Park Hopping

Hi everyone,

More summer fun, more park visits. We headed up north so mom could get some new running shoes and were able to check out a great park afterward. Large grassy lawns, barbecue stands, paved path, waterfront seating, lots of people, coffee shop in the middle of the park, but the best part . . . train tracks right next to the park. Two trains went by while we were there! The worst part . . . a teeny tiny playground. I wasn't super excited about that. 

Dad and I climbed all the way to the top and then walked across it 

over the tracks all the way to the road. Can you see us at the top waving? 

We are the teeny tiny specks.

 

 

And for those of you who don't know, little girl is still with us. She will be with us indefinitely right now. We thought she might be heading to live with one of her relatives sometime in July but that placement didn't work out and now her relative search has gone back to square one. It was a bit of a curve ball but we are dealing with it.

Until next time . . .

The Last Race and Matching Goatees

Hi everyone,

We had our last track meet races a few weeks ago. They held four meets but I ended up only going to two of them, the first and the last. You might remember that for the first race I competed in the long jump, hurdles, and softball throw and then I had to bow out of the competition because I was just too hungry with not getting my body properly fueled by eating dinner. Well this time I competed in the long jump, softball throw, hurdles, 50 meter dash, and 100 meter dash. Yep, that's right. I competed in every event I could. What a difference having dinner ahead of time does for your body!

Don't you just love the tongue over at the corner of the mouth when I'm concentrating! And of course, the last track meet couldn't be complete without a celebration. We headed out for ice cream after the meet and indulged in a little chocolatey goodness.

 
Yes, mom and dad have talked multiple times about needing to take me to an eating etiquette class. They just don't understand how I can not be driven nut-so with food smeared all over my mouth area. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

And how do you like the matching goatees? Pretty stylish, huh.

Until next time . . .

Summer Fun

Hi everyone,

We have been enjoying the few nice days that the summer season seems to be bringing us. We try to get out as often as possible even when it is rainy, which seems to be often, that way we don't go stir crazy.  Our garden and flowers are flourishing with all this rain. Of course, we made sure to plant stuff that doesn't mind getting wet. No tomatoes this year. Mom did plant a few gerbera daisies that she was hoping would make it but the last few are barely hanging on. Wouldn't you know it, they like hot, sunny weather and they just aren't getting that.

A few of mom's roses . . . 

you'll have to excuse the red one, it was on it's way out.

 

Calla lilies, calla lilies, and more calla lilies! 

They love where they are planted on each side of our stairs!

 

As you can see, I am starting to get a bit too big for some of my toys. I can barely fit my long legs into my jeep but you can see that doesn't stop me. Not sure how much longer I'll be able to drive it so I might as well get in all the fun I can. Dad says I could probably just move into driving the little Honda you see in the last picture but I think it's still a bit early for that. Come on dad, you at least waited until you were 13 before driving a car to middle school.

Until next time . . .

Camping in Bend - Part 2

Hi everyone,

I enjoyed seeing Cars 2. Mom and dad thought it was a bit more violent than they were expecting. Lots of shooting with the whole international spy plot going on. I still had a great time though and got to pick out my own candy and even have some popcorn too!

The next day we moved to the other campsite which was about 6 miles north of Bend (the other was about 25 miles south) and we met dad's cousin for the first time. Well, obviously dad already knew him but it was both mom's and my first time meeting him. I thought both he and his wife were pretty neat but I think I was most excited about the fact that they had 3 cats! A dog too, but I was fascinated by the cats. So was our dog.

 

 

We started out our day with them by going for a bike ride along the river and through town. They showed us where they worked and then we biked over and had lunch at a little restaurant. We headed back to the campsite to drop off the bikes, check on the dog, and grab our shorts and sunscreen. Then it was down the river in a canoe. I loved it! Anything that has to do with boats and I'm there.

For the next few days we were on our own so we just relaxed, hung around the campsite, drove into Bend for ice cream at Ben and Jerry's (more than one time, I might add), and checked out the local scenery. Mom and I hiked about a half mile out and then back to see a small set of falls. Mom and dad took a short trail to see a really old ponderosa pine tree and a meandering river. And . . . we finally saw our first wildlife of the trip besides squirrels and chipmunks around the campsite, a doe and her little fawn.

 

 

 

On our trip home we stopped in Portland to pick up some doughnuts that we had heard rave reviews of. The line was long and the doughnut selection was huge but we weren't super impressed. While they might have had one of the biggest varieties of toppings their doughnuts were all the same, either cake, raised, or fritter variety. And their toppings were mostly  just whatever they could come up with, like different kinds of cereal, kool-aid, and many other strange combinations. Probably won't be stopping there again, but I guess it is always nice to experience something once so that you know the next time.

Until next time . . .

Camping in Bend - Part 1

Hi everyone,

The last week of June had us departing for a camping trip down in Central Oregon. This trip was a combination of celebrating Mom's birthday, cheering her on while she ran her half marathon, and just having fun in a place where we had never been. We were picturing Bend to be a quaint little town kind of like Banff, Canada. Oh my, were we ever wrong! There are 91,000 people living in the Bend area. Holy cow, that is almost three times the size of our own hometown. Definitely not quaint, but certainly a lot of fun! 

Heading down there I found ways to amuse myself on the 10 hour drive. I had a stash of books, a backpack of toys, and my faithful dog laying by my side. Little girl ended up coming with us and to all of our surprise she actually traveled pretty well. We made one pit stop in southern Washington, ate a picnic lunch in the truck, and stopped for mom's free birthday burger in Salem. The last few hours were the hardest part of the trip since it was after dinner and we were all just ready to be there. I did end up watching a Thomas video that mom checked out of the library to help pass the time until we pulled into our campsite just before 9:00pm.

Please excuse mom's "look" in this picture. I insisted on her opening her birthday presents pretty much upon waking the next morning and dad insisted upon taking her picture even though she really didn't want to cooperate. Notice the rather messy hair and the cheesy forced grin.

 

We manged to find more ways to entertain ourselves. Dog laid out in the sunshine, a lot. We also enjoyed the sun and warmer temps, and were finally able to break out the few pairs of shorts that we brought with us.

We all got up bright and early on Saturday so that mom could get into Sunriver and feel like she didn't have to rush around before the start of her half. We were there at the start line and got to send her off with a cheer. The above pic is her zooming by us at about mile nine. Okay, maybe she wasn't exactly zooming but she was chugging along at a steady pace. There was about a 4,000 foot elevation gain from where we live and she trained so dad was pretty impressed that she did as well as she did.

And the finish line is in sight! She said she felt pretty good about her run. The last mile was torture and seemed like it would never end but besides that it was beautiful and she felt good. She knew she wasn't in her peak running shape so she said she would be happy to finish with about a 2:10:00. She ended up running a 2:08:24 which was her slowest half marathon time to date but also a little under what she thought she might do. She ended up being number 538 out of the 1,382 half marathon runners so not too far out of the top 1/3.

 

This is what I was doing while mom was doing her cool down. It was getting me primed and ready for seeing Cars 2 that afternoon, my first time seeing a movie in a movie theater. What a great idea to have bouncy houses for the kids! Now someone was really thinking!

Until next time . . .

What a Day!

Hi everyone,

My two pictures should speak volumes as to what's been happening over in my neck of the woods recently.

If this looks familiar it might be because it looks like I'm trying to do a repeat act of my mom splitting her chin open when she was about 5 years old. I think her scar looks pretty cool (and I can definitely see it all the time from my vantage point). I was trying to get a look alike one. No, I didn't cut my chin open and need stitches like she did. I just scraped off the top layer of skin and wanted to make sure my band-aid didn't come off at bedtime.

This picture should really need no explanation. It hangs on my bedroom door. It is my attempt to ask mom and dad for help with how I am talking to others. It was all my idea. Well, really, it came about because Dad asked if I could think of some sort of sign to help me know when I was speaking rudely, disrespectfully, etc. I literally thought a sign might help. Mom still isn't convinced but we did work on it together. It really should say mom and dad, but today my issues were mostly with mom hence the sign.

Until next time . . .

Fort Worden State Park - Part 2

Hi everyone,

We were able to bike up to Artillery Hill and go on a self-guided tour of the main part of the fort. No matter that we decided to do the tour backwards since we didn't bother to look at the map until we biked up the hill and were starting at the end. Oh well. And while I enjoyed our trip up there and the tour I will have to admit that all of the buildings started to look the same.

Standing outside the building that housed the searchlight. 

The last post showed the view of the water from the searchlight overhang.

Dad? Dad? DAD? Where are you? (a bit too scared to go in on his own)

Ahhhh . . . now everything is okay. Sure I'll go in there with you!

We had to do a bit of hike-a-biking since we did the route backwards! We had to hike the bike with the trailer and the bike with my bike up a bunch of stairs and through a windy, narrow trail. It was fun!

 Looking at Dad coming up with his bike and mine.

One of the tunnels  . . . this one you could see light at both ends so I was okay with going in it.

Until next time . . .