Labor Day 2012

Beverly Beach is a huge campground a bit south of Depoe Bay.  To get to the beach, one has to go under Highway 101.  Luckily, Nature provided a stream that runs out of the hills and through the beach into the ocean, which made man (in the form, probably, of the WPA) provide a bridge over the stream to carry the cars, which allows us pedestrian campers to walk under the bridge to the beach.

Nice!

We camped with Brian and Teresa and Riley and Charlie the Poodle.  Weather was awesome and Elizabeth & Riley were a great team (until maybe the last day, when they got kind of sick of each other and started bickering), and we spent more time on the sand than I maybe ever have in my life -- all day, pretty much.

It was great.

One of the best things about this trip was the breakthrough we experienced with Suzanne's relationship with Teresa. Suzanne just loved hanging with Aunt Teresa, after shunning her for a year and a half.  You've finally come to your senses, girl, because Teresa's awesome!

This was our first car camping trip where we brought a suitcase instead of my 1985-vintage external frame backpack as the primary clothes-carrier.  It worked out a lot better, in my opinion.  Suzanne liked to sit in it and get her diaper changed on it.

Brian brought a kite, and shared well with the kids. The enormously powerful Oregon coast winds tore it out of his grasp at one point, but I was able to dive atop the reel of string as it bounced across the sands.  A moment of triumph.

If they were a band, this would be the album cover.

Suzanne's reaction to seeing a centipede: priceless!

We had gone on a hike along the stream and it ended in a meadow full of daisies (and a couple of centipedes... and about a hundred mole holes.)  Elizabeth wasn't freaked out, she just looks that way in this picture.

Mom and baby in the hammock.

For most of the trip, the beach was -- miraculously! -- not windy.  On the last day, though, the wind did its usual thing: howling like mad, spitting sand in your eyes, etc.  Elizabeth and Riley sought refuge in this little dugout cave and wouldn't budge until we said we were going back to the campsite.

Between our campsite and the next was this little swamp.  Elizabeth and Riley didn't discover it until late in the weekend, but once they did it was hard to keep them out of it.  In true Larrison tradition, Elizabeth fell in the mud and got soaked.  Plus, they caught a tadpole.

Beach Art

When we were at Beverly Beach over Labor Day weekend, Elizabeth had an awesome time using a stick (or finger) as a pencil and having the whole beach as her canvas. She had more of a knack for drawing in sand than I did. Her creations (mostly figures of Nancy Drew and her friends Bess, George, and Ned) were loopy, elaborate and reminiscent (to my uneducated eye) of Aztec or Pacific Northwest native art.

In any event, they were fun to make and fun to look at.

Signing her name -- and still getting the darned "Z" backward.

An early work -- Nancy Drew, I believe.

The finished Nancy Drew.

This was a collaboration between Daddy and Elizabeth. I did the large spiral and she kept adding the sub-spirals. Given more time, this thing would have eventually taken over the entire beach.

Lily's 4th Birthday

Aaron & Wendy arranged for local kid-rock superstar (and all around cool guy) Mo Phillips to play music at Lily's birthday party.  The results were fantastic fun: kids and adults dancing, singing and laughing.

Aaron accompanied Mo on his drum-box-seat-thing (pictured), and even took a turn in the limelight, singing a song he composed with Lily.

Tee Vee

Barb and I were very dedicated to the idea of keeping Elizabeth's eyeballs away from screens (e.g., computer, TV, smartphone, etc.) until she was at least two. We thought it would be better for her brain development.

And here is Suzanne, a few months yet from two, happily absorbing the hypno-rays of television (even if it's streaming Netflix via laptop).

I love seeing the girls do things together, even if it is watching a show. Plus, they are both occupied for 24 minutes.

Ah, the neglected second child!

Camping with Roo and Alder

During their vacation, friends Roo and Alder swung through north-western Oregon not once, but twice! The first time, we met them at favorite spot Green Canyon for a very nice weekend of car camping.

Elizabeth and Suzanne loved them both.

Elizabeth fishing on the Salmon River.

Roo reading.

It's called "art," baby!

  

For a break from the relentless outdoorsyness, Suzanne like to play in the car. Particularly, for some reason, in her sister's car seat...

The Larrison girls.

Alder reading to Elizabeth. Elizabeth had a sort of heroic awe-crush on Alder. Who can blame her?

Close Encounter

I don't think Elizabeth has ever had a cat lie on her. Now Suzanne has. Daddy instigated it by scooping up the very pliant Crooklyn and plopping him down on the toddler. She liked it, but -- as her facial expression shows -- found the whole thing kind of strange.

Baby Book: August/September 2012

Suzanne is a hellion. And not in a good way -- if there is a good way. She is a monster of frustration. It angers her to no end that she is not as capable as her sister. Thus, she bites, hits, pulls the hair of, and pencil-stabs her poor sister. Whom she clearly loves. Barb and I can't wait for this "stage" of her "development" to be over.

On the flip side, Suzanne is now regularly going potty in the potty. She is talking in full sentences. (The better to command you with: e.g., "Daddy open door. Daddy do it." Daddy goes to open the door. Suzanne's brow bends down in the fiercest scowl ever known. "No! Suzanne do it! Suzanne open door." OK. Daddy backs away, hands up, palms forward. Suzanne tries door and fails to open it. Scowls at Daddy. "Daddy do it!" Daddy reaches hand toward door knob. "No! Suzanne do it!" Et cetera.)

She's spirited. And supercute. And a pain in the ole patootie. (Example: out of nowhere this evening at Grandma's she bit Elizabeth on the back hard enough to leave red welts. For no offense of Elizabeth's [ Barb and I were observing closely]. And this after Elizabeth got a nice burn from the goddamn exhaust pipe of the Volvo. A burn that must have hurt like the dickens, but that she never complained about. Not once.)