To start off, I'd like to apologize for being so behind on pictures. We have been taking them, and we have a whole bunch that I need to post. However, I've been working on a project to transfer all of our Hi-8mm tapes to DVD which has been occupying the compute cycles on our computer for the last month. On the plus side, I've been making pretty good progress on that. I'm up to 2005 already, and the tapes started coming fewer and farther between as the girls became more mobile. By sometime in mid-August I figure I'll be able to get moving on the pictures again.
Anyhoo, here's what's been going on this month.
When last we left our hero's, Jada was in Philadelphia, PA for the NEA convention. While there, during this last week of the convention and the first week of July, she got to see several of the presidential candidates speak and one celebrity (Hillary, Obama, Kucinich, Edwards, Huckabee, Dodd, Biden, Richardson, and Richard Dreyfuss). She also got to spend an afternoon off from meetings kayaking for the first time on the Schuylkill river. Jada came home on Friday of the first week, and the next morning, she and my dad had tickets to see the "controversial" Body Worlds 3 exhibit at OMSI. We all went over so that Ellen, Phoebe, Nana, and I could play in the Discovery Zone while Bapa and Jada went through the exhibit. No one was there except us, and the girls went straight to the sand pit. They stayed there for an hour without so much as a question about what else they can do. I finally had to nudge them out of there to the craft section where we made construction paper flowers to welcome mommy home. That night, we had to take Nana and Bapa to the airport. We all went again to see them off. We had a nice dinner of Pizzacato slices in the food court followed-up with desserts from the Beaverton Bakery at the airport. Then it was time to go. As an aside, if you're ever flying in or out of Portland, Saturday nights are awesome. There's hardly any lines anywhere.
The next week, we had a camping trip to Silver Creek Falls State Park. This was not one of our best packing jobs. Because we had a thunderstorm on Thursday night before we were to leave the next afternoon, we weren't sure we were going to be able to go. But the rain ended, the sun was out the next day, so we hurriedly threw everything in the van and took off. That's the beauty of car camping. We have tubs that we just keep all of our camping gear in, and we add food to it for each trip. The downside is that there isn't enough room in the Subaru to take it, so we use the Van. We got out a bit later than we had wanted to, and as a result, we got stuck on I-5 south bound due to a camper flip over. But from what we heard at the camp ground, there were people who had left even later who were stuck in the 12 mile back up that it caused. So it must not have happened too much before we got there. We arrived at the camp site in plenty of time to set up the tent and make dinner, and the girls got out their nature detective kits to look for bugs to inspect. They diligently wrote about each one in their journals. We purchased some wood and a fire lighter for S'mores. We later found out that we had forgotten to pack the graham crackers, but the girls didn't care as long as they could roast the marshmallows (Phoebe preferred hers to be just off-white while Ellen was following her mommy and daddy making some of hers charred and some browned) and eat the chocolate. It took a long time for the girls to fall asleep. A huge family camped next to us that first night with 11 kids running around until 10pm at least. We got up really early the next morning to hit the hiking trails around the falls, and we didn't make any effort to keep the noise down. We ended up hiking sections of the Trail of 10 Falls where we could hike behind several of the falls. We started at the South Falls and Lower South Falls, both of which we could walk behind on the trail, and then we took the Maple Ridge trail back to the parking lot where we drove to the trail head near the Winter Falls. From there, we hiked down to Middle North Falls, Drake Falls, Double Falls, and Lower North Falls. It was more or less here when Phoebe tripped and skinned her knee. We had some antiseptic spray and band-aids, so all was well. When we stopped on a bridge over the creek at one point, I pulled my camera out to take some pictures, but I must have accidentally opened the battery compartment because they fell out, through the grate of the bridge, and down to the creek below. Luckily, I had 2 more that I was carrying with me. I felt bad since I didn't have a way to get to them, but I could sure see them gleaming from the creek bed underneath the water. After we hiked back up to the Winter Falls trail head, we got back in the car to make the final stop at the North Falls parking lot. From here, we hit the last 2 falls of the day - North Falls, and Upper North Falls. It was on the walk to Upper North Falls that we encountered the most foot traffic since it was the easiest one to get to. It was also the one when Phoebe started complaining about walking. When all was done, we had hiked ~6 miles with the girls with nary a complaint until then, and that one wasn't even .5 miles out and back. We went back to the camp ground where we were happy to see the people next to us had gone. We all lay down in the tent for a while. I don't think Ellen actually ended up falling asleep, but the rest of us did in the afternoon shade of the camp ground. Phoebe crashed the hardest. Then Jada was feeling sick, so I made dinner. This is when we realized we had forgotten the hot dogs. I had brought some sausage, so I cooked that up and mixed in some veggies per Jada's instructions. She never did get to have any of it, but it turned out pretty well. I got the fire going again and the girls and I made some more s'mores while Jada slept. I used the opportunity to pack away as much as possible since we were going to leave early the next morning. Jada did finally come out as I was getting ready to put the girls to bed. We tore down the tent the next morning, and left by 8am.
The next week, the girls both got to go to Nature Camp at the aptly named Tualitin Hills Nature Park. They had so much fun looking at slugs and snails and things, hiking in the rain, and playing all day. The following weekend we had a bunch of fun things to do. Saturday we decided to get up and go to the Washington Park Rose Test Garden amphitheater of a children's theater showing of Wizard of Oz performed by children for the early showing. It was threatening rain, and it delivered some sprinkles, but nothing bad. Jada noticed that it seemed to coincide with appearances by the wicked witch. It was about a 90 minute performance, but the girls were enthralled. Ellen got scared with the scenes in the Wicked Witch's castle. It was a cute production. That night we attended Porkfest IIX which as the name suggests is an annual festival of pork products. It was fun to hang out with everyone again for an evening. The girls enjoyed playing as well.
The last weekend of the month we attended a 50's Party at Grandma's assisted living facility. They brought in an Elvis impersonator ('50's Elvis, not the jump-suited version) and swing dancers to perform. They also provided some intro lessons which the girls enjoyed. They danced on the dance floor for a long time. Jeannie said that she overheard other residents going on about the precious little girls with the blue hats and how well they danced. And we finally got back on the tandem after a month off. We put in 27 miles with Ellen and Phoebe in tow. We had to get back to it since Bridge Pedal is coming up, and we're planning on doing the 36 mile route with the 10 bridges again this year.
As for the girls, Phoebe has been learning to write her name the school way with lower case letters. She keeps using large words like "apparently" correctly. While Ellen was at her OMSI camp, Phoebe got to be in Mommy camp where they spent time together, visited with the new principal, and took naps. She's also going through her mischievous phase where she refuses to nap or pretty much anything else that we ask her to do. She is still very cute. She can really sing and put phrasing together, and she can dance pretty well. She still enjoys her ballet classes.
Ellen has taken an interest in doing some hair styling with her Grandma who said that it felt like her hair was being done by angels. She's also taken a great interest in her science camps. She attended OMSI camp this year where she worked on making her own inventions. On the last day of class there was an invention convention where the students had patented some of their inventions and would explain the inventions to visitors (moms, dads, grandmas, etc.) Ellen's inventions were a "Washer-Blosher" and a "Tickle-Scratcher." She's gotten some good fits in still, but she's getting there.
And one final thanks to my amazing wife for 7 wonderful years. Not only does she have to do just about everything during the week, she let me ride my bike to work 10 times this month for a total of 200 miles.