Life at 78 RPM

Winter was not here this weekend……

…but it was this morning !!!

Three predators on the hunt for candy….
Bald Eagle, Cheetah, Peregrine Falcon (the elusive purple species)

Candy and vermin - Beware!

You are probably wondering if the children even started school this year, since no documentation of this yearly event has yet been provided.
Rest assured - they are in their legally mandated classrooms, being molded into productive members of our future society.

Here they were 6 weeks ago - fresh-faced and ready to learn.

Our summer vacation took us to Portland, Salem and the coast this year.
We did the tourist thing at the Oregon Zoo and OMSI, as well as the Gilbert House in Salem.
The weather on the coast was a bit on the windy side, but not so much that we couldn’t make sand castles on a new beach (Rockaway), go for a hike in a new park (Oswald West) and visit a lighthouse (Cape Meares).

Some highlights……

It was a hot and sunny day at the zoo.

Lots of animals to climb on.

Lots of animals to look at.
Alex eyes an alligator, Lily does her best imitation of “Lily the Baby Elephant” and Ben sizes up the flamingos.

In Salem, is it three cousins in one giant chair or is it three miniature cousins in a regular chair??

On the beach…..
How long does it take to reach the ocean at low tide?  Can you see them racing towards the waves?

Lots of sand castles to construct.

Daisy in full guard-dog mode.

Why does Lily not get to climb up the lighthouse?
Would you let this monkey-child climb up any tower?  Neither does her father.

Oswald West State Park….
How have we never been to this park before?  The sand is great, the tide pools are cool, the hikes are not too long, the trees are huge, the “surfers” are good lunch entertainment.  We will definitely be back to this one.

How often do you see the Watson Family go semi-formal?  Not very often……

Congratulations Greg and Robin !!

Excellent question.

We’ve been hiking with cousins on the Barlow Trail.
Lily leads the way, or goes her own way - it is sometimes hard to tell.

One of us is now a pre-school graduate, although from this picture he doesn’t seem very happy about it.

One of us turned 40 (yikes!!), and hauled everyone on a bike ride to celebrate.  Or to prove to herself that she wasn’t really that old……
One more thing off the to-do list - Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes and the really cool bike bridge over the lake.  No we did not do the entire 70 miles, only the 8 miles from Heyburn State Park to ice cream at Harrison (and back again).
Kids in the foreground - Bridge in the background.

We added a new dog to our lives.
Somehow with all the confusion we still felt a little dog-sized hole in our lives.
Daisy is our new 9 month-old border terrier - and she seems to fill that hole with lots of licks, some puppy biting, and an overabundance of terrier energy.

Summer is here!
It took some convincing, but summer is finally back again.
The happiest day arrived this past weekend, when the temperature reached that magical 80°F and the pool could make its return to our backyard.

I think that about covers the last 6 weeks or so.
Lots of plans for the next 6, and I can only hope (but not promise……) that updates will be a bit more timely.
Your patience is appreciated…..

It was the warmest Bloomsday in 23 years, and I still don’t know if rain would be better or worse…..
But since I didn’t walk, run, or really even cheer for any portion of the race this year, I will leave that judgement for others.
Needless to say - personal bests were not had by all.

Fresh-faced, pre-race Bloomies.
Sweaty, thirsty, but still smiling, post-race Bloomies.

Lillian, showing her true feelings on all this Bloomsday hoopla.

We did have a very fun weekend with cousins and grandparents.
Everyone participated in the pre-race carb-loading BBQ and kick-ball game.
The non-racers made a new set of inspirational posters.
Lily and Claire had some quality girl time.

Countdown to Bloomsday 2014 is here http://www.bloomsdayrun.org/
See you all next year !!!

Another first for us last week - Alex started T-Ball.
I do think that little kids in uniforms are too cute, and of course - Alex is the cutest!!

In the field.

On the bench.

Eyes on the ball….

…swing…

…and coming home!

Not to be left out of the cuteness scale is a reluctant cheerleader.

Ben’s first piano recital was a couple of weeks ago.
Here he is playing “Jack and the Beanstalk” and “I’ve Got Music”.

He spent a disproportional amount of time practicing his ending bow, a little indication of his nerves.  But in the end, he did great!  Of course!  These things are always worse in your mind than they are in reality.