Happy Father's Day!

Today was a great day! Sue, Greg's sister, came over for a fantastic waffle and sausage breakfast. Then we went to Sunday Parkway with Eliana, Pema, Sue, and M and M (Sue's dog). There were tons of people riding bikes, walking, skateboarding, running and even walking on stilts. We enjoyed a delicious pulled-pork sandwich for lunch. The weather was Oregon wacky: rainy, sunny, rainy, and sunny.

Here we are at Arbor Lodge Park during a sun break. We walked about 4 miles altogether and were out and about for about 3 hours. Eli slept the entire time!

After we got home and did a bit of yard work, I took a bunch of pictures of Eli and Greg to celebrate his first Father's Day. They look so much alike it's amazing! I think they're both pretty cute.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads and grandpas. We love you very much!

Hospitals, Diapers, and Roses...oh my!

On June 18th Eliana celebrated her 6 week birthday.  Unfortunately, we celebrated in Legacy Emanuel Hospital.  Sara has been doing battle with mastitis for the last few weeks and required a 24 hour stay in the hospital with IV antibiotics.  We were not happy to be there, but the nurses were thrilled.  We visited with many of the ladies who took care of Eli when she was first born.  In fact, the nurse who took care of her in the operating room just after the cesarean walked us out of the hospital on Friday.  She was so excited to see how Eli had grown.  The nurses at Emanuel are amazing!  

In other big news we received the Bum Genius diapers we ordered about a month ago. Why are we excited about diapers?  These things are awesome!  Eliana gave them her seal of approval by promptly peeing in them.  Here they are in all of their diaper glory.  

This morning we went over to Peninsula Park to take a walk and check out the roses.  It was so pretty; we are lucky to live in such a beautiful city!  

Here is the rose garden portion of the park.  Check out Greg in all of his yuppy goodness: the BOB, salmon colored pants, and a cup of coffee from the Albina Press.  Ridiculous.  We were almost embarrassed to be us today.

This is the water feature that is on the other side of the park.  It will be so fun to take Eli here in a few years.  The kids who were there were fascinated with the water.  

Results of Poll

Over the last two weeks we asked if the font size on our blog is too small.  We asked, "Is the font size on our blog too small?"  In Blogger we use Verdana font set small.  

Out of the 12 respondents 67% said no the font size is fine, while 25% of you thought size doesn't matter, it's what you do with the font that matters.  We'll keep that in mind.  Only 1 response (8%) thought the font is kind of small.  To our relief no one thinks our font and font size are too small.

Mission accomplished.  Our font size is ok and we got to test out the polling gadget.  Thank you to the 12 fans that took our poll.  - Team Stiles

The Year 2130

This just in.  Something big is brewing in the world of mortality tables and actuaries. Life expectancy is on the rise in a big way in the United States.  We recently took out a life insurance policy on our new baby girl.  The policy is good until she is 121 years of age.  I'll say it again, she'll have life insurance coverage until she is 121 years old.  The year will be 2130.  Crazy, huh?

Poking around I found that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates life expectancy, particularly for white females, is at an all time high.  For all races and sex life expectancy now averages 77.7 years.  White females are projected to live an average of 80.5 years.  Those figures are even a few years old.

When I was on the phone with the insurance company they said folks are hitting the century mark left and right these days and the old stand-by of coverage until 100 years of age isn't enough anymore so they bumped up the coverage period to 121 years.  At that age the year will be 2130.

The Farm

This past weekend we went out to Sun Gold Farms for a chance to see the place where they grow the fruits and veggies for our CSA.  It's out near Forest Grove about an hour from our house.  

Many people had a hard time following these simple directions:

Much to Sara's dismay, folks were traipsing around on the fields.

These birdhouses were occupied by swallows.

Here's one of the greenhouses.  It was filled with tomato plants.  They even had hanging tomato plants.

Flowers in another green house.

One of our favorite veggies.  We can't wait to pick up our first box from the farm next week!

If any of you are thinking of joining a CSA - do it!  It is a great way to support farmers and a sustainable food supply.  Getting our box each week has encouraged us to eat more fruit and veggies and try things we normally wouldn't purchase in a store.  We love the farm!

Take the Poll

Hey fans!  Take the poll and give us some feedback on the font size on our blog.  Is it too small?  Is it ok?  Look in the top right hand column and take the survey.  We aim to please so let us know what you think.  Thank you!  -  Team Stiles

Maiden Voyage of the S.S. BOB

The other night we took our BOB Revolution Stroller out for its maiden voyage. The stroller rocks. It goes up and down curbs easily. It handled the gravel dirt trails and hills in Pier Park with no problems. Best of all, our test passenger, Eliana, simply loved it. She looked around the first few minutes then promptly told us she liked it by passing out and staying asleep for the next hour. The maiden voyage of the S.S. BOB was a brilliant success!

Here Sara works on her parade wave and gets eaten by a giant bush.

This is the BOB Revolution Stroller. It is sweet. The car seat adapter and handlebar console are handy and are must have accessories. Everyone told us, "Don't buy anything but the BOB." Those people are right. Sara diligently monitored craigslist and we scored a used BOB for half the cost of a new one. Awesome.



I spotted this gem near the entrance of Pier Park. Yikes! Abandoned jean shorts in a park. Ewww!


This goose attacked the S.S. BOB near Pier Pool. The handy flying dagger attachment on the BOB devastated the goose and saved the day. Seriously, we almost died. For real, it was a wacky goose decoy tacked to a tree root near the pool. The jean shorts and shredded goose decoy gave us the creeps.


After a successful maiden voyage Eliana waves to all her fans. Peace out!