Hello family, well Michael is back in school and my school stars soon. This is the first weekend in three months for us to not be at some activity. I was going to use the day to do yardwork but it is raining. So now I'm trying to catch on housework and photo editing.

How is everyone doing? I am in the process of helping mom set up a blog so this is mostly a sample post.

Summer recap

OK end of summer is coming up. Here is some general advice for what to do with little kids. Swimming lessons...good, Gymnastics camp..not so much. Lower Ape Caves...good, Upper Ape Caves...bad!!!! Driving home from Upper Ape Cave at 10:00 PM during the last of the Persides meteor shower...very, very good! (Those two cancel out.) Silver Falls ..good, Silver Falls with a dog...not so good. State Fair during 75 degree weather..good, County fair during 95 degree weather..yuck. Beach.. barring thieves..always good. Airshow and rafting..always good. Overall I think this summer rates as a success.

Now we are heading back to school. My schedule would only accommodate two classes this term and I still have to finalize plans for Michael for 30 minutes after his school gets out on Tuesday and Thursday, there is no way I can get back from Portland in 20 minutes. The only hope would be if the transportation department has a teleportation device they aren't publicizing. That seems to be their only idea for improving roads in Portland. The departmental (and state) default position is "We can't build more roads, then more people would drive on them!" Oh well maybe I will go into water resources. We will see after this term.

Update. They caught the thieves! Not that I will probably get any of my stuff back, but it is nice to know the cops don't automatically write things like that off.

Let's Not Do This Again!

Good grief, what a mess! So, last time I wrote we were trying to do weekend family activities since Matt has no vacation days. On the 25th we tried to hike at Silver Falls State Park. Mistake #1 not planning enough time. I figured the kids are only up for about 2 1/2 hours of hiking, I was right on that part but had underestimated the distance to the park. We wanted to leave at 10 and get home at 2:30. The drive was 1 1/2 hour each way. Mistake #2 Overestimating hiking speed, The average land-speed velocity of an unladen preschooler is 1.2 miles per hour. #1 and 2 combine to give us an arrival time back at home of about 4:30. Mistake #3 was assuming dogs would be welcome on the trail. Dogs are only allowed on the rim trail, not down in the canyon where the waterfalls are. So, the end result was 3 hour of hiking, and the only waterfall we saw was the one that is dry in the summertime. Remarkably little complaining from the kids though.

The next Tuesday I got together with some friends to do a beach trip. We went to Siletz Bay. Our kids probably spent 5 hours collecting jellyfish in their buckets. Since we got a late start two of us decided to stay until sunset. Well first, my youngest daughter, Macy tried to sail out to sea. I had to go swimming to retrieve her, At high tide the bay is mostly full of ocean water, and a bloody cold ocean it is too. I was actually concerned she would capsize the inner tube and panic in eight feet of water. She fortunately waited until we were most of the way back to land to fall off the tube. End result was a through wetting but no injury.

Soon after that the sun went down. Like a complete idiot I wandered down the beach to watch, forgetting to take my backpack/purse. While I was gone it was stolen. Here we are, stranded at the beach; car keys, cell phone, and wallet all gone. Car locked with all the dry clothes locked inside and everyone soaking wet. The sun had gone down and we had a nice cold onshore breeze. Thank goodness for a REALLY nice policeman that let the kids sit in his warm patrol car while we used his cell phone to call our husbands. Double thank goodness for USAA roadside assistance who towed us to McMinnville where Matt could come pick us up, and the Toyota dealer could cut us a new key the next morning. Bad news is that the thieves used my credit card before we got the card blocked, good news is that Burger King might have surveillance tapes of the incident. Yes, their daring theft earned them dinner at Burger King. Thieves are sure dumb.

End result, I could happily have skipped both these-maybe they will make for good stories when my kids are all grown up.

Hello to family. I have decided that maybe I should join the 21st century and start a blog. Since I am a horrible correspondent this might help me keep in touch.

First here is an update on our family, Matt has had his job at Allied for less than a year so he has no vacation time. This means that we are going for the maximum weekend plan. Our yard my look like a jungle but we will definitely have some fun to show for it. This is our last Saturday activity. My brother brought his family and joined us for a river trip. Fun, other than Matt dropping his drivers license and credit card somewhere in the Molalla River. Sorry guys, it won't be of much use if you find it since we called and cancelled it on the drive home. The help desk got a good laugh out of it though.