleeeeeeep!)
Good night, train.
Good night.

Molina Baby Shower

You may have already heard that my sister Cari (also known as Aunt Cici) and her husband Julio (also known as Julio) are having a baby! Expect the little boy bundle in early 2011. Our first nephew and Alton's first male cousin. A couple of weekends ago, I flew by myself down to Orange County to meet up with my sister, mom, aunties, cousins and other family members to shower the parents-to-be with baby essentials. We decided that the decor and theme for the shower would be "polka dots (and puppies)," and Cari unwittingly arrived in a dress fit for the occasion! Baby's growing, bit by bit! She tried to let me feel him kick, but he was not in the mood to play ball (or perhaps soccer just isn't his game?).

Auntie Kay layered diapers together to make a beautiful "cake" centerpiece, adorned festively with polka-dot bows by my cousin Louise, and topped with a perky little pup.

Even the favor boxes, full of chocolate brown and blue M&Ms, got in on the action.

The decoration I was most proud of was our baby clothes-line. Aunt Coleen procured clothesline and clothespins, and I pinned onesies and baby pajamas of every hue of blue across the living room.

The Molinas received many generous and thoughtful gifts, and loved the black and silver brocade cover I made for their Baby Bjorn (baby frontpack). This little baby will be traveling in style!

Baby's First Lasagna

Eat up all your lasagna if you want to be big and strong like Uncle K.C.! (Who loves lasagna. And is big and strong.) Alton ate up every bite, and somewhere his Nonna Carnine is shedding tiny, happy tears of joy.

Saturday (night's) all right

A wonderful weekend day in the Pacific Northwest for us. It's the Saturday before Thanksgiving Day, with nothing too pressing to do. Weather was colllld (in the low 40s most of the day, but some parts of the day were colder!) and sometimes rainy, so we dressed up warmly and went about our day.
First stop was the Beaverton Harvest Market, out here in the 'burbs. This regular Farmer's Market has closed for the season, but re-opened this day to bring the farm vendors back and let customers stock up on fresh items for the upcoming holiday. We went off in search of Thanksgiving ingredients, but also had pre-purchased a "harvest box" from our summertime CSA, promised to be full of "Turkey Day" essentials, and had selected the Harvest Market to be our pickup site for the bag o' goodies. We decided that early shopping and breakfast at the Farmer's Market sounded very up our alley, so we set out and arrived there just after they opened at 8a.m. Brrr!
Alton shows you his mittens.

Mittens, jacket, and boots!

Alton nabs a bagel and a seat under an awning while we listened to a string trio play through frigid fingers.

We were so glad that we made it such an early morning, because by the time the heavy mist in the air was turning into drizzle, we were finished with our shopping and ready to head home (totally frozen, of course).

Our Thanksgiving Harvest Box did not disappoint! Potatoes, pumpkins, broccoli, beans, sweet potatoes, rosemary, onions, squashes, pears, gourds, and a bag of walnuts. We also snagged some delicious grass-fed pork sausage to put into a stuffing, and some additional herbs and peppers from other farmstands. Add a bird and we're done!
After Alton awakened from his nap, I asked Andy to look up the hours to another favorite farm store of mine called Smith Berry Barn. I knew that they would have the two items for Thanksgiving that I hadn't stocked up on at the Farmer's Market: apples and hazelnuts. (They were a'plenty, but we didn't have the time or cash left in the a.m.!) Andy was surprised to find that the Barn's website advertised a special winter evening shopping event, with food and winetasting, that was beginning in just half an hour. Well, sign us up!

The little store was bedecked in holiday decorations and gifts of all kinds, including many of their delicious jams, jellies, and sauces that were also on offer to sample. Alton spent a while gazing at a beautifully-decorated Christmas tree, and with all the ornaments on sale we told him that he could pick one to take home for our tree this year. He picked a cute glittery snowman.
(Can you spot my two guys in the photo below?)

Outside the holiday tinsel explosion, there were still plenty of delicious farm-fresh apples on offer. I began stocking up...

...and got a little help when I needed it.

One more stop for the evening, and that was to the adorable local burger joint, Cruise-In Country Diner. Situated at a crossroads between two of our bigger country highways, the former greasy-spoon diner changed owners a little more than a year ago and became a clean, family-friendly, classic car-themed restaurant serving up delicious local grass-fed beef on whole wheat buns. With regular, garlic, or sweet potato fries to choose from, they walk a perfect line between home cookin' and flavor-piqued goodness.


We settled in and ordered our food; Alton couldn't decided if he wanted to sit with Mommy...

or Daddy...

but he was in love with the little Mustang Hot Wheels that was sitting in a nearby "playtoys" basket! We gladly borrowed the speedster for the duration of our meal.

Alton wolfed down his dinner, which came with a kid-sized ice cream sundae. He's not normally into ice cream because it's hard for him to eat something so cold, but he gave it a few hearty licks.

And then was glad to help partake in the chocolate-peanut butter milkshake we ordered for the table, split three ways of course.

The self-portrait!

And the one that the waitress offered to take for us. A perfect day for three!

Saturday Market (by Andy)

Special Note: This is our 300th post! And to think, it all started here.

On Saturday the 6th, Alton and I had the day to ourselves while Katie was down south enjoying her sister Cari's baby shower. Wanting to give AJ a ride on a train, I came up with the idea of going to Portland's Saturday Market. This is a large flea market type event that happens every Saturday (and Sunday) from March through December. I thought this would be a good opportunity not only for AJ to get to ride the train into Portland (and back) but to get to wander around the market. The market itself is held right off downtown Portland on the Willamette River waterfront.

The long trip ahead.

Ready to go!

AJ decided he wanted to sit next to me so I took advantage of the opportunity for a self portrait.

Looking out the window as everything passes by.

When we arrived, we found that not only was there a fire station nearby, but the firefighters were out practicing! They were practicing a rescue from a high level - as you can see with the stretcher (with a dummy inside) being lowered from the ladder truck's bucket. AJ even got to hold one of the ropes between sessions and he got a Jr. Firefighter sticker!

There's a fountain at the market that is turned off in the colder months. AJ saw some girls running around inside the now-dry fountain and wanted to play, too!

Since we were near the river, we HAD to go look for boats.

Soon after we arrived, this band started playing. AJ was very excited to go watch!

As we walked around the flea market style booths, AJ spotted these small wooden cars. I couldn't resist and got him one. Here, on the train ride home, he uses his new car as a "car camera" to take pictures of things we pass and some of the other people on the train.

On the train ride home, Jr. Firefighter Alton shows how excited he is to be on the train!