My Favorite Restaurant in the World!

Doug is updating Chef Tucker's web site so I thought I would give you just a small preview, for more go to http://www.cheftucker.com/ (the new site isn't up yet but will be soon) or better yet go in person and eat the most amazing food you will find anywhere.

This is the most incredible tasting eggs benedict you will find anywhere. I have it at least once a week!

This isn't your typical ravioli!

Gluten Free Cake!

School and soccer have started!

My camera has been broken for most of the summer so I haven't had many photos to post. I was using my "old fashioned" film camera but now I need to take the film for developing and who knows when I will do that. I will also need to remember to order a photo CD so I can have pictures to post. I need to gather up all the undeveloped film around the house. Who knows what I might find. Maybe I will do that soon and just post lots of older random photos on our blog.

For now I just copy photos from others. These latest soccer photos were taken by another parent of a girl on Victoria's team. These are from Victoria's first game of the season last Friday. Due her hard work and improved running time of the mile and a half Victoria was given a starting position for the game. Not bad for a freshman on a high school varsity team! To say nothing of all the pain she has been fighting in her knees.

Kazakstan Adoptive Families Picnic

Twice a year there is a group of families in the Portland area that adopted children from Kazakhstan around the same time. It is always fun to see how the children are growing and share our joys and challenges with others that are going through the same things.

Dimitri was fishing with friends, Doug was working so just Victoria and I attended this year.

The Watch Prince Open House

In March we rented our new space for The Watch Prince and hoped to have our new retail showroom up and running by May. It didn't happen, it was so hard to find the time while still maintaining the online portion of the business and our business. Luckily for us when Hillary arrived from Kazakhstan in June she took over the project. We had our opening on August 21 and it was great! The store looks wonderful, Chef Tucker's did a great job on the food.

I will try to update more often!

With most of my children now back in Oregon, we have let up on the blog entries. I get to see them in person now! Yeah! At the Metz family reunion in Colorado I was surprised how many of my relatives told me they often checked out our families' blogs, I had no idea since most don't enter comments. Since I now know many people do read our blog I will try to at least do some entries. I certainly love all the blogs I read and wish more family members would start a blog for there family, hint, hint.

I have been hoping for some posts from someone of photos taken in New Mexico over the 4th of July since somehow during the trip both of our camera memory cards were lost so we have almost no pics!

I have taken almost no photos this summer so I borrowed some from the web site of Victoria's basketball camp last week. It is a camp run by former Portland Trailblazer, Larry Steele.

Gretchen

Victoria has been having trouble with her knees recently. We are seeking medical advice!


To spot Victoria almost anywhere anytime look for an orange or black Oregon State shirt and she will be easy to find! (top row in group photo)

The Long Drive

The long drive to Silverton with a over heated motor home which has left us a few hours behind. So I'm really bored but Im now posting a blog, I am your guest bloger for today. So I'm entering a few comments.

-Victoria

Madison and Dimitri wait patientlyto get started for our drive

I have awesome brothers and nephews

Right now, we are driving through Nampa, Idaho on our way to the Metz Family Reunion in Colorado. By "We," I mean Gordon, Ashton, Taylor, Adam, Madison, Victoria, Dimitri and myself. We are driving my parents' motorhome. Unfortunately, it has been having major over-heating issues. We had to creep along a good part of the day. We made it to Baker City, where several truck-repair shops and an auto-supply store where unable to help. At least, not until Tuesday.

Well, the guys refused to give up. We spent about 90 minutes in a parking lot making temporary repairs with a t-shirt and duct tape (what can't you do with duct tape?). It's amazing, really. We might just make it to Aztec tomorrow, even though it was looking like we wouldn't a few hours ago. I better post this before I lose this connection. More later.

Gretchen

The Fountain at Sunset

The Mortensens and Teradas took an evening outing to the Tualatin fountain. As the sun began to set, it created some interesting lighting for some of these pics.

The first photo (above) is provide a wider view of the fountain.

Dimitri sticks his hand in the fountain...

...but I think he was just copying Annabelle! :-)

Isaac with the setting sun.

Believe it or not, Annabelle kept convincing Grandpa that she needed to stick her hand in the water "just one more time."

Isaac's Birthday Party

We celebrated Isaac's birthday with a party on Sunday, June 24th, at our house.

When we went shopping at the party store, Dimitri found this Isaac candle. He thought that was pretty special.

The guest of honor is getting set to blow out the candles.

Isaac poses with Dad (Ken), Sis (Annabelle), Mom (Adrienne), and Aunt Emi.

Victoria and cousin Brad Root share a serious moment.

Aunt Kimberly and cousin Leila helped celebrate Isaac's 4th birthday.

To Stephanie

Yes, we have been quite busy the past couple weeks. Hopefully, my previous three posts will provide you with a glimpse of what has been going on.

More to come!

Doug

Wednesday Night at the Park

Victoria and Dimitri meet with their Youth Group each Wednesday evening. On June 13th, the whole gang got in the car, and we dropped off V&D. Then, we parked in downtown Sherwood, and walked up the hill to the park. Here are a few pics.

Baba, Isaac, Grandpa, and Annabelle getting "warmed up" before we head up the hill to the park.

Isaac enjoyed climbing on this structure.

Annabelle liked peeking through the holes.

I couldn't resist posting another picture of her. Is she cute, or what?

Isaac

Isaac was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes earlier this year. Although challenging, it has not slowed him down a bit. I am so proud of him. Blood sugar testing, wearing his insulin pump, and patiently waiting to eat until he is dosed are just part of his life routine. Here are a couple Isaac pics.


















He looks like a man on a mission in the above photo. You can see his insulin pump on his waist (your right, his left).


















Tired out, Aunt Victoria gives him a lift.


















He has become pretty good at getting in and out of the Navigator.

I just love how he asked me each morning if I was going to work and when I would be home.

Annabelle

As many of you know, the Terada family has moved from Kansas back to Oregon. The past two weeks, we have had the honor and treat of hosting Adrienne, Isaac, and precious little Annabelle, while they awaited the arrival of Ken. This post is the Annabelle post.














Here is Annabelle as she chases cousin Leila (while holding Baba's hand).


















Lil' Annabelle continues to "bring up the rear" as she and Baba chase Isaac and Leila.


















She sees something of interest.


















Baba and Annabelle just strolling along.

The unexpected part of the Terada family arrival was that Annabelle really liked Grandpa. I have had a great time being the one that she reaches out to!

Hailey's Graduation

Sorry, not much description with these shots. Adrienne is here, and she is keeping up very late, every night. As a result, I am too tired to type much. Here are a few pics from Hailey's graduation celebration at Pa and Grandmothers.

Bev, Ashton, and Cookie Root.

Lima, Doug R, Doug M, Don, and Sandra.

Max, Dimitri, and Miles.

The guest of honor, with her family — Roger, Gabriella, Leila, Hailey, Kimberly, Levi, and Brooklynne. Like the matching outfits!

The Root clan gathers for a photo. Difficult to see much, except for the glare from my head!

Terada Family Arrived

Adrienne, Isaac, and Annabelle arrived in Oregon, today. How exciting to have them home! All three are quite cute.

It was so fun to hear Isaac tell everybody, "We moved to Oregon and we are going to be here forever!" Then, when asked where he was going to live, he replied, "At Baba and Grandpa's, then we are going to live at the hotel." For those who don't know, the "Hotel" is the condo that Gretchen and I own in Tualatin (just a few miles from where we live). I guess that because it is a multi-unit building, and has a swimming pool, it looks like a hotel.

Tucker and Jenn joined us for dinner at the Levasa's, tonight. Annabelle and Leila got to meet each other, and according to Baba and Dimitri, they said each other's name just before we left to go home (we'll need some further verification on that one :-)

Here is Adrienne and Annabelle (above) as I get ready to enter tonight;s blog.

Not sure why I got the sad face from A on this one (although she mumbled something about it being 2:00 a.m. -- Kansas time), but another (rather cute) face popped up in the background.

It is nearly midnight, and as I look from my computer toward my bedroom, I see little Annabelle (who refuses to go to sleep -- it's 2:00 a.m. Kansas time, for Pete's sake) sitting on my bed, watching me. I am not complaining, as she is so adorable. :-)

Oh my! Look who came to visit me (see photo below) while entering this blog!

How Exciting!

Click here to see why we are excited!

Paul Anka Weekend

It's Saturday evening and I am looking out the window at the Pacific Ocean. We are sitting in our beach condo at Pacific Winds. Many moons ago, Pa got tickets for Paul Anka at the Chinook Winds Casino. We figured that since we don't take much time off from work, that we should make a weekend of it.

We left home, yesterday (Friday), at about 4:00 p.m. After getting stuck in Dundee traffice for almost 25 minutes, we zipped on down to Lincoln City, checked into our condo, and quickly drove over to meet Pa and Ashton at Chinook Winds. A short while later, Gordon and Tracy arrived. We ate at the buffet, then went to the theatre for Paul Anka.

Gretchen and I both had rather low expecations. After all, Paul Anka had to be older than dirt, and here he was, performing at Chinook Winds. Well, our expectations were greatly exceeded. Paul was very fit, energenic, and put on a great show.

For those who don't know, Paul Anka has written hundreds of songs for other well-known singers. For the older crowd, he wrote the theme song for the Johny Carson show. He sang both songs that he recorded, and many that he wrote for others. He played guitar and piano. He worked the crowd very well, and sang three encores.

After a very entertaining evening, Pa, Ashton, Gordon & Tracy came over to our condo, which was about 1.5 miles from the casino. We had some snacks, then Pa and Ash took off for home so they could attend the Grand Floral parade in the morning. Gordon and Tracy had a hotel room and were heading home, this morning.

The Mortensen clan stayed the weekend. We slept in, this morning. Gretchen and I went to the coffe shop, then picked up some eggs and milk. We came back to the condo, had breakfast, then went swimming in the indoor pool. Afterward, we went to get a crab/shrimp cocktail, shopping at the outlet mall, and stopped for a Snicker Ice Cream Mocha for the kids (I know, we are very nutritional-minded parents).

Returning to condo, we just hung out. Watched some TV, Victoria and I went hot tubbing -- overlooking the ocean, and Gretchen even entered some invoices (gotta love the Internet). Now, we are all watching the Biggest Loser and I am blogging.

We'll head to dinner, soon, and see if we can make it through another stressful day, tomorrow!

What Did Victoria Do, continued

I left for a business trip in Las Vegas before the final post of Victoria was posted so I just need to follow up and expand a little more. First on Wednesday morning Victoria left for school wearing a darling blouse we bought over the weekend, very feminine and it was worn with her "girl jeans" Right after school was her hair appointment and she asked for layers. She also let the hairdresser complete the special knots in her hair. Next Victoria and I went to the nail salon for manicures and pedicures, it was a fun mother daughter time. Very different than the usual things Victoria enjoys. Victoria even chose red for her toes (her fingernails are too short and bitten for color). I was getting my eyebrows waxed so the lady asked if Victoria wanted hers done to my pure amazement she asked me if she could. I said sure but did tell her it would hurt but she went ahead with it. So it was so much more than the hair and toes Doug showed in his photos.

Lord's Last Supper

Victoria finished another leather tooling project. This time it is a scene from the Lord's Last Supper.

Here she is holding her finished project, which she has every right to be proud of.

A closer look reveals the amazing detail work.

Of course, an original work of art requires a signature — the soon-to-be-famous "VM!"