June 2007 archive
Use Firefox for the Internet
I just took a look at the new website design using Internet Explorer. It looks terrible, so I made this to show the difference:
Basically, if what you see on this site looks like the picture on the right, you need to update your web browser software. It’s a pain that Microsoft has allowed this to happen, but I can help if you need. If only to see our fancy new website the way it should look ;-)
Posted by Bryan on June 20, 2007 | Filed under: About This Site Family News | 0 comments
New Look
It was time to update the look of the site a little bit. I tried some orange colors for a day, but they were hard for me to read, so Ily and I came up with what you see now. The new top banner and standard blue links are much better, if I do say so myself.
I’ve seen these head-only pictures other places around the web and the idea came to me last night that I should do that. I found a Gimp tutorial that made it pretty easy to do. Reece’s head was done first, and Ily liked it a lot. That got her involved and she helped with the rest, like picking out pictures, suggesting the background color, and choosing the font. It was a great husband and wife artistic bonding experience. I highly recommend it.
Please comment and tell us what you think. The banner started to remind us of a certain TV show once we got into it. If you can guess I’ll give you 10 bonus points.
Posted by Bryan on June 19, 2007 | Filed under: About This Site Family News | 9 comments
Reece Turns One
Reece turned one year old on Saturday. My parents came over and we got together with them and Melinda, Benj, and Jason to celebrate. Ily made a nice gift cake for Reece, who had a great time eating it (and so did the rest of us). The weather was rainy so we stuck around the house mostly. It was still fun.
Reece turned one on Saturday. After Isaac's final soccer game of the season we had the party. ... See my Tabblo>
In other news, I’ve gotten tired of the blue background, and it just didn’t match this green tabblo. I’m not sure if I’ve made things any better. Is the orange hard to read?
Posted by Bryan on June 18, 2007 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments
Strawberries and Whipped Cream
Strawberries are ripe! Strawberries have to be the coolest thing to have in your garden. Ever. You just plant them once (or they come pre-planted when you buy your house, as was the case with us), and they just keep producing every year. We hardly do anything to maintain them, and yet, we get some awesome berries each spring. This year is no different. We picked our first small batch, and then Ily was excited so she made some whipped cream and pancakes for dinner last Sunday. It was a hit, especially with Reece. We made two different Tabblos to illustrate the results of Reece and whipped cream, one with one of the default templates:
We had a fun Sunday dinner of pancakes with fresh strawberries and whipped cream on top... See my Tabblo>
and one using some “suggested” background colors and some different positioning of the photos:
We had a fun Sunday dinner of pancakes with fresh strawberries and whipped cream on top... See my Tabblo>
I can’t decide which one I like better. You can decide. I did something a little different this time with both of them. They are 8 1/2” x 11” poster size. You can click on the “Print” link and it will open a PDF version of it and offer to print it on your printer at home. Give it a try with the one you like best.
Anyway, enough with the tabblo.com infomercial. We have had messier meals than this one, but the hairdo and photo session were just classic this time. I hope you enjoy.
In other news this week, Isaac had a rough soccer game. He had to leave the game with injuries twice (but that’s saying something that he went back in after the first!). First he played some aggressive defense and got kicked right in the ankle. Then later he took a throw-in from the other team right in the cheek. I practiced with him what to do if the ball is coming at him up high earlier this week, but he just didn’t see this one coming. He recovered when the after game snack came out.
Micah is doing very will the potty now. He likes his underwear and Superman, and he even pointed out the other night that, “Superman wears underwear, and Car Ken takes his clothes off and flies like Superman.” (they’ve been watching some old Superman cartoons that we found on DVD at target). He also likes to sing and he spent all afternoon singing, “The wise man built his house upon the rock,” today.
People have asked how the garden is doing. We have some small green peppers and a zucchini that is getting big. The tomatoes are looking good too.
OK, one last story that Ily just reminded me of. Isaac gave a talk today. He was able to read most of it himself, which was cool. The topic was on keeping baptismal covenants, so for family home evening Ily had them act out the story of King Noah, Abinadi, and Alma baptizing at the waters of Mormon. Isaac really got into it and cut out flames from construction paper for Abinadi and everything. Today after church I went home teaching at his primary teacher’s house. She was telling me all about how well Isaac knew the story from the lesson today and how he kept interrupting and excitedly telling each part of the story and finally, impressed yet surprised with my son’s enthusiasm, I asked what the story was.
“Oh, just Abinadi and King Noah.” she replied.
“Ahh,” I said, and then explained why Isaac knew that particular story so well this week. It’s nice to hear about our kids actually getting something from our meager family nights.
Posted by Bryan on June 10, 2007 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment
Memorial Day at Lucia Falls
Many of you have seen the pictures already, but I figured a more detailed write up would be helpful. We had a great Memorial Day weekend here around Vancouver. Saturday we went down to Washington Park new the Oregon Zoo and played at the playground. It was very crowded, but we had fun for a while. Monday we explored a new park nearby called Lucia Falls. It is northeast of town and took about a half hour to drive there. There was almost nobody there, which was a nice difference from our Saturday adventure.
There isn’t too much to the park, a walking trail through the woods that’s probably about a quarter mile, a small grassy area with picnic tables, and the Lewis River running over and through some rocks.
Lucia Falls is on the Lewis River north east of Vancouver. We still aren't sure if it's pronounced "loo-see-ah" or "loo-shah." ... See my Tabblo>
The water was pretty low, it hasn’t rained in a long time (for here), so there was a lot of exploring to do amongst those rocks. Isaac found about every path you could explore there. Ily, Micah, and I with Reece on my back just tried to keep up. It was really fun.
After we had our fill there, we drove further up the road to Moulton Falls. It was more crowded and the hike from the overflow parking looked like it would be too much for us that day. We were already tired. Next time!
Posted by Bryan on June 3, 2007 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments
