I really missed the boat on this month. It was quite hectic, but we had a lot of fun. We were mostly preparing for Nana and Bapa P's arrival. Ellen was really looking forward to it. The week before they arrived, Ellen was talking to them on the phone and was telling them, "I'm pulling the day here". We don't know where she came up with that phrase, but I think she made Nana cry.
In preparation for the big visit, we had to move the girls in together so that Nana and Bapa wouldn't have to spend 3 weeks on the hide-a-bed. This time, the grand experiment didn't go as well as last time with Phoebe in her crib. This time, they were constantly out of bed and bothering each other. They never really got used to being together. It was always a struggle to get them to go to sleep.
First, the beginning of the month was full of endings for Ellen. She finished up her ballet/tap class which she loved. Phoebe got to join in again on the last day to follow along with the program. She does amazingly well for being a year too young for the class. Ellen was terrific in her tap program. Her pre-school also finished up while Nana and Bapa were here. Jada got to finally finish school a week after that. So Nana and Bapa and Auntie Mandy all spent a lot of time with the girls one on one since both of us had to work.
The weekend that the school year ended, we decided to do a small trip since Auntie Mandy was only able to come out to visit us for that one week. Jada and I had seen an article in the Oregonian Travel section on light houses as well as Mt. St. Helen's re-opening after the excitement of the last few months. We gave Mandy the choice of mountains or coast. As someone who is completely land locked in Illinois, she chose the ocean. So on Saturday morning, we all climbed into the van to drive to North Head Lighthouse and Cape Disappointment Interpretive Center just north of Astoria, OR on the Washington coast. We had a traditional Northwest picnic (sandwiches in the parking lot near a trail head), and then we hiked the .5 mile to the lighthouse. It started raining as we were almost to the light house, so I ended up with a drop of water on my pictures that would have otherwise turned out pretty well. It was pretty neat. The light that they now use is tiny compared to the old lenses that had to magnify fire light. Something else I didn't know was that each light house has a distinctive signal pattern in the rotation. There was a guide at the top of the tower giving a history and functional lesson on the light house. Nana had to stay downstairs with the girls since they weren't old enough to come up the steep and narrow stairs to get to the observation deck. It finished raining by the time we came down, and then we went to the Cape Disappointment Interpretive Center (along with lots of Disappointment jokes).
The next night, we hosted dinner for my parents, Jada's mom, Phoebe's Godmother, Godfather, and his parents. It was actually nice out that day so we were able to eat both in and out on the deck on the new table that we bought to replace our old plastic one.
That week, we said goodbye to Auntie Mandy who had to go back to work. The girls were sad to see her go.
The weekend after that, we all went down to Sunriver, OR for 4 days of doing a whole lotta nothin'. Sunriver is about 15 miles south of Bend in central Oregon. It is a resort community. That sounds all hoity-toity, but mostly it's rental houses and permanent homes. We found a nice rental house that we used over spring break that we liked and booked again. There is an extensive network of bike trails to get around. The day we arrived it was pleasant, but cool. We went out to dinner in the shopping center, and then came back to the house and got settled in. Sunday morning was Father's day, and we headed off to the High Desert Museum. Because it was Father's day, they had all the frontier stuff staffed. The girls got to see an old steam powered saw mill, a working black smith shop, and mustangs. Plus, Ellen got to see an exhibit on bats where they talked about all the different kinds and showed pictures. Inside the museum as part of their children's exhibit, they had a whole bunch of displays on dinosaurs which Ellen really enjoyed. Then it was home for naps. The rain rolled in during the afternoon, and the temperature dropped a bit. Then it started really hailing hard. They were grape to golf ball sized, but they were a bit slushy so they didn't damage the car. The next morning we went to the Volcano Lands Park and hiked around a lava plane. Ellen walked the entire route with us which was probably around 3 miles. She seemed to have fun. After that, we went over to look in a lava tube cave that was a mile long. We didn't actually go into it, just the mouth. It was quite chilly in there, and neither Ellen nor Phoebe seemed terribly interested in venturing any further down. While the girls napped, Jada and I went on a short bike ride around the town and did a couple laps to get miles in for our big bike ride the following weekend. On Tuesday, we had to leave. We stopped by the Outlet Mall on the way out of town. It was a restful trip. I finished my book (Revenge of the Sith).
The next weekend was Cycle Oregon: the weekend. This is a new feature in it's second year, in addition to the week long ride in September, they started offering a weekend at the beginning of summer after school is out to allow people who want to experience Cycle Oregon, but either don't want to camp all week, or just can't go at that time of year (like teachers, for example). Since this year's route went through Jada's old college town of Monmouth, we figured we'd do it. You can read all about it here. Nana and Bapa took the girls to the start of their respective classes that Saturday after dropping us off at the start. Ellen started a new session of ballet/tap, and Phoebe started a swimming class.
At the end of the month, after bidding a tearful farewell to Nana and Bapa (Ellen and Phoebe both cried, and Ellen said, "but I don't want them to go"), the next big thing was the beginning of Phoebe's art class. She really enjoyed it, and the output is starting to make it's way home already.
I'm sure there were lots of other things going on during weekdays, but since I was at work, I only know that they played a lot of doll house, read a lot of books, and ate a lot of Oregon Strawberries. There's really not much more that is needed, really. We were happy to separate them back to their own rooms again, as were they, we think. Phoebe was very excited to have her room back at least as she bounced around waiting for me to put her bed back.
It was a busy month, as I said. As always, sorry for the delay.
Journal update: July 19, 2005