We’re out in Portland for a bit helping Grammy out with some stuff around the house. We’re always thankful that we get to come visit her in Portland—it’s such a great town with so much to see and do close by. But then again, when we’re here we also tend to find that we need to drag ourselves outside of the neighborhood. Portland neighborhoods are actual, proper neighborhoods with little grocery and hardware stores, and tons of restaurants. Ali and the kids tend to do the normal running around errands that take them outside the neighborhood, while I could easily go weeks without leaving a ten block radius. Plus, Grammy’s house always includes some chocolate chip cookie baking, too.
Ouest likes to paint rocks to hide around the neighborhood and in parks, but after painting dozens of them she has a hard time giving them up.
No free rides. Well, that’s not true—they are actually just money hungry these days and are always looking for ways to earn a buck. Entrepreneurial spirit, or likely just typical kids.
Grammy gets her feelings hurt a bit when we visit and the dog snubs her.
Unheated hot tub.
Ouest was making “inventions” one day, and came up with what I thought was a truly brilliant idea. But while investigating patents I discovered that beer bong was already invented. If only I had thought of something similar in college.
Fourth of July we went out to Lake Oswego for a parade. It turned out to be the World’s Quietest Parade. Cars drove quietly down the street throwing candy to the kids, people walked down the street quietly doing the same, and one lone band of drummers made some noise for a brief moment. I could have taken a nap right there along the parade route and not been interrupted. At the end of the funeral procession the kids had two bags filled with candy, as if it were a Halloween parade. The police then immediately shooed everyone off the streets because cars are way more important than allowing families and friends to linger for five minutes. Uggh. Some things are so antiseptic in the States. Or maybe I’m just cranky, and too easily annoyed by perfect order.
Loaded up the Porsche for a day trip up to Mount St. Helens. There is something about road trips in this car—they are at least ten times more fun than in a new car. Even the scenery seems better.
16 Comments on “Mount St. Helens”
To get the picture of the family at the parade, you obviously crossed the police line tape. Tsk, tsk, such blatant disregard for law and order!
Enjoy your visits this summer. I look forward to the future installments from the Bumfuzzle crew.
I just love how your kids are best friends and look out for each other.
Gee, how insensitive that you take a day trip in the 356 and fail to include a picture of it.
haha, you’re right. I don’t know how we managed that. Lots of miles to put on her in the next few weeks. We’ll make up for it then.
I LOVE Lowe’s shaggy, longer hair lately! That family photo at the mount is pretty sweet too!
I see a new fad….Mother/Son hair cuts.
For sure! Love it.
Holy cow, Lowe is getting so tall. He is gaining on Ouest…..
I just measured them – 3″ difference (Ouest 53″, Lowe 50″)!
boy…do I want to do that all over again…or what? Raising kids was a blast….hold on to them as long as you can.
blessings
scott
We were just talking about that the other day – now we see, even more than before, how fortunate we have been to raise our kids together for all these years.
1984; I hitch hiked across the nation from North Carolina. We were at St. Helen’s 2 years after it happened, and the fury of nature was still evident.
1997, I rode a motorcycle in with friends. We had to dodge rocks and debris all over the roads.
No question. Volcanoes are some wicked bad for people.
Antiseptic is correct and to much to a degree but I don’t want the opposite of.
Actually the mountain erupted 4 years after you got there. Erupted 1980
True and correct.
What happened to Ali’s sunglasses?