Camas Detour

On the last day of the grandparent's trip we decided to go to Camas.
Everything would have gone smoothly had I not been the navigator.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of assigning myself the position
and 30 minutes later we were in the Gorge, which is,
if you know your Northwest geography, not even close to Camas.
Not to mention we were out of gas.
After a detour that led us to the oldest gas station
in the history of mankind
(one pump attached to a country store)
we decided to make the best of the situation and visit the Vista House,
which, at this point, was only a few minutes away.
It was a good stop.
The Vista House is one of the best places to see the Gorge.
My dad and Carla got to take lots of touristy pictures,
and I got to pretend that it was all part of the plan.
Eventually we made it to Camas.
It was there that Orin found this leaf.
It was a nice, big leaf.
He ran around waving it in the air for quite awhile.
It was just starting to look like the leaf was going to come home with us
when Orin stumbled upon this:
Apparently, it was a perfect spot for a leaf.
Orin tucked it into the hole
and walked away, satisfied with his choice...
But only for a moment.
The leaf would be coming with us after all.
The next morning we said goodbye to
Grandma Carla and Grandpa Jack.
We were all sad to see them go,
although for different reasons.
Orin will miss playing finger puppets with his Grandma,
Casey will miss the wine, the cheese, and the conversation,
and I am just sad that I won't get the opportunity to show my dad
that I am not always terrible at golf
(just most of the time)
Until next year.

Running down the Mountain

Today we went hiking at Latourell Falls.
Heading out for the trip, I was a little nervous
about how Orin would fair.
Recently, he has decided that he is
no longer interested in being in a backpack.
In his opinion, he can walk just as well as the rest of us
and he should be allowed to do so.
But the trail was pretty steep,
so I decided to pack him for as long as he would permit.
Here we are, just starting out, notice Orin's
general disinterest in picture-taking:
He actually made it for quite awhile without opposing containment.
Just long enough, in fact, to make me carry him up the entire mountain.
It was as soon as we reached the peak that he insisted on dismounting.
He then proceeded to run all the way to the bottom.
Here we are, back at the beginning after completing the loop,
notice Orin's continued lack of enthusiasm regarding staged pictures:
He never fails to impress me with his ability to run non-stop
for any amount of time, over any type of terrain.
Nothing can slow him down.
Nothing can dampen his enthusiasm.
This kid is on the move.

Golfing with Grandpa

I have been accused of neglecting the blog again
but this time it has been for a good reason.
Grandpa Jack and Grandma Carla are visiting us from Massachusetts.
Ever since they arrived last Friday,
we have been on a tour of some of the
most amazing Portland restaurants,
outings which end each night with me stumbling home in a food coma,
plump, happy, and totally unmotivated to do anything but sleep.
But eating well is not the only thing we have been up to,
today we also played golf.
I have been eagerly awaiting my father's visit for some time now,
thinking it would be a perfect opportunity to show off
my newly aquired golf skills.
Although my plan to practice obsessively before his arrival
didn't exactly materialize the way I hoped (I only went once)
I still stepped out onto the greens today with confidence.
As it turns out, my confidence was misplaced.
After taking 10 swings on two holes in a row I was forced to admit
that I still suck at golf.
But, being the supportive husband that he is,
Casey didn't let me wallow in my golfing failures alone...
By the 18th hole, we were both so demoralized
that we didn't even add up the score.
It was crystal clear that we had been thrashed by a member
of the Nursing Home Golf League.
But I am not going down so easy...
after all there is always next year.
Maybe I will even get some practice in before then.

End of the Month Tidbits

Last weekend we saw our last outdoor concert of the season:

Ben Harper and Pearl Jam at the Clark County Amphitheater.

Here is a picture of Pearl Jam.

Although they have been around for quite some time now

(take note of the grey beard hairs)

they still put on a great show.

I am not sure how Ben Harper played because,

following our typical concert tradition of missing the opening act,

we were still in the parking lot during his set.

But we were in good company.

And now for the blurry, super-zoomed picture of the stage,

and the Zawicki family shot (Orin is sleeping on Casey's back),

and, of course, I wouldn't deprive you of your Orin pictures:

I had to pull one from the vault because

I didn't get any of him at the show.

As close as it gets to a polar bear.

Fair well September.

Prepping for Vegetables

So the touch ups on the house are coming along nicely.

Last weekend the boys painted the trim red,
a great step towards freeing our home from its Giant White Cube look,
although greater efforts will have to be made in this arena before
we can truly rid ourselves of Cube Status.
One thing I forgot to mention about the painting of the garage
was that one of my biggest motivators for sprucing up that corner of
the yard is that in a few short months it will be the back drop for
what I am calling the Mega Garden.
After my foray last year into container gardening I have fallen in love,
but I feel I need more space.
Here is the site awaiting transformation:
It may not look like much now, but just wait.
There will be Rototillers, there will be weeding,
there will be raised beds,
there will be lots of stinky compost,
and then there will be plants.
To say I am excited would be an understatement.

I am prepping myself for next season by reading Kingsolver's
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle a book that I highly recommend
to anyone who likes to eat.
The book chronicles the life of the Kingsolver family
during a year in which they vowed to eat only local food,
most of which they grew (or raised) themselves.
This is the famous diagram from the opening page.
The book seems to have found me at a perfect time,
for after conquering my zucchini crop I feel indestructible.
Next year, I plan to plant enough for an army
then dry it, can it, or freeze it so that it will be available to us
through the bleak and vegetable-less winter months.

I have already chosen where I am getting my seeds.
The Seed Savers Exchange is another fantastic site
to check out if you are a garden enthusiast,
or just really bored.

I already can't wait for my catalog to arrive in January.

And don't worry, although I do plan on posting
a great deal about my gardening adventures,
I will still remember to keep the cute pictures of Orin coming,
because lets face it,
its the only reason you read this.
I don't blame you.

The First Fall Days

Happy Fall.
I know, it was actually yesterday, but it hardly seems to matter,
especially because it doesn't feel like Fall at all...
at least not during the day.
The last two days the temperature has been in the upper 80's.
But I suppose in the mornings, you can start to feel Fall creeping in;
Cold, damp air mixing with the smell of the prep-for-winter-to-do-list.

And, yes, that is a smell.

Two days ago it was that smell that prompted us
to install a new wood stove.
The wood stove is replacing a fireplace that we never used
and also, hopefully, will be replacing the totally inefficient
heating system that we have relied on up until now.
Yesterday morning, another project presented itself.
The garage was long overdue for a new paint job and with the
impending rainy season, it was now or never.
But unlike the wood stove, which went in fairly smoothly,
the painting was a little more difficult,
the main reason being that our garage (unbeknownst to me until now)
is protected by swarms of Ninja Spiders.
If you thought spiders were solidary insects, think again.
Although it was hard to catch in a picture, these guys literally covered
(there must have been close to one hundred of them)
the entire bottom plank of the gargage.
A plank that, despite their presense, needed to be painted.
It was a rather scary battle... Ninja Spiders happen to be quite
courageous little garage-panel protectors,
but in the end, the homo sapiens prevailed,
and the garage was able to reclaim its former color.
Other projects await, I am sure,
we will probably catch whiff of them in the morning.

Sliding at Home

The other day, despite the fact that Orin has a

rather horrifying number of toys,

we decided that he needed one more: his own slide.
After discovering his passion for slides in Andover
he has wanted to do nothing else.
Historically, however, he has always needed help with sliding.
The slide that we got him was small enough for him to learn
to climb up and side down on his own,
although it always helps to have a hand the first few times.
Cole and Dakota were glad to assist.

First they showed Orin proper sliding technique:

After several rounds of on-looking, it was Orin's turn.
The boys helped him up the ladder,they assisted in orienting him properly for the decent,

and even spotted at the bottom the first few times, just in case.
But worries were unnecessary,
this kid was born to slide.
(Despite how it might look, Orin does not fall on his head

right after this shot was taken.)