The Museum of Generations

Elizabeth, Lily, and Freya put together a museum today. I came home from work, and found what I thought was a mess made up largely of my stuff, scattered across the basement floor. Turned out to be The Museum of Generations.

And Elizabeth was kind enough to give me a tour.

Robot Suzanne

Bad news, everyone. We woke up today to find Suzanne gone and this unconvincing robot doppleganger in her place.

posted from Bloggeroid

Smith & Bybee

The day after Thanksgiving, it's traditional for our family to go for a walk in the woods. This year, we went to Smith and Bybee Wetlands, right here in Portland. Elizabeth had gone there on a field trip a few weeks ago. It's sprawling, preserved wetlands on the peninsula where the Willamette and Columbia Rivers meet.

We've been enjoying a beautiful autumn this year, and while today was much colder than the oddly-warm weather we had on Thanksgiving, it was great to be out. We had a nice walk, saw some birds, and soaked up some much-needed sunshine. As they say in Westeros, Winter is coming.

Suzanne loves Elizabeth!

That diamond-shaped marker above Elizabeth's head is the height of the water during the 1996 flood. This flood occurred six months or so before Barb and I moved to Portland.

A walk in the woods.

You can't see them, but there are lots of mallard ducks and one heron in this landscape.

Suzanne scoping the heron. The monocular she's got hanging around her neck (a gift from Uncle Mark and Aunt Mary) is useful, but less powerful than the binoculars. 

You can see why waterfowl would like this place.

Giving Thanks Even Though It's 2017

At the risk of dragging politics into a family fun blog, 2017 has been kind of a bummer. Let's leave it at that. Nevertheless, we've got a lot to be thankful for here in the Larrison household. We are all healthy. I am employed. Barb is in the process of starting a business. The kids like school. We live in a great community. We have good friends.

For Thanksgiving we had Brian and Teresa and Riley and "Uncle" Charlie the super poodle over for dinner. Barb worked her butt off all day, but I think she felt it was worth it. The feast was stellar, the company was great, and we had a good time. I think even Grandma liked her small amount of socializing, which was good to see.

Barb stuck by tradition, and wore her grocery sack pilgrim bonnet, heedless of the fact that she was the only one.

Grandma doesn't have a lot of stamina for socializing, but she seemed to enjoy what time she had.

Barb took this nice picture of all of us. Hey! Where am I? 

Elizabeth and Riley.

Riley, Brian and Teresa enjoying their food.

Brian, attacked by children! I'm sorry to report he didn't survive.

River Rats

A great Oregon tradition is that of the River Rat. Oregon is laced with wonderful rivers, and the River Rat wants nothing more than to float all day on the cooling river waters, butt securely ensconced in an innertube, sipping on a Clamato or (if under the age of 21) maybe a Sprite.

Back in early September we met Aaron and Wendy and their kids out at one of these rivers (I'm sure Barb knows... but I'm unsure... The Sandy? The Clackams?) and spent a really nice afternoon with a surprisingly diverse cross-section of our fellow Oregonians floating, swimming, and chilling. It was a great spot that I hope to return to again. The bonus was the river water wasn't the typical Oregon ice-melt, so it was actually pleasant to be in without the need to become numb first.

Chess Mates

The strangest, most unexpected consequence of going to the Maryhill Museum (which is awesome, by the way) was that the girls developed a desire to learn how to play chess.

The museum has an impressive collection of chess sets (including one based on the comic strip The Wizard of Id, which Elizabeth loves), and a giant plastic chess set that visitors can play with. So, when we were there I gave the kids a down & dirty chess lesson. I'm not good at chess (Anson used to regularly own me in that game, for which I will always resent him), but Elizabeth in particular really took to it.

So the girls played some games at home (we have a chess set, which I won from Aaron by way of coin toss many years ago). Then, a month or two ago, Elizabeth used her place mat as a chessboard, in order to stave off the boredom induced by the adults talking. Perhaps not regulation, but impressive.

Long Time Coming

A long, long time ago, Barb and our kids and another family went to Canon Beach, OR for a day trip. Elizabeth really wanted to do some window shopping in this cute little touristy town, but there was no time. So she expressed the desire to go back for a weekend with Mom, sans little sister. When Suzanne got wind of this, she pumped the brakes, hard. So last Christmas (2016), I encouraged Suzanne to give as a joint gift to Barb and Elizabeth a certificate saying she was okay with Elizabeth having a Mommy-Daughter weekend in Canon Beach.

And in Mid-October (2017), ten months later, it finally happened! 

There were bunnies all over the place, which reminded me of the Zombie Christ shoot.

Kinda Screwed Up Here

Last night while messing around with the style template of this blog, I totally screwed it up. I jettisoned the picture of me and baby Elizabeth that was the banner picture -- and I think that was from film! I'm going to have to dig that out of a *shudder* photo album, and then *shudder* scan it. So it may take some time to get things back in shipshape order, but fear not, dear readers! It'll happen. Just like me finishing Queen of the Stuffies will happen...

For now, please forgive the terrible slapdash design of Elizabethtown. We're experiencing some minor technical difficulties.

The Case of the Missing Pictures

I had forgotten that if I upload a photo to Blogger (which is the platform this blog is on), and then delete it from my phone or from Google photos, it disappears from the blog. Sorry guys! I will load them back up tonight or tomorrow night. They're good pics. You should see them.

Happy Birthday, Uncle Mark! (2017 Edition)

The Two Puppies

Suzanne finished a short story today and just started another, about her dogs Woof-Woof and Fluffy, who are brothers.

She's a good writer!

posted from Bloggeroid

We Made a Movie!

It's not the longer movie we've been working on for weeks, but it was a lot of fun and took about an hour.

Errol Heights Park

Aaron and Wendy's son, Kai, discovered this little pocket park when he was out on an adventure with his grandparents. He told his parents about it, and we all went there last weekend. It's thirteen acres of wilderness, surrounded by civilization. Formerly a privately-owned property, it was bequeathed to the city in 1999. It has one very short trail, a beaver pond (!), and some ... ruins, for lack of a better word.

It was really fun to explore a previously unknown nook of SE Portland, and to see beavers, nutria (aka swamp rats, for you easterners), wood ducks and  mallards.

Errol Heights reminded me that it's often the small things that matter.

Wendy, with Suzanne in the background. They are looking at what might be a beaver or might be a nutria. If you can't see the tail, they're hard to tell apart.

Beaver chew!

The girls hanging out in what Kai referred to as 'The Contraption.' None of the adults could figure out what it was. Best guess was some sort of spillway. There was a destroyed smartphone in a hundred pieces all around where the kids are standing.

posted from Bloggeroid

Gaming with Grandma

It's been a while since we've played Scrabble with Mom. Tonight, we broke the dry spell and had a good time doing it. I took first place, Elizabeth second, Sherry third, and the dream team of Suzanne & Barb came in last, maybe partially because Barb spent a lot of time during the game making dinner. Suzanne is a bright first grader, but still....

Looking forward to many game nights to come!

posted from Bloggeroid

Halloween 20-Seventeen

Such lovely weather on Halloween. So unusual. I, for one, really appreciated it. The jack-o-lanterns here are (L-R) Elizabeth's, mine, Suzanne's.

Suzanne as a dog named Muddy and her bff Anika as Esme Squalor from the Series of Unfortunate Events books.

Sorting through the loot. Note that two of our intrepid trick-or-treaters are wearing roller skates. 

Greedily surveying her haul.

For what I swear is the first time since Elizabeth was born, it was not pouring rain on Halloween. Huzzah! It was, in fact, a gorgeous, cool, clear evening, with yellow leaves rattling on the ground, and a generous moon glowing in the cerulean sky.

Everyone had a great time!

posted from Bloggeroid