Craters, Critters, Camping and Cousins

What's the best part about camping at Crater Lake?

The Scenery

Picture a startlingly blue lake.

Yes, it really is that blue.

The Water

Swimming in 1900 feet of water?  Stick close to your buddy.

Strike a pose for the ladies.

The Wildlife

Here's a cool salamander, found by a boy after sunset.

This boy can find crawdads in places most people wouldn't even think to look.

The Dirt

Bryn spent many happy minutes with her cup o' dirt.

Beautiful scenery? Who cares. Look! I found some dirt.

The Snow

Not usually desired when camping but in late August a patch of snow can provide a welcome diversion.

The Food

Be sure to control access to your s'more.

That's better. A two handed grip helps keep s'more thieves at bay.

Use caution when eating directly from the roasting stick.

Cole covered with dirt and marshmallow residue

Family

Here's a couple of little girls with dirty faces and plenty to talk about.

This photo brilliantly depicts the difference between boys and girls.

And, of course, the obligatory family photo. My, don't we look happy?

Thanks to John and Laura and the girls for accompanying us.

The Joys of Literacy

The boys have taken their first steps on the voyage of discovery that is READING. They love to practice writing their favorite words, which they can spell backwards and forwards.

We're hoping they move on to the non-palindromes soon.

Lost and Found

Notice anything unusual about this photo of our computer table? (...Other than the fact that it was unusually clean when I took the picture.)

Let's see:

CPU

Keyboard

Monitor (with flamingo screen saver)

Printer

Phone

Cell phone charger

Calculator

Sunglasses

Tape measure

Assorted USB drives

Scissors

Mouse

Snake

What? You don't keep your snake under your keyboard so it can jump out when you're innocently checking your e-mail and scare the megabytes right out of you? Well, you should try it sometime. It'll wake you up more effectively than any artificial stimulant. And if your family is anything like ours, it will provide a measure of relief to a five-year-old who somehow misplaced his snake.

Happy Hallowearly

Hey, if stores can put out Halloween paraphernalia in August, we can certainly choose to carve a Jack O'Lantern in September.

Grant found this one in our garden and the stem "somehow" broke off. He asked to be allowed to carve it and, after only hearing that request about a hundred times in an hour, we acquiesced.

The face is entirely his design. He says he was going for a "sad" look.

Maybe the sadness was just a counterpoint to his obvious joy.

Kindergarten Kids

All set for the first day on Sept. 9, in front of our house, with their school, Pleasant Valley, in the background.  They're still getting over the fact they don't get to ride the bus.  Sorry boys!

In front of their classroom with Dad and Bryn (she made sure she had her pack pack and snacks, too.)

I didn't really feel like crying, though.  Is that bad?

How did Bryn cope with the absence of her bros? Just fine.

We spied on the boys during recess.  Thanks to our handy dandy telephoto lens, no one even knew we were there (stalking the kindergarten class).

When the boys came out, they were all proud.  It was cute.  Then I gave them each a hug, without even thinking, and got the first (of many, I'm sure), "mo om" - with the embarrassment in Grant's voice.  It was a sweet experience for me.  Our boys are growing up.

Well, we'll just stick with high-fives on school grounds.  I can control myself.

Partly Sunny With A Chance of Tragedy

Today we went to the Portland Zoo. I've been avoiding the place - annoyed by the overcrowding, lack of parking, and just not wanting to digress to the mood that crowded, crazy places put me in. But this morning, I decided we should use that Patron Membership one more time before it expires tomorrow.  We left at 8:30am, and beat the rush on this cool northwest morning.

The funny thing is, the boys got their teeth cleaned yesterday, and they have been permanently attached to these little "goodie bags" from the dentist. (You know - new toothbrush, berry-mint floss, mini toothpaste tube.)  It is worthy of treasuring,  hard earned by their bravery, and our Dentist is the coolest, so all those things give it it's great value.  Here they are - bags in hand the entire time.

Until....no more bag for Cole.

(On the train to the Rose Garden)

Tonight, as Cole was getting ready for bed, it finally dawned on him.  MY BAG!!!  Where is my BAG??  He traced his steps in his mind, and realized it was left at the zoo sandbox.  Never was there a sadder boy.  He was so choked up, he could hardly speak... and those huge tears!  He asked if I could please go find it during the night, then sobbed himself to sleep.  I almost cried just watching his heart break.  Thank goodness, THIS ONE,  I think I can fix (with a little help from our neighbor, friend, and best dentist ever.)

A Facsimile from the Book of Crunchers

As we were packing for our latest Cruncher camping trip Grant wanted to help so he made a list of things to bring.

He had a fair amount of help from Sue on spelling and it took a fair amount more of convincing that dragon doesn't begin with a 'J' but it's a pretty good list. Anyone who knows Grant will not be surprised that a majority of the list refers to food.

Most of the items are self explanatory but a few merit further discussion. "Dragon" refers to Grant's new favorite movie "How to Train Your Dragon", which we watched 6½ times during the trip. It would have been more but we unplugged the DVD player when we were actually within the boundaries of Crater Lake National Park. The standing figures shown are, of course, Grant's portraits of himself and Sue, as designated by the names above Sue's head. The hieroglyphs at the bottom are Grant's first attempt at writing our address. If the world can find out these numbers, so let it be. Amen.

Cave Bears

We took the scenic route from Utah into Idaho and made a side trip to Minnetonka cave

And since Bear Lake is in the neighborhood we took the time to wet our toes.

Well, maybe more than just our toes.

Gearing Up

Breaking in the new equipment for SOCCER SEASON!

At long last, our boys are old enough for organized (if you can call it that for 5 year olds) sports!

At their first pre-season soccer camp, we were relieved to discover at least one thing:  I don't think we have any "daisy pickers" -  a sports loving parent's worst nightmare.  They got right into the spirit of it, as Grant (in the green shirt above) and Cole (in the white) shows here.

Our favorite part was when Grant came over and told us after practice that the coach told them they should throw their elbows around if someone was in the way.  After we laughed our heads off, we explained that he missed one key word... NOT.  He was sooo disappointed.  He couldn't see anything wrong with this tactic, as demonstrated below: FOUL! (He's not even going for the ball, just the opponent.)

Brynnie is getting into the spirit of running around.  She's very good at running around.

Beat the heat...live in Vancouver!

Global warming?? Hahaha. In the PacWest, we've been setting records for one of the coolest summers ever.  Hard to believe it's almost over - we're still waiting for it to start.  Our pool has sat full of water and empty of kids almost all summer. And when they did get in, it was for the love of water, not to cool off.  

Cole, practicing his front stroke.

Our neighbors hopped in with them.

Of course, with one of our first stretches of warmer weather coming up this week (3 days in a row of 81° forecast!) our pool mysteriously collapsed, and we don't feel like wasting another 2000+ gallons of water so we can all stare at it and our friends' toddlers can dump sand in it.  If we want to swim in cold water, we always have the coast.