I'm a Waltzing Flower in the Nutcracker!

Last weekend was my big ballet performance.  I led 'the girls' on stage as we flowered, twirled, waltzed and jumped.  Avid readers know that I have been doing ballet for a few months.  I really love it. 

Getting ready backstage

I really enjoyed doing ballet on stage.  The hardest part was that I could not find my Phiny while I was on stage dancing.  It was not until we came back on to curtsy that I saw Dad, Mom and (most importantly) Phin sitting in the 3rd row right in the middle.  Who knew they were so close; it was so bright on stage I could not see anything. 

First one out... being planted as a seed.

With the girls on stage

You can check out all of my performance debut photos here.  Dancing is so much fun, I look forward to starting back in January!
Lots of Love,
Amelia

A Useless Video to Brighten Your Day - A Box That Moves

Like the post says, this video (and post) is merely here to brighten your day - since the video is really random.  Good thing everyone likes really big boxes!  Funny things is, Dad (who you see giving Memoo a bath in the background) and Amelia (who you cannot see because she is in the bath) had no idea what was happening behind them.

Check out the video here

Peace Out,
Phin

Winter Hiking and Waterfalls @ Silver Falls State Park

When Fall and Winter hit, it rains a lot in Portland.  Cold temperatures + rain = more indoor activities (I've been excited to use plus signs lately).  But, a break in the recent heavy rains + lots of layers = an opportunity to explore outside. 

Sunday morning, Mom said "what would you all like to do today."  I replied "Perler beads," since I love creating with perler beads and I am midway through creating a train.  Amelia replied "Breakfast and anything with Phiny."  Dad said, "Waterfalls?" 

So here's what we did Sunday: Ate breakfast (all four of us).  Played perler beads for a little (with Amelia).  Drove south for 1+ hours (also with Amelia).  Hiked and saw waterfalls (still with Amelia).  Played with our neighbors (Amelia was there too).  Dinner (with Amelia) + Shower (Amelia & I took turns) + Bedtime (each in our own beds).

Waterfalls in the winter always seems unusual, because water in the mountains usually freezes in the winter.  But, this fall/winter we have receive a lot of rain (Dad calls it a deluge) and very little snow in the mountains.  So, all of these factors + a reprieve from the rain = a great day for a waterfall hike.

At the top of South Falls at Silver Falls State Park

A long hike later... at the bottom of the falls.  Unfortunately, they closed the path that leads behind the waterfall (yup, you can walk behind that 177 foot waterfall, so cool).

After an exhausting hike, we are recuperating with cookies and hot chocolate

Only in Oregon, does Santa hang out at State Parks, instead of the Mall!

On the way back, we stopped at an Alpaca farm. I got an alpaca kiss!

Additionally, you can check out the video of Dad and Amelia hiking.

Check out all of the pictures from our adventures in waterfall-land!
Peace Out,
Phin

Tough Girl Day - Building a train, Ballet and a trip to the Zoo!

For those that don't know, I am both a tough girl and a delicate flower.  Sure, you've read the blogs about me.  But those posts usually talk about my foofoo (silly) vocabulary.  I'm much more then just a cute face, lovely smile, great hair and tiny tush.  To prove it, I wanted to share a typical rough and tumble day in the life of Memoo (the day was Saturday, Dec 12):

1. Wake-up.  That's right, I start everyday by waking up.  I suggest you do the same.
2. Get my toughness on.  After breakfast (my second favorite meal of the day, only after mid-morning snack), we went to Lowe's and built trains.  Why, I like to hammer.  Plus, it was great practice for helping Dad in the shop.
   
3. Midmorning snack. Midmorning snack is my favorite 'meal' of the day.  After eating until my tummy is full at breakfast, I need additional calories to keep going strong all morning long!
4. Ballet Rehearsal.  I love ballet.  I love dancing, moving and wearing my tutu.  It's just so fun.  Next Saturday is my big show (a version of the Nutcracker).  As you can see in the photo below, I'm a Waltzing Flower (on the left); I am sitting with my team, while one of the other groups was practicing.  Funny rule about ballet: no one wears undies, just tights.  Hehe, so foofoo. 
   (For those wondering, I still take a quiet time, but ballet fell during quiet time, so not today.  No big deal, I'm a tough girl)
   
5.  Night on the town.  After a fun day, nothing completes the day like a night out on the town with your girl friends.  Unfortunately, all of my girl friends have to be in bed at 7pm (I am usually too); so, I went out with Mom, Dad and Phiny.  Zoo Lights in Portland was a fantastic glittery wonderland!  Plus, it is always neat to be outside when it is dark (and not raining).  In the photo below, we are in the longest rainbow tunnel I have ever seen!
   
6. Bedtime.  Whew, what an long day, I was so tired. 

You can check out all of my photos from the day here.

Lots of Love & Until Next Time,
Amelia (aka Memoo)

2015 School Pictures - Way Better than Last Year's

Happy early Thanksgiving everyone!

As a pre-Black Friday deal, Phin and I have something special to share.  Our class photos! 
You may remember the drama with Phin's class photos last year.  In addition to being terrible, we did not receive them until August of this year (10 months later) and only after Dad sent 20 bagillion emails and placed several calls.  What's a bagillion? 

This year, our photos are great, except for my double chin.  Not sure where it came from, since I only have on chin.  You can tell by our smiles that we love school and love going!  

 

 

 

The pictures are much better in person - Dad says they were washed out by the scanner.  But, I think they look very dry, oh well.  If you want to grab these washed out photos, use this link (don't worry Grandma and Nana, we have good copies for you).

Lots of Love,
Amelia!

Coming Soon to a Holiday Card Near You

Did you know they have Fall in Portland?  Unlike Virginia, it rains a lot during Fall.  But, somehow the cold weather still triggers the leaves to change colors.  In Virginia the leaves would change colors and then fall off the tree in about a week.  In Portland, the leaves change colors and then hold on to the trees really tightly for weeks!  The leaves started falling about a month ago and some of our trees still have most of their rainbow-colored leaves!

During Fall, we always get a family picture taken, using the leaves as a pretty background.

In the woods exploring - that's what we do best

Group shot (no, that's not our house; Dad would never allow such a big dandelion)

We bought the rights to these images, so feel free to click on the picture and download it (in case you want a picture of use in your home/office/car/truck/monster truck/...)

You can see our 2014 family photos here or
You can see our 2012 family photos here (look how little Amelia is)


Peace out,
Phin

Reader Mail: The Rest of Our Days

Reader Mail:
Dear Phin and & Amelia,
Love your blog, you are very cute and you do very exciting things.  But, I was wondering what your 'normal' days are like, when you are not off on a crazy adventure?
Love,
Left in Virginia

Response:
Dear Left in Virginia,

• First of all, thank you for the lovely fan mail, we think we are cute too!
• Secondly, please come visit us, so you do not feel 'left' - we love guests.
• Threely (is this what comes after second?), our 'normal' days are still sometimes crazy - especially when Phin doesn't sleep well).  But, we spend the majority of our mornings at our new Oregon school.  We have been making a lot of great friends there and it is a lot of fun.  I (Amelia) go to school Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Well, I go on Tuesdays and Thursday too, but that is just to drop off and pick Phin up.  Phin goes Monday through Friday.  In the afternoons, I still have quiet time, but I do not like sleeping then, so I usually just yell or sing.  Addditionally, I go to Dance Class on Thursdays and Phin just started Rock Climbing class on Tuesdays.

To help you see what school is like, we have been saving compiling pictures from school during the months of October and November - you can view them here.  Since November is not over, there will be more added.

Hope you are having a wonderful Fall and keep the letters coming, friends.
Lots of Love,
Amelia

Fall Fun - A Trip to 2 Pumpkin Patches and Bend and the Spruce Goose, OR

It's Fall, so be careful not to fall!  I really enjoy the Fall rainbow leaves, the fresh apples (and apple picking), the chance to wear long pants and pumpkins.

Pumpkin farms are always so much fun. The good ones have fun animals to look at and pet, tractor rides, rusty farm equipment to play on, corn mazes (Dad calls them Maize Mazes, but that's just confusing), and plenty of pumpkins to pick.  This year, our realtor hosted a ho-down and dinner party at a local pumpkin patch. 

Best part about having a ho-down at a pumpkin patch - fresh, hot apple cider.  Mmm... Apple Cider is what you get when you take normal apples and turn them into deliciousness.  Apple cider is best warm and it feels like getting a hug your favorite stuffed animal after a long day of adventure-ing.  Second best part about having a ho-down at a pumpkin patch - you get to ride the tractor to pick the pumpkins (as you can see in the photo below).We ended up with 7 smaller pumpkins - you can never have too many pumpkins.

After a busy week of school, the next weekend we took a quick trip to Bend, OR.  To get to Bend, you have to drive through the Cascade Mountains, while bending.  First bend to the left, then bend to the right, then bend up and finally bend back down.  Somehow after all of that bending, you should arrive in Bend.  Bend is a cool city.  Dad says it is situated in the high desert plains of Oregon, where they do not receive too much rain; but has some of the best cattle prairie in the west.  While in Bend we saw a few cows, hiked through a lava field, climbed an old volcano, and went to a museum about being in the high desert (funny, since we were already there).  As you can see in the photo below, the scenery is just outstanding - mountains, trees, prairie (although no much of that is in the picture below, just me striking a pose on top of an old volcano)

Bend was so much fun, but it was a lot of driving in a short amount of time.  We drove down Saturday morning and came back Sunday afternoon.  At least it was an outstandingly beautiful drive.  To get home, we pointed the vehicles towards Mt Hood and just kept on driving

After a busy week of school, Mom said "Lets go to a pumpkin patch."  Amelia mentioned that we were just at a pumpkin patch "yesternight."  What was special about this 2nd pumpkin patch (other than they had large pumpkins and sold caramel corn) was your rode a train to the fields and a little boat back to the parking lot.  No wonder mom wanted to go, she loves trains too.  In the photo below, Amelia is sitting on the pumpkin that we later turned into her Jack-o-lantern.

Our Fall fun adventures were capped with a visit to the Evergreen Air & Space museum.  Even before we moved, Dad has been talking about going to this museum.  I would tell him that we have two fantastic air & space museums in DC/Virginia, but he would always talk about a few special planes they had at Evergreen.  Well, we went and the Evergreen Air & Space museum was fantastic - a museum I would highly recommend.  In addition to the entirely wooden Spruce Goose, the museum has a fantastic kids sections with a lot of planes for Amelia and I to fly.  Like our Virginia Air & Space museum, they also had an SR71 Blackbird; only at Evergreen, you got to touch the plane & they had an engine pulled out for you to look at! 
Although we did not go, the museum also has a waterpark.  Yup, an airplane themed waterpark, where 4 slides start 7 stories up (they were probably chapter books and not the little books Amelia likes) from an airplane parked on the roof of the building.  I know!  Waterslides in a 747- you can check it out on this video someone else took (since we did not go on the waterslides). 

Regardless, I look forward to going back to this museum another day, even though it is an hour away!  One of Dad's favorite parts of the museum, they converted a golf cart to look like a space shuttle - he was ooh-ing and ahhh-ing like a little kid (silly Dad).

 You can check out all of our photos from Funtober (Fun+October) here.

Peace Out,
Phin.

Oregon Trail - The Complete Story

Links fixed

Finally!  Dad finally got around to uploading all of our Oregon Trail pictures.  The trip lasted 82 days, but it took exactly 101 days to get them all online.  The impetus behind all of this: our friend from St Louis (Mache) is offering a new service with her business (creating photo albums for you from your photos) and wanted to use some of our photos to create a sample product. 

Hope you enjoy looking at the photos (some have been previously posted).

Dublin, OH

• Sights Seen: Friends, Friends and a mall
• Day(s) Visited: April 17th - 19th
• Photos

Lorain, OH (outside of Cleveland, but it's like a whole other world)

• Sights Seen: Friends, Beautiful Downtown Lorain, Friends
• Day(s) Visited: April 19th - 21st (we had to leave a day early, because I Dad had to start a new job)
• Photos

St Louis, MO

• Sights Seen: Grandma, Grandpa, Family Galore, Friends, Weddings, Zoo, ...
• Day(s) Visited: April 22nd - May 17th
• Photos (General from StL)  (Cousin Lisa's Wedding) (Mimi's Wedding)

Milwaukee, WI (We also went to Chicago)

• Sights Seen:Nana, Papa, More Family, Friends, Zoo (twice), made our own shoes...
• Day(s) Visited: May 17th - June 21st
• Photos (Photo Shoot by Felise) (Visit to Papa's work)

Oregon House Hunting (Dad left everyone in WI and went to find a house)

• Sights Seen: Houses, House, Mt St Helens, Rhododendron gardens, Rose Gardens
• Day(s) Visited: May 17th - June 7th
• Photos (General Photos) (Mt St Helens Hike)

South Dakota

• Sights Seen: Sioux Falls, Wall Drug, Badlands NP, Mt Rushmore, Wind Cave, Custer State Park, Prairie Dogs, Prairie Dogs, Prairie Dogs
• Day(s) Visited: June 22nd - June 25th
• Photos (Sorry there are a lot.  We loved SD)

Wyoming

• Sights Seen: Devils Tower National Monument, empty roads & prairie land
• Day(s) Visited: June 25th
• Photos

Montana

• Sights Seen: Missoula, Mountains, Whitefish, Friends, Glacier National Park
• Day(s) Visited: June 25th - July 4th
• Photos

Idaho!

• Sights Seen: 4th of July Parade, Lunch, 10+ different potties
• Day(s) Visited: July 4th
• Photos

Washington State

• Sights Seen: Mount Rainier National Park
• Day(s) Visited: July 4th - 6th
• Photos

Oregon - Welcome Home!

Exploring an old volcano - Ape Caves, Lava Canyon

First, let me say that there are no apes in Ape Cave.  Dad said it probably got its name because of the frequent sasquatch sightings in that area (Mountain Apes).  Second, let me say that there are no (recent) Sasquatch sightings in Ape Cave.  Dad's hunt to find Bigfoot continues.  Amelia thinks the Bigfoots (or is it Bigfeet) ran away when Mt. St. Helens exploded.

Regardless, this past weekend was filled with a lot of exploring and some hiking.  On Sunday, we went to Ape Caves.  For my birthday, I received a lot of cool stuff, including a new backpack (perfect for hiking), a headlamp shaped like a panda and a new lantern.  I needed somewhere to test my gear.  Somewhere like a pitch black cave without bats (panda headlamps and Amelia are afraid of bats).

 Ape Caves was perfect.  It is an unlit, natural, underground lava tube (I call it a cave still).  Equipped with winter hats, coats, my backpack and plenty of lighting, we wandered through the dark, like explorers.  It was so dark, I could turn off the flashlights and not tell if my eyes were open or closed. 

Amelia and Dad made a hiking video of their adventure in the tunnel, check it out. 

Dad says the lighting is a little "Blair Witch" - whatever that means.  I think it is not so interesting to watch someone walk through the dark.

After a 1.5 mile hike down and back through the cave, we had lunch and rested for our next hike.  Lava Canyon.  I was excited, because I am struggling with the concept of lava and liquid earth/rocks.  How can rocks be like water?  For those wondering, Lava Canyon does not have any liquid lava, just a river running through an exposed lava chute.  It was still pretty cool.  Because of the higher elevation, the canyon had cooler temperatures so the leaves had already started to change!  The trees were like a rainbow.

 Amazingly, after 2.5 miles of hiking in one day (my farthest yet), I did not fall asleep on the long car ride home (mom did though, hehe). 

Unrelated to Sunday's activities, on Saturday, we had the neighbors over for s'mores.  As you can see in the picture below, we are sitting on a new bench that Dad, Amelia and I built Saturday morning.  Last weekend, we rescued a really cool and heavy wooden pallet.  After some labor, we turned it into a bench!  Now, we just need to paint it. 

Check out all of the pictures from Ape Cave, Lava Canyon and our Marshmallow Roast here.  Here's another link to Dad and Amelia's video.

Peace Out,
Phin

Dancing Queen - I'm no Queen, but I'm going to be a flower in the Nutcracker!

Phin loves trucks, trains, buses, cars..., but I love dancing (and pink and purple).  On the road trip to Portland, I kept telling Mom that I wanted to dance. On the way, we stopped with a friend who did gymnastic; mom would ask "Do you want to take a tumbling class?"  I would always say no, "I want to dance."   Maybe it was because I was stuck in a car seat and wanted to move.

 

So when we got to Portland, Mom found a nearby ballet studio and signed me up for dance.  I look forward every Thursday to going to dance. On Tuesdays, I ask if its time for dance.  On Saturdays, I ask if its time for dance.  On Sundays, I invite Dad to come to dance (although I do not have dance on Sundays, just Thursdays).  I love dance so much that I want to go every day I'm not at school

 

 

I also love my dance outfit.  Pink tight pants, special shoes and a black top - so great.  I get excited to put on my special dance outfit.  

 

In addition to practicing my ballet moves, we also get to have fun dancing.  We jump over a stuffed turtle, dance like cats and birds, and just have a lot of fun.  You can check out all of my dancing pictures here.

Lots of Love,
Amelia

Happy 5th Birthday To Me!

This past weekend, my Nana, Papa, Grandma & Grandpa came in to celebrate my 5th birthday!  It was a fantastic long weekend filled with adventures around Portland.  We showed our visitors some of what Portland has to offer.  The weekend was capped off with my birthday party - an afternoon dedicated just to me (although I invited Amelia as well).

This year, I told Mom and Dad that I wanted a Train Birthday party.  They thought I would want a bowling birthday party - but I had not had a train one yet. 

• My First Birthday party was a caterpillar party, but I do not remember it.
• My Second birthday party was a Dig Truck themed event at the soft play room in Virginia
• For my Third birthday, we had a bring-your-own-bike & eat peanut butter party at Birthday Party Park (aka Under the Bridge Park, aka Jones Point Park)
• For my Fourth Birthday, we had a huge Under the Sea party with sea animals in the courtyard of our old Virginia house

As you can see, No Train Birthday yet.  So this year, we had a train birthday - because I love, love, love trains!

To get to my train party, Nana, Grandpa, Memoo and I rode the MAX (Portland's version of Metro).  Luckily, they just opened the new Orange line last week and it runs right to my party (yeah)!

The party was a lot of fun - we had it at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center.  The party was in a train shed, where they house and work on locomotives.  It was cool. Mom made a cupcake train and my friends and I got to paint wooden engines, box cars, passenger cars and cabooses. 

Afterwards, a bunch of us when on a train ride - we rode in the caboose.  While the train did not go far (just to the amusement park and back), it was a lot of fun.  I do love trains after all (not that you can tell from this picture).  When it is not taking me for a ride, this train parks in a mini-depot 5 blocks from my house.  I love to drive by and see the train parked.  I love it even more when I can run down to the tracks and what the train drive by (slowly) on its way to the depot.

To cap off my birthday, Mom asked what kind of special treat I wanted.  I wanted a donut, just like we had for Amelia's birthday.  So, off to Voodoo donuts - Memoo and I split an M&M donut.  It was delicious!

 

You can check out all of the pictures from my birthday party here!  Additionally, for those wondering "where are pictures from Amelia's 3rd birthday party?"  I don't know either.  Apparently, Dad forgot to take any or collect any.  No worries, she got some cool gifts though.

 

Peace Out,
Phin @ 5

First Oregon Camping Trip - First Camping Trip with Friends - First Whale Sighting - First Really Really Long Blog Title

A few weeks back, Dad decided that we were "sufficiently settled and need to go camping before it go to cold."  Knowing that I love the beach, he booked us a campsite at a small state park on Oregon's Pacific coast.  Avid blog readers know that I love camping and I love the beach.  But, I especially love to go camping on/near the beach. 

It has been a few years since our last beach camping trip and I was excited for another try.  The last adventure ended with a broken and flooded tent (60+ mph winds and a torrential rainstorm at night that nearly blew our tent away), and complete loss of my bladder control (I was only 2 at the time and salty waves + air makes me pee everywhere).  This time we were better equipped: we camped among the trees and brought a lot of extra clothes.

Back in DC, it took 2.5 hours (with no traffic; but there was ALWAYS traffic) to drive to the beach.  Another reason I love Oregon - with terrible traffic, it only took us 2.5 hours to reach the State's Central coast!  On the way down the coast to our campground, we stopped for taffy, looked out towards the ocean and spotted a whale spout (shooting water out of its blow hole).  Dad was so excited!

Anyway, we made it to camp just in time to set up, eat dinner and ride to the beach to see the sunset.  I have not seen a sunset in a long time - I'm usually sleeping - and I cannot say that it was very interesting.  The sun gets brighter and then fell behind the clouds.  I wished it goodnight and then we biked back to the campground.  I was glad the sun set, because I like seeing stars.

The next morning, we woke up and went to Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area & Lighthouse.  What a crazy name, but for those wondering, it really was outstanding and it protruded into the water.  I really wanted to take the lighthouse tour - so Dad and I went.  It was the tallest lighthouse in Oregon, 114 steps.  It was also the longest lighthouse tour in Oregon, an hour. And the most anti-climatic ending lighthouse tour in Oregon, you can only peek your head up to the top.  So, after enduring an hour long tour and 114 steps up, I could not see the final view (too short) at the top.  This might be my last lighthouse tour for a while.

 In the photos above, you can see me running back down the stairs - get me out of this boring tour.  Meanwhile, Memoo and Mom hung out nearby.  After the lighthouse - we went to the tidal pools nearby saw starfish.

 Next it, was time to hit the beach by the campground.  I found all sorts of cool things on the beach.  I found Kelp.  I found Jellyfish.  I found that the kelp can be used to attack the jellyfish.  I love the beach. 

 It was a great camping trip.  Our neighbors (the ones with the chickens and goats) came to join us Saturday afternoon, evening and Sunday morning.  I had never been camping with friends, it was fun.  I especially loved showing them how to roast a marshmallow and make s'mores. 

You can check out all of our beach camping trip photos here.

Peace Out,
Phin

Flowers Galore

Last weekend, in addition to our goat ride, we went to a Dahlia Festival.  Who knew the countries largest Dahlia farm is located about 30 minutes from our house.  What's a Dahlia - it is a crazy, but beautiful (and not fragrant) flower.  It had been a while since we saw giant fields of flowers; so we were super excited for this adventure.  The garden at the festival was in full bloom and we found a few we loved - especially one called Pooh (Mom said it was named after a bear called Winnie; but I think it was named for a different reason, hehe) - that we may try to plant this winter/spring.  What was so different about Dahlias was their diversity - some were huge (bigger than my face) while others were tiny.  Some were pointy, like balls of fire, while others were round and smooth.  They are crazy flowers.

Anyway, you can view the whole album here and enjoy a few of my favorites below.

What was extra cool about the Dahlia festival, was the neighboring farm had a train you could ride on!  Can't wait to go back.

Peace Out PDX,
Phin

Goat kart racing

In our 1.5 months in Portland, we have really adopted to the local culture.  We shop at farmers markets, buy  lots of local cherries, act overly friendly to everyone and have adopted greener modes of transportation.  You can see our newest method of travel, using our neighbors goat (Spike) in this video: 

http://1drv.ms/1EuscTb

Last Day On the Trail - a Hike in Rainier

As you may know, we arrived in Portland Monday night (07/06/15).  After 82 days of travelling and driving over 7,000 miles (not to mention Dad flying 4,000 miles), our trip on the Oregon Trail has concluded.  While our Big Adventure continues, it shift from sightseeing to getting settled in our new environment.

Pictures from our journey are forthcoming, but in the meantime, I wanted to share this video from our last morning on the road.  Our final stop was Mt Rainier National Park and our final hike in the park was in search of Snow Lake - a backcountry lake accessible by a trail with a lot of stairs.  Unfortunately, while the hike was recommended for families, no one thought that 200+ dirt/mountain stairs each way is way too much for little legs (I had to walk - Amelia rode in the backpack).  We never made it to our final destination, but we did make it to a much closer lake (still a 1.5 mile hike + the .75 miles extra we did trying to make it to Snow Lake).  Yeah, Alpine Lake Swimming!  On the way, Amelia and Dad shot the following video of the hike - I thought it was cute and wanted to share.  Click here to view the video.  The white blob you see in the background at 1:07 & 2:01 is Mt Rainier - it dominated the skyline and we were on a hike going away from it. 

Peace out & See you in Oregon,
Phin

A Visit to Papa's Work

Despite the boring title of this blog, on Friday I had a super exciting visit to Papa's work.  For those that don't know, Papa works at a very large construction company.  He gets to travel all over (by car and plane) and see really big machines.  At his office, they have 2 very, very, very large parking lots full of all sorts of cool trucks, diggers, semi's and other equipment.

As we drove around the lot, I took pictures of the various equipment that I saw. 

This dump truck is for sale - only 14k miles

Ahh, watch out an oversized load... hehe, it was parked and we drove by it

Check out all of these graders.

You can check out all of my Phin taken pictures here.

Peace out,
Phin

Dad Goes On an Adventure Without Us

As many of our readers may know, while we have been in Milwaukee for the past three weeks, Dad was in Portland looking for a house and causing trouble.  While I skyped with Dad on a regular basis (to make sure he was not causing too much trouble), I was so excited to pick him up at the Milwaukee airport earlier this week.  After we got him, he shared a few details about his trip - photos of which are included below.  You can see his general Portland photos here, and pictures from his hike around Mt St Helens with a friend here.

At a waterfall

Drinking Pickle Brine (that's Gross!)

Hiking around Mt St Helens

Glad to have you back Dad, so we can continue the road trip.  After another week or so in Milwaukee, it's off to South Dakota.

Peace Out,
Phin