Nigel tree

Deschutes with Auntie on Sunday

Rolling around downtown Portland this weekend with auntie Nessa and
the family!

Raking leaves this morning

Autumn Leaves with Lily & Nigel from Isaac Szymanczyk on Vimeo.

We got outside this morning to clean up the leaves, and then this turned into a slice of life over the last 6 weeks in our life. Enjoy!

Sunday downtown

We took the afternoon off on Sunday to head down to the Portland Saturday Market with our friends Bekah and Hasan. Later we found ourselves just the foursome, cruising through the Pioneer Square of our very favorite city. Time for a little warmup with Starbucks.

New front steps!

We got our new front steps completed last week! Elissa had an idea several months ago that our adorable house would be even more adorable if you could see it. So we found some guys who thought they could make us some steps, and we whacked down the outsized bushes in front. Below is the slideshow. Enjoy!

Kids brick is laid!

This year, when the kids returned to school, they got a nice surprise
courtesy of their Nonni and Papa - a personalized brick at the entry
to the school. Thanks folks!

Ridin' dirty in the city

Nigel and I and a couple of buddies headed out Saturday to see if we could see the Flugtag bike event downtown on the waterfront. About 80,000 people showed up, which made it a little hard to see the action (much less cross the Hawthorne Bridge). But we had fun, and circled round the downtown by crossing back on the Broadway bridge, where we saw a party-boat nearly sink beneath us.

The boys did a good job -- about 12 miles total. Check it out.


Moreland Boys Flugtag Ride 2008 from Isaac Szymanczyk on Vimeo.

Mold be Gone!

As of today, we no longer own the Beige Beauty. Our old, moldy, broken refrigerator is gone. When I pulled it out today, I couldn't help but laugh. Apparently someone else wasn't smitten with the beige color either, because at some point in time someone tried to spray paint the fridge black! I guess after one can of paint they wore out and just decided to push that side against the wall. Even as the nice Sears guys hauled it away, it oozed brown liquid from the back side. I think it was crying, saddened by the realization that its long tenure in this home was over. The new refrigerator looks great. The kids are so excited, you'd think we bought them a pony. We'll enjoy the newness while it lasts.

Silly kids got a new Flip! Video camera. More video to come I'm sure!

Best summer yet.

No complaints this summer. We've been out in nature every week. Hiking, biking, canoeing, camping. The northwest is just one big playground during the warm months. We've climbed to the top of the world, splashed in pure snow melt in the canyons, and found our inner peace with being dirty and dusty.

Wedding Weekend

We joined with family this weekend to celebrate my Uncle Gary's marriage to Daniela Ivanova. The setting was gorgeous, and it was really fun to reconnect with the Nyberg family, as well as meet Daniela's lovely family who had just arrived from Bulgaria. Appropriately, we stayed at a Swedish, hilltop lodge, and the celebration was all Bulgarian song and dance. Lots of dance! It was great to have all five Nyberg cousins together for the first time in 20 years! We are, left to right: Nathan, Bridget, Elissa, Mildred, and Christa. The complete set. Fun. Cheers to old family and NEW family. Congratulations to Gary and Daniela!

The boat

We got a boat!

> Trying out this 18 1/2' canoe for our new family boat. It's a kevlar
> Sea Clipper. We're all quite excited, and it gets really good gas
> mileage. ;)

> Going to test it this weekend at the lake in Washington.

Summer's on the way

It's palpable. The end of school is almost here. Seven more days of class. The kids are already tossing aside their school clothes in favor of tank tops and flip-flops. Bedtime has just about gone out the window with it being light outside until after 9pm. The lunches I pack are becoming predictable and tasteless. We're done. Get us to the local pool and let the fun begin!

Dancer Lily at her Snow White performance Saturday

Obama rocks Portland

Just got back from the Barack Obama rally downtown. Didn't have anyone to go with, so I went alone, and stood amongst my fellow Americans, feeling not very alone at all.

I've now listened to him speak twice in person in the past few months. I didn't need any more persuading to vote for Obama, but it still gives me chills to be in the presence of such a moving candidate. When he's President, I can say "I was there when...."

Bill Richardson spoke with Barack, lending his full support to the campaign, and it was apparent that we were looking at the Democratic presidential ticket for 2008. Pretty cool. Here's a picture of the two of them today.

-Elissa

Happy 10th to us!

Had a really romantic, very fun trip to Germany/France sans children. Met some great people along the way, ate lots of sausage and beer and pretzels, and lost ourselves in the experience (literally and figuratively!)