Roscoe's Here!

Remember a month or so ago when I introduced Roscoe? Well, today, his owner Ingrid brought this sweet, not-so-little guy to our home for keeps! Thank you to Ingrid for giving us such a sweet guy who has SUCH a calm temperament and loves kids!


Jason and Roscoe have a chat.

Roscoe gets some hugs.

more hugs...

and p.s.... some corrections to the previous blog entry. Technically, it was not an ice field but a snow field which is much less dangerous. Just in case you were wondering. And the final mileage count was 36 miles, and let me tell you my backside felt every one of them.

Colorado Wildness

Our last day hiking out through an aspen grove with a view of the Uncompahgre Wilderness. That mountain in the far distance on the left (white on the bottom with a shaded 'triangle' on top) is the one we are standing one below...

Jason and I on top of Mt. Uncompahgre
No. I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, although there were moments that I thought I might as Jason coached me through an ice field using my ice ax so I wouldn't slip and slide 1000 feet. As I sit here drinking a glass of red wine in my quiet house (the rest of my family is coming home in two days), I cannot believe that four days ago I was standing on top of a 14,000 foot peak in Colorado. No wonder I feel like I just took a shot of Oxygen now that I'm back home at almost sea level!

A little less than two weeks ago we left for Colorado for vacation. We met Jason's parents in Ft. Collins to take the girls on their first real camping trip. We had a wonderful time camping with Terry and Cathy. The highlights includeded exploring the old ghost town of St. Elmo and watching Jason cut his finger almost to the bone while trying to carve a stick on which to roast a hot dog. While Terry, the girls, and I stayed back at camp and ate S'mores, Cathy and Jason spent the day in the emergency room getting Jason stitches in his left index finger. Fortunately, with the wonder of antibiotics and a few stitches, the doctors sent Jason on his merry way to begin his next adventure with me. With some hugs and kisses we said goodbye to Rynn, Eleanor, Terry, and Cathy as they headed back to Ft. Collins. We met up with our friend from Portland, Anna, to begin a five day loop hike in the Uncompahgre Wilderness. It was, by far, the most intense backpacking trip I have ever been on with Jason. Over the course of five days and five nights we hiked probably over 35 miles with 30+ lb packs on our backs up several 12,000 foot passes and one 14,000 foot mountain! We saw bears, elk, deer, porcupines, and yet not a single other backpacker during our five days out. You can check out the pictures of our trip at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27767420@N02/sets/72157620417920924/.

It was amazing! I'm exhausted, happy, and very glad to see my bed tonight.

My foot next to a bear track in the snow!

Goodbye Kindergarten!

Kelly Sensei (Rynn's English teacher) announces the names of the kindergartners as they 'slide' into 1st Grade. I think the tradition comes from when the school had much older playground equipment with a really big slide on which the kindergartners were not allowed to slide. The rite of passage was getting to slide down the slide and officially become a 1st grader. The playground is all new now, but the tradition remains.
Rynn slides down and Jason goes to great lengths to get a video!
Congratulations Rynn!





Some popsicle fun with friends.


"All I want for 1st grade is my two front teeth, my two front teeth..."
Rynn and her friend Marina

Eleanor's thoughts on the day (and this is her exact quote) -

"Ugh. When can actually GO here instead of just standing in the halls."

Eleanor...not to be shown up by any kindergartners!

Living in a Time Warp

2009 Rose Festival Junior Parade

Sometimes I feel like living in Portland is living in a time warp. It is this strange combination of extreme liberal progressiveness mixed with a good dose of good old fashioned yesteryear. Perhaps it is daily seeing someone in a 1950's (which is back in style) vintage dress riding her upright bike through town or maybe it is that we live in a 100 year old house in a neighborhood with sidewalks or maybe it is that our neighborhood pool only costs $40 for an entire family to join for the summer (and they still serve popcorn and a slushy for $1). Today, it was confirmed, as the Junior Rose Parade marched right through our neighborhood as it has for the past ONE HUNDRED AND TWO YEARS. Eleanor decorated her trike and donned a beautifully made dress of Oma's to hit the neighborhood and see literally thousands of children parade right down our neighborhood streets. The parade began in 1907 -three years before our house was built- and has continued since then as it has become part of Portland's yearly Rose Festival celebrations.
We saw lots of friends and neighbors strolling the streets. Here is Eleanor with one of her best buddies from preschool, Rory.

Eleanor takes to the sidewalk because the streets were closed.


not sure what this chick is about...

the local Waldorf school kids don their stilts. "How do they look so TALL, Mommy?."

Don't look too hard for Rynn. She decided she didn't want me to pick her up early from school to see the parade. This is the first year they haven't canceled public school classes for the parade. Rynn didn't want to miss Japanese "which is the best part of the day, Mommy." Here are some representatives from her school. Maybe next year.

A HUGE origami crane dances above the group from Richmond.

The Dragon Boats

So...whatever can be said about Portland, boring it is not. Around every corner, especially as the weather warms, is some festival. The Dragon Boat Races, which are held annually during the first week of June, have inspired our imaginations as we have seen dragon boats filled with rowers floating on the Willamette and bike commuters with canoe paddles strapped to their backs heading over the Hawthorne Bridge. While downtown for the girls' swim lessons this week Rynn, Eleanor and I walked down to the docks to get a close up look at these interesting boats. Below I have copied a description of what the Dragon Boat Races are all about from an online website describing Portland's relationship with its sister city in Taiwan.

"The Portland Rose Festival Dragon Boat Race is an annual cultural event hosted by the Portland-Kaohsiung Sister City Association (PKSCA) that is held in early June as a sanctioned event of the Portland Rose Festival Foundation. The event features as many as 96 dragon boat teams from all over the world who race in Taiwan-style dragon boats. There are three divisions: Mixed, Women, and High School. The race is held on the Willamette River located at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in downtown Portland.

Portland-Kaohsiung Sister City Association promotes “people to people” exchanges of educational, artistic, and cultural activities. PKSCA maintains several programs that focus on and support our mission. These include the annual Portland Rose Festival Dragon Boat Race, participation in the Portland Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade, and Starlight Parade, annual good will delegation exchanges between Portland and Kaohsiung, and support of Portland Chinese organizations and programs."

*All the above pictures are mine from this afternoon except for this one which is a picture of last year's Dragon Boat Race featured in the Oregonian. The winner has to grab that yellow flag. Looks like tough work!*

And for more exciting Portland eccentric side news...this flyer I saw in the library today for CIRQUE DU CYCLING which for you Portlanders is going to be on June 13th on Mississippi Ave., and I'm bummed it is scheduled when we will be out of town. Check out the photos of this bike parade!
check it out at http://www.cyclingcircus.com/