The View From Elk Mountain

Cyber Neighbors

2011-11-14T15:23:00.000-08:00

I recently got a new cell phone number, and I've been getting lots of phone calls for the prior holder of this number. At first it was aggrevating, but in a way it's been kind of an interesting experience. She was apparently a very nice person and very connected (I think she's gotten more calls on this number than I have!) and I think she had been doing some charity work. The people in her network are by-and-large quite nice: I almost look forward to chatting with her next caller!

Halloween!

2011-11-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

Another Halloween come and gone. This year the kids were very excited about decorating the house, or rather the front yard --- probably because a house a couple doors down had done their place up in spades. So we added some more to our slowing growing stock of decorations (no pics, sorry!). Also, this year Son decided he would stay home and greet the trick-or-treaters instead of doing the rounds. I rather enjoyed this, sitting on the front porch with a warm drink and listening to the sounds of Halloween up and down the street.

The crowd pics are from the downtown merchants' Halloween event.

Weekend Getaway

2011-10-03T17:03:00.000-07:00

We foisted the kids off on unsuspecting friends and relative (okay, they knew what they were signing up for) and headed for the hills - literally - for an anniversary get-away. We drove down to a place called Silver Falls State Park in the vicinity of Salem and did their "ten waterfall" hike. One hiking book described it as 1/2 mile, 5 hours: we think the park description of 7 miles is a bit closer, though I don't think it took us 5 hours. By my count we saw only 9 waterfalls, and one was just a trickle, but by any account it was beautiful! The pics don't do it justice.

Scene: An Office Cubical

2011-09-23T16:49:00.000-07:00

[cell phone rings]

"Hello?"
"Hi Dad".
"How are you doing?"
"Just saying hi."
"That's a lovely thing to do."
"Um-hmm. 'Bye"

[cell phone disconnects]

Softball!

2011-09-22T17:35:00.000-07:00

Daughter wanted to try out softball so she's doing the short fall season. Here are two pics from the diamond: the very first batter of the very first game, with Daughter ready on defense at third base. And the action shot shows Daughter's first base hit on her first at-bat. A lot of firsts there :-)

Welcome Our New Family Member

2011-09-20T15:51:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, after months of concerted lobbying by Daughter, we found ourselves at the Portland Humane Society shelter signing the papers to take home this guy. He's 15 pounds of Poodle - Spaniel mix (probably), estimated at 5 years old. His shelter name was Reno (where I allegedly grew up) but Daughter has renamed him Rio. He's pretty mild-mannered so far, and getting settled into the family life well.

More Kauai: End with some miscellany

2011-09-15T12:36:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been fun sharing our Kauai trip with you, but here's where we'll leave off.

Captions: She named this fish Buddy and made sure to feed it every day - finding a place to get a pastry is part of every trip now - yes, I was there! - roadside fruit stand because the Poipu farmer's market was described to us as being a bit fru-fru - the hula show at Coconut Marketplace is a benefit by a local hula school - the awesome playground at Lydgate Park (two pics) - and a family pic, make your own caption for those faces.

More Kauai: Beaches!

2011-09-12T17:15:00.000-07:00

We didn't spend all our time at the resort: why do you go to Hawaii except for the beaches? Sometime we had to drag the kids along but once there they had a good time (it was the car rides that were difficult - we're losing our resistance to electronic games during car travel). Sorry for the small mountain of pictures, I couldn't help myself! These are from Lydgate beach, two different visits - Daughter was not happy about posing for a family picture!

A couple no-people picture just 'cause they're pretty

This next beach is right where the Wailua river comes out, it turned out to be a really nice spot: deserted, protected from the waves (though watch out for the current in the river), decent sand --- and shade! There was also, not pictured, a small tidal pond with tiny fish. Daughter spend a lot of time patiently trying to catch them, without success.

Later we found this beach, apparently only used by locals. It was actually quite decrepit, with run-down facilities and lots of trash, but it was such a beautiful spot we spent a long time there overlooking these issues. Another river came into the sea here, and we caught a lot of tadpoles - then released them and caught them all over again. And the shells here were top-notch. Oh, that reminds me, a local gave Terrie a couple very pretty shells, just because he noticed her collecting! And another guy, with his family enjoying the river front, noticed the kids trying to catch the tadpoles and loaned them small hand nets! What a friendly stop.

More Kauai: The Pool

2011-09-09T14:48:00.000-07:00

The resort pool is a critical component of our vacations these days. This one had a nice shallow pool with a sandy "shore" (the pool bottom was concrete, not sand, they must have swept the sand out every night). Daughter found some kids to play with, who were around all week which is nice. When they weren't around she spent endless hours doing handstands and cartwheels in the water, and pestering us to play with her. Both kids had fun with the boogie board (rented for the week).

More Kauai: The Resort

2011-09-08T12:09:00.000-07:00

Some views around the place where we stayed in Poipu:

Off to Hawaii!

2011-09-07T16:55:00.000-07:00

Last week we were in Hawaii. I didn't even think about trying to post from Hawaii, though it would have been possible, so I'm going to tease you here by posting these "on our way" pictures. That luggage carousel is in Lihue on the island of Kauai, hooray! We'd planned to go carry-on the whole way but the first leg flight was delayed and by way of making it up to us they let us check bags for free. The late flight caused us to miss flight #2, but since it was the local inter-island hop, there was another one leaving just a few minutes after we got in. Hats off to the ground crew for getting all our bags to the finish line on time!

pirate sketch

2011-08-25T15:50:00.000-07:00

Some of my very good friends have been doing some amazing artwork recently and I was feeling left out so I picked up my pen and drew this --- on my computer, which is almost a first for me. I do some paint work in my job, but nothing really meant to be noticed, if you know what I mean. Thank you, DS and CC!

Colophon: Drawn in GIMP with a Wacom Intuos 3 tablet.

More from Oaks Park

2011-08-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

Some pictures that I overlooked in yesterday's post: Son's favorite "ride", the giant slide - he did it again and again. Not shown, Daughter favored the carousel, riding several times: I think we both enjoyed the fact that she enjoyed such a low-key ride when there were so many thrill rides nearby. Also, one of the few photographic proofs that I was there that day, riding the rails with Son. And an "artsy" photo of Son on the train - I don't remember taking the photo this way, though I've done similar shots in the past ....

Oaks Park Amusements

2011-08-23T15:58:00.000-07:00

This weekend past was the company picnic at the Oaks Amusement park. Along with the rides pictured here, we also enjoyed snow cones, popcorn and cotton candy. It was really hot, so we were happy we brought our water bottles-on-a-strap that we got at the Washington County fair. The park is along the Willamette River, which made for some nice scenery and looked very inviting (except for the over-supply of power boats). After a fairly rocky start involving the Lewis and Clark ride, I think both kids enjoyed their rides a lot --- there were quite a number of repeat rides. The company supplied wristbands, so there was no stressful deciding where to spend a limited supply of ride tickets as at the County Fair. Later in the day, as we enjoyed our snow cones, we ran into a couple kid-friends and Daughter got to do some rides with them which probably helped her enjoy the day. If you look really closely at the pics of her in the fast rides you'll see a face that looks far from happy but she insists they were good rides ....

Narnia

2011-08-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

As in, the book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Daughter finished it off this morning. Her verdict: "Boring. Harry Potter is more exciting."

Worn a Good Snake Lately?

2011-08-17T14:23:00.000-07:00

For weeks Daughter had been pushing to attend the Reptile Man show at the library (did you know libraries hosted things like Reptile Man shows?). Come the Day Of and suddenly she's not so excited about it: paraphrasing, "What if I don't want to touch a snake and people think I'm chicken?" Kudos for being able to articulate the issue, but perhaps we have some work to do on self-actualization. Anyway, she stayed away and it become a Father-Son event, and this guy does quite a good show! Highly recommended if you get a chance. He calls on lots of people from the audience, and toward the end Son was putting his hand up and got to wear this snake (which alas I don't know the type of). He was grinning ear to ear as he sat down.

OMSI and Trains

2011-08-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

Mother and Daughter spent some time at OMSI, the local science museum, with a friend. Later, Dad and Son played with the wooden train set (mostly, I built and he played, but I'm okay with that). Everyone had a good time.

Custom Pokemon Cards

2011-08-15T16:43:00.000-07:00

Daughter asked one morning if she could read her deck of Pokemon cards as her "productive" (activity) before moving on to some vegetative non-activity such as watching Netflix or playing a computer game. One look at my face and she amended this quickly to "can I draw some Pokemon cards?" to which I agreed. Some of these came from later sessions but I'm grouping them all together here. I love the "grrl type" card, with the special power of confusion (1st in top row). Also note the "Boatte", 1st in bottom row, because I love anything to do with boats! No playing to the judge here. Also of note is the 3rd in the top row, the only one that came from our encouragement: she mis-read "intimidation" on a card as "animation" so we suggested she make a card with the special power of Animation: to all my friends in the animation business, you now have your own Pokemon! With a *lot* of HP, I might add. And that's not beer, 3rd in bottom row, but I think an attempt at Bee-ie, the -ie or -e suffix being the generic diminutive.

Shakedown Cruise

2011-08-09T14:48:00.000-07:00

I bought this dinghy from my neighbor on the dock in Richmond. Over the last year, I added a sailing rig with bits from a variety of sources. The sail is cut from heavy-duty polytarp and "sewn" with high-test duct tape, the spars are 2-inch dowels, the rudder came from a marine second-hand store. With a final push over the wekend involving buying and assembling a small trailer from a local chain store (they're not kidding when they say "allow six hours for assembly") it was time to head to the lake! Knowing this one would be a little rough, the family wisely chose to sit this one out. Instead I had my Aunt and Uncle along for moral support and to help with carrying the boat to the water when my dolly arrangement failed utterly. Once in the water, things went pretty well: the sail rig set in easily and wasn't too much in the way. We had a bit too much wind at first but it moderated to a "just right" breeze. I took her out under power (oars) before hauling the wind. Under sail, she handled herself nicely, even with the leech not nearly tight enough. The sheeting angle is a bit awkward, I need to add something on the stern quarters. Then there's the leeway: I was hoping that the external chines would provide enough lateral plane to at least bear cross-wind, but no such luck. She makes almost as much way to the side as forward. From this shake-down cruise there are a few minor new items on the to-do lists --- improvements to the trailer and the tie-down arrangements, tuning of the rig --- but most of all I will need to rig up a daggerboard or leeboard. But I had a blast, and was grinning ear-to-ear.

First Kayak Trip

2011-08-08T12:33:00.000-07:00

They say that the most fun is had in the smallest boats, so when my grand plans of taking the family on a bareboat charter in the Puget Sound ran aground on the rocks of economic reality ($1000 for two nights?) I was happy to recalibrate the plans toward this more reasonable adventure. We rented two double kayaks with a guide for two hours' paddling in Scappoose Bay and river. We had varying degrees from "it was okay" to "that was great! let's go again!" and I'll let Dear Reader imagine who was where on that scale. We got to see a Bald Eagle, multiple Blue Herons, Blackbirds, an Ospray and Canadian Geese. One fish jumping, two ruins of boats, a very high high water mark, evidence of beavers (Daughter was not impressed, she's an Oregon Ducks fan). Nothing much deeper than a kayak could have made it through the thin water we explored, and the trees overhanging if not exactly Everglades at least made for some fun head-duck moments. We had great weather: calm to light breeze, overcast, not too hot. I can recommend the nice folks at Scappoose Bay Kayaking, and particularly Very Nice and Patient Guide Dave (thanks, Dave!) Map

Summertime in the Backyard

2011-08-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

We've had a small wading pool in the backyard but it's a couple years old and leaks like crazy so when these came on end-of-season sale (this year, the weather's been such that it's pretty much beginning-of-season!) we picked up a new one, in a new style hoping it will work out better. Even as we fill it the kids are having fun. As for the old one, anyone out there need a few square yards of heavy plastic for a project?Also, in the background I've finally gotten my new polytarp sail set up on the dinghy! I think it might just work. Still to be arranged is a means of transporting it to the local lake.

A Miscellany

2011-08-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

A few random shots today: me at my desk (note how glamerous my work is!) with Bee --- Daughter's been asking me to take various animals to work lately. Son enjoying this terrific drum set created by Daughter and the indispensible Hot Glue Gun --- how did we get along without a hot glue gun before?! And both kids going over their Summer Reading Program entry forms from the library.

County Fair, Part 2

2011-08-02T16:50:00.000-07:00

As promised, here's part 2 --- the games and rides. I selected some of the more "expressive" faces from my pictures, from which you might conclude that Daughter was having a miserable time and Son was having the time of his life. I think Daughter had a lot of fun too, but she does wear her worried expression a lot! We made no effort to guide their selection of rides, and you can see the significant difference in choice; but both seemed to really enjoy themselves. With one exception: on the last ride of the day, Daughter, riding by herself, had to share a car with a (somewhat older) male, and was so clearly unhappy with this arrangement that it almost broke my heart to watch her. I very much hope she remembers the fun parts of the day instead of this. We had one snafu when we separated for rides, and each waited for the other group to come over! The kids were amazingly good as we waited for a long long time in the heat until we finally managed to regroup. As for the games, a pox on their house: I'm used to carnival games being rigged so they rarely have to pay off, but at $5 a go it borders on criminal in my opinion. Thankfully we set kids' expectations that we would only be playing a small number of games. The rides were similarly extortionate, but we got some comp tickets by participating in the library's summer reading program --- you should have seen Daughter pulling out all the stops to fill out her book list!

County Fair, Part 1

2011-08-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

This weekend past was the county fair. I couldn't limit myself to just a few pics so I'm doing this in two posts, one today and one tomorrow.

First up: animals, exhibits, crafts, and Fair Food. The lead pic? a demonstration of the Bernoulli effect, in the Intel booth.

Next, sheep. We also saw chickens, ducks, goats (regular and pygmy), cows and miniature horses.

Three: Playing with an endless pump: four buckets connected by pumps and rain gutter. Great fun.

Four: When it comes to Fair Food we're not in the same league as Certain Persons but Daughter finally got her Dippin Dots; Son had a Sour Apple Italian Ice. Not pictured are the fried apple slices with whipped cream that I had (verdict: don't bother).

Five: Watching the cattle judging.

(It was also hot, noisy, dusty, crowded and really really expensive --- but let's try not to remember that part ....)

Zoo Trip

2011-07-01T14:21:00.000-07:00

It's been a rather long time since we've been to the zoo! It went reasonably well this time. There are two "extras" that you have to pay for, the train ride and the dinosaur walk, and we usually let the kids choose one. They opted for the dino walk, which is kinda fun. Some of the rubber animatronic dinos spit at you as you walk past; and there's a mist machine at one point which is nice on a hotter day. One of those pics shows Daughter handing a bill to a vulture, who snatches it and drops it in the donation box.

Dance Recital

2011-06-30T14:29:00.000-07:00

A few images from the recent dance recital. Both kids were in both performances! One picture shows the two performers risking twisted ankles between shows. In another, notice Daughter being camera-shy after performing for several hundred people.

the innocent eye

2011-06-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

As we were walking from the car toward (this week's) summer camp, Daughter stops abruptly, looking down, and says "Cool! Water droplets on spider web." I thought this was a very nice observation and I celebrate her moment of wonder.

2011-06-16T17:04:00.000-07:00

What's going on here? My first fumbling attempts to introduce Role Playing Games. On the morning this was taken, Daughter finished up a math worksheet and then said "Could we get some new board games? I'm tired of the ones we have." So I sent her for some Littlest Pet Shop toys to be adventurers, grabbed some dice, and sketched out the entrance to a dungeon. The best I could find quickly for monsters was some puffballs. We didn't have much time before school but we got through a couple rooms and a hallway. And we overcame two Rats, two Dustbunnies and one Big Orange Troll! And recovered three jewels from the dungeon.

Guest Photographer

2011-06-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

Daughter talked me into letting her take the (older) digital camera to school with her for a recent field trip to a local farm. She didn't have to talk too hard, I'm quite excited about this development.

Bookishness

2011-06-02T10:36:00.000-07:00

Being a bookish sort myself I was sort of hoping that my kids would like books too. They do, of course, but not enough to actually cut into time set aside for basketball, dancing and (ew) computer games. Here we see Daughter has picked up The History of the United States, published around 1920, which I keep on a bookshelf more-or-less decoratively. I grabbed the camera, she grabbed my glasses ....

Back in Action!

2011-05-27T11:53:00.000-07:00

I've been frustrated in my blogging by a bug somewhere between Picasa (the program) and PicasaWeb (the service) and Blogger.com --- all Google properties, so one might hope they would play well together. When I first took up Picasa it was great: I could select some images, click on one button and it would resize them all, upload to Picasaweb, and open a blog post editor. For a year or more, though, this workflow has been broken. I've been searching for alternatives for a long time.Finally yesterday I realized that by replacing the very limited (and limiting!) Picasaweb, I can almost recreate my workflow, using free and Open Source tools! I'll be using mapivi to select images; and simple shell script (that I wrote) to resize the images using ImageMagick; and scp to copy them to a webserver where they'll be accessible to blogger.com. The script will also print out a snippet of HTML that I can cut-n-paste into the blogger.com post editor - this is the only step that's not as shiny as the old Picasa-based workflow but I can live with it.Long live Open Source!

Seven Years

2011-05-27T11:51:00.000-07:00

We recently celebrated Son turning Seven. We do these things up right, with usually a whole week of festivities between family, school and friends. The first few images here are from the family dinner party, then we switch over to the friends party at Pump It Up, a party place with lots of giant inflatable stuff to romp around on. Even Son's parents got into the act a little, tho mercifully I omitted those pics. (I'm trying not to be so photo-obsessed lately, but sometimes I can't help myself: I apologize for the quality of the images :-)
p.s. Do you like the new square image format?

Cat Missing, Found Again

2011-03-21T13:09:00.000-07:00

We have a cat, a fun and patient black-and-white. We got her from Bonnie Hays Animal Shelter the day after we moved in January last year, and we've been keeping her an indoor cat for her health and safety. She doesn't agree with us on this point, and tries to sneak out at every opportunity. She's succeeded a few times, once for a few hours. That time, I found her a couple houses over walking along without a care in the world.

Yesterday she got out again. As before, the back door was closed but it didn't latch. When we noticed the door ajar, we turned the house upside down to make sure she wasn't inside, then walked around outside calling her name to no avail. At bedtime, Daughter was very worried but did settle down to sleep. Feeling guilty because I'd been the last to use the door, I stayed up late in case she came back, but eventually had to go to bed.

I woke up about 3:15 for no reason that I'm aware of. I slipped out of bed, crept downstairs, and opened the front door "just in case". To my astonishment, there was Cat! She immediately walked in past me. She was trying for nonchalance but I wasn't deceived, she was relieved to be back inside.

I need to be more careful with that door!

Gainful Again

2011-03-14T12:45:00.001-07:00

Okay, okay, mea culpa for not posting more frequently, you know how it is. If you want to hear more from me, comments are always encouraging --- even if as brief as a "keep going"!

At any rate, my last post (months ago!) noted that my job and in fact the whole company had expired. This time I get to say I'm gainfully employed again, much closer to home. I'm back at my old company, this time working directly on a production, a short 20 min commute from home. I get to have dinner with my family every night!

I enjoyed having a few months off between jobs, to reconnect with the family. I plan to continue to walk them to school every morning, as my production has a late "call time" of 9am --- I really enjoy this part of the day. Between wake-up and walk, though, can be challenging, as both kids want to spend the whole time on Netflicks or over electronic entertainment, which I'm coming to consider a scourge. Any suggestions for some sort of daily "curriculum" would be appreciated, since the school doesn't send nearly enough homework with them.

One final observation for this post: I think of myself as a pretty independant, non-joiner, self-fulfilled type of person, and yet I noted a distinct feeling of relief and belonging when I got my company desk and login and cardkey with my picture on it. It's a little disturbing how strong that need to belong is ....

I'm Home!

2010-12-06T09:11:00.000-08:00

As you probably know, I've been working in Calif for over a year, flying home to Oregon on the weekends. That job expired Friday (with the company, sadly for my friends who really were hoping for some stability there).

Today for the first time I got to walk the kids to school! Everything went well and they were happy to head off to their classes. There's a great energy at the school in the morning, everyone bustling around and greetings and so on.

conversation via book

2010-11-30T11:58:00.001-08:00

I've posted quite a few of my letters home, but I always admired the example of Hugh Lofting whose letters to his children from the war formed the beginning of his Dr. Dolittle books. So recently, after a couple false starts I sent home the story of Jack Crow and his friend Sara, hand-written, folded and stapled to form a small book. At the end I wrote that if it was liked, I would continue the story.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, both kids presented me with books of their own making! Here are scans of the covers, Daughter's:

and Son's:

At the end of hers, Daughter wrote "continued if you like it"!, so I'm very encouraged. This week I wrote the second Jack Crow adventure, adding illustrations this time because Daughter's effort convinced me of their importance, and you can read the whole thing (pdf):

Of course I wouldn't put myself in the same league with the great children's authors but maybe in some small way I've contributed to the storytelling tradition ....

some more "letters home"

2010-11-13T10:38:00.000-08:00

Here's one from a few months back, when we were to meet on the weekend in Canyonville in southern Oregon. Simple mirror writing, and I don't think they even needed a mirror to read it ...

A word-find --- these seem to be the most popular:

This one took a bit longer. Those are thin strips of green paper, woven into a larger sheet of yellow with slits cut into it. I've lined up the first three numbers of my phone so you can see that the letter starts with "DEAR S". The recipient would have to know my cell phone number to read the letter!

Disneyland II

2010-10-26T16:04:00.000-07:00

Yes, we had so much fun last time that we wanted to hit it again before losing our Silver Pass discount. We spent Thursday and Friday at Disneyland and Saturday at Build-a-Bear, Ridemakerz, and California Adventures. This trip was not as smooth and pleasant as the previous, but we did all survive and we have some good memories to reinforce as we let the less-good memories fade from mind. Just the one pic here, for the rest go here!

all about math

2010-09-29T10:18:00.000-07:00

So - yesterday evening at bath time (after I gave Son a haircut) Daughter said - "Mom, what's 5x2"?

Son lifted his head and proudly said "10"!

Hi 5s all around.

He then tried to tell her that 1x1 is 2. Oh well.........

Dinosaurs!

2010-07-09T09:54:00.001-07:00

The Portland Zoo has an (extra cost!) walk-through exhibit of animatronic dinosaurs. We tried it last summer and the kids got scared and we had to bail out early (no refunds, sorry!). This year they had a lot of fun, especially with the ones that "spit" (water, I'm assuming).

(catchup) Wildlife Safari

2010-07-02T14:45:00.001-07:00

We went to the Wildlife Safari in Wilsonville, Ore. I was expecting something pretty cheesy, but it was actually very fun and interesting and the kids loved it. There's nothing but a car door between Daughter and this giraffe. Second picture: they were not nearly this charming throughout the day but I couldn't resist this image. Third: we were pretty confidant that Daughter wouldn't have anything to do with the camels, but Son enthousiatically called our bluff ... and once he was going to go, Daughter had to also! They had fun. Fourth: not much else to do in the area, but there were a couple nice parks in Canyonville. Son pretends to be asleep. There is a great burger place, though.

(catchup) Backsplash for the Kitchen (100th Post!)

2010-07-01T15:06:00.001-07:00

This goes back a few weeks, into the depths of my Google-imposed exile from blogging. After much painful consideration of thousands of different tile patterns (okay, I exaggerate) we finally settled on this nice number from Lowe's. We did it ourselves over a couple weekends, and Daughter even got into it for a while. She fit under the counters nicely.

As for the "100th Post!" bit, I think this is actually the 101st, but I had been looking forward to marking this milestone so here goes: we made it to 100 posts! I've really enjoyed doing this, sharing these pictures and this tiny small part of what it means to raise these two wonderful, annoying kids.

Dance! And back on the air.

2010-06-30T17:12:00.001-07:00

Daughter and Son at their recent Dance Recital. Daughter is farthest left in the front row, son is in the orange shirt, toward the right. They both had a great time and did very well.

Sorry it's been so long since the last post: I was knocked "off the air" by a still-unresolved bug between (Google's) Picasa and (also Google's --- something wrong here!) blogger.com. I finally got fed up and banged together some scripts on my own to get back on the air.

Reviews: The Trolls; and An Occasional Cow

2010-05-19T19:04:00.001-07:00

Two books today, both by Polly Horvath.

First up, the one I read second: An Occasional Cow. This was a delightful and quick read, about the young New Yorker Imogene who goes to spend a summer with her relatives on a farm in Iowa. Here is Josephine, describing Iowa to Imogene over the phone: "Well, out of this living-room window I see the Taj Mahal, but out of my bedroom window there's nothing to be seen for miles around but fields of corn and an occasional cow." This will illustrates the fun tone of the dialog and the imagination of the characters. Nothing magical happens, or even implausible, yet several of the main characters come across as incurable romantics. Imogene, regarding her send-off breakfast of pancakes, thinks of a prisoner's last meal; later, she introduces herself as "the president of a large corporation left ot me by my great-grandfather twice removed." This is imagination and in-story storytelling in spades! The narrator gets into the act from time to time: speaking of a frolick in the local lake, she says only "all was whales and dolphins for a time." Dialog is crisp and funny; characters and situations are fun and believable. All in all an excellent book. I will point out one instance of the word "crap" which stands out as the only profanity, the more odd because the dialog in genernal employs very few exclamations at all.

Let us now turn to The Trolls, which I read before Cow. Herein, Aunt Sally comes to stay with three syblings while their parents are on vacation (I don't believe there is any connection with the characters in the earlier book); she exhibits interesting parenting techniques; and tells amazing tales of her family life in Canada. The drama in the story is the slow revealing of what Aunt Sally's life and family are like --- the proximate children enter into things hardly at all. I enjoyed the parenting bits, such as encouraging the children to eat their green beans by, well, playing with her food; and a bit where she uses the boy's given name, Frank, in defiance of the sisters' pet name Pee Wee (oddly, this dynamic is abandoned after a few chapters).

Much of the same tone as Cow infuses the first part of the book, which is a good thing --- a nice, irreverent, playful approach to life and relationships. The latter half of the book, however, treads into some heavier subjects, delving into the relationship between Aunt Sally and her brother. I think this may be interesting on its own but is not what I'm looking for in a children's book. There is also a recurring theme of death, both in apocryphal (and frankly folkloric) stories by Sally; and in the strictly personal stories she tells. I found it a bit of a downer, if all too realistic.

letter home "catch up"

2010-05-18T08:18:00.003-07:00

I've fallen behind on posting letters to the kids at home, so here's a catch-up:

6yo Boy Birthday

2010-05-13T12:47:00.000-07:00

Later that same day was Son's 6th birthday, this time at the local pizza-and-play place. He had a great time being the center of attention! And it's great giving him presents, look how appreciative he can be. After all the excitement and cake, the evening was a challenge, but everyone survived.

Bowling

2010-05-12T08:26:00.000-07:00

This was a birthday party for one of Daughter's friends. It was a madhouse, and so we were a little dismayed when Daughter later said "I want my next birthday party there!" but fortunately it's a long time from now and maybe something else will come up. Both kids had a good time.

Hide-n-Seek

2010-05-05T12:37:00.000-07:00

This is what hide-and-seek looks like when you're walking down the street and there's not a lot of cover. Of course, one of our home variations of hide-and-seek is Sneaky Hide-and-Seek where the person finding will intentionally overlook the person hiding, allowing Hider to sneak to a new hiding location a few times. I like to think that these less literal interpretations of the game suggest that Imagination is alive and well in both kids.

Storyteller (a review)

2010-04-16T14:46:00.000-07:00

Storyteller by Edward Myers tells the tale of Jack the Storyteller as he grows up, finds his calling and leaves home to pursue his dream. Adventure ensues. The setting is a fictional small kingdom in the feudal European style --- there are elements of fantasy, such as talking birds and fish, but they are secondary to the ... er ... story. Which is a fairly nice one, all about the power of storytelling and staying true to your beliefs. There's a secondary theme about how a bad king can spoil a kingdom, but since we've more-or-less given up on the whole monarchy thing, this is not especially illuminating to today's youths. Speaking of which, audience-wise, I'm not much of a judge but I'm going to say tweens?

Servicable but not soaring language (though there are some nice bits of song and poetry) and more-or-less believable characters (though some of the situations are a bit of a stretch) mostly serve to support the author's interest in showing off an array of interesting story-telling in different contexts. And we should indulge him in this, since he does a quite enjoyable job of it. As I've mentioned, I'm also intruiged by the idea of storytelling-within-story, though I prefer to see the characters acting out the stories they make up, as in Swallows and Amazons, rather than simply relating the story.

All in all, a book and author I'll keep on my list, though not perhaps in the first circle.

letter home

2010-04-12T13:50:00.001-07:00

There's a product called Big Top Cupcake which is a silicon mold for making party-sized "cupcakes" with filling in the center. Daughter asked for and got this for her birthday, and last week she and Son tried it out for the first time. On Friday she told me on the phone, "There's a surprise waiting for you!"

When I'm on the road (so to speak) I like to write a letter home to the kids, trying to be somewhat topical to their lives. I also try to give them a little something to figure out, as in this week's example:

The Year of the Dog (a review)

2010-03-16T12:34:00.000-07:00

The Year of the Dog, by Grace Lin, is a slim book with an attractive red cover. It is told in first person, past tense. Pacy, aka Grace, is a Chinese-American going to school, dealing with science fairs and book projects and halloween as well as Chinese meals and festivals. It tells many interesting back-stories through the use of narratives told by family members. It deals with some of the confusions that come of growing up with multiple cultures, trying to fit in where you can, though in a relatively safe, low-key way. It does not particularly fit into my favorite category of story-within-the-story but it's a nice book with likeable characters.

yet another birthday

2010-03-10T14:52:00.001-08:00

They come fast and furious. This one for one of Daughter's friends, at
Out of This World, a kid play place nearby. Son loves these scooters
(and I snuck a ride when it was quieter, they're fun!). Also some
blossoms, 'cause who doesn't like trees in bloom?

Magic or Not? by Edgar Eager (review)

2010-02-26T15:46:00.000-08:00

This will serve as the first post in what I hope will be a regular series of brief "book reviews" in my efforts to uncover the best in children's books. First up: Magic or Not? by Edgar Eager, first published in 1959.

The book is a fairly quick read, at 197 somewhat large print pages in this 1979 Odyssey Classic edition. An afternoon or two will suffice for an adult reader. The are eventful pages, however, and will fly by. Pacing is excellent, with the story building to a satisfying and reasonable conclusion.

The setting is of course a simpler time, when parents could send children off to play by themselves through long summer days, ranging all over the (small) town and surrounding countryside. This should be instructive for today's youth in their more circumscribed lifestyles.

The title poses a central question, whether or not magic is real. This is developed seomwhat along the lines of a traditional mystery novel, which adds a nice element to the others in the novel. Adult readers may feel that this is resolved to their satisfaction by the end, but children, with their more forgiving and fluid attitude towards evidence and reality, may be able to retain some level of ambiguity which I think will reward them. Furthermore, in my post introducing these reviews, I discussed how I was focusing on realistic tales, so I find this ambiguity quite a refreshing change from Eager's other works in which the existance of magic is never in question. This alone makes this my favorite Eager book so far: as I mentioned in my previous post, I'm currently a bit "cool" on stories with fantasy elements in them.

Eager's characters are fairly simple but believable, with fairly realistic sybling relationships. Their imaginations are on full display, checking off one of my personal boxes. As in his other works, Eager sprinkles references to other interesting children's literature such as the works of E. Nesbit, hopeful that these will lead the reader to other finds. He does this in his own voice, which is present but not overdone, and in the childrens' voices also. Vocabulary is a bit of a stretch for the probably reader, as well as for believable characters, but it's a healthy stretch and not a strain.

Altogether, a delightful work.

Intoducing: Book Reviews!

2010-02-26T11:26:00.001-08:00

I've decided to add a new feature to this blog: book reviews! I've been reading a lot of "children's" books, with two goals: first, in support of my (future, hopeful) efforts at writing in the same genre; and second, to be able to guide Son and Daughter's reading (which, given their approach to our advice, might be classified as wishful thinking). I thought it would be helpful to save my notes on these books here --- helpful to me to have a bit more discipline about it, and possibly helpful to you, who might be interesting in the same literature. If you're not interested, I've also started to use tags on my posts, so you could change your subscription to follow only the "family" tags ....

While I've read and enjoyed my share of fantastical stories for children, my current favored area is in more realistic settings. In addition, my favorite stories also contain an element of storytelling. I feel this acts in some small way as a counterweight to the all-to-common attitude of today that story is something that someone else does that one passively consumes. In the broader sense, I feel this is connected in some way to the "maker" movement, which celebrates what you can make as an individual (or small group) rather than relying on the people with the design teams and the factories to make things for you.

The archetype of what I'm driving at is the novel Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. This book follows the summer adventures of two groups of syblings (four in one, two in the other) who during an eventful summer vacation meet, wage war, declare peace, and engage in voyages of exploration (the fact that these are acomplished by sailing is, rumors to the contrary notwithstanding, icing on the cake and not the main course). The characters are believable (more or less --- having lived with children for almost 6 years now, I am forced to admit that there's a large element of fantasy about the children in this book!), the situations are in keeping with the period (contemporary to the writing), and the attitudes of the children are just what I'm looking for: everything they encounter is an opportunity to engage in creative storytelling, the children themselves playing the leading roles.

In a future post, perhaps I'll revisit the Swallows and Amazons (until then, read it --- you won't be disappointed). For now, I'll stop here, and continue in the next post with a review of Magic or Not? by Edgar Eager.

Two Seven-Year-Olds' Birthdays

2010-02-25T12:21:00.001-08:00

Daughter chose a pool party for her birthday this year, which we supported whole-heartedly, given the other options she'd talked about. A good time was had by all, as they say.

That's the first and last pictures --- the two in the middle were from a birthday party for a friend (they're only a couple days apart). (Don't ask why they're intermingled like this)

The Newest White House Resident

2010-02-18T11:54:00.001-08:00

Oh! In addition to Christmas, and moving in a snowstorm, over Winter Holiday we also aquired Mystic, a young (apx 6 mo) cat. She's really quite a nice cat, other than a habit of waking us up too early on weekends. Daughter was insistant that she wanted a cat but was very nervous around the cat when we met her at the animal shelter. We insisted that she be able to actually hold the cat on her lap before we agreed to adopt it. It was remarkable watching her screw up her courage and finally take her onto her lap (for a few seconds --- enough, anyway!). Since Mystic has been home with us, Daughter has become much more comfortable with the cat, so thus far I think it's been a good thing.

Hair Ice

2010-01-25T20:52:00.000-08:00

With apologies to all those who come here looking for kid pics, I'm posting this image for my own enjoyment. I observed this strange ice formation a few days after Christmas, and took this very mediocre snapshot of it. I saw this in several areas near the house and along the road, in areas of chipped wood groundcover over mud. It looks like a thicket of ice tendrils growing upwards from the chips. Each tendril is perhaps 1/16" wide and up to three inches long. I assumed it was coming somehow from liquid water in the mud being forces upward through pores and freezing on hitting the cold air, but in one of the plate of shrimp moments, this article swam into my ken. I now think that I was seeing "hair ice".

More Holiday Fun

2010-01-08T14:33:00.000-08:00

So what else did we do over the Winter Holidays? Oh, nothing much ... unless you count buying a house. packing everything* into trailers and moving! We've decamped from Elk Mountain (debate continues about what to do about the name of this blog), moving a few miles away to a nearby town. We felt we were driving down there pretty much every day, so it made sense to move there. So far, so good --- the kids seem to be enjoying it a lot, and we've been able to get out and walk to places as we'd never been able to while living in the country.

So, for pictures: the last family meal in Elk Mountain; a pretty sunrise through the door; crossing the threshold as a family; and the first family meal in the new place --- which we're calling The White House, by the way.

* "everything" isn't accurate --- we moved most of the furniture while we had helpers, and some of the boxable stuff, but a lot remains to be moved.

More Christmas

2010-01-05T09:55:00.000-08:00

A few more pics of family and friends at Christmas

Christmas!

2010-01-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm a slow blogger, but here's Christmas Day (better late than never, right?) It was a fine Christmas morning, complete with loads of paper to be ripped, aggrevating packaging to be mangled, small parts to be lost (and found days later, fortunately), and gift piles to be carefully scrutinized for "fairness".

More on the Christmas theme...

2009-12-16T14:10:00.000-08:00

What's Christmas without a letter to Santa?

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

2009-12-15T09:43:00.000-08:00

Trimming the tree ... visit with Santa ... posing with new holiday dress (she's very fond of this one) ... Nutcracker: Daughter is there, fourth from the left (the otherwise terrific little Canon SD800 struggles with low-light situations like this :-)

Me Joyful!

2009-12-08T12:10:00.000-08:00

I think it actually happened during baking time on another day, but Daughter was in a very good mood and piped up, in her "little girl" voice (and grammer), "Me joyful!"

We're joyful too, to have you and your brother in our lives.

Newest Christmas Tradition

2009-12-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

This marks the third year of making a Christmas Gingerbread House, so I think it now qualifies as a Tradition. This year Sydney wanted to help with the "main" section, but also wanted one to do by herself.

Haircut

2009-12-01T11:17:00.000-08:00

Daughter decides it's time to try short hair:

Thanksgiving!

2009-11-30T13:56:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, with lots of family from far parts of the globe. My photo-journalism skills need some work, but you'll get the idea. Aunt outdid herself with a wonderful feast (well, she had plenty of enthousiastic contributers!) and Uncle laid out a beautiful table from his ample supply of dinner- and flatware.

More Disneyland

2009-11-02T19:26:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's after Halloween, but I didn't check my camera battery. Fortunately we were with some folks who were better prepared than I, but I don't have the pictures yet. So I'm taking the opportunity to share some more Disneylanb pictures! Because, why not?

The castle:

Autopia was a big hit with both kids. Just this last weekend Daughter opined that she'll do better with real driving because there won't be that pesky center rail to keep banging the car around.

We bought them a trinket or two at the park, and this hat was Son's pick:

It's kinda like Fair Food, but there's something special about dining in the Park. I'm undecided whether it's good or not, but it's undeniably special:

Disneyland 3

2009-10-30T11:08:00.000-07:00

This was in Mickey's house, through which one goes to get to the photo op with Mickey. Since son is still not exactly talkative, it's often hard to know what "stories" are going through his head, but not in this case!

Small World was a Big Hit with both kids, we did it both days. Some people say of Disneyland that when you go with kids you see it through their eyes, and this was the closest I came to understanding that ... they really were fascinated with all the puppets, and responded to each new "country" (or area) as they came up.

Second Disneyland Post ...

2009-10-29T18:54:00.000-07:00

Yikes! I haven't delivered on my promise to get more Disneyland pictures up, and Halloween pictures are just around the corner!

Daughter, expounding on something very important:

Son loved the characters, collecting photos with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy. He even elected to go back again on the second day:

Will try to get a couple more pics up tomorrow ....

Disneyland!

2009-10-19T17:55:00.001-07:00

We managed to spend 11 hours (!) at Disneyland on Thursday and it went well enough that we were willing to go back on Saturday and spend another 11 hours there ... and again it went pretty well, despite rather higher heat and crowds. Our exceptional parenting skills, or Disney's exceptional park design and operation, or just plain luck?

Here we are fresh and excited on Saturday morning just after park opening. I'll have some more pics soon but I had to get something up today.

"family"

2009-10-12T13:06:00.001-07:00

Son produced this artwork, rendered in graphite on purple-dyed cellulose, declaring "I love my family!" Notice that all the family members are smiling broadly! His lettering continues to improve. We are proud to accept this wonderful addition to our growing art collection.

Teeth!

2009-10-10T21:13:00.000-07:00

Sydney's always very excited when each tooth comes out. I think here she's trying to show here "grown up" teeth coming in:

Isaac lounging:

Italian Fair

2009-09-24T13:35:00.001-07:00

Sydney, complete with face painting, prepares a pizza. Isaac gets a lesson in tossing the dough!

Ashland

2009-09-17T10:43:00.001-07:00

We had a brief weekend trip to Ashland, where they have a lovely park along the creek. In this part is this terrific ... what do you call it? Climbing thing. We're going to try to duplicate this in our back yard!

County Fair

2009-09-14T17:18:00.001-07:00

Shave ice and motorcycles at the County Fair. Hard to beat!

An August Family Reunion

2009-09-05T08:36:00.000-07:00

Food, Family and Fun at the 2009 Chalupsky Family Reunion!

Hot Day

2009-09-05T08:26:00.001-07:00

This was a wonderful park on a super-hot day. The water jets shoot up semi-randomly, to squeals of delight from the kids. There's a Noah's Bagels nearby, too ....

Slip-n-Slide!

2009-09-02T13:49:00.001-07:00

I had to be very careful how I landed or you get these giant bruises. The kids sure enjoyed it a lot! Sadly, construction quality is not what I remember it, and the first one broke in the first hour (probably due to my taking a slide or two on it). Fred Meyers gave us a refund, no questions asked. We did get another one, and it's gotten some use.

FIshing, Sailboats and Shoes

2009-09-01T10:38:00.001-07:00

Sydney is quite enamored of the idea of fishing. I don't know how she'll feel about it if she ever catches one! We don't give her hooks yet, so we're safe for a while.

This is what drew me to the lake this day: an informal gathering of small boat sailors. There were a dozen or so, but limited as we were to a canoe, we didn't actually mingle much.

And the Art segment of today's post, a self-portrait by Sydney. That's Daddy in the background.

Wolf Sighted!

2009-08-01T15:38:00.001-07:00

We went up to Great Wolf Lodge (and yes, this goes a ways back too, I thought I was caught up but I obviously neglected this set). GWL is a chain of "western lodge" theme hotels, lots of fake giant timbers, and of course Wolves. This guy with Isaac is apparently not a mouse, but a wolf. Anyway, Isaac thought he was pretty cool!

As we checked in, we were offered a free upgrade to a Wolf Den room, which we accepted. Sydney was pretty excited at first, but at bedtime she had a lot of trepidation about sleeping with the wolves. She did though, and did pretty well. In the morning we congratulated her on it.

The big draw to GWL of course is the water park. Admission comes with (and only with) the accommodations. I'm not a connoisseur of water parks, of course, but the kids loved it. Last time Isaac wasn't too into it, but this time he had a lot more fun. Once he conquered this slide, he spent hours on it!

Sydney spent quite a bit of time in the wave pool here. She had a blast trying out body surfing. And taking off and putting back on the lifejacket. Off and on, off and on, off and on ....

It was a nice weekend.

Seaside

2009-07-07T12:31:00.001-07:00

We got to spend a weekend in Seaside at a resort condo, and had a very nice time. The kids loved the pools --- Sydney found some kids to play with, and Isaac enjoyed this shallow pool where he could splash around and stay warm. The beach was right outside the resort, and the weather was just about as nice as it gets in Seaside which means that it was tolerable to play on the beach for a while.

Ice cream cones from the candy factory.

Someone handed us this bunch of balloons, but I don't think Isaac's really upset about it!

Dance Recital

2009-06-24T11:49:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was the Dance Recital. These are the best pics I have on hand, but I have better ones coming. And really, for something like this I need to figure out how to post video clips. Anyway, they had a great time, hamming it up in front of the bright lights. They really do a good job putting on this show, it's really well produced.

Point Lobos

2009-06-23T10:37:00.001-07:00

Last in our California June 2009 series is this picture of us exploring the tidepools at Point Lobos. The kids were enchanted by the crabs (hermit and otherwise), fishes, snails and such. We were enchanted by the kids --- I've been disappointed in the past at the lack of interest in tidepools, 'cause I think it's one of the neatest things to do, but this time they were much more interested. For the most part, the day went pretty well, and I'm sure the unpleasant parts will fade with time since I didn't get any pictures ....

Natural Bridges Park

2009-06-19T08:54:00.001-07:00

After the Boardwalk, we went to Natural Bridges park and played on the beach for a while. Sydney romped at the edges of the waves...

... while Isaac enjoyed playing in the sand. We enjoyed watching them have fun!

Boardwalk!

2009-06-16T13:54:00.001-07:00

Arriving at the Boardwalk the traditional way: over the railroad trestle.

For Sydney, no amusement park trip is complete without winning a prize in a game of "skill". Maybe this will change when she's playing with her own money? These whales set us back $3 each at the "everyone's a winner" fishing game.

Makes Daddy happy to see them enjoying the boats. Real ones in the future, I hope.

Check out that smile!

Many many more pictures were taken. I'll try to get some more up in the following days.

First Camping Trip

2009-06-12T13:47:00.005-07:00

We've been talking about how fun it will be to take the kids camping. I think both of us have fond memories of camping as we grew up. But we thought we'd start simple, with a little backyard camping, so we finally broke down, got out the tent and set it up. We had a blast! I'd planned on firing up the grill but Sydney said "I thought we were going to cook over the fire!" so with a little quick thinking we got some sausages and long forks. I love the pic of Sydney roasting her sausage over the fire. We all squeezed into the tent at night, and except for how hard ground has become since the last time we went camping dozens of years ago, everyone slept pretty well. We agreed that this was one of the best campsites we've ever used, and we're going to this again!

Becoming Five

2009-06-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Isaac's fifth birthday at this great place called Out of This World. He only had a few friends he wanted to invite, which kept it small and intimate (for a brief time we worried that no one would show up, but finally people did start to arrive). Everyone had great fun zooming this way and that around the play areas, though Isaac did stoutly decline to follow his friends onto the inflatable jump area, choosing instead to head over to the scooter cars. Pizza, cake and ice cream, followed by a blizzard of wrapping paper followed. Check out the arc of cars, he does like to have them in lines! I think everyone had a good time.

Depoe Bay Wooden Boat Show

2009-05-25T21:17:00.000-07:00

I'm still a lot behind. Back in April we went to the Depoe Bay Wooden Boat Show (and Crab Feed, but the only comment was "eeweo, stinky" as we walked past the outdoor kitchen where the were boiling up crab in giant pots). The kids seemed mildly interested in all the drop-dead gorgeous boats on display, but might have been disappointed to have traveled this far except that they had a really exceptional "build your own boat" tent for kids. They had nicely shaped flat hulls, masts with sails and tons of brick-a-brack to add. Everything went together with hot glue (hopefully not water soluable). A little paint and the masterpiece is done! I'm looking forward to sailing these in the pond by the library.

Six!

2009-04-05T21:31:00.000-07:00

A six-year-old's birthday party.

Carousel

2009-03-08T20:51:00.000-07:00

We've been to this carousel how many times now? Yet they still enjoy it so much. This time I was standing next to them, so I got some interesting "in the middle of the action" pictures.

They Made It!

2009-03-01T20:40:00.000-08:00

My sister Nancy and her husband Danny have, through heroic travails against INS, finally won the right to visit this country from the Philippines together. I note in passing that according to Wikipedia passport requirements as we know them today are a relatively recent plague, stemming from World War I. Be that as it may, I am pleased to present some pictures from their recent visit. Captions for the first two images are welcomed!

Spring Festival at Portland Chinese Garden

2009-02-28T21:21:00.000-08:00

For the Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, some friends joined us for dim sum followed by a romp around the Portland Classic Chinese Gardens. This is a wonderful place for some peaceful quiet reflection ... except during the festival! It was LOUD (note son's hands over his ears!) and full of energy. It was a bit brisk but we had a good time.

Christmas Day

2008-12-27T21:40:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve

2008-12-24T21:31:00.000-08:00

The house has been without power for a few days before Christmas, so we spent it down in Forest Grove with Nai-Nai. Daughter was set on being in her own house for Christmas day, so we returned power or not. As it turned out, power was on when we got home, but as we were getting out of the car it went off again! We were bummed. It came back again a little later, and except for one blip it's been on since. Keep your fingers crossed!

Here are some scenes from our place today.

Tonights Forecast: Tooth Fairy

2008-11-09T21:40:00.000-08:00

Came out this evening just before dinner. She's been excited about it for several days now, asking frequently when it would come out. The last few minutes involved a bit of pain and blood, which she didn't enjoy a bit, but afterward she was all excited again. The other pic is unrelated and from a couple weeks ago, but the ones I did of him this evening weren't as good.

Fall Fun

2008-11-07T20:07:00.000-08:00

Working on a construction project in the waning days of "outdoor weather":

Friendly neighborhood baseball game:

Cry Uncle

2008-11-04T20:29:00.000-08:00

A visit by the California Uncle occasioned a dinner at McMennamin's. Son with uncle --- daughter was on the wrong side of the table, but I like the Chinese dress with the Outback hat.

Scenes from Harvest 2008

2008-11-03T20:19:00.000-08:00

Winemaking and pumpkin harvest! We had a good crop of grapes and an unexpected crop of pumpkins. Lots of friends stopped by this slightly rainy day.

Relaxing on an Oregon Beach

2008-11-02T20:07:00.000-08:00

Here's September on the beach in Oregon:

Catch Up: County Fair

2008-11-01T20:21:00.000-07:00

I'm waaaay behind so I'm playing a bit of catch up: here's the first installment, our visit to the county fair with our "practically family" friends R and T, from a couple months ago.