Life on the Oregon Trail Can Be Tough

Our Convertible Wagon

Life on the Oregon Trail can be tough (and evidently sunny).  According to Wikipedia, 400,000 fellow travelers took the trail out of Missouri to Oregon.  While our route is a little more indirect than theirs (headed through Milwaukee), it is still arduous and difficult.  In addition to spending days at time in our covered wagon (also known as our Nissan) bumping up and down the dusty roads, I have been separated from my toys for months (Amelia also misses her baby's toy stroller and stuffed caterpillar) and have slept in 4 different locations since our voyage began (Dublin, OH; Lorain, OH; seat 2B of the covered wagon; and St Louis).  Alas, we are only in week 2 of our ~10 week voyage - many more challenges and beds await.

The Covered Wagon, I named her Bessie

There are some nice perks about being on the trail - there sure is a lot of ice cream stands on the way!




Peace Out,
Phin

Goodbye Washington DC

Dad called our departure "hitting the road."  But, luckily we did not hit anything (hands are not for hitting).  Instead, I call it leaving.

It has been a tough couple of months for me.  The house has been extra clean, my toys have slowly been disappearing, there has been a lot of stress, and strangers showed up randomly to see our house (frequently unannounced or on a short notice).  It has also been tough to leave my friends and school.  Amelia is probably too young to understand, but I know that moving means my friends won't be able to walk over any more, "our park" won't be ours any more, and for the next two months my room is my car seat and my closet is my suitcase.  Sure, Portland will be awesome and yes I'm excited to see friends and family; but leaving is still tough.

One nice perk, I got to drive the first stretch.  Now, I'm blogging from Columbus, OH - where we are having a ton of fun (more on that later).  Here are a few departure photos.

Peace out,
Phin

My School Birthday

My birthday usually falls during the first weeks of school.  That means, there is not much time to get to know my classmates before my big day.  So, at school we celebrate my birthday in the Spring.  In my Blue Classroom, my friends interviewed me before my 'birthday' and then everyone creates birthday cards based on my responses.  Below is the written text of my interview - you can click on the image to be able to make it bigger.  Since yesterday was Mom's last day of helping out in my class before the end of year, I got to bring my interview and cards home.

Bet you did not know that my favorite shape is triangles, or that I don't like Batman (sorry Griffin/Dylan), or that I love peaches.  Well, now you do.

 

Peace Out,

Phin

Last DC Photoshoot - Spring has Sprung in 2015

Wow, it has been a busy few weeks since my last blog: our house is under contract, our stuff is nearly all in boxes, Dad is job hunting, and we are prepping to move in 10 days (the movers come on 4/16).

Even more reason to celebrate a beautiful warm sunday.  The day started with a great trip to the zoo with our friend Max, where we saw a lot of animal pee and poop.  But the highlight of the day came after nap, when we went back out and took pictures at the Lady Bird Johnson park - the Daffodils were in peak bloom (even though the cherry blossom trees were just buds).   Today was our final official photo shoot in DC, you can check out all of the photos here (a few highlights are listed below).

Finding my favorite flower, as I sit in the middle of a field

Check out how many flowers there were.  There was at least 10-hundred flowers.  They were yellow and white.

Nearly a great family photo, I was too busy to get in the shot.

Happy Spring everyone! 
Peace Out,
Phin