Newfie Legend

Did you know that Lewis and Clark had a Newfound named Seaman?




Yeah, Newfies are great. Nothing like a bit of BIG Newfoundland love!!

Cape Dissapointment. Part II

Wednesday after work we grabbed the kids, some gear and headed out for a camping trip with reservations in hand.

This trip was 100 x's better then the last. The camp site was feet from the beach, quiet and had few mosquitoes to fight off. The only trouble came from raccoons who scoured our site for leftovers after dark which drove Noro batty with their chatter.

Every beach trip the kids rolled up their pants and played in the ocean. We hardly had any dry clothes left by day 3.


Crazy Oregon kids... the water was cold!
Noro had some fun too...


We found a hidden fort and spent hours playing and adding to it.




We made great use of sand toys, kites, the bikes and the camp fires for roasting marshmallows and hot dogs. It was a great trip to end the summer.

The past couple of weeks have been pretty laid back. We've been taking advantage of the portland summer hanging outside, riding bikes and tending to the garden. We've been lucky enough to entertain and Chris has been busy playing gigs that bring home money. I know, right?

Upcoming events worth mentioning!

This Friday, Aug 29th, Chris will be playing with Canoofle at Airplay Cafe at 7pm. If you've never been there before it's very laid back and VERY kid friendly. They have a full dinner menu with adult beverages! They are located at 7th and Burnside. Hope to see you there!

Portland Public Schools have been holding community care day's this month. It's an opportunity for folks to volunteer at their local school to pick up trash, spread bark dust, and anything else that needs doing. Blake's school, Sitton Elementary is holding theirs this Saturday August 29th from 9am to Noon. Any help is appreciated...so if your interested go to Hands on Portland to sign up! I'll be there and so will the kids if the donut bribe works!

The kids birthdays are rapidly approaching. Ranen will be 10. Blake 6. Can you believe it! OMG. Blake will be starting kindergarten soon. Too soon. My little baby is growing up!

Tomorrow night we are taking the kids to the coast for some camping adventure. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures! Until then.

Blake has some new wheels

Last week we bought Blake a bike. She loVes this thing. She rides it every chance she gets. It's pretty cool!



Good thing tomorrow is the last of the Sunday Parkways!

Sock Summit Swag

This week in Portland numerous knitters have descended for the first ever Sock Summit. My credit card groaned at the amount of use during the marketplace. But what I got....oh yeah! So worth it! Among wonderful yarn I bought Dansko's to show off the socks I knit, Handknit Heros...a comic book series, and a really cool hand thrown and trimmed coffee cup by Jennie Lanners.


Hazel knits, Tactile Fiber Arts Studio, Knit Witch yarn, Zen String and Crazy Monkey Creations... Thank you. Thank you for giving me something to oogle.

Blake is back!

Blake is back.

I flew out Thursday morning to St. Louis. Rented a car to drive to southern Illinois and discovered I was in an entirely different world.

There were Amish, corn and lots of good 'ol rock n roll on the radio.

So glad to be home. So glad to have my daughter back. So glad...

Molly's New Hot Spot

Yesterday I couldn't find my cat. It was like playing hide and seek and I was loosing miserably. That was until I noticed a familiar shape...



Since Blake has been gone, Molly has had to find other ways to amuse herself. She's been exploring other parts of the house. And Noro? Well, after a few spats on the nose there has come an understanding between the two.

...cats and dogs living together. Mass Hysteria! -PV

Camping at Cape "D"

Chris and I took a mini vacation this weekend to Cape Disappointment State Park in Washington. It's been close to two years since we've gone away, just the two of us. So off we went with gear, beer and a very excited dog!

We showed up around 11am and all the first come - first serve spots were filled. We stumbled around until we found an RV park that had an open "tent" spot. Not quite the experience we were looking for, but we set up camp and were off.

We checked out Benson Beach first where Noro found a souvenir.



His tail was wagging the entire time, he was sooo happy. There is nothing as awesome as watching my boys in their natural habitat.





We drank, chased birds and took a nice long nap on the beach before heading to Beards Hollow. The bog and the mosquitoes had a field day with us. Note to self....remember the deet! At this point Noro was beat so we headed into Long Beach for a nice ride and some Po boys. Though neither of us was up for driving on the beach, we know this is a must do with the kids!

That night was interesting. I can totally understand why someone would want to take modern convinces camping. I can understand a blow up mattress...sure but a mini fridge? Or the karaoke machine and it's Alanis Morissette loving user who couldn't quite hit the high notes? Urg.


We made the best of it with more beer and knitting. As soon as day broke we packed up and tried the state park again. This time there were open spots available but they were all next to more RV's and neither of us was up for that again. So we decided to finish the morning with a visit to Waikiki Beach and the Light house.

We left Washington happy that we explored a good chunk of the park. We checked out the best tent sites (that have NO Electrical outlets!) for future camping trips. This is a great family park. Plenty of spots for kids to ride bikes, hike and hit the beach.

We ended the trip with lunch at Astoria's Rouge Brew. Noro laid at our feet while we had lagers and clam chowder. It was a great way to end the trip.