Block Party '18

We had a nice, subdued and rainy block party. We met some new neighbors and connected with the old neighbors. There was a fair amount of speculation about Stan's House, which is currently for sale at a ridiculous price off $375,000 (down from the original and more ridiculous $400K).

Elizabeth organized her annual scavenger hunt, which was met with mixed results. Elizabeth is pretty tough with the puzzles. She wanted to do a treasure hunt game, but after I (as her crash test dummy) failed twice on the clues, I declared it impossible. She ended up with just the scavenger hunt, which turned out pretty well.

Barb had invited the local firefighters, who showed up just after all the kids had run off to quarters unknown. So the adults did their best to geek out on the fire fighting equipment before they drove away, sirens blaring.

We had a great time.

Suzanne Loves Dogs

Suzanne is so much a friend to dogs that she sewed (with a little help from her Mom) pajamas for Ruf-Ruf, her favorite stuffed animal.

When Elizabeth was painting faces at the Block Party, Suzanne choose to be transformed into a dog.

She really, really, really wants a real dog, but so far Barb and I have held steadfast in our refusal. But it's hard to resist her cute puppy dog face!

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Face Painting

The annual block party is coming up. Elizabeth really wants to provide face painting as a service. We got her a starter kit, and of course Suzanne was her first subject.

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Visitors from the East

Scott and Melissa visited for week! Very cool of them to make the effort and spare no expense to fly 3,000 miles from New York to Oregon. We were so happy to spend time with them, and, for me, to see Scott hang out with Mom.

Anson came down from Seattle and we hung out on the property, grilling and chilling, as you might say. Julie Pedersen came by with her daughter Kate for dinner and a visit on Sunday night. We haven't seen those guys for a few years, so it was a good opportunity to catch up.

After those few days in Portland, we went to a rental house ("rustic cottage," it was called, and appropriately so) on the Molalla River. The house is built on the point of land at the confluence of Trout Creek and the Molalla. It was preternaturally chilly in the house, but we didn't mind. Scott, Barb, and I also didn't mind the ICE COLD water that we plunged into from the littoral rocks. So refreshing!

Back in town we had a double date (sans kids -- thanks, Grandma) at a semi-fancy restaurant, went zip lining in the canopy of a forest, toured the Japanese Garden, explored Powell's City of Books, and saw a movie (everyone but me).

Now brace yourself for a ton of pictures!

It was a blast to have a circle of friends on Mom's front porch. She loved coming out and socializing with the youngsters. In the past, she was in her forties hanging out with teenagers. Now the teenagers are in their forties.

Scott and Mom had a great rapport.

We had a good time at the Chinese Garden, but it simply inflamed Melissa's desire to see the Japanese Garden. As we learned, they are VERY different. Plus, the koi were more active than usual, which was nice.

Breakfast at Jam on Hawthorne. Barb and I have been wanting to go here forever, but on weekends there's a line out the door -- and has been for years! We went there on a Monday and didn't get seated instantly. It was still doing good business. But our meals were great. Melissa got a crazy Bloody Mary with a full piece of candied bacon as a garnish. The only fly in the ointment was Elizabeth was unaccountably grumpy. But we survived.

The Rustic Cottage. Overall, pretty comfortable. To the left, a hot tub. To the right, a picnic table and grill and then the icy waters of Trout Creek.

That water was very cold. Holy moley, it was cold. But Barb, Scott, and I all plunged, and we were all  the better for it.

Scott braving the super cold waters of Trout Creek. For some reason.

Elizabeth working in her sketchbook by the creek.

Taking a snack break on our hike.

That's us in the hot tub, surrounded by nature. You can barely see it in this picture, but the river was visible to us from the hot tub. Very nice!

Scott did an amazing job grilling steaks under trying circumstances. The grill itself was so far from the bed of coals! He pulled it off, pro that he is, and we had a very nice meal.

The first night we had a campfire, the girls were disappointed by the absence of s'mores. Barb and I had just not been thinking of this as a camping trip. The next day, Scott and Melissa made a special trip to a store to buy graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows. The girls were delighted!

 

Look how happy Suzanne is to have a chocolate covvered marshmallow!

Barb on the approach to the waterfall. This place was magical!

Suzanne wanted to walk through this drain pipe that shuttled the water from the waterfall under the road and into the tributary. I encouraged her to do it, but I was wearing shoes, not sandals, so didn't want to accompany her. She (wisely) didn't care to venture into Pennywise territory without an adult. Thankfully, Barb was wearing sandals, so she took both girls through.

Scott communing with the waterfall.

This was the stretch of river near the secret waterfall. To the right of those cliffs is a trail, that leads to something wonderful.

At The Woodsman Tavern for double-date night. Barb insisted we try oysters, and I think we all were happy we did.

Both kids wanted nothing more than to spend time attached to Scott or Melissa.

    

At Double Mountain. Melissa and I got the same sandwich and then looked on enviously as Scott scarfed down his much better looking reuben.

We went to the Japanese Garden and it was awesome. It always is.

Home Made High Heels

Amazingly, Elizabeth's cockamamie plan worked. Her shoes have held up way better than I would have anticipated. She's worn them often, and the heels haven't yet broken off.

Yes, she's wearing lipstick. I'm not crazy about that. We bought it for a costume she was preparing for Spirit Week at school. But now that she has it, she occasionally applies it.

Political Cartoon

Elizabeth calls out the hypocrisy of the parental class!

After I chided Elizabeth for looking at the computer when she'd already exhausted her screen time, she handed me this drawing of me staring at my phone while telling her to stop working with the computer.

Speak truth to power, Elizabeth!

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Father of Daughters

Elizabeth and I (with an assist from Suzanne) worked on a fun project this evening: converting her old flats to high heels.

That's my hand in the foreground holding the clamp while the glue adheres the block to the bottom of the shoe.

It was Elizabeth's ideas, of course. She has been wanting a pair of heels. Since she recently got new shoes (practical moccasins), she decided to attach a couple of wooden blocks to her old shoes to convert them to fashionable high heels. This will be the ultimate test of Gorilla Glue.

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