Fun at the fair

Typical year at the Walla Walla fair--we each scrounged up a work of art to enter (scoring 2 blue and a white ribbon) so we could attend for free. Then we spent all the money we saved on too much fair food.

We weren't terribly surprised to find the Democratic booth looking like a ghost town. (Either there are no Dems in Walla Walla or they had all snuck away from their posts to watch the Obama speech.) We also weren't surprised to find errant apostrophes on the signs in the carnival area. (PEOPLE! Just because there's an S in a word doesn't mean it needs an apostrophe!) I managed to scrape one off in item #4, but the other was too big and near the ground to get without being caught. I'll Be Back.

Crater Lake

We lined up early for boat tickets to Wizard Island and had a nice morning hike down to the lake. Unfortunately, Ethan got sick while on the boat, which cut our ride short. (The plus was he had Ranger Wendy all to himself on the way back to the dock.) The walk back up the hill would have been unpleasant on any day, but it was hot and we had a pretty sick boy to try to keep motivated. The only way he survived the drive back to Salem was our promise that Grandma would cook whatever he wanted for dinner and would take good care of him!

Stranded

After the alternator died, we were stuck overnight in Williams, California. As near as I can tell, this town's redeeming features consist only of delicious gelato (which we all tried) and a fairly jaw-dropping selection of beer (which none of us tried!). Also, the shop guys who helped us get fixed up and ready to go were pretty swell.

A stop in the city

Wheeeeeee!

Ethan wasn't sure what he liked better about Mountain View--Brian or his Wii.

Narrow guage railroad through the redwoods

Ethan is crazy for the redwoods. And though we have left the Thomas the Tank Engine days mostly behind, we all enjoyed a train ride. (He probably won't mind my revealing that he did watch some Thomas videos with Hayden!)

Out and about in San Jose

We all loved the tech museum. Ethan had a robot build me an extremely important message and he got to design a roller coaster and then ride his own design on the simulator.

Meeting baby Kaylee

We admit we fought over her a little, though her parents probably wish we'd fought over her at 3 a.m. I made her the little outfit in the picture where I'm holding her--I hope she grows into it someday!

Sweet baby!

Here's Spring with the new bambino, the tiny thing who convinced us to make a spontaneous trip to Mountain View in spite of being out of vacation time (not to mention money). Turned out to be totally an excellent idea. We were practically fighting over who got to hold her next. All babies are cute, I suppose, but this one was particularly beautiful, well-behaved, witty, talented and intelligent. My camera batteries died shortly after taking this (blurry) photo, so there will be a big gap in the blog until I manage to get Cliff's photos downloaded. Will fill in later.

The trip home was not quite as lovely as hours of baby-holding. Fortunately, there is very little photographic record of the bad stuff as it involved a broken-down van, forgotten suitcases and lots of vomiting.

Jubilee weekend

Thanks to the guys' flexible summer schedule, they were able to get a campsite at Jubilee Lake (which is always full by Friday). Teri and Homer (the poodle) and I joined them Friday afternoon. Going camping again only three days after the last trip was a little hectic, which is probably why I'm still so tired, but Cliff took the brunt of it--pulling the trailer, raft-inflating, swimming, etc.--while I did a lot of crossword puzzles and lounging in the sun. It's roughly a billion degrees cooler at the lake than in Walla Walla. Perfect except for the mosquitoes.

It's good to be behind the camera when you haven't washed your hair in two days.

Educational blog moment

1. When the guy at Les Schwab tells you to get some new tires, he isn't just messing with you and he doesn't mean to get them in a few weeks after taking a long trip pulling a trailer.
2. When the wheel starts shaking, PULL OVER. If you are lucky, this will happen on the highway right in front of a Les Schwab. Or in our case, Michael's Auto Repair. Which was actually better, because we found the owner at the taco wagon and he was willing to replace our tire even though it was 8 p.m. Michael, you're awesome.

Cousin camping

We met Ethan's cousins for a couple of days near Astoria. We haven't seen them in AGES! The KOA cost a fortune, but it was kid heaven--a pool, a jumping pillow, mini-golf, you name it. And Fort Stevens was close by for exploring.

Le Paris Party

Before we knew it, it was time to give Claire back to her family, just in time for her birthday party.

Cliff Camp

Cliff took the kids on a death march...er, bike ride...to Whitman Mission on a 95-degree afternoon. They also went swimming some days, a much more sensible activity.

Here, human, human, human...

While waiting in line to get in to Cat Tales, we discovered that Claire's a bit taller than Grandma! The kids both got a chance to feed Samba, a former MGM lion.

Take me out

Ethan and Claire were enthusiastic ALS volunteers at the Spokane Indians game, passing out Lou Gehrig baseball cards. Our team won! (Though we nearly got thrown out of the park by the fans when Claire decided to take pity on the visiting team!)

We shouldn't be celebrating

...that the van hit 100,000 miles. (YAY! Our van's old and broken down!) But we can celebrate that we get to take Claire home with us for about a week and a half!

You only THOUGHT the Blue Mountain Mall was dead

It was really only mostly dead. Now it's completely dead. (Even though Sears and Shopko are still open, and Gottschalks opens for a few hours when they feel like it.)

Still, a dead mall is less depressing than a dead downtown. The NY Times loves us and downtown is good. We even have a few restaurants, not that I can afford them.

Happy Hawaii 5-OH, Jenny!

We celebrated Jenny's 50th birthday with a fundraising luau for ALS. We decided we couldn't afford to send the whole family, but Ethan would have loved the hula dancers, especially the tiny one.

Jenny is pictured here with her neighborhood helpers, guests of honor for the luau. I hope the video journal from the Spokane newspaper is still available online...it's really sweet. Check out the Angels on Empire.