Mad Science

Suzanne concentrating as she works with her chemistry set.

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Suzanne is Six!

These pictures are from the morning celebration before school. Suzanne got a brand spanking new bathrobe to replace the way-too-small robe she'd inherited from Elizabeth some years past. For whatever reason (we keep the house cold?), both girls really like bathrobes and wear them all the time. So Suzanne was thrilled to get this super soft, super cozy robe all of her own -- and in a not girlish color, to boot!

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Crafty

Yesterday a neighbor dropped off a bag of craft supplies, including some Sculpey. The girls instantly set to work making countless beads and sculptures.This morning, Elizabeth wore this fetching heart choker she made yesterday.

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Latourell Falls 2016

Since we've had kids, Barb and I have favored a hike in the Columbia River Gorge called Latourell Falls. It's less than three miles, it's got two spectacular waterfalls, and it's not too far a drive. We hike this trail every year. This time, we had to practically drag the protesting girls into the car. They were adamantly against hiking on this beautiful autumn day, but they (of course) ended up having a blast.

Elizabeth had done this hike while at Trackers magic camp over the summer. So as soon as we arrived she was happy to take over as hike leader. She showed us all sorts of cool stuff, such as the house of the troll George (who lives under the bridge), the "magic tree stump," and the dancing water sprite who lives in one of the falls. However, when we got to a place on the trail where you could cross the stream on a fallen tree, Elizabeth scampered across and beckoned us to follow. We didn't want to follow (because, among other reasons, it would shorten the hike by a quarter). Elizabeth's reaction to this usurpation of her power was an epic pout: she grumbled and griped and frowned about us not following her across the log for about an hour before finally lightening up and having fun again. In a funny way, I admired her tenacity in holding a grudge.

After the hike, I realized that I'd set my camera on "continuous shooting" mode, where it continues to take pictures as long as the shutter release is depressed. Throughout the hike, I would snap a photo, and actually be taking two, or even three!  Because of the "continuous shooting" setting. Despite all that, the helpful stranger who took three or four pictures of us "just to be sure" managed to create only one actual image, in which Suzanne has her eyes shut.

There was a lot of uphill, but the girls handled it well.

Facing the falls. 

Elizabeth can be seen on the right, wrapped in her cloak like Heathcliff upon the moors.

We stopped for a snack, and Suzanne announced a joke-telling competition. She made up a joke, and its pretty good! Q: What's a cow's favorite animal? A: A MOOse. 

Nice view.

'Nuff said.

Grumpo

Suzanne has the best grumpy face. She was grumpy about all the time we've spent working on Grandma's cottage and not playing with our kids -- and she was grump about this at the same time that I was playing a game with her. Ridiculous Grumpo!

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Off to School

It's starting to feel autumnal here in Portland. I liked how the girls looked today with their matching pig tails as they headed to school.

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Jungle Exploration

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First Day of School (E)

Yesterday was Elizabeth's first day of third grade. Thursday (day after tomorrow) is Suzanne's first day of kindergarten. For me, this is not a big deal. For Barb, this is monumental. Both of her children will be in school six hours a day. Can't wait to see what she does with all that time!

Here is Elizabeth before mounting her bike and heading off to the first day of third grade. Yep, she's wearing a cloak. It was a bit chilly, and we encouraged her to put on a sweatshirt. She chose the cloak, because she's Elizabeth.

Saturday

Last Saturday we spent some time at the park, then went to Noah's and Shelly's (Noah and Shelly's?) Housewarming Party. They have a big house, and two sons, and a labradoodle or golden doodle or some kind of poodle-hybrid. They have a hot tub and a trampoline. They also have a lot of friends, and we are lucky to be counted among them.

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Last Gasp of Summer

The first few days at Kingfisher were lonely (in a good way) and cold and drizzly. Note the difference in attire between the sensible adult and the crazy children. Also worth noting is that Barb is sitting in a child's chair and the children are sitting in adult chairs. Both girls have decided their very cool purple camp chairs (with deployable awning!) are unacceptable.

How long have we been attending Teresa's end of summer blowout at Kingfisher? Four, five, six years? Every time it's great. The campground host this year told us that some families have been camping there annually for four, five six decades. I believe it. It's a special place.

This year we were the first family to arrive, and the only family that stayed a whole week. (Some families, however, stayed past the Sunday that we left; we weren't the last to leave.)

While we were alone in the lonely campsite, we took the short drive to Bagby Hot Springs and did the beautiful, 1.5 mile hike from the parking lot to the springs. The trail is littered with fairy dust, and there's a hollow stump that sometimes contains treasures bestowed by the fairies. Elizabeth put her hand in the hollow (those of you of a certain age will be reminded, as I was, of a scene from the 1980 Mike Hodges movie Flash Gordon) and retrieved a Monopoly bill. Suzanne found a penny. Not a bad haul. Thanks, fairies!

At the springs, we got a tub right away, which is unusual even for a Monday morning. It was wonderful to soak, though the girls had a low tolerance for the hot water and periodically took breaks to go play in the nearby coldwater stream.

On Tuesday, Brian and Riley arrived and we went for a hike to Pansy Lake. Brian, a Pennsylvanian, took issue with the taxonomy and reclassified it as Pansy Pond. He pointed out that on the West Coast it seems that any body of still water bigger than a mudpuddle is called a lake. Barb said it was akin to the way every bar and restaurant (in Oregon, at least) is called a cafe. It's weird. On the hike to the "lake" both of the Larrison girls complained of the cold. Two notable things about this: a) it's August -- why are we cold?; and, b) duh, you're wearing a leotard and not much else.

In any event, the hike was gorgeous and serene, through towering Western Red Cedars and Douglas Firs. It was a bit misty, or "socked in" as Brian put it, which added to the dreamlike nature of the landscape. At a backcountry campsite on the shore of the lake Barb discovered a hatchet buried in a stump. Which was serendipitous to an extreme, as I'd just that day broken my hatchet (an awesome Marbles, boon from Uncle Mark). But as soon as I got back to the campsite I broke the found hatchet, which probably explains why it was left behind.

The broken hatchet is a good segue to the bad stuff. Elizabeth took a fall on a downed tree and got scraped up pretty good. Barb and I escaped to a hike (leaving Teresa in charge of the kids), but during the car ride to the trailhead I got an unprecedentedly excruciatingg headache. I almost never get headaches. So we returned to camp and I rested for a few hours and was fine thereafter.

Worst of all, though: Elizabeth and Riley were exploring the far side of the Collowash (our river), when they stepped on a wasp (or yellowjacket?) nest. Riley got away with one sting, but Elizabeth got stung multiple times (she claims 24, I'd say 15+, but who's counting?). Barb was on the beach when it happened, but it wasn't (naturally) clear to her what Elizabeth was shouting about. Elizabeth shouts about a lot things.  I was on my way back to the beach when I heard the screaming. We got Elizabeth safely onto the campground side of the river and Barb got the first aid kit and we plucked the numerous stingers from her skin. Dr. Brian miraculously got her to take a benadryl. Barb gave her a couple of ibuprofen. I spent two and a half hours with her zipped into the bugproof tent reading to her from The League of Seven.  After that, she was pretty much fine.

And the rest of the trip was idyllic. The weather turned paradisaical, the balance of adults and their attendant kids showed up. The Underwear Girls cult was reformed. Anson and Alder, amazingly, visited from Seattle. Barb, Alder, Brian, some other men, and I climbed Whetstone Mountain. Anson exposed the squares to a lot of cool music. We swam in and floated on the cold river.

It was great, and I'm already looking forward to next year.

The lucky positioning of these trees allowed us to set up our old hammocks next to each other. All the kids (not just Suzanne and Elizabeth, pictured) took advantage of this, treating the hammocks as swings. Riley is reading to the girls. He was a great companion to them while they were the only three kids on site.

Sophia, Suzanne, and Livia as captains of their own destiny. Suzanne really bonded with Livia on this trip.

Elizabeth and Houdini.

Anson photobombing Elizabeth and her triple-decker frog sandwich.

A typical day on the river.

This frog and salamander pen was built while Barb and I were climbing Mt. Whetstone. It was the work of Elizabeth and a parent named Jason. According to Anson, who bore witness, Jason got started with Elizabeth, having no idea how inexhaustible she was. Thus the complexity of the works. It was probably people like Elizabeth who built the Giza Pyramids, Stonehenge, and the like.

"Backpacking"

We went backpacking for the first time since Elizabeth was born, and it was great! In the title of this post I put the word backpacking in quotes, because compared to our pre-child adventures, this backpacking trip was nominal. But post-child, it was an exciting expedition into the trackless wilderness!

Everyone, including five year old Suzanne, had to carry their own stuff on their backs for about one mile before we reached camp.

There we met our neighbors Jeff, Jordi, Anni, and Kiki, and our friends Dan and Vanessa and their twins.

We had a great time with those families on Friday, then on Saturday they took off and we had the riverside campsite to ourselves.

Night was when we realized what was really different about backpacking: no neighbors. When car camping, there are usually parties to your left and your right. There are campers all over the campsite. Backpacking, you enjoy solitude. You see no other camp fires, hear no other voices. It's nice.

Hiking out, the girls weren't quite as excited as they had been on Friday. I ended up carrying Elizabeth's sleeping bag and Barb carried Suzanne's backpack.

Still, everyone is looking forward to next time.

Feel the excitement as we get ready to set out.

The water was really cold, but the girls were having too much fun to care. Note the sandy riverbed where the kids are standing. That's coming off a sandy beach. That mossy rock on the other side of the river was a good diving platform into a 10' deep crystal clear pool. Basically, the perfect swimming hole.

Hiking out. Both hiking in and hiking out, we got separated into two parties because Suzanne practices Extreme Articulated Walking: the world's slowest possible pace. When walking with her, one must consciously enjoy one's immediate surroudings. It's a sort of meditative practice, hiking through the woods with Suzanne. (I measured her pace on one hike -- it was a tad shy of one mile per hour.)

Just after breaking camp, before hiking out.

The campsite.

Family portrait. The helpful hiker who took this picture suggested we use it for our Christmas card.

Here's one of the reasons why Suzanne hiked so slowly: she always insisted on carrying a burdensome load of firewood to camp, no matter how far away we were, or how plentiful wood was near the campsite. I cetainly couldn't blame her for being industrious.

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Easter Portraits

For four years we've been going to Grandma Charla's (Aaron's mom's) house for Easter. She must be friends with Peter Cottontail, because the Easter baskets are amazing: toys, candy, coloring books, stuffies, dental hygiene tools, you name it. And scattered around their large property are countless eggs, some obvious enough for a toddler to discover, others so fiendishly well hidden that they won't be found until next year, when it is more likely that they are smelt than seen.

The living room of Charla and Dell's house is full of light, and therefore good for portraiture.

Although Lily and Elizabeth claim to be best friends, Lily gets along a lot better with Suzanne than she does with Elizabeth.

Master Kai Charles Wheeler-Kay.

Suzanne enjoying a handful of pecans and a glass of sherry. My don't they grow up fast!

Elizabeth.

Pensive Aaron. If those aren't Easter trousers, I don't know what are.

Good eggs.

The Knife

On our inaugural backpacking trip with the girls, our neighbors, who secured a campsite on Thursday in anticipation of our Friday arrival, found these treasures:two Coors Lights, two Black Butte Porters, and a Schrade sheath knife with a broken tip. Jordi gave the knife to Elizabeth, because she needed one for Trackers camp. I remembered that Aaron had told me at the block party that he had learned how to use a grinder to repair damaged knives and chisels. I asked him, "Can you fix it?" His response was, "Come on over."

The pictures say it all. He did a great job. Thanks, pal!





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Fort Stevens

To celebrate the end of two years with the Kennilworth Cooperative Preschool, many of the families went camping at Ft. Stevens, near Astoria, on the Oregon Coast. It was chaotic, buggy, and fun.

Typically, the Larrisons were the first ones to arrive at the campsite. As soon as we stepped out of the old station wagon, we were swarmed by mosquitoes. It was nasty. Luckily, we had bug spray which proved effective. A surprising percentage of the families that showed up after us didn't have bug spray, but we were more than willing to share.

Despite the pests, we had a great time hanging out. Among the highlights:

• Elizabeth realized she doesn't like fishing after we spent some time on the water and she observed other anglers trying to get flopping fish off their hooks. She felt bad for the fish.
• Barb tried to fix a reel on one of the girls's fishing rods, then went for a mighty cast, and tossed half the reel into the lake.
• Many of the families who, out of politeness or ignorance or reliance on an "herbal" bug spray, refused our offer of DEET, lived to regret the error of their ways and eventually embraced better living through chemistry.
• The shipwreck on the beach at Ft. Stevens was more exposed than I've ever seen it, which my catastrophizing mind interpreted as a sure sign of global climate disaster.
• The kite Uncle Scott bought us is fantastic, and proved a good rallying point for kids and adults scattered around the coastal area.

We also had an awesome time just hanging out with the very cool families who are part of KCP. I think Barb and I both came away from the weekend hoping that there was some way that we could maintain our friendship with these interesting and engaging families.

It was a huge, crowded campground. Here are just some of the KCP campers hanging out. You can't see them, but there were a lot of mosquitoes.

Suzanne, her great friend Jasper, and his younger brother Stewart.

Uncle Mark expressed an interest in seeing pictures of me. Here is one.

This is Sam. Sam's cool.

Poor Lucas didn't get the bug spray fast enough. He got bitten on the eyelid and the rest was history. Even Basil (the poodle in the foreground) was sprayed with DEET.

Andrea and Stew enjoying a moment of rest, thanks to the deadly chemicals keeping the bugs off them.

Our neighbors Jordy (pictured) and Jeff (not) showed up with a celebratory bottle of bubbly! They still needed the bug spray.

Suzanne and friends roasting marshmallows.

Bananaphone

Suzanne and Joey having a conversation over the bananaphone. Notice Joey's awesome infinity scarf (they're all the rage, fashionistas!). By happy accident, he color coordinates beautifully with Suzanne.

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