USS Blueback

Today we went to tour the submarine that resides at OMSI (science museum). Daddy had the day off and we all wanted to check it out. It was in the movie "The Hunt for Red October" as well!

Up periscope!

There were TONS of buttons, switches, gauges, etc.!

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Lots of little hatches/doors like this to climb through. Watch your head!

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Hanging out in the mess hall.

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The fam!

.This propeller is from the Blueback!

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The money game

Emma loves to play with coins. She sorts them, stacks them, puts them in containers. She also likes to play what she calls "the money game," where she rings a bell and you have to scoop up as much money as you can in your cup - quickly!

Today I thought we'd count out enough coins to equal $1 to see what that looks like in the different denominations. 100 pennies is a lot!

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She couldn't wait to get the coins out of their piles to play with!


Then we used a scale to see which set of coins weighed the most. The 10 dimes and 4 quarters weighed the same, the nickels weighed twice as much as them, and the pennies far outweighed everything! The dollar bill didn't even register as a tenth of an ounce :)

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Reptile Man

Well it's been a slow week here on the blog! Last Wednesday instead of waking up to snow, Emma woke up to a stomach virus. She was flat on the couch like this for three days. Over the weekend she slowly began to spring back to her old self, which was great to see!

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Last night we went to see the Reptile Man at the library. He's often on the news when there is an odd animal story. (Such as, did you hear the one about the guy who tried to ship a rattlesnake through the mail? The police turned that snake over to R.M. as they often do.) This animal was another recent news story - the Gresham Gator!!

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We sat in the back as it was a full crowd, but also Emma did not want to sit up close on the floor with the other kids. Every time he said the word "venomous," she would scoot closer and do something like this! We were assured that the animals were not dangerous, they have been de-venomed.

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Still Emma was not interested in volunteering! The last animal of the night was this Burmese Python. It was cool to see how many kids it took to hold him up!

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After all was said and done, Emma slept fine last night :)

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Backyard snow

It's been snowing off and on the last couple of days here, but our neighborhood hasn't seen much to actually do anything in. It started snowing early this morning and they were good sized flakes. Look at Zoe's back for the size. She's spotted!

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Emma put her snow gear on over her pajamas as she was in such a hurry to get out there! She likes to shovel. Phew that's hard work! Because it's warm the snow is like a big giant slushie spilled on the ground. Very, very wet. It's good to get rid of it where we walk though, because if it ices over tonight that would be very slick.

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She came up with an idea to keep the snow from getting in her eyes...

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There's a chance of major snow tonight, but it also could be nothing! Time will tell. Meanwhile we had to get out and enjoy it while we had it! Sure hope to build a snowman tomorrow :)

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Boat show

Yesterday Emma and Daddy went to the boat show! Emma had a great time climbing aboard and touring all the boats. (Driving them too!)

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They also got to make a toy wooden boat. Emma explained to me what all the parts of the boat were for. I took a picture of it outside in the tiny bit of snow that we got today!

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Sledding

Today we headed to Mt. Hood to find some SNOW!

Daddy went earlier in the morning with friends to go snowshoeing. Then, Emma and I drove up to meet them at lunchtime and go sledding! It was quite crowded there. The sun was out (for a while), so even though it was a little chilly out we were warm enough without bundling up. We found a good sledding hill, and downward Emma went!

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She also had a lot of fun while we were in the parking lot. She was rebuilding the wall and making snowballs and just playing with the shovel!

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A little video of one of her runs!

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Zoo day

We headed to the zoo this weekend. It was another brisk winter day there! We had a good time though, and there weren't many people around!

Lots of cousin pictures :) I think Miranda had just as much fun!

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YES! The two cheetahs were out!! The exhibit includes a safari vehicle driven through the window. Emma loves to drive this but it was especially cool to have one of the cheetahs wonder what we were so excited about. Did he recognize his little cheetah buddy?!

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Such a beautiful creature!

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Posing with the Amur leopard.

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Front row seats to the sea lion show!

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Big gift shop bear!

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Drumming in the Africa exhibit!

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